nouveau / liquid assets / preview / review
Kumeu River 80th Anniversary: 2002–2020 Chardonnay
Sarah Marsh MW joined the Brajkovich family for a tasting that confirmed the Auckland estate’s elite status among global Chardonnay producers
Spetember 2024 to host a tasting of their estate and single-vineyard Chardonnays. The Brajkovich family are pioneers of the wine trade in New Zealand. The origin of this estate goes back to 1944 when Mick and Katé Brajkovich, having emigrated from Croatia a few years earlier, were able to purchase a small plot of land in Kumeu near Auckland and settled there with their son Maté. In the early days, the wines were made with hybrids, but the focus changed in the 1980s to Chardonnay. The estate remains a family affair, with Maté’s children now managing the business. Michael Brajkovich, New Zealand’s first MW and an alumnus of Roseworthy, has made the wines for 40 years. Soon after the estate changed its name to Kumeu River Wines in 1986 and started exporting, Farr Vintners brought its Chardonnay to the UK and has followed the estate every vintage since 1990. I walked along the Thames to Farr’s glamorous riverside location for what
T
o mark the 80th anniversary of Kumeu River estate, Paul Brajkovich was in London in
promised to be a fascinating tasting stretching back to the 2002 vintage. “During the 1970s our holdings in Kumeu were only 5ha [12 acres] of vines, plus what grapes we could purchase locally,” explained Michael when I caught up with him after the tasting. “In the 1980s, this was augmented by purchasing grapes from Gisborne. We started new plantings in Kumeu in 1981, increasing the holdings to about 15ha [37 acres]. In 1983 we purchased a 35ha [85-acre] vineyard from Corbans in Kumeu. Over the next few decades, this block was subdivided, replanted, and rationalized to a point where it now makes up about 13ha [32 acres] of high-quality vineyard.” Kumeu River Wines quickly established a reputation for high-quality, stylish Chardonnay from the 1980s on, so I wondered why there are not more estates in the region? “Very few wine producers stayed,” explained Paul. “They moved to Gisborne and farther afield, while we stayed and bought more land.” There are only six other wineries: Soljans, Hunting Lodge, Coopers Creek, Wamarie, Westbrook, and Twin Totara.
In fact, according to New Zealand Wine Growers statistics, there are only 285ha (705 acres) of vineyard in the whole of the West Aukland region of which Kumeu is a subregion. Of these, only 71ha (175 acres) are planted to Chardonnay. Gisborne, by comparison, has 1,245ha (3,076 acres) of vines, with 582ha (1,440 acres) of Chardonnay. The Kumeu sub-region is niche—a peri-urban rural zone, still outside the suburbs, but just 20km (12 miles) from central Auckland as the crow flies. Real estate is at a premium—NZD $1.3 million per hectare from a recent valuation for the purposes of widening the motorway. It is fortunate for the Brajkovich family that most of their land is owned, although 15% of Kumeu River’s production comes from leased vineyards. When it became impossible to expand further in Kumeu, the Brajkovich family purchased an existing 28ha (70-acre) vineyard in Hawkes Bay in 2017, now managed by Paul Brajkovich, an engineer by profession. How does Michael compare the two?
“Kumeu has a cool maritime climate,
heavily influenced by the proximity of the oceans to the west and east—quite different to Hawkes Bay, which is also cool-climate, but located on the east coast, it is protected from the prevailing westerly weather patterns. It therefore has less rainfall than Kumeu and warmer temperatures. In Kumeu, 30°C [86°F] is a very hot day, and we usually only get one or two a year. We haven’t had any over the past six years. The max has been 29.6°C [85°F].” Paul remarked, “Aukland gets rain.
It’s humid. We deal with this with an open canopy, leaf-plucking, and hand- harvesting. The 2008 had some botrytis characters, but this is rare.” He adds,
Left: The Brajkovich family at Kumeu River. Opposite: Vineyards around the family winery.
84 | THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220
