ON THE ROAD | Matt Ayre at Kumeu River, New Zealand
On a family holiday in New Zealand, Matt Ayre, the Club's Global Wine Logistics Manager, did what any Member would surely do – made arrangements to visit a few wineries. Among the highlights was a trip to Kumeu River, source of arguably the country's top Chardonnay
New Zealand is not short of options for visiting wine lovers. Central Otago estates boast landscaped gardens and mountain views; Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay have cycle trails and the Pacific Ocean; and then there’s the ferry-powered hedonism of Waiheke Island.
One of the country’s most acclaimed estates, however, lies in a more populated tourist haven, if a less obvious wine track. Indeed so close is it to Auckland’s urban sprawl and the wet and wild west coast that most of its peers have upped sticks and decamped to sunnier climes (the ubiquitous supermarket brand Matua began life here before quitting for Marlborough).
Kumeu River is just a short Uber ride from the centre of New Zealand’s largest city. I actually had to double-check the address: ‘550 State Highway, 16’ doesn’t quite have a ring to it that screams ‘home to some of the world’s greatest Chardonnay’. But there it is – the first turning after the BP garage. And while the dual carriageway peters out by the time you reach Kumeu, the busy arterial road still bisects the estate, separating the winery from its two most celebrated vineyards, Maté’s Vineyard and Hunting Hill.
How, then, do they manage to make such good wine here? One of the reasons is the people – and, specifically, the Brajkovich family. Founded (as ‘San Marino Vineyards’) by their father Maté, four Brajkovich siblings run the domain today: Michael (MW) is the winemaker, Milan the viticulturalist, Marijana makes the numbers add up, and Paul handles sales and marketing.
Dressed appropriately for the kind of mugginess that’s all too familiar to Brits, Paul is our host for the day. He shows us the barrel room bubbling with ferments, introduces us to cellarmaster Nigel Tibbits (veteran of 50 vintages); and then leads us to the former excise store room now converted to the ‘inspiration room’. An Aladdin’s Cave of benchmark wines of the world for, well, you know – research. The store is a relic from another era, when Auckland accounted for 70% of New Zealand’s wine, and San Marino Vineyards was the country’s premier producer of altar wine.
From the 1980s, coinciding with the next generation’s increased involvement with the business, hybrid vines destined for fortified production were ripped up and replaced with international varieties, and its current identity took shape, including the new name. While the hybrids might have made sense given the disease pressure in this humid climate (which still gives them too much stress to farm organically), Kumeu has achieved global recognition through its expressions of Burgundian varieties, especially Chardonnay. The wines are made straightforwardly: hand-harvested, whole-bunch pressed, fermented with indigenous yeast in French oak, full malolactic conversion, and a year in barrel before bottling. But when those Stelvins are cracked, wines of distinct character emerge.
As well as the Village and Estate blends, Kumeu is renowned for its three single-vineyard Chardonnays, all sourced from the local area: Hunting Hill; Coddington (a leased vineyard it farms itself); and Maté’s Vineyard, the last he planted before his death. Unable to expand their vineyards in Kumeu due to pressure from urban development, in 2017 the Brajkovichs purchased a site in Hawke’s Bay – Rays Road – which they have been gradually converting from Sauvignon Blanc to Chardonnay and Pinot.
Our visit concluded with a tasting, encompassing Kumeu’s full range from sparkling, Pinots Gris and Noir, and of course, the Chardonnays, going back to 2014. The light-handed winemaking style allows the particularities of each site to shine, which become more evident with bottle age, from the limestone freshness of Rays Road to the ginger spice of Maté’s Vineyard.
Kumeu River seems to have survived in a hostile climate, both meteorologically and economically, thanks to the conviction and stubbornness of the Brajkovich family. Literally and figuratively, it stands apart from so much New Zealand wine, and long may it continue to do so.
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