Craggy Range Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay 2024

Granted there is a price dip discrepancy between top Chardonnays like this and Sauvignon Blanc, but it seems so harsh to think that whenever New Zealand wine is mentioned around the globe, first thoughts always turn to Sauvignon Blanc. And yet here we have an absolutely brilliant Chardonnay, and there are others, which should surely take centre stage. The lesson? Never neglect the great Chardonnays from New Zealand. For me, I can’t recall a better LBC than this one. I’m not sure why it needs a French name, but that apparently means ‘beautiful pebbles’. 2024 is simply a brilliant vintage. The best parcels in the vineyard were selected and whole bunch pressed to stainless steel before racking to French oak for fermentation with wild yeasts. Maturation was for eleven months in oak on full lees. The wine was then racked into stainless steel for a further four months. The Gimblett Gravels sub-region in Hawkes Bay may be seen as a special red district, but it can also produce some glorious Chardonnays, and this wine surely sits alongside the better Premier Cru Chardonnays from Burgundy, and a few Grand Cru as well. The big difference between those wines and this one is that they are normally two or three times, at least, more expensive. A shimmering pale lemon/gold, this is a Chardonnay of serious class. The nose reveals notes of lemon curd, citrus, a flick of grapefruit, jasmine, ginger, nectarines, peach pits and cashews. Exquisitely balanced, touches of gunflint and matchstick emerge with time in the glass. Put simply, as good an LBC as I can ever recall. Seamless in structure, with great length and a line of fine acidity, this will provide pleasure for the next ten to fifteen years. Love it.

Ken Gargett

Contributor at Winepilot

Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.

Wine writer and critic