I had an eerie feeling as I toured the cellars last month at New Zealand’s Kumeu River Winery, just outside Auckland. I have been here before, I thought. Not this exact place in terms of brick and mortar, but an identical place spiritually.
My thoughts drifted to a similar experience less than a year earlier, when I also tasted wines from barrel at Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River, Western Australia. I remember having the same eerie feeling at Leeuwin.
I’d been there before — in the cellars of Comtes Lafon in the village of Meursault, in Burgundy’s Cote de Beaune, where the world’s finest Chardonnays are made. And that is the common thread between these three extraordinary winery visits thousands of miles apart — mind-boggling, world-class Chardonnay.
You don’t come across “great” Chardonnay every day. Too much of the wine made from this noble white grape is monotonous and boring, if not downright mediocre or bad.
Outside of Burgundy you could probably count the world’s truly outstanding Chardonnays on your fingers and toes. OK, that might be a slight exaggeration, but in relation to the volume of Chardonnay produced, the percentage of Chardonnays that approach greatness is small.
There is little question in my mind that Kumeu River is one of them. The winery was established in 1944 as a family business and remains in the Brajkovich family to this day. Michael Brajkovich is the winemaker and was the first Kiwi to become a Master of Wine.
I don’t know enough about Michael to know whether or not he is a winemaking genius on the order of a Dominique Lafon. I do know he is good enough and smart enough not to get in the way of great terroir — or vineyard sites that deliver something magical that makes the Kumeu River Chardonnays stand head and shoulders above the others in New Zealand, even others produced where the climate and soil are considered more conducive to serious wine.
Kumeu River Chardonnay (imported by Wilson Daniels of St. Helena, CA.) has what every top-notch Chardonnay requires and what is missing from 99 percent of what’s out there: superb structure. These Chardonnays have fresh, firm acidity and intense minerality along with richness, weight and depth.
This is a rare combination. When you find it you can understand why Chardonnay is held in such high esteem and why the top cru of Burgundy fetch such handsome prices.
The thoroughbred of the Kumeu River stable is the Mate’s Vineyard, but the “Village” Chardonnay is none too shabby and reasonably priced at about $20.
Try it. You might even be pursuaded to burn your ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) card!
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