Kumeu River Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2022 (750ML)

96 VM / 95+ WA / 95 WS / 95 JS / 95 WE / 17.5 JR

The 2022 Chardonnay Hunting Hill is an impressive, focused style. It has a sense of energy, being almost buoyant with the movement of a skimming stone across your palate. There's a powerful core of fruit here and it has plenty of substance within its no-more-than medium-bodied core before kerpow! It fires home with an almost spicy kick. Clever oak use, reminiscent of toasted nuts, meets restrained flavors of lemon and lime bitter and nectarine fruit. A wine that's still in its cocoon so give it time. It may even have the edge of Maté's... Big call. -- Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media

The 2022 Hunting Hill Chardonnay is mouthfilling and obvious in its outlay of flavor in the mouth—yellow peach, apricot, Golden Delicious apple, beeswax/lanolin and ripe lime flesh. The flutter of acidity that feathers the fruit is compelling and alluring in its power and juiciness. An exciting wine. It's a wine I want to drink (I will; the perks) and a wine I am enjoying considering too. It's intellectual and sensorial/corporeal in equal measure. The Hunting Hill Vineyard was planted in 1982 and overlooks Mate's Vineyard. This is a pleasurable, exciting, fleshy, complex, salty, kaleidoscopic wine. Excellent. Recommended. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. - Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate

Fragrant and succulent, with notes of grilled peach, mango and orange blossoms that are generous, fleshy and very juicy. Generous details of green tea, lemon curd and lemon balm linger, as does an appealing note of crunchy sea salt minerality. Drink now through 2034. —M.W., Wine Spectator

Cooked apple and lemon curd with hints of pie crust and sweet biscuit. Some kiwi undertones. Medium-bodied with creamy texture and a flavorful finish. Drink now. Screw cap.-James Suckling

Lifted aromas of lemon, lime blossom, white peach and nougat lend brightness and charm to this creamy bottling from one of New Zealand's Chardonnay leaders. There's lovely acidity on the palate that brightens and freshens amid the toasty oak and lactic characters, driving to a citrusy finish. Drinking deliciously now (try with mushroom risotto), it's capable of aging until 2032.-Christina Prickard, Wine Enthusiast

Tense and racy and tight – sort of Chassagne/St-Aubin border?! More obvious acid and tension than in the other Kumeu River Chardonnays. You could definitely enjoy it already if you liked a leaner style but it would benefit from further ageing ideally.-Jancis Robinson