Vineyard: Reed Vineyard
Subregion: Wairau and Waihopai Rivers confluence | Central Wairau  
Region: Marlborough 
Vintage: 2023
Soil Type: Moderate to low-vigour, thin topsoil on stone and clays
Clone: Clone 95
Viticulture: Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand Certified (SWNZ)
Growers: Pete and Anne Reed

Appellation Marlborough Wine Certified.

Winemaker's Notes: 

The Reed Vineyard Chardonnay is an incredibly textured, savoury wine. It summons a tightly-coiled white peach, grapefruit and toasted hazelnut aroma profile, which is complemented by complex flint and silex nuances. Its vividly sketched acidity allows it to carry the powerful but savoury oak in a defined yet impressive manner. This is a wine for drinking now for its crystalline purity, or cellaring and reaping the benefits of tertiary development in many years to come. 

Reviews: 

2022 Vintage:

White Wine of the Year 2023 - “Our White Wine of the Year is……. the toasty, nutty, seriously savoury and utterly compelling 2022 Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay from Marlborough in New Zealand!” December 2023 | Peter Richards & Susie Marks MWs (UK) 

Top Wines of New Zealand List 2023 | 95 points Cameron Douglas MS 

95 Points #1 Marlborough Chardonnay "Weighty, mouth-filling chardonnay with grapefruit, saline/oyster shell, lime zest, nutty yeast lees and a suggestion of sizzled butter. Great without the complication of food but even better with my hot-smoked salmon. 27/9/2023" Bob Campbell MW 

95 Points – Outstanding "An excellent example of Chardonnay from the Blank Canvas team with aromas and flavours of white fleshed stone fruits and a citrus seam woven through the core. Taut and dry, youthful and textured with a lovely palate squeeze and urgency. Flavours expand on the palate as the wine opens out and gets closer to ambient with baking spices and a light reductive flinty highlight. Oak frames the fruit and is judicious in its level and impact. Generous weight, gentle warming alcohol, plenty of intensity, length and power. A wine best enjoyed from mid to late 2024 through 2030+" Cameron Douglas MS 

'The List' Marlborough Chardonnay | Te Whenua, John Saker "This wine is one of surprises. Flintiness, green olives and fresh stone fruit engage from the get-go. You then realise the fruit is hanging around longer than expected. It spreads and frolics across the palate, generous and free, before a long, fine resolution. The flinty thread and acidity maintain discipline, orchestrating the shape beautifully.” January 2024

5 Stars | Top Wine of NZ/International Blind Chardonnay Tasting | Michael Cooper "My favourite wine of the tasting was grown in the Waihopai Valley. Fragrant and refined, it is complex and savoury, with deep, citrusy, peachy flavours, mealy and biscuity notes, appetising acidity and a lasting finish. Very ageworthy." 

17 Points "Complex and inviting aroma that is the result of both fruit and winemaking style: pure lemon and clementine overlaid by strong notes of struck-match reduction. Intensely flinty and smoky. On the palate, this is, however, intensely fruity even in this flinty style. Mouth-wateringly ripe and crisp citrus, vibrant, salty. A wine to stop you in your tracks. Not subtle yet it is harmonious and will likely become more refined with time in the bottle. Firmly textured, chewy, mouth-filling and still fresh. GV for such a complex wine. (JH)" Julia Harding MW | JancisRobinson.com April 2024

93 Points "It was not the easiest of seasons to make delicious wine in Marlborough, but you wouldn't guess that if you tasted the 2022 Chardonnay Reed Vineyard. It is a pure and precise style with plenty of personality. There's excellent clarity of fruit here, reflective of the delicate handling. Flinty, salty characteristics of reduction emerge, while smoky bacon notes derive from barrel. Just a little more than light in body, there's weight and creamy texture built through the mid-palate, followed up with a fine, citrusy acid line. There's a lot going on, but the components all come together to provide a clever, layered style with a big, savory finish. Ta-da!" Rebecca Gibb MW | Vinous April 2024

Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2021

97 Points - #1 NZ Chardonnay "The 2021 Reed Vineyard Chardonnay is pure, harmonious and suave, caressing the mouth with its gentle texture and purity. It’s not showy but a wine worth getting to know: it provides cognitive and sensory pleasure. You can expect almond, oatmeal, smoky nuts and party popper aromas. Yes, party poppers. I really love the smell of party poppers, so I want to keep smelling this and having a little party shimmer. Pure and textural with a gourmand character that will make you want to lick your cheeks to keep tasting it. Already good; this is going to be great." Vinous - Rebecca Gibb MW, April 2023

96 Points (Top-Ranked Marlborough Chardonnay 2021) - "Intense, textural chardonnay from a single vineyard in the Waihopai Valley. Peach, lime/citrus, savoury/oyster shell, ginger and hazelnut flavours. High-energy, high-volume wine that makes a strong statement 15/9/2022" Bob Campbell MW - The Real Review 

96 Points 5 STARS "Distinct gunflint and smoke aromas overlay powerful notes of grapefruit, white nectarine and red apple. The palate is taut and focused with mineral-edged acidity providing poise and presence." Jane Skilton MW - The WINE Magazine, March 2023. 

17 Points "Strong struck-match aroma. Lovely precise, clean palate and definitely flinty ('because we don't stir'). Bone-dry finish and lots of fruit on mid palate. A wine you'd love or loathe. I love it." Jancis Robinson MW, 'Marlborough for connoisseurs', February 2023 

95 Points - Outstanding - "Really fantastic bouquet with a lees, mineral and gun flint beginning followed by aromas of white peach and grapefruit, apple then barrel scents of cashew and vanilla. There’s a youthful side to the wine on the palate with a light reductive quality adding complexity and mouthfeel. Flavours reflect the bouquet with oak, acidity, fine tannins and fruit all contributing to the complexity and charm. Well made, youthful and showing its best from mid to late 2023 through 2029." Cameron Douglas MS

5 STARS ***** "The finely scented 2021 vintage (5*) was hand-picked in the Waihopai Valley, fermented and matured for 11 months in French oak puncheons, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Still extremely youthful, it has concentrated, peachy flavours, crisp and finely poised, and a rich, persistent finish. Best drinking mid-2024+." Michael Cooper - Top NZ Chardonnays 'Style & Substance' NZ Listener April 2023 

94 Points - "This has intense aromas of Meyer lemons, toasted bread, dried pineapples, roasted apples and salted popcorn. The concentration is fantastic, with persistent, tangy layers of fruit and salty, toasty undertones. Deliciously long. Sustainable. Drink or hold. Screw cap." JamesSuckling.com - September 2022

Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2020

18 Points (#1 NZ Chardonnay 2020) - "Seductive and well-judged ‘reductive’ (smoky, struck-match) aroma and really toasty as it opens up, something cedary. Very Coche Dury but, most importantly, there is the fruit intensity to carry off this winemaking style. Nutty, creamy, mealy citrus. So many things going on that it makes you slow down to try to enjoy all this complexity. Deep, deliciously fresh and incredibly persistent with an aftertaste of savoury/mineral citrus. Worth every penny of its NZ price of $45 (from the producer's website). Classy and got better and better over the few days post opening." Julia Harding MW | JancisRobinson.com 27/01/22

95 Points - "Captivating aromas of stone fruits and sweet citrus, a savoury spice and flinty complexity, oak adding layers of spice and woodsmoke. Power, finesse, layers texture and a core of fresh and baked stone fruits, grapefruit, baked apple and baking spices. Drink 2022-2028" Decanter | 'NZ Chardonnay 2020', Cameron Douglas MS April 2022

94 Points - "The 2020 Chardonnay Reed Vineyard is fermented in barrels, of which 40% are new. The wine is then left alone with just the occasional top-up. Winemakers Matt and Sophie Thomson call it “lazy winemaking” with tongues firmly in cheek. The result is a wine of excellent purity, offering up nectarine and lemon fruit flavors; full solids have imbued a distinctive flinty note, while the savory, nutty character derived from the wood adds layers and will integrate further with another year in bottle." Vinous | Rebecca Gibb MW 'Desperately Seeking Sauvignon' March 2022 

Top 100 New Zealand Wines of 2021 - ''Aromas of dried mango, lime curd, coriander, honeysuckle and salted butter with some meaty and smoky undertones. Full-bodied with tangy acidity. Concentrated and rich, yet well structured, with a bright backbone of acidity and phenolic texture. 93 Points' James Suckling, 30 November 2021 

95 Points - Outstanding "What an excellent example with immediately captivating aromas of stone fruits and sweet citrus, a leesy savoury spice and stony flinty complexity. The oak adds layers of spice and some wood smoke. The bouquet is complex, layered and enticing. On the palate - plenty of weight and richness, but not so much as to detract from the essence of what Chardonnay is all about - in this case - power, finesse, layers of texture and a core of fruit reflecting fresh and baked stone fruits, grapefruit, baked apple and baking spices of French oak. Excellent texture and length, well made and ready to drink from 2022 through 2028." Cameron Douglas MS, July 2021 

5 STARS – TREAT YOURSELF “This notably classy, single-vineyard wine was hand-harvested in the Waihopai Valley, fermented and matured in French oak puncheons (partly new), and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Richly fragrant, it is mouthfilling, complex and generous, with deep peach and grapefruit flavours, finely integrated oak, and a tightly structured, long, seamless finish. Best drinking 2023+.” Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper's Buyers Guide 2021, July 2021. 

93 Points "Intense, edgy chardonnay, which combines moderately opulent tree fruit, peach and nectarine flavours with taut citrus characters and a pronounced oyster-shell influence. Youthful and slightly raw at this stage but with the potential to mellow with bottle age."  Bob Campbell MW 16/6/2021

Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2019 

"The finest French oak-aged Kiwi Chardonnay I have tasted here all year. Gorgeous French oak-aged Kiwi, with all the honey-flecked, toasted hazelnut oomph of the Cote d'Or."  Jane MacQuitty, The Times (UK), October 2020

95 Points "A finely poised yet powerful Chardonnay that has just the right amount of reductive flint character, adding a layer of complexity to this savory, stylish wine. Wild fermentation in oak puncheons followed by an extended period on lees has resulted in rounded edges while adding smoky and nutty flavors. It has lovely sinew on the long finish." Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media, November 2020.

95 Points,  “Impressive purity and power with peach, nectarine fruit flavours together with a subtle struck-flint mineral, reductive character and a pleasing savoury note. A taut, elegant chardonnay that’s good now but promises to get even better with bottle age." 2/6/2020. Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review

94 Points "Sophisticated and complex bouquet of Chardonnay with aromas of gun-flint and oak spices, moments of lemon and grapefruit then yellow fleshed orchard fruit. The second and third sniffs reveal a mineral, stone and textured complexity. The bouquet overall is very youthful and vibrant with the messages of oak strong. On the palate - equally expressive, youthful and complex. Flavours reflect the nose with citrus then oak. Fine wood tannins with a smoky edge, medium+ acidity and palate trill. While this wine is very young it has fantastic potential that Chardonnay fans should invest in and and cellar some bottles. Best drinking from early 2022 through 2026+." 31/05/20 Cameron Douglas MS

5 stars ***** "Slightly more extroverted at this stage than its Escaroth stablemate, the classy 2019 vintage (5*) is a single-vineyard, Waihopai Valley wine, hand-picked and fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak puncheons (40 per cent new). Bright, light lemon/green, it is mouthfilling and savoury, with concentrated, citrusy, peachy flavours, finely integrated oak and impressive complexity. A powerful, distinctive wine with obvious potential, it’s best cellared to 2022+." Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide 2021

View Tasting Notes - 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 

View the Reed Vineyard