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Buy any 6 bottles and save 5%. Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
2024 Heretaunga Cru Chardonnay, Smith & Sheth

2024 Heretaunga Cru Chardonnay, Smith & Sheth

Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Reminiscent of a top-end Chablis in its flinty precision and poised citrus freshness, this is Chardonnay with generous fruit and beautifully judged richness. Ripe peach, mandarin and bright lemon mingle with white blossom, freshly baked brioche and roasted cashew, while delicate oak spice adds warmth. A flicker of smoky flint runs beneath the fruit, bringing a savoury edge to a bouquet that becomes more inviting with every swirl.

The palate opens with succulent stone fruit and citrus before broadening into a creamy, finely textured richness. Fresh acidity keeps everything poised, carrying the flavours through a long finish of grilled nuts, lemon and gently toasted oak. There is enough depth for a special dinner and enough freshness to make another glass irresistible. Lovely now, it also has the balance to develop further complexity over the coming years.

For when: The chicken is roasting, the glasses are generous, and nobody is rushing lunch.

Pairs with: Pair with lemon and thyme roast chicken, pan-fried turbot with beurre blanc, seared scallops with cauliflower purée, lobster linguine, wild mushroom risotto, or mature Comté.

Heretaunga is the Māori name associated with the fertile plains and surrounding catchment of Hawke’s Bay. This Chardonnay brings together three contrasting sites in Gimblett Gravels, Bridge Pa and Mangatahi, combining their individual strengths in a wine that captures the region’s breadth. CRU reflects Smith & Sheth’s focus on carefully chosen vineyards and enduring relationships with the people who farm them.

For Smith & Sheth, 2024 was a classic Hawke’s Bay vintage, with low rainfall through spring and summer. Favourable conditions allowed the team to harvest ripe fruit with well-balanced acidity and flavour between 6 and 13 March. That harmony comes through in the finished wine’s generous peach and citrus character, supported by the freshness that gives its richness definition.

Whats in the bottle
100% Chardonnay

Notable Awards
95 points, Halliday Wine Companion

£29.95 - £29.95
£29.95
£29.95 - £29.95
£29.95
Availability:
In stock

Smith & Sheth brings together New Zealand viticulturist Steve Smith MW and American investor and conservationist Brian Sheth. Their shared enthusiasm for fine wine and New Zealand led to a partnership rooted in Hawke’s Bay, with the first wines released in 2016. Based in Havelock North, the producer draws on Smith’s extensive experience, including his role in establishing Craggy Range.

The approach centres on finding exceptional vineyards and working closely with their growers. In Hawke’s Bay, the warm gravel soils of Omahu and Bridge Pa provide a contrasting setting to the cooler, elevated vineyards of Mangatahi. These differences give the team a range of flavours and textures to work with, from generous fruit to precise citrus freshness.

Under Smith’s direction, vineyard selection and thoughtful blending shape wines with both character and immediate drinking appeal. Smith & Sheth’s vineyards and wineries are certified under Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, while its wider farming philosophy emphasises healthier soils and more resilient vineyard ecosystems. The result is a carefully considered range that makes its origins tangible in the glass.

Made from 100% Chardonnay, combining fruit from Omahu Vineyard in Gimblett Gravels, Fratelli Vineyard in Bridge Pa and Two Terraces Vineyard in Mangatahi. All fruit was harvested by hand between 6 and 13 March 2024. The vineyards follow Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand standards and a nil-residue spray programme.

Whole bunches were pressed before fermentation in French oak barriques and puncheons, using a combination of new and seasoned barrels. Indigenous yeasts accounted for 70% of fermentation, while 80% of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation, contributing roundness while retaining freshness.

Maturation lasted 11 months in barrel, with 35% new oak and a small amount of lees stirring. The wine then spent a further six months on its lees in tank before bottling, building texture and allowing the fruit, oak and savoury elements to integrate.

Alcohol: 13.6%. Total acidity: 5.7g/L. pH: 3.38. Recommended drinking window: 2026–2032.