Kumeu River's Coddington Chardonnay is a single vineyard release from a leased vineyard in the Kumeu subregion. While it has contributed fruit to the estate blend since 1998, it was only in 2006 they decided to give it its own release.

Like all Kumeu River single vineyard releases, this is an exceptional wine with taut acid, a flinty reductiveness and a tightly wound palate (in its youth), but the Coddington has a generous weight that its (arguably) more famous siblings trade in for razor sharp precision.

Lovers of full bodied Chardonnay, form a line.

2023 was a dry season until a massive downpour just a few weeks before harvest caused immense disease pressure in the region. Fortunately their fruit has become ripe enough on the vine at this point, so they didn't miss out on too much photosynthesis from the damaged leaves. Yields were down in 2023 due to meticulous fruit selection, ensuring only the best fruit made it into the wine. The result is nothing less than the exceptional juice we have all come to know and love from Kumeu River.

Some stats for the geeks:

This wine is: Hand harvested, whole-bunch pressed, fermented with indigenous yeast 100% in barrel, aged in French oak for 11 months where it underwent 100% malolactic fermentation.