2024 Novum Riverbrook Vineyard Chardonnay

Rich, full and texturally enveloping feel yet underlyingly fresh.

From a family who have been managing vineyards in Marlborough since the 1970's, after a significant stint at Fromm winery, ending as General Manager, Will Hoare and his wife Rachel decided to venture out on their own to produce wine from the incredible vineyards they had access to. For this wine fruit was sourced from a block in the central Wairau plains of Marlborough planted entirely with the Mendoza clone around the mid 1980’s. Originally a riverbed, this block is naturally warm during the day, as well as at night, thanks to the radiating effect of the exposed greywacke rock lying beneath the vines. The rock radiates heat up into the canopy, making this vineyard an ideal site for ripening Chardonnay.
Brilliant pale straw colour with a watery hue. Intense peach, honeycomb and crème brulee scents are married to hints of bacon fat, nougat, cashew and spice. Rich, full and texturally enveloping, the palate is engulfed with ripe peach, honeycomb and pear flavours which meld into a citrusy crème brulee, nougat, subtle cashew and flint back drop. Creamy in it’s feel yet underlyingly fresh, it finishes long and expansive.
Drink over the next 5-6 years.
Alc. 14%

Other Reviews……
There is real powdered spice to this wine. Powder ginger, turmeric and cumin. A backbone of yellow peach flesh and golden baked apples. Fruit is ripe, with a twitch of fruit nectar rounding out a full palate. Oak spice is savoury and suits the tones of orchard fruit. A very memorable wine for its shape and grandeur. A touch of white pepper warmth on the finish. Drink by 2032.
95 Points
Shanteh Wale - James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion

This is very fresh and alluring with precise fruit and lovely ground spice notes melding beautifully. White peach, grapefruit, pear, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, nectarine pulp, powdery peach skin, flint. It deepens with air to reveal apricot kernel, nougat, tangerine, water chestnut and a mineral element – the amalgam of which makes for a very interesting and complex perfume. The palate is at once intense and fresh with stone fruit and spice in the lead again with notes largely akin to the nose, along with a sweet essence of lemon curd and tangerine adding a sense of completeness. There’s some powdery phenolics and a good wash of orange-citrus acidity through a finish of crystalline length. This is very impressive – complex, charming, long and utterly moreish. Brilliant.
95 Points
Tom Kline – WinePilot.com

The 2024 Chardonnay is excellent. It's toasty and spicy, lean and nutty, with green apple acidity and attractive waxy phenolics that shape the mid-palate and finish. This is a beautiful wine, made as a result of thoughtful farming and endeavour. It has personality and charm, alongside length of flavor and complexity to boot. It's leaner and less obviously "worked" than many Chardonnays I see coming out of Marlborough. This is super and comes recommended. 14% alcohol, sealed Diam and wax.
94+ Points
Erin Larkin – Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate