Coddington Chardonnay, Kumeu River 2025

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. Drink 2026 - 2045.

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.

25% new oak and otherwise just like the other single-vineyard Chardonnays. Milan Brajkovich has at last managed to sign a five-year lease with the absentee Asian owner who had been hoping to develop the site. Vines, 100% clone 15, are now 30 years old.A more open nose than the Estate! Sweet start and very approachable and flattering. The boudoir smell of a powder-puff impression and then a little fresh bitterness on the powerful finish. 2026-2034.