2004 Chardonnay reviews

Grill Magazine - July 2006
Brave nose is large and fine, with a wave of oak and meal and some mineral touches. Pure impact has a wonderful sense of fruit, followed by a warm, grainy, oak and meal infused mid palate and a big, mineral flecked, solid finish. Positive wine with plenty of trimmings,and fruit flavour to match. Very much a fruit force.

WineNZ - Autumn 2006
A complex, tightly focussed wine that combines ripe melon, white peach and nectarine fruit flavours with a rich, mealy nutty flavour. The wine is fermented in French oak barrels with regular lees stiring and a percentage undergoing malolactic fermentation. A complex, multi layered wine.

Home and Entertaining Magazine - Feb / March 2006
Martinborough Vineyards has been making big and complex Chardonnay for over 20 years. This wine has sweet grapefruit and white peach flavours plus a strong lees influence and an equally strong spicy oak character. Robust wine with good cellaring potential.

The Fine Wine Delivery Company - March 2006
VIRGINIA'S PICK
Not just any Chardonnay! Knowing the vines are 26 years old gives you insight into the complexity and depth that you'll encounter in this wine. Aromas of peach, lemons and hazelnut will have your taste buds begging to try it. Creamy stone fruit with mixed nuts and mouth watering grapefruit/apple edges had my taste buds doing back flips long after the glass was empty. Worth every cent, enjoy now through 2008/10.

Bay of Plenty Times Feb 2006
Big, rich, nutty, creamy, leesy, malolactic-influenced wine, with integrated, toasty oak. Some nectarine and citrus, but the wine is more about complexity and style than fruit flavours. Good concentration.

Bob Campbell MW
100 TOP NEW RELEASE WINES
Gourmet Traveller Wine - Feb/Mar 2006
88 points ****
This winery has been making big and complex chardonnay for over 20 years. This has sweet grapefruit and white peach flavours plus a strong lees influence and an equally strong spicy oak character. Robust, with good cellaring potential.

Michael Cooper
Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2006
**** 1/2
The 2004 vintage is pale gold, smooth and peachy. Rich, with slightly buttery, toasty, honeyed flavours and balanced acidity, it's an immaculate, very harmonious wine, already drinking well.

Capital Times
Wairarapa Wine Report - 16-22 November 2005
GOLD
Ripe tropical fruit and a nutty complexity on the nose. "Fleshy" in the mouth with a lush sweetness and good depth.

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