2001 Chardonnay reviews

Michael Cooper
Classic Wines of New Zealand (2nd ed.) - 2005
****
Light yellow / green. Slightly honeyed, mealy bouquet. Strong citrusy, limey flavours with a hint of honey, toasty oak and a tight, crisp, dry finish. Good but not great richness.

Michael Cooper
Winestate Annual - 2004
*****
Tight, immaculate, Burgundian style with full barrel and malolactic fermentation and lees-ageing for a year in French oak casks (25% new). Fresh, mealy citrusy bouquet. Poised, slightly minerally palate, with deep grapefruit and biscuit flavours woven with fresh acidity and a hint of butterscotch. Complex wine, worth cellaring to 2004.

John Saker, Chris Comerford, Andrew Parkinson
Capital Times - Wine Report - 25 September 2002
2001 Martinborough Vineyard Chardonnay
A rich, toasty nose and ripe fruit. The oak-imparted sweetness does dominate and invoked comparisons with honeypuffs and treacle. Definitely up there on the Chardonnay rich list. Six different Chardonnay clones go into this wine.

Warren Barton
Top 100 Wines for Christmas - The Dominion Post - 17th December 2002
2001 Martinborough Chardonnay
My love-affair with Martinborough’s chardonnay goes back to the days when Larry McKenna was making the stuff. Now Claire Mulholland is doing it with the same panache. Rich, with intense, grapefruit/citrus flavours and those wonderful mealy, baked bread characters.

Charles Gill
The Daily News - October 29, 2002
An impressive line-up at Martinborough Vineyard included a silky, complex 2001 Chardonnay with lively citrus fruits and creamy, biscuity flavours.

Huon Hooke
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) - Good Living
10 December 2002
Indulge yourself
Martinborough Vineyard 2001 Chardonnay
This is great chardonnay. Multi-layered toast, honey, hazelnut, stone-fruit aromas that follow through into a rich, full-bodied palate with amazing intensity and length yet it retains elegance and harmony. Oak is restrained. A serious pretender to top burgundy. Best now to 2007.

Michael Cooper
Michael Cooper’s Buyers Guide 2003
The 2001 is immaculate, with a tight, mealy, citrusy bouquet. The palate is fresh and poised, with intense grapefruit-like, mealy, biscuity oak flavours, a slight minerally complexity and lively acidity. A great prospect for cellaring.
Also regarded as a CLASSIC by Michael Cooper (1 of 13)

Michael Cooper
Winestate (Australia) - Mar/Apr 2003
Tight, immaculate, Burgundian style with full barrel and malolactic fermentation and lees-aging for a year in French oak casks (25% new). Fresh, mealy, citrusy bouquet. Poised, slightly minerally palate, with deep grapefruit and biscuit flavours woven with fresh acidity and a hint of butterscotch. Complex wine, worth cellaring to 2004.

Charmian Smith
Otago Daily Times - 19th February 2003
One of New Zealand’s icon wines, is funky with mineral, mango and charred oak flavours. It’s pungent – perhaps too pungent – with an oily texture, a hint of mineral and creaminess. Well structured, concentrated and complex, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but aficionados should cellar if for a year or two to see how it develops.

Cuisine
TOP TEN - July 2003
Big, ripe, high-alcohol wine with a rich and almost oily palate, a good texture and a drying finish. Complex Chardonnay with nutty, mealy, barrel-fermentation characters, sizzled butter, nice use of yeast lees and good oak supported by concentrated white peach and grapefruit flavours.

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