Kumeu River, Village Chardonnay, 2025
Kumeu River, Village Chardonnay, 2025
- 75cl
- 13%
- White Still
- Chardonnay
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Optimal drinking window: 2026 - 2035
"I can't think of a Chardonnay producer anywhere that could match that line-up, Burgundy included"
Tim Atkin MW
The 2025 Village Chardonnay is a brilliant introduction to the Kumeu River style. Made entirely from hand-harvested fruit and barrel-fermented (though only a small portion in new oak), it’s a polished yet unpretentious wine that punches far above its level. It's approachable now but with the DNA of the more serious single-vineyard wines.
Kumeu River has built a global reputation for producing some of the finest Chardonnays in the Southern Hemisphere, often compared to top white Burgundy. Founded in the 1940s by the Brajkovich family, the estate remains family-owned and run today, with winemaker Michael Brajkovich MW leading the charge. Their philosophy is centred on site expression and balance, crafting wines that age gracefully while remaining approachable in their youth.
What the critics say:
"The 2025 Village Chardonnay leads with banana and crushed cashew, musk sticks and preserved lemon. The palate is silky and full of flavor, and although not as complex or weighty as the other Chardonnay cuvées from this iconic New Zealand producer, it offers sensational intensity and value for money. This comes recommended, as usual. 13.3% alcohol, sealed under screw cap."
Kumeu sits in a warm, humid region west of Auckland, where free-draining clay-loam soils over weathered sedimentary rock give the wines their body and structure. The proximity to the Tasman Sea moderates temperatures, preserving the natural acidity that keeps Kumeu's Chardonnays so precise and fresh. Village draws on a broader spread of estate and local fruit compared to the single-vineyard wines, giving it an approachable generosity without sacrificing focus.
Kumeu is a small, historically significant wine district in the Auckland region, best known as the home of New Zealand's most acclaimed Chardonnay. Unlike Marlborough or Hawke's Bay, it operates without a tightly defined appellation structure, but its identity is inseparable from the Brajkovich family and their commitment to Burgundian-inspired winemaking. The warm growing season and relatively high humidity distinguish it from New Zealand's cooler-climate South Island regions, producing Chardonnays with more weight and textural richness.
The 2025 vintage in Hawke's Bay is recent enough that our knowledge of the full picture is still forming, so we'll be straight with you: detailed meteorological data for this harvest is not yet something we can speak to with confidence. What we do know is that Hawke's Bay continues to assert itself as New Zealand's most serious red wine region, and growers with the best-drained Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa Triangle sites have consistently shown the ability to produce concentrated, structured fruit even in years that test them.
From what is filtering through, 2025 looks to be a vintage of genuine promise for Syrah and Cabernet-dominant blends, with good phenolic ripeness and enough natural acidity to give the wines backbone. Most reds will reward patience — give them until at least 2027 or 2028 before you start pulling corks, and the better examples may well surprise you further down the road. We'll update our notes as more information comes in.
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Kumeu River
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