2024 Kumeu River, Rays Road Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

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Description

Kumeu River began its journey in the 1940s when Maté Brajkovich purchased a modest vineyard near Auckland. By the 1980s, the winery had firmly established Chardonnay as its flagship varietal. Today, Maté’s son, Michael Brajkovich, leads the estate. As New Zealand’s first Master of Wine and one of its most esteemed viticulturists, Michael has unlocked the full potential of Kumeu River’s vineyards.

These wines are often likened to white Burgundy, and in blind tastings, even seasoned professionals struggle to tell them apart from their French counterparts, unless you’re already a devoted follower who recognises Kumeu’s unmistakable freshness and character. These are Grand Cru-level wines at village-level prices, with single-vineyard bottlings that can hold their own against Meursault, Chassagne, and Puligny-Montrachet.

The 2024 vintage is celebrated as one of the best ever at the estate. Despite poor flowering at the start of the season, the remainder of the growing season was excellent, with dry, warm conditions and lower yields contributing to some of the most concentrated Chardonnay grapes ever produced at the estate.

Colour White

Sweetness Dry

Vintage 2024

Alcohol % 12.5%

Maturity Ready - youthful

Grape List Chardonnay (100%)

Body Medium Bodied

Producer Kumeu River

Tasting note

Michael Brajkovich MW’s Hawkes Bay Chardonnay is the Kumeu River version of Chablis, coming, as it does, from limestone soils on the eastern side of New Zealand’s North Island. Aged primarily in used oak barrels, it has bright, floral fruit with stony minerality, leaner than their Auckland Chardonnays with more finesse, on the nose.

Delightfully linear on the palate, lovely energetic fruit with wet stone minerality and zingy acidity, leads on to a long, clean, chalky finish with the acidity keeping the fruit in check all the way. Very much like a textbook Chablis from a ripe year, from one of the masters of the genre.

Chris Pollington, Senior Account Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd

Critics reviews

Erin Larkin 92-94/100

The 2024 Rays Road Chardonnay leads with a spicy, almost exotic nose, while the palate strides in smooth, sleek movements. This is creamy and a little nutty, and there are wet limestone notes in the mouth, alongside yellow citrus and layers of dried herbs, cracked fennel seeds, ginger root and fruit flavors. A lovely wine, it's weighted on the back palate and long through the finish. I tasted this as a tank sample prior to filtration and bottling. The Ray's Road vineyard is on a limestone base and has been significantly worked and replanted since the Kumeu River purchase in 2021.

Drink 2025 - 2039

Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate (Jun 2025)

Jancis Robinson MW 17/20

Full screwcapped bottle 1,319 g. Hand-harvested, whole-bunch pressed before 100% spontaneous barrel ferment in French oak (very little new but they have been experimenting with barrels given a long, light toast) with 100% malo. 11 months' ageing in barrel. They bought the vineyard they call Rays Road in time for the 2018 vintage. 25 ha total, of which Chardonnay is about 12 ha producing but it will increase. Dry-farmed except for young vines. About 2,000 cases-worth of the fruit goes into wine labelled Kumeu River (mainly Chardonnay) and the rest, including all of the Sauvignon Blanc that had been planted by Trinity Hill and P Jolivet and is currently being replanted, is sold off as grapes. Two clones: 548 and 15 from UCD (also known as the Prosser clone, imported by Warren Moran). They will also eventually use virus-free Mendoza, too. This bottling is the pick of Rays Road vineyard and they may eventually bottle different blocks separately.

Mid to deep greenish gold. Toasty and glamorous on the nose. They aim to make a Chablis style because it's all limestone so very lively and tense. I'd say the acidity isn't as pronounced as a typical Chablis. Real grip on the palate. Very long with lots of tension.

Drink 2025 - 2034

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (Sep 2025)

About this wine

Kumeu

Nestled just north of Auckland, Kumeu has quietly established itself as New Zealand’s benchmark for refined Chardonnay. With a cool maritime climate and soils that favour concentration and elegance, this region produces wines that balance vibrancy with a subtle, restrained complexity, rewarding patience and discernment.

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