Hunting Hill Chardonnay 2025
94 pts Wine Advocate
Drink Date: 2025 - 2039
The 2024 Hunting Hill Chardonnay is the ripest in alcohol of the 2024 releases, and it feels powerfully layered and driven on the palate. This is rich, almost thunderous in its positioning, with salted citrus and exotic spices (star anise/fennel/scraped vanilla pod). The oak here is polished and elegant, smoothing down any stray, loose hairs. The barrels have been air dried for three years and lightly toasted. The finish is tight and focused. This was tasted as a tank sample prior to filtration and bottling.

2025 Growing Season at Kumeu
The 2025 harvest season was notably dry. Harvest commenced with the early sparkling wine varieties on February 4, followed by 17 millimeters of rain one week later, shortly before the start of the table wine harvest. Conditions then remained largely dry through to the completion of the vintage on March 17. The wines were all vinified using the same method. The fruit was hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed before undergoing fermentation with indigenous yeast. Fermentation took place entirely in French oak barrels, followed by 100% malolactic fermentation. The wines were then matured in barrel for 11 months.