Ok i know … When speaking comes to New Zealand, everyone has a good word (hmm … lately even a “i am bored” word) for the absolute star: Sauvignon Blanc. Well, it’s time to give some moments of publicity to the supporting role: His highness Chardonnay!

Wine maker, is country’s pioneer Kevin Judd (@Greywacker) mostly known for his long year work in Cloudy Bay winery. At the moment, Kevin uses Dog Pint’s facilities for his wines.

As he states: The grapes for this wine are primarily sourced from the low-yielding Mendoza clone, known for its concentration of flavor and crisp acidity. The balance were from Clone 95. 60% of the fruit was sourced from the lower reaches of the Brancott Valley and Fairhall, grown in gravelly, clay-loam soils, the remainder coming from Rapaura, grown in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones.

Medium gold color. Nose is complex and concentrated, with mainly tropical fruit, ripe pear, apricot, grapefruit and orange zest, indicative of the mild weather of the region and the high ripeness level of harvest. Oak is well integrated (used French barriques with only 25% new) giving light vanilla and roasted nuts notes, with only traces of smoke.

Full bodied and textured, with high acidity. The constant crisp, long lasting aftertaste (mostly of apricot and nuts), well over 10 sec, is its highlight, verifying the obvious detailed job in the vineyard.

Already enjoyable, will improve the following five years at least. Should i find a setback? Well only it’s slightly aggressive alcohol.

As it presents a very pleasant nut character, try to pair with something similar, like the pasta i did. Mushrooms and truffle give the necessary earthy notes, but the key “linking with wine” ingredient was the hazelnut paste. Yummy!

Grape: Chardonnay 100%

Alcohol: 14,5%

Retail price in Greece: about 24 euros / 32$

Score: 93

Value for money: Very Good

Winery’s page: http://www.greywacke.com, but don’t miss www.kevinjudd.co.nz as Kevin is also, a very good photographer!