Kumeu River Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay (750ML)

From Kumeu

Vintage: 2022
Description: 98 JS / 96 Wa / 95 Vm. #3 James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of New Zealand 2023. #47 James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of 2023. Gorgeous precise aromas of apples, white peaches, some minerals, flint and stone. Subtle mangoes, too. Full-bodied but so intense and driven with a salty undertone and a driving finish. Some white pepper at the end with citrus skin. Focused and intense. Great finish. Better after 2026 but already fantastic. Drink or hold. Screw cap. - James Suckling. The nose on this 2022 Mate's Vineyard Chardonnay leads with candied bananas, pineapple husk, white peach and a hint of lychee, and the edges of the aromatics are feathered with preserved citrus, brine, curry leaf and apple skins. In the mouth, the wine is powered by supercharged fruit; it is crystalline in its way, an attribute that I have long-since associated with the Chardonnays from Kumeu River. The flavor is sapid and palate-staining, with just enough salt and savory spices in the fruit to make it super complex as well as powerful. It is precisely folded like origami, each crease in service of the overall shape.* A wine that offers much and assumes nothing. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. - Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate. The 2022 Maté's Vineyard Chardonnay offers tension, power and an unrelenting sense of moving forward as if your palate has been put on a travelator. This is its 30th anniversary vintage. Currently it's closed and young with little aromatic generosity. There's nevertheless purity and a real sense of density. The richness is there but it's held within a brace of tension, ensuring precision and focus. After a couple of days, it loosens up a little so if you're thinking of opening it early, which I don't recommend, decanting may be your friend. I probably prefer the 2021 for its additional austerity but that may be me being subjective rather than objective. - Rebecca Gibb Mw, Vinous Media.
Price: $ 71.89
Price in original currency: None

Available from Grand Vin Wine Merchants

Address: 1003 4th Avenue East
Olympia, WA  98506
United States
Telephone (regular): 360-350-4896
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First added to 1000 Corks on November 5, 2023.