Kumeu River, Coddington Chardonnay, 2025
Kumeu River, Coddington Chardonnay, 2025
- 75cl
- 13.5%
- White Still
- Chardonnay
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Drinking window: 2026 - 2045
"I can't think of a Chardonnay producer anywhere that could match that line-up, Burgundy included"
Tim Atkin MW
Named after the family who first farmed the site, the Kumeu River Coddington Chardonnay is the richest and most opulent of the estate’s single-vineyard bottlings. The Coddington vineyard, planted on clay-rich soils, tends to produce Chardonnay with more weight and depth compared to the finer, more linear Hunting Hill or the structured Mate’s Vineyard.
It’s a wine that offers immediate appeal thanks to its richness and creamy mouthfeel, but it also has the balance and acidity to age beautifully over the next decade.
What the critics say:
"Terrific aromas of terra cotta, sliced apple, flint, smoke and lightly cooked apple with puree. Medium-bodied with crunchy fruit and a white pepper and spice character. Luscious. From old vines planted in 1994. Always top. Drink or hold."
"The 2025 Coddington Chardonnay is mineral, detailed, talcy and exciting. I always love this cuvée. It's not obviously powerful (though the clay soils in this vineyard do produce a wine of density), like Maté's, and it's not ripe and concentrated like the Hunting Hill; rather, this offers a lighter, more ethereal-noted wine. Like, it's quite "flowers and pith," "talc and cloth." It's a beauty, and never more so than in this brilliant 2025 vintage. The oak and fruit are gloriously harmonious here. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap."
The Coddington vineyard sits on heavy Waiatarua clay soils that retain moisture and moderate vine vigour, encouraging deep rooting and a naturally restrained style. The site is west of Auckland in the Kumeu subregion, where maritime influence from the Tasman Sea moderates temperatures and slows ripening — a crucial factor in building the acidity and mineral character that defines this wine. Rainfall can be a challenge, and careful canopy management is essential, but when the vintage cooperates the clay delivers a precision and tensile quality that lighter soils simply cannot replicate.
Kumeu sits within the broader Auckland wine region, which receives little attention compared to Marlborough or Central Otago but has been producing serious Chardonnay for decades. There are no strict appellation rules governing style or yield in the way that Burgundy's AOC system does, giving producers considerable freedom in how they work. What defines Kumeu specifically is the heavy clay subsoil and the cooler, wetter maritime climate — conditions that demand skill to navigate but reward patience with wines of real structure and longevity.
The 2025 vintage in Hawke's Bay is recent enough that detailed harvest reports are still filtering through, so we'll be straight with you: the granular picture is still forming. What we do know is that the region continued its run of warm, dry autumns that have defined the best recent vintages here, with the Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa Triangle both delivering the kind of slow, even ripening that gives Hawke's Bay Syrah and Bordeaux blends their structure. Growers who managed canopy carefully through what was a warm growing season appear to have been rewarded with fruit that held acidity well.
Early indications suggest a vintage of genuine quality — concentrated without being heavy, with the reds showing real depth and the kind of tannin grip that suggests patience will be repaid. Chardonnay, increasingly a serious proposition in the region, looks lively and well-defined. Most reds will benefit from time in bottle; 2025 to 2030 and beyond for the top Syrahs and Cabernet-dominant blends. Whites are drinking well now and over the next few years. We'll update this as more detailed assessments come in.
OUR GROWERS
Kumeu River
