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Buy OnlineElston Chardonnay is one of the icons of New Zealand wine – since the first vintage in 1984 Te Mata have been refining the wine style, tweaking the techniques and understanding the vines resulting in something quite special with every vintage release.
Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"Elston is named for Elston Hall in Nottinghamshire, the ancestral home of Charles Darwin’s family. Darwin’s ‘theory of natural selection’ forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory, the foundation of biology. The wyvern symbol of Elston Hall appears on the label.
In the glass, Elston Chardonnay 2023 exudes a radiant golden hue. Its aroma is a captivating blend of grapefruit, white peach, vanilla, and roasted nuts, interwoven with subtle charred nuances and flinty undertones. The palate presents exquisite freshness and structure with lemon brûlée, peach, toasty brioche notes and refreshing citrus. Elston Chardonnay 2023 is graceful, impeccably balanced, and finishes long and satisfying, with a subtle saline quality.
Each parcel was gently whole-cluster pressed, cold settled and racked to new and seasoned French oak barrels for fermentation. The resulting wines remained in contact with their yeast lees, with a number going through malolactic fermentation. The finest lots were selected for further maturation, spending a total of 11 months in barrel with 36% being new oak."
94/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, December 2024 (2023 Vintage)
"Bright fruit, citrus and white nectarine, almond, fine spiced oak, a bit of bread dough. Juicy, white fruit and citrus, a bit of flint, a burst of flavour, some saline characters, a slight fresh pineapple thing, with a lively gently savoury/toasted hazelnut finish of excellent length. It’s a brighter, tighter, more restrained iteration of Elston, and I like that about it. It certainly has some get-up-and-go."
Reviews for previous vintages below…
5 Stars & 96/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, January 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"A wonderfully styled chardonnay offering elegant opulence with graceful complexity. The inviting bouquet shows ripe peach, rockmelon, lemon pith, cedar and brioche nuances, followed by a richly textured palate that’s succulent and focused. Brilliantly structured by fine acidity, finishing expansive and impressively long. At its best: 2025 to 2037."
5 Stars Michael Cooper, February 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"One of New Zealand's most illustrious Chardonnays, Elston is a stylish, intense, slowly evolving wine. At around four years old, it is notably complete, showing concentration and finesse. The grapes are hand-harvested from mature vines grown in hillside vineyards above the winery at Havelock North, and the wine is fully fermented and matured for nearly a year in French oak barriques (partly new). Bright, light yellow/green, the 2022 vintage is highly fragrant, mouthfilling and savoury. Still youthful, it is a refined, vigorous wine, with deep, vibrant, stonefruit flavours, gently seasoned with toasty oak, and a rich, finely poised finish. Best drinking 2026+."
93/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, March 2024 (2022 Vintage)
"Rich, power-packed, creamy-textured chardonnay with lemon curd, oyster shell, sizzled butter, and yellow-fleshed peach. Accessible, deliciously textural wine with an appealing thread of vibrant acidity."
