The big news for New Zealand this year is the awarding of our global Wine of the Year for 2021 to Kumeu River Chardonnay Kumeu Maté’s Vineyard 2020. As James said, “it has been a long time coming,” and this not only marks a first for Kumeu River, but it’s also the first time New Zealand has topped our annual global tastings and the first time a white wine from anywhere in the wine world has been awarded the top accolade.

There’s a broader story around Kumeu River topping our New Zealand list and global Wine of the Year for 2021 – one that celebrates chardonnay as a true hero of New Zealand’s wine repertoire. We have long reported on their wildly desirable pinot noir wines and the über-popular sauvignon blanc made mostly in Marlborough, but chardonnay has been ascending particularly rapidly in the past five or so years in our coverage.

We rated about 650 New Zealand wines over the last 12 months in Hong Kong and Adelaide, Australia, and about 110 were chardonnay compared with 113 for sauvignon blanc and 204 for pinot noir. We are always on the lookout for top chardonnay.

Many of the country’s best winemakers have turned their attention to the pursuit of great chardonnay, and the results show strongly here with 24 chards on this year’s Top 100 list. Kumeu River winemaker Michael Brajkovich was chair of the major New Zealand wine show for five years, from 2012 to 2016, and saw chardonnay consistently rise to the top there. “The best white wines were always chardonnay,” he said, “and now people have recognized the potential for New Zealand chardonnay. We have new clones with better areas planted to chardonnay and a much stronger focus on the pursuit of ultimate quality.”

READ MORE: OUR TOP 100 WINES OF 2021

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Similar to what has played out in other parts of the wine world like Australia, we have seen the pendulum swing from overtly oaked chardonnays to intensely reductive styles in New Zealand, to a point where complexity, purity and balance are aligned. “We have to get chardonnay ripe in Kumeu,” Brajkovich said. “Even though we are a maritime climate as opposed to continental, the feel of our cool climate is very much aligned with that of Burgundy.”

And 2020 was an exceptional season for chardonnay at Kumeu, a dry year with moderate temperatures that only once broke the 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) barrier.

Maté’s Vineyard (named after the late Maté Brajkovich, who established the family’s vineyards and winery) is planted to the Mendoza clone, which is renowned for producing smaller berries among the normal-sized ones, a much-prized quality known as “hen and chicken,” or “millerandage” in French. “Hand harvesting and whole bunch pressing are the two key aspects of harnessing the high extract, density and concentration,” Brajkovich said. “A hallmark of Maté’s Vineyard chardonnay is getting the right tannin into the wine. This gives the wine long aging potential and means it enriches as it ages.”

James likened the 2020 Kumeu River Mate’s Vineyard Chardonnay to great Burgundy, like Le Montrachet, for these hallmark qualities of structure, density and power.

THE BEAUTY OF 2019

The work of two generations of the Brajkovich family in delivering truly world-class chardonnay has inspired many winemakers in New Zealand to pursue the highest quality of not only chardonnay but of wine per se. The 2020 vintage may have delivered perfect growing and ripening conditions, but it took several lifetimes worth of work within the Brajkovich family to make our 2021 Wine of the Year.

And while there are 24 chardonnays represented on our list of 2021 Top 100 New Zealand wines, pinot noir continues to dominate the numbers with 47 entries. These are led by none other than Ata Rangi, with their 2019 pinot noir at No. 2 (and No. 71 in the global Top 100), followed by Rippon Mature Vine 2018 (No. 74 in the global Top 100). Here we see two of the most authentic and dedicated producers right at the top of their game.

The 2019 vintage is one that has delivered many wines of very high quality and across many different regions and styles in New Zealand. In fact, this vintage is responsible for just over 60 percent of the wines in this year’s New Zealand Top 100 list. Helen Masters, the winemaker at Ata Rangi, explained the experience of the 2019 vintage in Martinborough, which is at the southern end of New Zealand’s North Island, as one that presented the opportunity to make truly great wine. “We are always vulnerable to spring frosts here in Martinborough and these especially in Te Muna,” Masters said, “but the township vineyards where we source our best pinot are earlier and much safer.”

She also said that 2019 delivered low yields of pinot in open bunches with smaller than normal berries. “The weather from February to April was stunning, and we had the opportunity to harvest healthy pinot with ideal acid and tannin balance,” she explained. “The berry size was always going to deliver concentration, and tannins were the key. We deployed very gentle handling and a higher whole-bunch inclusion, looking to lower the peak fermentation temperatures to nail structure and balance.”

The resulting wine, the 2019 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir Martinborough, is stunning and one of the greatest editions of this consistently top-performing New Zealand pinot, with power set amid silky structure. The impression it gives is of effortlessness with immense depth and mesmerizing nuance – the kind of attributes that define the greatest pinot wines all round the world. James singled out the 2018 Rippon Mature Vine Pinot Noir for similar qualities, highlighting the intense yet refined tannins that give the wine such impressive length. The structural prowess of these two wines, combined with such attractive purity, really set them apart.

The list of pinot producers is dominated by Central Otago, with more than half the wines in this year’s list, but there’s a notable spread of great pinot makers covering Canterbury, Waipara, Marlborough, Nelson and of course Martinborough. The tiny production of Bell Hill pinot noir in Waikari is also singled out for greatness (99 points), a tiny-production wine that is already on the radar of pinot noir collectors and well worth the effort to seek out.

Syrah continues its ascendence with nine entries on the list, and the Bilancia Syrah Hawks Bay La Collina 2019 (No. 5) leads the way with a brand of refinement and structural prowess driven by what I describe as long, tensile tannins. This wine presents a fulcrum of power and elegance. Then there are excellent examples of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and blends, as well as sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, gewurztraminer, chenin blanc and of course riesling on offer. Such a great representation of quality and diversity.

 Enjoy our 2021 New Zealand Top 100.

 – Nick Stock, Contributing Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated for this report by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many of the latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. 

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