Smith and Sheth CRU Heretaunga Chardonnay 2017
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wilfred
Wong -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a modern, finely structured Chardonnay laced with peach and orange Creamsicle, white spice, floral and reductive notes like nuts and smoke. The palate is creamy in texture and framed by prominent but well-structured oak.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Smith & Sheth Cru Heretaunga Chardonnay is bright, active, and alive. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with attractive aromas and flavors of sandalwood, dried herbs, dried fruit, and earth. Enjoy with grilled crab legs in a savory cream sauce. (Tasted: March 8, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
This offers a complex and fresh attitude with ripe peach and pithy lemon aromas, framed in spiced bread and grilled nuts. The palate has seamlessly integrated, ripe stone-fruit and nutty, savory flavors, all nicely balanced.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cru Heretaunga Chardonnay is awfully similar to how I remember the 2016, boasting layers of grilled white peaches and nectarines on the nose. On the palate, it's medium-bodied and nicely rounded, with a generous, silky-custardy texture and lingering notes of ripe citrus and charred oak on the finish.
Other Vintages
2020-
Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
- Vinous
We are in the business of creating great wines that bring great pleasure. As contemporary negociants Steve Smith MW and Brian Sheth seek out the exceptional. Hand selecting the best grapes from the finest vineyards. Establishing steadfast relationships with the land, growers and makers who form the DNA of our CRU. The French call it "terroir" – a sense of place. In New Zealand we have our own defining word - Turangawaewae - our place to stand in the world. This word describes the special connection of a people and the land they live, love and work in. Our wines reflect the magic and alchemy of this relationship and the true beauty of these places. It is our privilege to share the pleasure, culture and craft of wine with you.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.