As Kumeu River’s 2023 Chardonnays hit the market this week, we report on two recent tastings in London of wines from this exceptional New Zealand family estate.
Two separate tastings this month confirmed Kumeu River’s extraordinary prowess with that less-fashionable-than-it-once-was varietal, Chardonnay. (See this account of a 2015 blind comparison of Kumeu River Chardonnays with top white burgundies.)
On 5 September Paul Brajkovich, the family member responsible for sales and marketing since 1990, came to our flat to show me their latest releases, mainly Chardonnays from the nightmare vintage of 2023. The quality of these wines proved that...