Pyramid Valley Kererū Road Chardonnay 2024
£29.75
The wine
Golden lemon in the glass, with nectarine, pear, ripe apple and Meyer lemon, and a hint of shortbread behind. A composed, compact wine: the nutty texture builds in richness before the saline note that runs through every Pyramid Valley Chardonnay arrives on a long, mineral finish.
The fruit comes from the Two Terraces vineyard at Mangatahi in Hawke’s Bay, where the vines sit on ancient terraces of silt loam over red-metal gravels, rather than on the clay and limestone of the home farm at Waikari. It belongs to the Pastures range, which draws on sites beyond the two estate vineyards. Hand harvested, fermented on wild yeasts, then cellared twelve months in concrete tulipes and bottled unfined. Concrete rather than new barrel is what keeps the emphasis on texture and salinity instead of oak.
The producer
Pyramid Valley
View all Pyramid Valley winesMike and Claudia Elze Weersing spent fifteen years looking for the right piece of land before buying this one at Waikari in North Canterbury in 2000. What drew them was limestone, which is rare in New Zealand and which they were convinced was essential for the wines they wanted to make.
The farm sits at altitude in a cool, dry inland valley, and the soils are clay over limestone. Both matter: clay holds water through a dry summer and restrains vigour, limestone gives the drainage and the mineral character. Farming is biodynamic, and the four home blocks, Angel Flower, Earth Smoke, Lion's Tooth and Field of Fire, are named after plants growing among the vines rather than after the family or the view.
Each block is farmed, fermented and bottled separately, which at this scale is an act of conviction rather than commerce. The wines have become some of the most sought-after in New Zealand, and the estate also draws on Central Otago fruit for the Snake's Tongue bottling.
