The result is another hugely exciting collection of Felton Road Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – albeit in smaller quantities than usual.

The Felton Road 2025 Growing Season

The season began with plenty of water in the ground. September and October delivered around 70% more rainfall than the long-term average, replenishing reserves after winter while cooler soils delayed budbreak.

Once the vines emerged, growth was vigorous. Then, on 3 November, Bannockburn was hit by a severe katabatic frost – the most extensive frost event Felton Road had experienced for more than 20 years.

Unlike a conventional radiation frost, the movement of a large body of cold air meant wind machines offered little protection. All four vineyards suffered some damage, with Calvert and the Chardonnay blocks at The Elms among the worst affected.

Fortunately, it happened early.

Secondary shoots had time to develop and calm conditions through flowering produced a healthy fruit set, compensating for much of the initial loss.

Summer was dry, creating useful water stress and encouraging smaller, more concentrated berries. Crucially, it wasn't excessively hot. Temperatures across the growing season remained remarkably close to the long-term average, allowing the fruit to develop gradually while retaining freshness.

The lack of water also magnified differences between Felton Road's vineyards. Free-draining sands and gravels ripened differently from heavier silt and clay soils, making this a vintage in which individual sites could really assert themselves.

Harvest therefore became a long, measured process rather than a race against the weather.

Picking started at Cornish Point on 25 March. Chardonnay followed from 26 March, while the cooler nights of early April allowed later Pinot Noir parcels to remain on the vine. The final fruit entered the winery on 15 April.

Despite the November frost, total production ultimately finished only around 7% below 2024. Chardonnay, however, was considerably more affected and will be particularly scarce.

What Does Felton Road 2025 Look Like?

Nigel Greening sees plenty of connection between 2024 and 2025, but also an important difference.

The 2025 wines have a little more tension and structure. They're perhaps a touch more grown-up than the wonderfully graceful 2024s, but without losing the energy and freedom that make Felton Road so appealing.

That's an important distinction.

These aren't big, extracted wines. Felton Road remains committed to wines built around freshness, vineyard character and texture rather than sheer power. In 2025 there is simply a slightly firmer framework beneath everything.

And after a dry season that emphasised differences in soil and site, the individual vineyard wines should make particularly fascinating comparisons.

Felton Road Chardonnay 2025

Chardonnay has become an increasingly important part of the Felton Road story, and the quality now comfortably stands alongside the estate's more famous Pinot Noir.

Unfortunately, it's also where the frost had the greatest impact in 2025. Quantities are significantly reduced, particularly from The Elms, so the two Chardonnays in this release are likely to be in very short supply.

Felton Road Bannockburn Chardonnay 2025

Purity is the defining feature here.

The 2025 Bannockburn Chardonnay opens with citrus blossom, a stony mineral character and fresh peach before moving into a beautifully refreshing palate of citrus, white peach and greengage.

What makes it particularly attractive is the restraint. The fruit feels perfectly judged rather than overtly ripe, while delicate floral notes follow through to a long, straight finish with a subtle saline edge.

There is texture too. Fermentation and ageing in predominantly seasoned French oak, extended time on the lees and natural malolactic fermentation build complexity without obscuring the freshness of the fruit.

It's precise, bright and wonderfully unforced – a Chardonnay that doesn't need weight or obvious oak to make an impression.

Felton Road Block 2 Chardonnay 2025

Block 2 takes Felton Road Chardonnay into more serious single-vineyard territory.

Situated within The Elms Vineyard, the block contains mature Chardonnay vines planted on schist-rich gravel soils. It has developed a reputation for producing one of Felton Road's most precise and mineral expressions of the variety.

In 2025, that naturally focused personality should suit the vintage particularly well.

Expect a tighter and more linear expression than Bannockburn, built around citrus and stone fruit, fine texture and a pronounced mineral character. The emphasis is on length and definition rather than richness, with seasoned oak allowing the vineyard to remain firmly in the foreground.

Block 2 is also one of those wines that rewards patience. Its restraint when young is part of the attraction, with bottle age allowing the layers of fruit, texture and minerality to gradually unfold.

And with Chardonnay at The Elms among the areas most affected by the November frost, quantities of the 2025 will be especially limited.

Felton Road Pinot Noir 2025

Pinot Noir remains at the heart of Felton Road.

The winemaking is deliberately hands-off, with gravity movement, indigenous fermentation and restrained oak designed to preserve rather than disguise the differences between vineyards.

Those differences are particularly interesting in 2025. The dry summer and extended ripening period put greater emphasis on individual soil types, while the slightly firmer structure of the vintage gives each wine a beautifully defined framework.

Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2025

Bannockburn brings the estate vineyards together and gives a brilliant overview of Felton Road Pinot Noir in 2025.

The style combines ripe cherry and darker berry fruit with the floral, herbal and savoury characters that distinguish Felton Road from more overtly fruit-driven Central Otago Pinot Noir.

There's generosity, but the 2025 vintage brings additional definition. Fine tannins provide structure without dominating the fruit, while fresh acidity keeps everything energetic and composed.

It's the most accessible route into Felton Road's 2025 Pinot Noir collection, but shouldn't be regarded simply as the entry wine. There's genuine complexity here and plenty of potential for development.

Felton Road Cornish Point Pinot Noir 2025

Cornish Point celebrates its 25th vintage in 2025 – and the wine has all the expressive character for which this distinctive site has become known.

The aromatics immediately draw you in, with florals sitting over bright cherry and raspberry fruit. That generosity continues onto the palate, where the fruit becomes richer and more enveloping without losing the freshness that defines the vintage.

Fine tannins emerge through the finish alongside spice, giving shape and definition to what is otherwise a particularly seductive expression of Pinot Noir.

Cornish Point's position, surrounded by Lake Dunstan on three sides, creates a distinctive microclimate within Bannockburn, while its fine loess and silt soils sit above alluvial gravels.

The 2025 captures that individuality beautifully: fragrant, generous and immediately appealing, but with enough structure beneath the fruit to develop further.

Felton Road Calvert Pinot Noir 2025

Calvert offers a fascinating contrast to Cornish Point.

The vineyard's heavier soils create a different expression of Bannockburn Pinot Noir, and the dry conditions of 2025 provided an opportunity for those differences to become particularly apparent.

The style is more restrained and finely structured, with red and dark cherry fruit accompanied by floral, herbal and earthy notes. There's a lovely sense of control to the palate, with polished tannins and freshness providing a long, composed finish.

It may not have the immediate generosity of Cornish Point, but that's precisely the point. Calvert is about detail, texture and a quieter expression of place.

The vineyard was also one of the areas most affected by the November frost, making the 2025 another particularly limited wine.

Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir 2025

Block 3 is one of the great wines of Felton Road and the 2025 has all the ingredients that have made this bottling so sought-after.

Most of the vines are now around 33 years old, and that maturity comes through in the complexity of the wine.

Dark fruit leads the aromatics, but there is much more happening underneath: earthy tones, a touch of leather and the dried herbal character so closely associated with Block 3.

On the palate, there's considerable power, but it's remarkably well controlled. The fruit remains clear and detailed before the wine builds dramatically towards the finish, where deep chocolate character and substantial tannin provide a final surge of intensity.

That progression is one of the most compelling things about Block 3. Rather than showing everything immediately, it expands across the palate, becoming broader and more complex as it goes.

The three sections of Block 3 were harvested between 3 and 13 April, taking advantage of the slow end to the growing season. Twenty-five per cent whole clusters were retained during fermentation, before 13 months' ageing in French oak, 28% of which was new.

It's concentrated, structured and built for the cellar, but still carries the finesse that defines the best Felton Road Pinot Noir.

Why Felton Road 2025 is a Vintage to Watch

There has been no shortage of excellent Felton Road vintages recently, which makes simply describing another one as "exceptional" rather meaningless.

What's more interesting is how 2025 differs.

It retains the purity and balance of the recent vintages but brings a little more tension and structure. The growing season also emphasised the differences between Felton Road's vineyards, making the contrast between Cornish Point, Calvert and Block 3 particularly compelling.

Then there is availability.

Felton Road maintains a deliberately limited production rather than expanding to meet demand. The 2024 vintage subsequently sold through internationally faster than any previous release, while 2025 has produced less wine overall and considerably less Chardonnay.

That makes early allocation particularly relevant this year.

For Chardonnay drinkers, Bannockburn offers immediate purity and energy while Block 2 provides the more tightly wound, mineral expression.

For Pinot Noir, Bannockburn gives a superb introduction to the vintage before Cornish Point, Calvert and Block 3 demonstrate just how different three Bannockburn sites can be.

Six wines, one producer and one vintage – but six very different expressions of place.

That's really what Felton Road is all about.