2019 Kumeu River Chardonnay Hunting Hill

Community Tasting Notes (34) Avg Score: 91.5 points

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  4/19/2024 - Palisades57 Likes this wine: 93 Points

  White flowers on the nose. Very fresh with good lift. The palate shows some reduction, but in a good way, also with quince, orange marmalade and chalky minerality. This has good concentration and density. To me it is most reminiscent of a good 1er Puligny -Montrachet. I like it a lot, and it has definitely improved since my last tasting 3 years ago. Too bad it is my last bottle! My wife says I should buy two cases to keep around for friends. Probably a good idea.

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  3/29/2024 - GregersJ Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Absolutely wonderful Bourgogne-like chardonnay with yellow fruit, fresh acidity, hazelnuts and butter.

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  12/27/2023 - pavel_p wrote: 91 Points

  Went very long Kumeu River and especially Hunting Hill after a few superb bottles of the 2017, and some of the early enthusiastic reviews of the 2019 and 2020 vintage. First checking in on the 2019 leaves me somewhat disappointed. Pale yellow in the glass with a touch of green, young but perhaps just a touch darker than what I would have expected for a 2019. The nose is the best part right now, accurately drawn with white fruit, some chalk and some oak. On the palate this is a bit reductive but more importantly I am getting residual CO2 which I find very distracting. Finish seems surprisingly short at this point in time.
  Hopefully just in a bad spot right now - give it another 12 months before checking in on next bottle 91+
  
  PS: Put the more than half full bottle into the fridge and had another few glasses a day later. This is a fairly tight and dense Chardonnay with very concentrated but also fairly ripe fruit going into the yellow fruit spectrum. Also a touch of bitterness, quince aromas, candied lemon. I much preferred the cooler 2017 vintage at the same age since I look for more freshness and minerality in my whites.

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  9/3/2023 - VAGenius Likes this wine: 93 Points

  PnP. Nose of poached pear, sea shells, apple peel, and candle wax. Lemon curd, gooseberry, and tart lime with lively tropical fruit energy. Broad finish of stone fruit, sea foam, acidity, and loads of wet rocks.
  
  Note this bottle had laid at room temperature for two years so it may have advanced aging characteristics.

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  5/13/2023 - mjgkng Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Ripe, rich fruit. Crisp and clean.

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