Wines of the week
It's not often I start a wine story in the first person but I've been working on a State of the Nation style story about Chardonnay for a couple of months now and the story seems to have taken on a life of its own, evolving into a larger story than originally planned. Watch this space for more to come.
In the meantime, Chardonnay continues to be impressive in New Zealand, both for the range of styles made and the ever increasing focus by winemakers on purity and quality - rather than winemaking bells and whistles.
This week I tasted two outstanding Chardonnays with winemaker Helen Masters of Ata Rangi in Martinborough.
This year is her 20th of winemaking in Martinborough so she has seen and been part of an evolving landscape of winemaking over that time.
These two wines show that, even within a few kilometres, Chardonnay can taste very different in style, due to slight variations in climate and major ones in soil structure. The eponymously named Masters Chardonnay comes from the vineyard site that Masters now owns and tends with her partner, Ben. The other is a blend made from three vineyards around the village of Martinborough; near to Ata Rangi winery.
"For me Martinborough Chardonnay has a salinity on the palate that you can easily mask, if you use too much oak, reduction or other 'tools'.
“You need to put the brakes on everything and let the Chardonnay express where it comes from.”
What's the oak?
Both Ata Rangi Chardonnays are aged in 300 litre oak 'puncheons' (the name of 300 litre barrels) and each wine has a different proportion of new oak. Helen Masters' aim has been to reduce the perception of overtly oaky styles of wines from the get-go. She wants the wines to show their origins, in terms of climate and soil structural qualities being highlighted in the essence of the style of wine.
My reviews
2024 Ata Rangi Masters Martinborough Chardonnay RRP $80
This newly released Chardonnay is made from a 0.4 hectare portion of the Masters Vineyard, south of Martinborough village, and it comes from the outstanding 2024 vintage. Fresh, bold and smooth, it has layers of citrus aromas, hints of fresh nuttiness and nicely integrated oak (30% new, all from 300 litre puncheons in which it was aged). Beautiful depth of flavour here for such a young wine, which clearly has a long life ahead - but also drinks superbly right now; in a proper glass, please.
The vines were planted in 2000 and 2001 and have been managed by Helen and Ben Masters since 2015. They live on site.
2024 Ata Rangi Pōtiki Martinborough Chardonnay RRP $38
A blend of new and older plantings from three vineyard sites, all situated relatively close to Ata Rangi winery. Potiki has 20% new oak and fleshy flavours of white peach, a hint of orangey citrus appeal and a tangy long succulent finish. It's youthful now and drinks superbly but it has the structure and depth to age well too, for those with the willpower and a cool dark place to keep it.
Pōtiki means 'last born' in te reo Māori .
