"It is without question the best New Zealand Chardonnay I have ever come across." - James Halliday, The Australian Weekend Magazine.
"The best chardonnay makers in the country."- Keith Stewart, Listener.
"New Zealand's top chardonnay winery."- Huon Hooke, The Sydney Morning Herald
"Consistently one of the best examples of this classic variety in the country, Elston is invariably elegant, focused and beautifully balanced". - Vic Williams
Produced since 1984, Elston is an outstanding New Zealand chardonnay, made from Te Mata Estate's oldest chardonnay vines, grown on hillside vineyards above the winery. Elston derives its name from the village near Newark in Nottinghamshire where Elston Hall is renowned as the ancestral home of the Darwins of the noted "Theory of Evolution." The Wyvern symbol of the village appears on the label.
Between 16 and 24 March 2007, the separate parcels of grapes for Elston 2007 were hand harvested from their individual plots within Te Mata Estate’s vineyards. 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 while undergoing complete malolactic fermentation and were matured in barrel for a total of nine months. Following blending trials in November 2007, the finest lots were then combined into a finished wine which was bottled in January 2008.
Elston 2007 will continue to develop in bottle for five years from harvest.
