Michael Brajkovich MW. Kumeu River Wines

Michael Brajkovich was one of those guys everybody envied at Roseworthy Agricultural College in the early 1980s. Good at rugby, unbeatable at tennis, an academic whizz who duxed the oenology course… was there anything this guy could not do well?

Of course the next thing he did well was to make fabulous wine, at his family’s little winery at Kumeu, just to the north-west of Auckland. In his spare time he passed the Master of Wine exam and earned the right to put the initials MW after his name.

About the time Michael left Roseworthy and went home to make the wine at what was called San Marino—where his father and grandfather had produced fortified and table wines using vinifera and hybrid varieties—it was the beginning of the decline of the Northland region. About that time many of the earliest established wineries in the region started looking elsewhere to grow grapes and make wine. Kumeu was just too wet and humid.

Selak’s, Nobilo, Babich, Corbans, Matua Valley, etc all eventually deserted the region. But the Brajkovichs held firm. And we should all be glad they stayed, because Kumeu River is one of New Zealand’s greatest wine producers, especially noted for chardonnay. Until recently all of their Kumeu River chardonnays came from their own vineyards in the Kumeu district (the sole exception is Ray’s Road, from Hawke’s Bay, a more recent addition to the family’s land holdings).

What magic did the Brajkovich family weave to be able to stay on at Kumeu and produce wonderful wines? It’s largely a vineyard story. Intelligent selection of the grape varieties, clones and rootstocks that best suited the area, as well as appropriate viticultural techniques including trellising systems, but also site selection and re-planting vineyards that were virus-affected. The use of indigenous yeast fermentations and full malolactic conversions on the chardonnays were also part of the formula.

Early on, Michael continued making cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, sauvignon blanc, semillon, pinot noir and pinot gris and as well as chardonnay, but today the portfolio has been refined down to just three: pinot gris, pinot noir and chardonnay—with chardonnay the brightly shining star.

Michael also makes sparkling wines from chardonnay and pinot noir.

The Kumeu still chardonnays are five: in ascending order of price, they are Village, Estate, Coddington, Hunting Hill and Maté’s Vineyard‚ the last three being single-vineyard bottlings. The 2024 vintage was “small and perfectly formed” according to the website.

“The chardonnay wines, particularly the single vineyards, are shining examples of the Kumeu style. The terroir differences between various parcels are very distinct, really highlighting their individual personalities.”

2024 followed the very wet and difficult 2023 season, and turned out spectacular wines. Wet weather at flowering reduced the yields, but from then on the season was excellent, with warm, dry conditions. I have heard Michael say that Kumeu temperatures never go above 30 degrees, and in 2024 the peak was 29—although the rest of the country experienced some high temperatures.

“The harvest period itself was relatively free of rainfall, with only two small rain events interrupting the flow of vintage. The picking crews had very little damage to sort through and the grapes arriving at the cellar were beautifully pristine. Hand harvesting is a very expensive process, but well worth the cost and effort for the quality it brings.”

Yields at Kumeu were down 30% but the quality across the board was ‘outstanding’.

These are stunningly good chardonnays, the single vineyard wines great as we might expect, but I was especially amazed at the quality of the 2024 Estate chardonnay: an outstanding value if ever there was one.