Bilancia Kaikora Chardonnay 2024
Tasting Note:
Ripe fruit with some flint, hints of pink grapefruit and a firm backbone of acidity on the palate makes this wine an excellent food match. Do not drink it too cold. With time, the wine will open up further, developing a richer palate.
Aromas and flavours:
Reviews
Reviews for Bilancia Kaikora Vineyard Chardonnay 2024:
Erin Larkin
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2024 Kaikora Vineyard Chardonnay had been in bottle just a little over a month when I tasted it in March 2025, and yet it is already showing remarkable cohesion and harmony. Aromatically, the wine leads with cut pear, fresh fennel, pink grapefruit, white pepper and sweet crunchy apple. In the mouth, the saline acidity leads the attack, trailing the fruit flavors out over the long, textural finish. This is a penetrating, sapid wine, with an intensity of flavor that is coupled with a lightness of touch. It is restrained, composed and tight—just super. There is tiny volume this year, less than 100 cases made. The vines were planted in 2018 on their own roots, and the grapes usually ripen earlier than some of the other vineyards.
James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com
Complex sliced apples, vanilla, light yogurt and apple tart on the nose and palate. Medium- to full-bodied with layers of fruit and a creamy texture. It’s well crafted and thoughtful. Drink or hold. Screw cap.
Additional information
Type: White wine
Varietal: 100% Chardonnay
Vineyard: A single vineyard Chardonnay from Kaikora Vineyard in Õtāne, Central Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Owned by Dave and Anna Greer, Kaikora Vineyard Chardonnay is part of Bilancia's project to highlight some of the most unique, small, single vineyards in Hawke’s Bay. Kaikora is the original name for the town of Õtāne, named to avoid confusion with Kaikōura in the South Island. Central Hawke’s Bay is known for the ancient Pakohe (argillite) forming the basis of the soil type, giving fruit a unique profile under its moderately cooler climate.
Winemaking: The fruit was 100% hand-picked. Whole bunch pressed to French oak barriques for fermentation with indigenous yeast. A small part of the wine underwent an indigenous malolactic fermentation. The wine spent 11 months in oak prior to bottling; there was no fining or cold stabilisation.
Alcohol: 13.5% vol
Wine style: dry
Bottle size: 0.75l
Notice: Contains sulphites.
Cellaring potential: Ready to drink on release, will continue to develop positively for 6–8 years (2030–2032+).
Closure: Screwcap
Nutritional Information
| Nutritional Information per 100 ml |
| Energy |
327 kJ (79 kcal) |
| Fat |
0 g |
| of which saturate |
0 g |
| Carbohydrates |
0.5 g |
| of which Sugars |
0 g |
| Protein |
0 g |
| Salt |
0 g |
Ingredients: Raw materials: Grapes, Preservatives: Sulphur dioxide (E 220), Acidity regulators: Tartaric acid (E 334), Packaging gases: Nitrogen.
Produced and bottled by: Bilancia Limited, PO Box 2508 Hastings 4156, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
Imported and distributed by: vinabonus GmbH, Simmedenweg 40, 34134 Kassel, Germany
To all Chardonnay wines
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