Te Mata Estate Elston Chardonnay 2019

A brilliant white-gold in the glass, Elston Chardonnay ’19 has the immediate aroma of fresh golden nectarines, passionfruit and grilled pineapple. Lush, ripe acid drives the wine’s length and balance, bringing the mouthfeel from ripe sweet lemon and white peach, to crème brûlée, roasted cashew, popcorn, to mineral tones and flint. As complex fruit becomes savoury in the long finish, the liveliness of Elston Chardonnay ’19 gives way to elegance. This is an Elston for the ages.

Te Mata Estate vineyards in the Havelock Hills and Dartmoor Valley.

The superb quality of the 2019 vintage was immediately apparent in the fully ripe grapes that were hand-harvested from their separate, individual plots within Te Mata Estate’s vineyards between 18 and 22 March 2019.

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 10 months in barrel.