Kumeu River

Vineyards

Coddington Vineyard

Owned by Tim and Angela Coddington, this vineyard is located between Huapai and Waimauku. Planted on a clay-based hillside with narrow trellising, the Chardonnay from this block is consistently weighty and powerful with richness and length. The grapes from Coddington have been used in the Kumeu River Estate Chardonnay since 1998. In 2006, the winery decided to give Coddington single-vineyard status to reflect this vineyard’s unique character.

Hunting Hill Vineyard

Hunting Hill is the vineyard overlooking Maté’s Vineyard, and is named after the hillside farmland where Maté used to hunt rabbits and pheasants for the home kitchen. It was the site of the first vines to produce Kumeu River Chardonnay in the mid-1980s, and has always contributed lovely ripe and rich fruit to the Estate Chardonnay. After being replanted in 2000, Hunting Hill shows beautifully ripe fruit with a distinctive minerality.\

Maté's Vineyard

In 1990, Maté Brajkovich reworked the land at Kumeu River and planted a new vineyard of Chardonnay on the site of the family’s original vineyard, purchased in 1944. The first harvest from these new vines was in March 1993, the year following Maté’s death. The six-acre vineyard was named Maté’s Vineyard in his honor, and the resulting single-vineyard wine was first released in November 1994 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Brajkovich family’s arrival in Kumeu.

Caring for Kumeu River's Vineyards

Trellising

The Brajkovich family employs the "Lyre" or "U" trellising system. As you look down a row of vines, the U-shape of the trellis is clear, with two side curtains of vines rising from two opposing, 14-inch-long horizontal shoots which in turn originate from a 3-foot-tall trunk. The side walls are 28 inches apart at the base, inclining slightly outward towards the top of the canopies, and trellised on inclining posts. The fruit is born at the base of the canopy, so the center must be kept open for sunlight and air circulation. The Brajkovich's have developed a trimming machine to trim the top, outside and inside walls of the U-system.

Bird Netting

An essential part of growing grapes at Kumeu River is bird netting, due to flocks of starlings, local blackbirds, thrushes and mynahs, all of which can remove whole berries. A smaller migratory bird, the white-eye, pecks holes in the berries, causing rot and fermentation on the vine. Hence, there has been a large investment in re-useable netting to protect the crop.