Awards & Reviews

***** Medium gold/green in hue, the highly seductive 1998 has a forthcoming, nutty, toasty bouquet leading into a rich, full, tightly structured complexities. A wine of great finesse, strong grapefruit and peach characters and minerally, biscuity classy Chardonnays on the market. Drink now or cellar to al least 2003.

Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines, 2003

Q:*****/V:*** ... It's sweet-fruited and spicy on the nose, with a suggestion of honeycomb adding to the picture, but the overall impression is of delicacy and style. Broad on the palate it has gentle citric flavours and fully integrated acids. It needs gentle food - try steamed flounder drizzled with sesame oil. Drink: now-3 years.

Vic Williams - The Penguin New Zealand Wine Guide 2003

***** Only available at the cellar door, through mail order and at select restaurants, this is the winery's finest Chardonnay and a good example of where New Zealand Chardonnay is heading. Opulent texture, delicious peach fruit and integrated oak characters.

Stephen Bennett - North and South (October 2002)

Light gold, this is a fully mature wine, with an opulent nose of oatmeal and vanilla, complexed with spicy, funky wild yeast notes. Creamy and toasty in the mouth, earthy and developed, this is a fascinating wine to enjoy over the course of the evening and is a great bargain.

Paul Tudor - Wine Talk (Sept 2002)

****  This is an elegant, "complexity-driven style", designed for cellaring. Medium gold/green in hue, it has toasty, developed aromas, with a rich, full, tightly structured palate, showing crisp, strong grapefruit characters and considerable complexity. "Compelling," enthused one panellist.

Winestate Annual 2002

The rare but outstanding 1994, 1995 and 1998 vintages are the result of Montana's decision to produce 'a more Burgundian, less fruit-driven, less oaky' style of Hawke's Bay Chardonnay than its lush, relatively fast developing Church Road Reserve wine. It is typically hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed, fermented and matured for a year in French oak barriques and given a full, softening malolactic fermentation. Medium gold/green in hue, the highly seductive 1998 (*****) has a forthcoming, nutty, toasty bouquet leading into a rich, full, tightly structured palate showing crisp, strong grapefruit and peach characters and minerally, biscuity complexities. A wine of great finesse, harmony and depth, it's one of the most distinctive and classy Chardonnays on the market. Drink now or cellar to 2001.

Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to NZ Wines (Nov 2001)

Bright lemon gold in colour. This is an amazingly classy wine, very youthful for its three years of age but showing nice toasty developed characters. Appealing toasty scents with honeyed biscuity oak and lemon meringue. A creamy and elegantly rich mouthfilling wine with lemon, melon, pineapple and fig on a toasty backbone that has plenty of mealy, warm, cashew-like barrel-ferment characters. Complex and harmonious with a satiny texture and grapefruit zest lingering on the finish before a lovely nutty sweetness fills the mouth on the aftertaste. Top class. New release.

Sue Courtney - wineoftheweek.com (21 Sept 2001)

Made in a Burgundian style, i.e. not dominated by fruit. Nutty, biscuit qualities, deliciously ripe stone fruit tastes, subtle use of oak. Wonderful drinking now and built for some ageing.

Brendan Burns - Marlborough Express (30 August 2001)

Takes its name from the big oak fermentation vessels at Montana's Hawke's Bay Church Road winery. This shows lovely tropical and citrus fruit and fine balance and steely structure and restrained oak (unusual in the Church Road brand). I thoroughly enjoyed its lively finish and juicy freshness allied with the fruit intensity, unusual in a three-year-old Chardonnay. According to winemaker Tony Prichard, it does not undergo malolactic fermentation which impedes the longevity of the wine. Obviously, it should develop well with another year or so's bottle age.

Charmian Smith - Otago Daily Times (Aug 2001)

Hawke's Bay wine with good interest, power and concentration. It has butterscotch and grapefruit aromas and flavours, with an appealing nutty finish. There's a lot going for it - but the butterscotch characters tend to dominate.

Graeme Barrow - Oamaru Mail (July 2001)