{"id":14585,"date":"2026-04-28T07:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=14585"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:10:28","slug":"church-road-grand-reserve-chardonnay-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=14585","title":{"rendered":"Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Chardonnay from Hawke\u2019s Bay that has a great many awards under its belt from over the years. This vintage won the Trophy at IWSC 2019 \u2013 so was effectively regarded as <b>\u201cThe World\u2019s best Chardonnay\u201d <\/b>at the time. It is a wine I know well &#8211; having reviewed vintages for WineFolio from this vintage (originally in 2020) through to the current day.<\/p>\n<p>A vibrant green-straw colour in the glass. A little touch of age perhaps to the depth of gold, but still looking quite youthful. A rich outline to the bouquet, where that reductive gun smoke still leads the way. Then complex and compelling notes of peach, grapefruit, lemon, caramel, apple pie and pineapple sweep through. Quite full-bodied and with a ripe weight of fruit that\u2019s framed with toasty oak. Broad, soft and plush, saved by a steely acidity that moves the palate along. A nibble of baking spice turns up before a finish of reasonable length. <b>92pts<\/b><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Chardonnay from Hawke\u2019s Bay that has a great many awards under its belt from over the years. This vintage won the Trophy at IWSC 2019 \u2013 so was effectively &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wine-review-by-winefolio"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018 - WineFolio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=14585\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018 - WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Chardonnay from Hawke\u2019s Bay that has a great many awards under its belt from over the years. This vintage won the Trophy at IWSC 2019 \u2013 so was effectively &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/?p=14585\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WineFolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wine.folio.1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-27T19:10:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/winefolio.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Church-Rd-GR-Chardonnay-2018.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1029\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Walker Bell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Walker Bell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Walker Bell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b8706e15ba32f9782222c431fa75d9f\"},\"headline\":\"Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-27T19:10:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585\"},\"wordCount\":164,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Church-Rd-GR-Chardonnay-2018.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/winefolio.co.nz\\\/?p=14585\",\"name\":\"Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018 - 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