2025 Kumeu River Rays Road Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay

Fresh and charming bouquet, cashew nuts. Lively, mouth-watering acidity and tension; a really racy wine, and very refreshing. Should age well. Drink to 2037.

96 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, August 2026

Aromas of crushed stone and flint with subtle apple and transparency on the nose. Medium-bodied, with a solid core of fruit and a long, tangy finish. Vibrant and vivid chardonnay. Drink now.

96 points James Suckling, August 2026

The 2025 Rays Road Chardonnay comes from the Hawke's Bay vineyard, and the nose leads with creamed cashew, white peach, citrus pith and salted caper brine. The palate is creamy and sleek, with bright acidity and talcy phenolics through the open-weave finish. There's a lot of unspent power here—it feels raw and unbridled somehow. This is impressive and quite different from the other cuvées, though it continues to bear the hallmarks of the Kumeu River house style. Drink to 2040.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2026

Kumeu River is regarded as one of New Zealand’s premier wine producers and has set the benchmark for Burgundian-inspired Chardonnays for decades.

Rays Road is their first vineyard outside of the western Auckland, and a geographical and stylistic outlier in their portfolio of wines. Acquired in the late-2017, the dry-farmed site is located at Raukawa in Hawke’s Bay and sits on a north-facing limestone hillside at an elevation of 180–200 metres, its position making it markedly cooler than the majority of that region.

Earlier plantings of Chardonnay were largely Clone 95, but newer blocks of Clones 15 and 548 are maturing and contributing more fruit to this blend, adding depth, nuance and texture while retaining the vineyard’s freshness and mineral drive. The wines are zesty, fragrant and finely structured, with bright citrus, pronounced acidity and chalky mineral complexity that distinguishes them from Kumeu’s richer Auckland Chardonnays.

Pair with pristine textures, naturally sweet fresh seafood and clean, savoury fats. Try with delicacies such as scallop carpaccio served with a yuzu kosho dressing or pipis tossed with Iberico ham and Fino style sherry.