Craggy Range Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay 2025
£19.25
The wine
A fresh, clean and focused Chardonnay with vibrant aromas of lime zest, white florals and oyster shell. On the palate, citrus fruits are layered with complex savoury nuances through to a long finish.
Kidnappers Vineyard lies near Cape Kidnappers on the Hawke's Bay coast, named by Captain Cook after an incident in 1769. The maritime site is considerably cooler than the inland gravels, which suits Chardonnay: slower ripening keeps acidity high, and the wine is made with restraint, so oyster shell and citrus lead rather than oak.
The producer
Craggy Range Vineyards
View all Craggy Range Vineyards winesCraggy Range was established in 1998 by Terry and Mary Peabody with winemaker Steve Smith MW, and the founding idea was unusual for New Zealand at the time: build the estate around individual vineyards rather than regional blends, in the European manner.
That led them to two very different places. The Gimblett Gravels in Hawke's Bay is a stretch of stony riverbed exposed when the Ngaruroro River changed course in an 1867 flood, worthless for farming but exceptional for vines; the stones radiate heat and drain hard, and it is the one place in New Zealand where Bordeaux varieties and Syrah ripen fully. Te Muna Road in Martinborough is the opposite: cool, windy and elevated, and suited to Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.
The winery sits in the shadow of Te Mata Peak, and the icon wines take their names from what matters to the family: Le Sol for the soil, Sophia for a daughter, Aroha for the Maori word for love. All three rank among the finest wines made in the country.
