Ata Rangi Potiki Chardonnay 2022

Reviews

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 95/100. Very precise chardonnay with sliced apples, lemons, lemongrass, white peaches and just a hint of flint. Medium-bodied with a tight and very defined palate that shows energy and focus. Structured for longevity, but already thoughtful to taste. Drink or hold.

Cameron Douglas MS: 95/100.  A delicious wine! Aromas and flavours of ripe almost sweet grapefruits, white fleshed stone fruits and a seam of minerality and fine lees spice qualities. Medium+ weighted as the wine touches the palate, a satin texture with contrasting acidity. As the wine opens out in glass the textures and flavours develop a flourish and intensity. Fine fruit tannins with a lees texture, delicious, fresh and dry with plenty of complexity, charm and cellar attributes. Best drinking from 2023 through 2939+.

Sam Kim, Wine Orbit: 94/100. Charming and enticing, the bouquet shows ripe stone fruit, nougat, hazelnut and oatmeal nuances, leading to a beautifully layered palate that's succulent and creamy. Wonderfully composed and expressed with elegant complexity and persistency. At its best: now to 2030.

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 93/100.The 2022 Potiki Chardonnay is a collation of younger vine material from around the Ata Rangi vineyards. "As a season, 2022 was tricky. It had less diurnal shifts and more rain than 2021," says Winemaker Helen Masters. The wine, however, feels a triumph in this glass. It's spicy, layered and restrained, with creamed nuts, white peach, stewed apples and shaved fennel, mandarin oil and a sprinkling of custard powder. It is pure, in its way. It went through a fully wild ferment, unsulfured until racking/bottling and full malolactic fermentation. There's a purity to the flow of flavor here. It's lovely. Helen and I discussed Chardonnay and style, and it was a fascinating conversation. This is a person who understands the importance of place, identity and expression.

Tasting Note

The 2022 has an expressive, floral, and delicate fruit driven nose of white peach, rock melon and orange blossom. The palate has a refined mineral entry, with hints of salinity. It opens further with notes of citrus and fennel and flavours of pastry and almond. Beautifully balanced on the palate, this wine is fresh and joyous, combining cool fruit notes with fine acidity.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: white wine

Varietal: Chardonnay

Vineyards: Lismore, Walnut Ridge, Cambrae Vineyards, Martinborough, New Zealand

Winemaking: Hand-picked fruit was whole bunch pressed, with the unsettled juice fully barrel fermented in Burgundy 300L puncheon barrels (20% new) using indigenous yeasts. Partial malolactic. Aged in barrel on lees for 11 months.

Name: Potiki, meaning ‘last born’ in Maori.

Alcohol: 12.5% vol

Total Acidity: 6.1g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulphites

Cellaring potential: 2027

Closure: Screwcap

Produced and bottled by: Ata Rangi Vineyard, PO Box 43, Martinborough 5741, New Zealand

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