Awards & Reviews

Silver: NZ Wine Society Royal Easter Wine Show 2003

**** Showcasing the rich, stone fruit characters of ripe Hawke's Bay Chardonnay, this is a top vintage of Montana's popular wine. French oak-fermented, with no use of malolactic fermentation, it offers strong, youthful, peachy flavours with nutty/mealy characters adding complexity. Full bodied and rounded, it's drinking well now, but should be even better in 2004.

Best Wines of 2003, Winestate Annual 2004

This wine, I think epitomises what Church Road is trying to do. Take really good Hawke's Bay fruit, treat it gently using modern equipment, add French flair, stir gently and wait. The nose is all ripe fruit and savoury oak. A gentle onset on the palate with white peach and rich citrus primary flavours and a broad, yeasty, spicy oak complexity. The wine begs to be held in the mouth and savoured; the finish is soft but long. A classy wine that would cellar well for years.

Hugh Wood - Hamilton Press (Oct 2003)

**** (86) Pleasantly mouth-filling wine with sweet oak over peach and grapefruit flavours. Solid, well-made wine with lanolin together with some biscuit and butterscotch characters. Quite complex and with some cellaring potential.

Chardonnays, Cuisine (July 2003)

This fruit driven Chardonnay was made from 100% Hawke's Bay grapes. The wine was held on full yeast lees for the six months it spent fermenting and maturing in French oak.
I found this a mouthful of grapefruit and stone fruit flavours. The oak is apparent but not overwhelming. This wine can be drunk today or cellared for up to four years.

Patrick Caudle - Kapiti News (21 May 2003)

*** V- From Hawke's Bay, combines a mineral earthiness with nectarine and pear flavours and a lively, crisp finish.

Charmian Smith - Otago Daily Times (April 2003)

Hawke's Bay wine, again with good interest for the price. It has nectarine, pineapple and toasty oak aromas and flavours, plus some mealy complexity from lees ageing. Balanced and rather forward, for current and shortish-term drinking.

Graeme Barrow - Hawke's Bay Today (April 2003)

... displays the typically ripe, grapefruit-like flavours of Hawke's Bay with real panache. I enjoyed it immensely and doubt whether there are many superior Chardonnays around for under $20.

Charles Gill - Daily News (1 April 2003)

**** ... a stylish Hawke's Bay wine, its strong grapefruit and stone fruit flavours enriched by mealy, toasty complexities from fermentation and lees-ageing in French oak barriques.

Michael Cooper - Sunday Star-Times (30 March 2003)

With no malolactic characters, here's a tight, young Chardonnay from Hawke's Bay which is opening out nicely. Dry, alive, lots of depth and body to the fruit, just needing some elbow room (most of 2003) to show itself best.

Peter Saunders - Food & Beverage (March 2003)

**** Showcasing the rich, stone fruit characters of ripe Hawke's Bay Chardonnay, this is a top vintage of Montana's popular wine. French oak-fermented, with no use of malolactic fermentation, it offers strong, youthful, peachy flavours with nutty, mealy characters adding complexity. Full-bodied and rounded, it's drinking well now but should be even better in 2004.

WineState (May/June 2003)