Love your chardonnay and your albarino and looking for an excellent bottle of locally made white wine to impress at your next dinner party? Wine editor Jo Burzynska has you covered with this compilation of the best white wines in New Zealand, as recognised in Viva’s 2024 NZ Wine
Chardonnay
Bilancia Trelinnoe Vineyard Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2022, $55
One of the single-vineyard sites Bilancia now works with is situated on a terrace of Roy’s Hill. This is a graceful and silken wine, with notes of almond paste and gingerbread, pure white fruits and flowers, and a subtle umami undercurrent.
Greywacke Marlborough Chardonnay 2021, $42-45
In last year’s Viva Wine Awards, Greywacke was honoured for its exceptional sauvignons but, as this illustrates, it makes impressive wines across the board. It packs some power in its notes of flint and line of grapefruit acidity but there’s also an elegance to its pure white-fruited profile.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.Ashleigh Barrowman ‘The Magician’ Sous Voile Marlborough Chardonnay 2021, $80
A daring and delicious biodynamic wine inspired by Ashleigh’s time in France’s Jura. Fermented then matured in the same barrel for three years without being topped up, this has imparted a savoury, nutty richness beneath a vibrant surge of green apple and mineral.
Black Barn Vineyards Hawke’s Bay Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2023, $45
With its notes of stonefruit and pineapple, tangy citrus and attractive notes of toasted nut, this is proof that some lovely wines were made in Hawke’s Bay in 2023, despite the challenging vintage.
Dog Point Marlborough Chardonnay 2021, $50
The fruits of the new generation, this wine continues the winery’s house style of power and elegance in its pure bergamot-edged white peach fruit underpinned by a dynamic grapefruity minerality.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Greystone Organic Waipara Valley North Canterbury Chardonnay 2022, $55
There’s beautiful fruit purity to its creamy texture, with notes of lemon and white peach and delicate savoury nuance.
Čuvar Rivermere Vineyard Gimblett Gravels, Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2021, $44
From the winery’s top tier, this is taut and intense, blending pristine white fruit and crisp citrus with a smoky, flinty character.
Kenzie Mangatahi Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2022, $43
Energy and elegance combine with its drive of grapefruit citrus, splash of saline, hint of white flowers and complex nutty edge.
Sam Harrop Grand Amateur Watchmaker Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2020, $44
Currently drinking very well, harmonious, silky and intense, propelled by a fresh line of grapefruit acidity, with notes of nectarine, herb and toasted almond.
Tony Bish Heartwood Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2022, $45
This harmonious wine is all about oak, judiciously used, with barrel fermentation adding richness and a salted almond complexity to its pure notes of yellow fruits and crisp lemon.
Sauvignon Blanc
Churton Best End Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023, $50
With a character intensified by the depleted soils and windy nature of its block, this epitomises Churton’s approach. It’s a textural and concentrated style with ripe peach fruit and notes of lemon curd, cut with an attractive grapefruit freshness and steely edge.
Astrolabe Awatere Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023, $30
My pick from Astrolabe right now is the elderflower-infused and gooseberry-fruited Awatere Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023, which combines classic Marlborough vibrancy with a minerally elegance.
The Marlborist Grande Sauvignon Marlborough 2022, $38
Fermented in old barrels and puncheons, it’s a complex, creamy-textured style that counterpoises richness and restraint in its ripe tropical mango and guava flavours and taut grapefruit foil.
Cloudy Bay Te Koko Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2021, $72
The winery’s textural reserve style balances rich savoury and nutty characters from barrel fermentation with an understated greener sauvignon dimension.
Eaton Forte Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2021, $54
An exciting and complex style of sauvignon that layers notes of chamomile, grilled asparagus, spice and honey over a vibrant base of fresh lime and saline minerality.
Halcyon Days Halcyon Hawke’s Bay 2022, $36
A different and delicious food-friendly style of sauvignon. Just 10 per cent alcohol but full of fragrant jasmine, honeysuckle and fennel notes, with fresh pithy grapefruit and an attractive savoury element.
Albarino
Neudorf Rosie’s Block Moutere Nelson Albarino 2023, $33
Made from a block named after the second generation at Neudorf, it has intensity, crisp citrus and the variety’s classic briny minerality. Its ripe peach fruit threaded with notes of jasmine makes it approachable rather than austere.
Amoise Albariño Amber Terraces Vineyard Hawke’s Bay 2023, $39
A richly textured and stunningly fragrant expression of the variety, in which time fermenting with its skins has unlocked scents of jasmine, herb and bergamot.
Viognier
A Thousand Gods Boat in the Woods, Marlborough 2022, $40
Simon and Lauren Sharpe’s first viognier hits the variety’s often elusive sweet spot in combining freshness and flavour. It’s dry, crisp and minerally with layers of lush, lemony fruit and fragrant notes of lavender, herbs and spice.
Pet Nat
Cambridge Road Naturalist Riesling Pinot Noir Martinborough Petillant Naturel 2023, $40
A good introduction to Cambridge Road’s wines, this delivers a fresh and fizzy mouthful of crunchy apple fruit and citrus, with a touch of yeasty richness.
Blend
Deep Down Marlborough ‘Blanc’ 2023, $30
This inaugural release is an intriguing white blend of sauvignon blanc, pinot noir and chardonnay that’s softly textured and savoury with a fresh, minerally drive.
Framingham F Series Estate Field Blend Marlborough 2022 , $30
A snapshot of the winery’s white varieties, the blend of viognier, pinot gris, gewurztraminer, riesling and sauvignon blanc is crisp and richly textured, with dried apricot and lemon curd fruit and gorgeous aromatics of rose petal, honeysuckle and spice.
Methode Traditionelle
Esses Essential Kaikōura Methode Traditionnelle NV, $49
Esses’ latest NV release melds richer notes of honey and ginger cake with crisp green apple and fresh lemon.
No1 Family Estate Cuvee No 1 Blanc de Blancs Marlborough Methode Traditionelle NV, $40
This NV methode traditionelle fuses Marlborough’s classic ripe fruit with a champagne-like elegance, combining its crisp lift of citrus with the complexity of its subtle yeasty undertones.
Cremant
Kumeu River Kumeu Crémant NV, $50
Sparkling wines are a more recent addition to Kumeu River’s range, which includes this stylish chardonnay-dominant blend with its fresh white fruits and nuances of mineral salts and underlying nutty almond richness.
Chenin Blanc
Libiano Amphora Gisborne Chenin Blanc 2021, $45
Millton is a national chenin champion, and this is a beautifully rounded example with notes of grapefruit, smoky flint and peppery herb.
Gruner Vetliner
Quartz Reef Bendigo Central Otago Gruner Veltliner 2023, $45
Austrian-born Rudi Bauer makes one of New Zealand’s greatest examples of the Austrian grüner veltliner variety. It is pure and racy, with an elegant and intense palate of white fruits, mineral and the variety’s signature juniper and white pepper characters.
More on wine
From Aotearoa’s best tipples to fresh wine bar openings.
Viva’s New Zealand Wine Awards 2023 showcase the best of the best. Revisit the picks from last year.
Chardonnay is Aotearoa’s most exciting wine variety. New Zealand chardonnay has come a long way, baby.
Meet the Viva team: wine editor Jo Burzynska. Her role not only involves writing but tasting a lot of wines – sometimes hundreds a week.
Toast & Oak is Queenstown’s sleek new food and wine destination. Whether you’re a wine buff or a novice, this European-style wine bar has a glass for you.
