Description
The Coddington Vineyard (owned by Tim and Angela Coddington, hence the name) is a ‘suntrap’. It’s the warmest and sunniest of all the vineyards, with the ripest grapes. This led the Kumeu River Estate to bottle as a ‘Single Vineyard’ wine rather than a blended wine. The result is a beautifully ripe, balanced Chardonnay produced by Michael Brajkovich and his family from this legendary estate that has rightly created a worldwide cult following.
TASTING NOTE: This has a lovely light yellow/gold colour in the glass. On the nose: There are fragrant aromas of citrus, poached peaches, apricots and spice; it really is a delight to try the pure, generous fruit characters of this wine. On the palate: It has a medium to full body, with ripe, juicy fruit flavours and fresh acidity. It has excellent concentration and length, and is dry but nicely rounded and juicy, with balanced 14% alcohol. It’s not quite as austere in style as Kumeu River’s Hunting Hill and Mate’s Vineyard. Instead, it is an extremely pleasurable wine from the start, fresh, characterful and high in quality, that is a joy to drink now but will cellar well too.
FOOD PAIRING, STORING AND SERVICE: Kumeu River suggests enjoying this with seafood, pasta, or poultry dishes. We would recommend trying this fantastic wine with creamy chicken pasta. Or try this with a brunch dish of fresh grilled asparagus, poached egg, toasted nuts, and a creamy lemon hollandaise. Drink now or this will easily keep till 2030/2032 in half bottle.
ABOUT: Michael Brajkovich and his family are based in an area just to the west of Auckland, New Zealand as well as owning vineyards in Hawke’s Bay, all on the North Island of New Zealand. They have been making single vineyard wines from each of their vineyards for the past seventy years, and also an estate blend from their six different sites. They have all regularly beaten top white, Burgundy wines in recent blind tastings line-ups, and in our view thoroughly deserve their title as the best white wines in New Zealand. The 2025 vintage saw a very dry harvest season. Other than 17mm of rain in the middle of February, which topped up the vine’s water reserves, it was a warm, dry, successful growing season right through to the middle of March. The wines are excellent as a result!
