By Rose Murray Brown MW   Published in The Scotsman 27 September 2025

 

Kevin Judd is a legendary winemaker and photographer from New Zealand who made his name with his exquisite world-class Sauvignon Blancs, but his real love is Chardonnay.

 

Judd was in Edinburgh this month to celebrate this grape with a vertical tasting of six vintages of his own label Greywacke Chardonnay back to 2010 – showing the great age-ability of this grape which thrives in New Zealand’s cool climate.

 

“With all the noise from Sauvignon Blanc, we don’t hear so much about Kiwi Chardonnay – but it really deserves to be better known”, explained Judd.  It covers just over 3,000 hectares of vineyards compared to Sauvignon’s 27,000 hectares – but it works in so many different climates with a wide diversity of Chardonnay styles from stone fruit to citrus from Auckland down to Central Otago.

Judd is based in the beautiful Omaka Valley in Marlborough in the northeast corner of South Island – where greywacke (pronounced greywacky) is the abundant bedrock.  He doesn’t own any vineyards – just one hectare of Pinot Noir – but his long experience as Cloudy Bay’s senior winemaker gave him unrivalled access to the best plots across Marlborough – and he has special relationship with Dog Point winery where he shares winemaking facilities.

 

Out of the 16 Chardonnay clones planted in New Zealand, Judd buys in growers’ grapes mainly from the Mendoza clone, which he describes as having “amazing concentration of fruit flavour and natural acidity”, he also uses B95 and new 548 clone which “we can pick much earlier than we normally pick”.

 

Early-budding Chardonnay is not an easy grape to grow and doesn’t rely on aromatic fruit character as Sauvignon, but it is more malleable and versatile giving winemakers a chance to stamp their character on the grape – although Judd describes his winemaking as “pretty hands off”.

 

Judd doesn’t machine-pick Chardonnay (as he does Sauvignon) as he believes hand-picking gives more age-ability.  After whole bunch press he puts the juice straight into barrel with wild yeast fermentation with high solid levels, with all Chardonnays going through malolactic fermentation to get into balance.

 

He matures in “medium toast plus” French oak barriques.  Originally from 2009 to 2018 ageing in oak for 18 months – and then he reduced oaking to just 12 months from 2019 vintage onwards.  All are bottled under screwcap – “the last time I used cork was 2003 – and I never would again”.

The only Greywacke Chardonnay we tasted which will soon be available is 2023 vintage (2022 is still on the market, but is a more subtle Chardonnay).  However Judd does offer archive releases, with 2016 – a great vintage – the next on offer at £45 from Hedonism Wine.

 

Chardonnay is just one of seven wines made by Judd (his Pinot Gris is another love).  He is definitely not interested in making natural wine or orange wine – “if you see one under the Greywacke label, you will know that I am dead”, he says.

 

Judd – who is New Zealand’s most celebrated winemaker in the modern era – is starting to think about a very slow progression towards retirement, overseeing winemaking with Greywacke’s new Maori winemaker Rochelle Tyney and his son Alex Judd, so that he can follow his other passion for photography (used on all his own wine labels) and gardening.

 

TASTING NOTES:

 

 

GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2023

@£35-£36.99 available from December in Woodwinters; Villeneuve Wines; Lockett Bros; Fine Wine Portobello; Valhalla’s Goat; Luvians; Majestic Wine

Excellent youthful Chardonnay with distinctly flinty nose (“the level of flintiness is hard to control” says Judd), rich broad pineapple fruit, well-judged smoky oak, hints of sweet spice with layer upon layer of flavours; a great example of Judd’s meticulous winemaking.  A wine to lay down for a decade, this has so much tension, concentration and power.

 

GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2019  ***STAR BUY***

My favourite in the line-up.  Light nutty brioche notes with cardomen seed undertones, beautiful melding of rich fruits, smoky oak, racy acidity and taut structure which should age well into the next decade.

 

GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2014

A good year for Chardonnay, but a shocker for Sauvignon.  Fruit comes from Marlborough’s Brancott Valley and Fairhall from gravelly clay-loam soils.  Mango and tangerine opulent fruits alongside light nutty savoury almost-funky undertones, very generous, juicy and powerful with a long dry persistent finish.

 

GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2010

This is Kevin’s favourite, from a good all-round vintage; light toast, lemon curd nose, seamlessly integrated fruit, acidity and oak with rich generous mouthfeel, with a silky sleek texture which melts in the mouth, almost meringue-like.  It’s holding up very well.

 

 

Join Rose’s Wine Tastings to celebrate her new book ‘A Taste for Wine’:

30 October 2025 Made From Grapes, Glasgow www.madefromgrapes.com

3 November 2025 Topping Booksellers, St Andrews www.toppingbooks.co.uk

10 November 2025 Topping Booksellers, Edinburgh www.toppingbooks.co.uk