(2024) From a vineyard on clay-based Pakohe soils, this was whole bunch pressed to French oak barriques for fermentation with indigenous yeast, then matured in barrel for 11 more months. Medium green-gold, the nose here has a discreet whiff of flint, but is more about fine oak aromas of roasted chestnut and toast, the fruit suggesting fig and quince. In the mouth it has a creamy texture and real vitality. Don't over-chill this, as it is very much a textural wine, almond and oatmeal joining ripe pear and peach before a crisp, lightly flinty and lemon jelly finish. Note price and stockist is for the previous vintage at time of review.

(2024) Grown metres from the Pacific Ocean at Te Awanga, this is whole bunch pressed to French oak, around 25% new barrels. There's a hint of mint to the creamy almond of the nose, cashew and on to ripe stone fruit and apple. The hint of salinity on the palate must surely relate the terroir, but there's a very juicy citrus and peach fruit and again echoes of that nuttiness of the nose. Powerful but not lacking in elegance or length. Price and stockist for a previous vintage at time of review.

(2024) Old vine and dry-farmed, the Chardonnay was whole bunch pressed and 100% barrel fermented and matured, with 60% new Taransaud French oak. Fermentation was with wild yeasts and regular batonnage has produced a wine that straddles flinty complexity and a juicy peach and grapefruit zestiness. There's a coolness of apple and lemon, but also a burgeoning sense of more exotic richness. Supple and fluid on the tongue, the lightly slippery texture carries plenty of fruit, but that little wisp of gunflint and the nutty creaminess of the barrels completes a compelling picture.

(2024) An absolutely delicious and relatively 'hedonistic' style here, the oak influence up-front with toast and creaminess, nutty and rich aromas over ripe stone fruits. Sometimes a wine like this just absolutely hits the spot, whilst edged with a little flinty smokiness, it's really about the abundant ripe fruit that floods the mid-palate, bolstered by that creamy and toasty, spicy oak. Is that all too much? Well not when the whole composition is harmonius thanks to its core of acidity and not so obvious subtleties of flavour and aroma.

(2023) From the Terraces vineyard which is clay over an old gravel riverbed, this green-flecked wine is a barrel selection that was whole bunch pressed into French oak barriques (30% new), and matured on lees for 11 months with only occasional stirring. A really inviting nose with plenty of flinty reduction and hazelnut richness, it immediately has a concentrated feel. On the palate that is borne out with zest lemon fruit that fairly skips along, but the flinty, stony edge of precision is there, as is the support of the oak, a touch of phenolic grip, and mouthwatering, pithy acidity. Delicious. No UK retail stockists at time of review.

(2023) Barrel-fermented in 100% French oak barriques. Plenty of everything in this wine, lots of toast and smoky flint, a tangerine-like citrus character. On the palate there's a surge of tropical fruit, notes of mango and pineapple, but then a firmness builds, the acid pithy and dry, the stony, river stone character adding to that. The relatively dry and strict finish prevents any danger of this being cloying.

(2023) From Pahoke soils, a shale-like sedimentary rock, this single vineyard wine is pressed directly to barrel and fermented with wild yeast. It's certainly a wine shaped by its flinty, complex sulphide character, toasty and mineral, nutty oak and juicy yellow apple beneath. The palate is grippy and serious, pithy grapefruit seizing the initiative over the swirl of toast and salty minerals into a long, intense finish.

(2023) Smith & Sheth have undoubtedly hit the ground running since their inauguration less than a decade ago with a formidable and impressive range. This comes from a dry-farmed vineyard of 20-year-old vines in Bridge Pa, with silty loam over gravel and limestone. Fermented in 83% new and older French oak barriques, with wild yeasts and full malolactic. It's a nutty and bold style this, less of the flinty sulphidic influence, and more of the cream and toast of the barrel married to exuberantly ripe fruit. There is precision and a Cru Chablis feel about this. In the mouth the weight and texture are again treading their own path among flintier wines here, though there is a mineral salts character joining the lemon peel zest of the finish. Power and precision.

(2022) From Hawke's Bay, not most people's first thought when it comes to Pinot Noir, and indeed Te Mata thought long and hard about releasing this wine, even though the vineyard was planted over 20 years ago. It was a good decision as this wine, and a previous vintage tasted on a visit in 2020, proves. It was de-stemmed and aged in a mix of new and seasoned French oak barriques for 11 months. Bright and deep crimson in colour, there's a really pretty floral and fragrant red fruit character aromatically, with a chestnutty background that's lightly earthy and woody. The palate is deliciously plush and velvetty, with plenty of fruit, but there is a liquorice and, again, chestnut edge of very juicy acidity and firm, fine tannins to extend the finish. Really quite lovely. Stockist is for the previous vintage at time of review.

(2022) Stonecroft boasts the oldest Syrah vines in New Zealand, planted by Dr. Alan Limmer in 1984. This flagship wine contains fruit from these vines and is a selection of the best French oak barriques, in which the wine matured for 20 months (40% new). Only 110 cases were produced. This shows little sign of the five years it has under its belt, the colour bold and deep, and the aromas surging from the glass, of thick, blue-black fruit, cedary spices, tobacco and leather. Amongst all of that there is a higher, kirsch-like bright note too. In the mouth there's plenty of toasty, chocolate-deep oak wrapped around the black fruit, but there is an elegance too, a fresh and tart plum skin bittersweetness, fine acid balance and a long, harmonious finish that's all about the intensity of the fruit.  Very impressive, though no UK retail listing at time of review.