Well its not a real mystery as to who drunk it - The Curmudgeon did and didn't save me a drop. The wine is/was Selaks Founders Reserve 2007 Hawkes Bay Chardonnay. This is from fruit grown on the Corner 50 vineyard that Constellation NZ own close to the Gimblett Road area known as the Triangle. Chardonnay from here is always ripe and full with a delicious stonefruit character (as opposed to the more grapefruit characters found in plantings further south. Constellation are sourcing all of their North Island Chardonnay from here and some other Hawkes Bay sites due to the consistency from year to year and the now mature vines.
The fruit for this wine should have been (if I had got to try it) rich with peach and butterscotch flavours offset by strong oak characters. The Founders Chardonnay is always heavily wooded. In its early stage the wood is quite dominant which I assume was the case here and not quite in balance (I hope Curmudgeon choked on the splinters). With time - possibly another 12 months the wood will integrate nicely with the fruit.
