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Buy Online2024 has produced an epic Elston! Gloriously opulent and exuberant, with masterful oak integration all held in place by symphonic acidity that leads to a soaring finish. You know this is going to get better with age, but it's so drinkable now!
Elston 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 (2024 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.
Sparkling with a pale white-gold hue, Elston Chardonnay ’24 immediately reveals its richness on the nose. Aromas of crème brûlée, toasted sourdough, and vanilla intertwine with vibrant notes of grapefruit and ripe yellow nectarine. Subtle layers of oyster shell, hazelnut, and flintiness add further complexity and intrigue. On the palate, it delivers a commanding presence—rich and textured yet finely balanced by a spine of electric acidity building delicious tension. The vivacious fruit sweetness combines elegantly with an energetic drive creating a wine of remarkable elegance and fantastic length. The 2024 vintage captures Elston Chardonnay in its ultimate form.
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 33% being new oak."
97/100 & #8 Top 100 New Zealand Wines of 2025, JamesSuckling.com (2024 Vintage)
"Focused and textured, showing sliced apples and lemons with hints of dried pears and crushed stones on the nose. Full-bodied with chewy phenolics that add to the salty, subtle fruit. Limes at the end. Structured and impressive, this is a beautiful follow-up after the terrific 2023. A powerful and rather muscular chardonnay that highlights the quality of the fruit. 100% barrel-fermented and aged 11 months."
5 Stars & 97/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, February 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"The wine combines generosity, complexity, and refinement. The elegantly expressed bouquet shows ripe apricot, lemon peel, oatmeal, nougat, biscotti, and fine oak characters with a hint of flint. The palate delivers an impressive drive and flow, complemented by a richly textured mouthfeel and perfectly pitched acidity, finishing expansive and engaging."
5 Stars & 96/100 Huon Hooke, The Real Review, January 2026 (2024 Vintage)
"Medium-full depth of brilliant yellow colour; powerful bouquet of honeycomb, sizzled butter and bread crust, wheat biscuit and cracked yeast, clean as a whistle—no reduction. The palate is bright and rich, medium-full bodied and ample in the mouth, the acidity lifting and carrying the flavour long into an extended aftertaste. A trace of tannin grip helps dry and lengthen the finish. Impressive chardonnay with a bright future."
94/100 Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, July 2025 (2024 Vintage)
"Peach, citrus, aniseed, some toasty hazelnut spicy oak, almond meal. It’s a luxurious affair with ample fruit, oak in support, a savoury element, oatmeal, a bright cut of citrus acidity through a creamy nutty gloss. Finish has some lemon zest and excellent length with a little twerk of grainy grip to close. Very good."
