Aurulent Reviews
2021
5 STARS – 2021 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines – Michael Cooper
Potential New Zealand Classic
This consistently classy wine is harvested from ‘select vineyards’ and handled in French oak casks. Already highly enjoyable, but well worth cellaring, the 2021 vintage (5*) is a bright, light lemon/green wine, fragrant and full-bodied. Concentrated and savoury, it has rich, ripe, peachy, mealy, slightly buttery and toasty flavours, fresh, balanced acidity, and excellent complexity…
94/100 – The Real Review – Bob Campbell – Master of Wine
Taut, high-energy chardonnay with grapefruit, green apple, oyster-shell, ginger and nutty yeast lees flavours. A vibrant, mouth-watering wine that is certainly approachable now but should age well for a few years at least.
2022–2028
2020
95/100 – Master Sommelier – Cameron Douglas
Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay Selection Top 12
Immediately engaging with aromas of ripe orchard fruits and mineralogy, there’s plenty of lees complexity, then scents of peach and baked apple, grapefruit and there’s no missing the oak. Fantastic on the palate with flavours that mirror the nose, but this wine is all about texture and purity. The overall combination of flavours and textures is fantastic!
4.5 STARS – 2021 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines – Michael Cooper
Potential New Zealand Classic
This consistently classy wine is harvested from ‘select vineyards’ and handled in French oak casks. Fragrant and full-bodied, the 2020 vintage (4.5*) is a bright, light lemon/green, vibrantly fruity wine, with grapefruit and peach flavours, showing very good vigour and concentration, subtle mealy and biscuity notes adding complexity, and fresh acidity. A stylish young wine, it’s still very youthful and well worth cellaring to 2023+.
92/100 – The Real Review – Bob Campbell – Master of Wine
Crisp, tangy chardonnay with lime, green apple, grapefruit, oyster-shell, ginger and nutty oak flavours. A youthful wine that can be appreciated now but promises to get even better with bottle age. Unfined with minimal filtration.
2019
Wine of the Week – New Zealand Listener – Michael Cooper Wine Writer
Already delicious, this subtle wine is not trying to make a bold statement, but instead impresses with it’s refinement and harmony. It has searching grapefruit-like flavours, well integrated oak, slightly smoky notes, impressive complexity and a tightly structured persistent finish. Well worth discovering.
5 STARS – 2021 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines – Michael Cooper
Potential New Zealand Classic
The classy, youthful 2019 vintage (5*) was grown at ‘select vineyards’ and barrel-fermented. Bright, light lemon/green, it is fragrant and full-bodied, with searching, vigorous, grapefruit-like flavours, finely integrated oak, slightly smoky notes, impressive complexity and a tightly structured, long finish. Rich, refined and full of personality, it’s well worth.
5 STARS – Yvonne Lorkin- NZ Wine Writer
Ever had that feeling, like when you’re watching a young sportsperson make a showstopping debut, or an underdog artist give the performance of a lifetime, that you’re witnessing history happen and they’re about to become seriously famous? That’s how I felt as soon as I sipped this new chardonnay from Hawke’s Bay winemaker Julz Brogden. It’s absolutely headshakingly jawdroppingly delicious. From the acres of peachy perfection, grilled grapefruit, toasted almonds and buttered crumpet characters on the nose, to the rich, seductively smoky, citrus-stacked palate, this wine is a NZ classic in the making. As the great Britney Spears once demanded “Gimme More”
94/100 Wine Anorak – Jamie Goode – UK Wine Writer
This is lovely. Concentrated and beautifully balanced with good acidity and some hazelnut and meal notes adding a savoury complexity to the pear and citrus fruit. There’s also just a hint of really nice matchstick reduction. Concentrated, rounded, mealy and spicy, this is delicious. Lots of potential for further development. 94/100 ($35) (JG)
17/20 Jancis Robinson – Master of Wine – UK Wine Writer – Master of Wine
Proprietor/winemaker Julianne Brogden ‘in collaboration with growers of some of the finest vineyards’ of the region. Unfined with minimal filtration.
Greenish pale gold. Rather sumptuous on the nose with real texture and life. Pretty snazzy and already offering an enormous amount of pleasure. Exuberant. No copy of white burgundy but a self-confident expression of Hawke’s Bay fruit nicely balanced by acidity.
19/20 Matthew Jukes – UK Wine Writer
This is one of the most resonant and lip-smackingly delicious New Zealand Chardonnays I have ever tasted. While this wine envelops the palate and gives the illusion of richness and lushness it is a precious-made Chardonnay with epic balance and freshness. It teeters on edge of exotic indulgence and indulgent flamboyance but always stays on right side of the tracks and it is this dramatic stance and uplifting freshness makes it nothing short of irresistible. Given the price tag, this is also one of the most impressive Chardonnays, from anywhere in the world, which I have tasted in 2020. 19/20 (Drink now – 2023)
94/100 The Real Review – Bob Campbell – Master of Wine
Seductively creamy-textured chardonnay with tree fruit, nectarine, citrus, ginger, spicy oak and baguette crust flavours. An elegant and attractive wine.
93/100 The Real Review – Huon Hooke – Master of Wine
Mid-yellow colour, with a smoky-bacon, toasty, savoury bouquet – more about complexities than primary fruit – while the palate is intense and lively, with a little phenolic richness and grip. There’s a fair quota of oak evident on both the nose and palate but it’s balanced. It has a clean, dry, satisfying finish.
2018
5 STARS – 2018 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
The refined 2018 vintage is bright, light yellow/green, it has a fresh, smoky fragrance. Mouth-filling, it is vibrantly fruity, with strong, youthful, grapefruit-like flavours, hints of biscuity oak, excellent complexity and a long, slightly creamy finish.
95/100 – Wine of the Week -The Real Review
Bob Campbell – Master of Wine
Sister wine to the less expansive Impression White with more precision and energy. Tighter, more vibrant Chardonnay with white peach, grapefruit, toasted nut, oyster shell and spicy oak flavours. A complex and very stylish wine that’s beautifully accessible now but no rush.
2017
5 STARS – 2019 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
Grown in the Havelock North and Te Awanga districts, the powerful 2017 vintage (5*) was fermented and matured for 10 months in French oak casks (22 per cent new), and given a full, softening malolactic fermentation. Bright, light lemon/green, it is a weighty, rich wine, with very generous, ripe stone-fruit flavours, hints of butter and nuts, excellent complexity, and a northern warmth and roundness. Full of youthful vigour, it’s a very harmonious wine, likely to be at its best 2020+.
90+/100 –2019 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Joe Czerwinski – Master of Wine
Slightly riper than the 2016, the 2017 Aurulent Chardonnay boasts similar aromas of pencil shavings, peach and pineapple. It’s medium-bodied, with just a touch more generosity on the mid-palate, but it still remains basically linear and narrowly focused through the long, crisp finish.
2016
4.5 STARS – 2017 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
The stylish 2016 vintage is pale lemon/green, it has a fragrant, fresh bouquet, showing very good complexity. Mouth-filling, it is youthful, with concentrated, grapefruit-like flavours, well-integrated, biscuity oak adding complexity, balanced acidity and excellent cellaring potential.
90+/100 –2019 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Joe Czerwinski – Master of Wine
Subtle, classy hints of pencil shavings accent peach and sweet corn notes on the nose of the 2016 Aurulent Chardonnay. It’s medium-bodied and tightly focused, with a linear feel on the palate that comes to a fine, crisp, slightly austere point on the finish.
2015
90+/100 –2018 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Joe Czerwinski – Master of Wine
The nose of the 2015 Aurulent is all about artefact, consisting of struck match, pencil shavings and toasted hazelnuts. Yet on the medium-bodied palate, there’s sufficient fruit to support all this, hinting at stone fruit and pineapple, before ending long and harmonious.
4.5 STARS – 2017 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
The finely poised 2015 vintage has a complex bouquet, leading into a full-bodied, elegant, tightly structured wine, with vibrant grapefruit and peach flavours, slightly smoky notes, and good complexity.
2014
92+/100 – 2014 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Lisa Perotti-Brown – Master of Wine
Delivers provocative aromas of honey drizzled white peaches, pink grapefruit with a golden sugar crust, roasted cashews and clotted cream with a struck flint and crushed stone waft. Medium-bodied, it packs a lot of stone fruit, citrus, nut and toast flavours into an elegant package with a racy acid backbone, silken texture and beautifully long finish.
4.5 STARS – 2014 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
Still youthful, it is bright, light lemon/green, with a fragrant, complex, ‘struck match’ bouquet. Mouth-filling, it is fresh and rounded, with good concentration of ripe stone-fruit flavours, toasty and smoky notes adding interest, and obvious potential.
2013
91/100 – 2014 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Lisa Perotti-Brown – Master of Wine
Aromas of grapefruit, waxy lemons and mandarin peel with nuances of crushed cashews, cedar and ginger. Medium bodied with a beautiful satiny texture, it offers great elegance and yet plenty of citrus, bread and nut laced flavours, finishing with excellent persistence.
5 STARS – 2015 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
The bright light lemon/green 2013 vintage is the finest yet. It has a fragrant, ripe, citrusy bouquet, gently seasoned with oak. Mouth-filling, it is very crisp and vibrant, with slightly smoky and buttery notes, firm acid spine, and excellent complexity, structure and depth. An elegant, youthful wine.
2012
90/100 – 2014 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Lisa Perotti-Brown – Master of Wine
Enticing lemon curd, lemongrass, white peach and lightly browned toast notes with hints of marzipan, struck match and cedar. Medium bodied, it gives a good concentration of citrus fruit and toasty characters complimented by a silken texture and lively acid, finishing with great length.
4.5 STARS – 2013 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
This stylish vintage has a fragrant, complex bouquet, it has generous, citrusy, mealy flavours, very vibrant, tight and youthful.
Best of Boutique Classy Chardonnay – New Zealand Herald
2014 Viva Magazine – Wine Writer – Jo Burzynska
Rich toasty, nutty and buttery notes in this creamy textured Chardonnay are counterpoised by punchy notes of zesty grapefruit and flint .
2011
91+/100 – 2013 Robert Parker The Wine Advocate
Lisa Perotti-Brown – Master of Wine
Offers a promising nose of ripe apricots, muskmelons and honeycomb with suggestions of cedar and toasted almonds. Medium-bodied with a lovely silkiness to the texture, it fills the mouth with honeyed stone fruit and toasty flavours enlivened by a refreshing acid backbone and long finish laced with just a hint of oakiness.
4 STARS – 2013 Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines
Wine Writer – Michael Cooper
Pale yellow, it is full-bodied and crisp, fleshy and generous, with strong, peachy, citrusy, slightly toasty flavours, woven with fresh acidity.
New Zealand Herald – 2013 Viva Magazine
Wine Writer – Jo Burzynska
This rich and complex Chardonnay is one of the first releases from a new Hawke’s Bay label, which counterpoises layers of nut, butterscotch, savoury and white peach nuances with crisp grapefruit acidity.
