Chardonnay celebrated

Decades-old vines, a relaxed attitude to winemaking and uniquely suitable surrounds has resulted in a local Chardonnay winning best in show.

Isabel Estate’s 2022 Wild Barrique Single Vineyard was named the 2025 London Wine Competition Wine of the Year, a competition graded on overall analysis on quality, value and packaging to mirror buying behaviour of customers.

“When you have top-end wines that you’re paying for at the restaurant, they need the whole high-end package, whether it’s what it tastes like or looks like, so it’s fantastic acknowledgement from our vineyards to our design and marketing team”, says Isabel Estate’s chief winemaker Jeremy McKenzie. “Our icon off this single vineyard site is Chardonnay and it’s been highly regarded for a long time, but for me Marlborough Chardonnay is the region’s best kept wine secret.

“The team here is very, very passionate about Chardonnay, building that over the past 10 years, and it was a gut feeling that 2022 was going to be good.”

Jeremy says the pathway for the 2022 Wild Barrique’s success is decades in the making at Isabel Estate, with roots in his experience working in Burgundy as a young winemaker, then being involved in Villa Maria’s Taylor Pass Single Vineyard range.

“What we’ve got coming out of the vineyard here is 35 to 40-year-old vines, the original Mendoza stock, and a few newer parcels of the 548 clone Chardonnay at the confluence of the Omaka and Waihopai Valleys which tends to give us cooler air and a clay-heavier soil.

“2022 was a tough season, yet we managed an amazing run of warm weather in the February/March period, which allowed heavier chardonnay crops and over several picking windows got some top-quality fruit coming in, so we’re blessed by that material to use when doing wild fermentation and unclarified juice.”

And while Jeremy maintains that Sauvignon Blanc is king, variety is the spice of life for many wine enthusiasts.

“Marlborough wine is a global phenomenon, but there’s always the people who are looking for what else is there outside of Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough that can keep spinning the wheels.

“For example, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are what goes into the brilliant bubbles coming out the region.

“If we can keep capturing people’s engagement and showing that we’re not a one trick pony at Isabel Estate, and Marlborough in general, that can only be good.”