2006 Church Road Tom Chardonnay. This wine is Church Road’s prestige chardonnay and its inaugural bottling. Sue Courtney from www.wineoftheweek.com selected this wine as her Wine of the Year last year. I have always found my palate similar to hers so was keen to give this a go.

Indeed it is a gorgeous wine. The nose is very forward and giving off aromas of spiced bottled grapefruit, candied peel and lemon. The palate is beautifully integrated already. It is a concentrated wine, but it isn’t raw at all. Gorgeously rounded and layered. There are flavours of orange marmalade, bottled lemon and wisps of nougat and caramel crème. It is a class act. The fine sweet spicy oak is definitely there and noticeable but it is all part of a seamless display. It is a wine which is drinking well now but should go well in the cellar for a couple of years.

Perhaps its only weakneses are if you are looking for a long term proposition in which case I think Neudorf Moutere will be all over this, and a better bet. Also at $62 it is significantly more expensive than a Kumeu River Mates, and about the same price as a Neudorf Moutere retail.

All up though a stunning wine which would compete well with the established NZ heavyweights. 98/109