Villa Maria is NZ's third largest winery group and the largest private owned Winery. They have produced more medal winers than any other winery in NZ and the umbrella of wineries that they are involved with and own include Esk Valley and Vidals. 2001 was the last year for wine maker Michelle Richardson MW whose shoes have been filled by Alastair Maling MW (ex Henschke). Michelle has taken a sabatical for a couple of years based on her achieving a gold medal (90+ points)in every category which she has now done. Alastair has some big shoes to fill.

Villa Maria owns vineayards across NZ including Marlborough, Gisborne, and Hawkes Bay. They have some vineyards planted in the northern Wairarapa but these are really limited to a couple of wines.

Michelles legacy is phenomenomal with over sixty gold medals spread across ten years with too numerous amount of silvers and bronze to even count, her abilites as a a wine maker are shown in all of her wines starting at the cheaper and accesiblly priced Private Bin Label. The Cellar Selection and Reserve series wines are awesome powerful wines with great structure. The only wine I have ever questioned that Villa has produced was there pinot noir but this year Michelle managed two golds with her Reserve Label Pinot Noir with fruit coming from the Marlborough Region.

Villa's three tiers of wine have slowly increased in price over the years but are still generally fairly affordably with only the top wines breaking the $50 NZD mark. (This is expensive for NZ wine in NZ).
The Private Bin East Coast Chardonnays are a blend of Gisborne and Hawkes Bay fruit made at the winery in Auckland. This wine pciked up gold in the recent Air NZ Wine and Spirit Show and is a prime example of Michelles devotion to affordable but very good wine. It retails here in my shop for $19NZD but I have seen it for as low as $15 NZD. It is also
one of the few Commercial level wineries I stock.
This should be available stateside.

Colour: deep straw
Nose: subtle hints of oak (charcoal) dominated by malo influenced mangos, melon and peach. Slight cheesy notes as well (mayhap lees contact), slight phenol notes as well. Mayhap some citrus zest also.
Palate: Oak domination fades into orangeflavoured zingy acids. The wines plays around on the palate leaving zinging acids and warmth , the length of the wine is quite impressive with excellent although slightly sharp finnish. Not unpleasant with the sharpenss it seems to intergrate the buttterscotch characters. Subtle lime hints are obvious on the palate. The texture of the wine isn't as intergrated due to the acids but this wine could do with another year or so.
Overall: A great little wine. An A on the QPR and a 90 points on the Jeremy Scale. Quite a complex chardonnay which relies more on complexity and intergration than big flavours.

Jeremy Ellis<br />Brown's Seriously Fine Wines<br />Auckland, NZ<br />mighty turnip hunter. The animals are just to damn fast.

Thanks for the note, Jeremy. I believe this wine is available here, and I'll try to pick one up to give it a try in the next few days.

I may have mentioned this to you before, but the '91 VM Gisbourne Reserve was one of the best buys I have ever made in a white wine. It was a ringer for a good Mersault, and I bought as much of it as I could find. I had my last of 18 bottles on New Year's Eve 2000, and was sorry when we finished them. I've been a believer in Villa Maria ever since.

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Cheers.

Yeah the reserve labels are awesome across the board. Nearly all of Villa Maria's reserve wines will age well for up to a decade or so. Look out for anything from 1998 or 2001 they will blow your socks off for the most part-certainly in comparison to other wines for the same amount of money. Damn it this lag is out of hand.Xmas rush I guess.

Jeremy Ellis<br />Brown's Seriously Fine Wines<br />Auckland, NZ<br />mighty turnip hunter. The animals are just to damn fast.

Jeremy -- I went to pick up a bottle, but what's currently on the shelves of our gov't monopoly is 2000 Villa Maria Private Bin Gisbourne Chardonay, not designated East Coast.

Is this the same wine from the previous vintage? Or am I looking at a different beast entirely?

Any thoughts on the one available to me (I'm assuming it'll eventually be replaced by the one you posted on.)

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Cheers.

I may pick up a bottle. While Wine Spectator beat me to the punch with their recent NZ reviews, I have to say that the basic Kumeu River Chardonnay (they make a more expensive, "Mates" variety, too) is virtually the only wine I drink which says "chardonnay on it." It is an amazing, Burgundy look-alike and the only value (at $25) that I know of in high-quality Chardonnay. Maybe it is a NZ thing.

Sequam,
I'd wait until the 2001 East Coast Chard is released. The 2000 Gisborne is good to okay but note as complex as the 20001. You are correct that it is still the same label however, just the fruit was picked in differant regions (well half of it anyways. The East Coast region includes Hawkes Bay and Gisborne).

Whiner,
The Mates is more metallic in character , more reminiscent of a good Chablis. The terroir for this vineyard is exquiste and very Burgudian in character. If you enjoyed this wine you may also want to keep your eye out for Nuedorf Motere Reserve although very hard to find I would rate this as being Kumeu's only competition to Burgudian style chards from NZ.

Jeremy Ellis<br />Brown's Seriously Fine Wines<br />Auckland, NZ<br />mighty turnip hunter. The animals are just to damn fast.