Seifried Nelson Chardonnay 2024

90 Points (4.5 Stars) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, June 2025

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island & Clover Road vineyards
Date of Harvest: mid March 2024
pH of Wine: 3.53
T.A of Wine: 5.2g/L
Residual Sugar of Wine: 1.5g/L
Alcohol: 14%
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

Our Rabbit Island vineyard is situated on a wide river flat, about 1.5km from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Māori kūmara (sweet potato) beds prior to European settlement in the early 1800s. The Māori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kūmara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are, however, very sandy and free-draining. The water table is relatively high, ensuring adequate underground water.

Our Clover Road vineyard sits alongside the Wairoa River, about 15km from the coast. The very stony, free-draining soils have low water-holding capacity, with large stones
helping to retain warmth from the Nelson sun. This vineyard produces fruit with lively character and bright varietal flavour.

The 'hen and chicken' berries of the Mondoza clone of Chardonnay used in this blend give full tropical flavours. The fruit was harvested, brought to the winery and pressed immediately then cooled for a three day settling period.

Following this, the juice was racked and warmed for inoculation. Primary alcoholic fermentation was initiated in stainless steel tanks, then the young wine was gravity fed into one, two and three-year-old French barriques. In spring 2024 the Chardonnay then underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel. Barrels were hand-stirred regularly to build palate weight and structure. The wine then sat on lees for a total of 12 months before being racked from barrique, blended and prepared for bottling in May 2025.

2024 was simply an outstanding vintage in Nelson - in fact Hermann Seifried has commented that it is perhaps the very best vintage of his 49 seasons in the top of the south! That from a character not known for exaggeration or embellishments. A dry settled growing season meant fruit was harvested in squeaky clean condition, with perfect ripeness and flavours.