Tasting Notes 2008
Elston ‘08 has a light golden colour with green lights and aromas of ripe lemons, stone fruits, nuts and oatmeal. The same characteristics carry through to a rich and soft palate with biscuit and white peach flavours leading to a long fine finish. Elston ‘08 will continue to develop in bottle for five years from harvest, matching well with full flavoured dishes based on seafood, poultry and white meats, as well as soft ripened cheeses.
Elston ‘08 is bottled with leading technology ‘DIAM’ corks. When the wine is well cellared, these provide consistent evolution for every bottle.
Technical Analysis
pH: 3.27
Total acidity as tartaric: 7g/l
Alcohol: 13.5%
Residual sugar: Dry
Winemaking
Each grape 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. They were then matured in barrel for a total of nine months. Following blending trials in November 2008, the finest lots were combined then matured for a further six months before bottling in June 2009.
Vineyards
Between 10 and 18 March 2008, the separate parcels of grapes for Elston ‘08 were hand harvested from their individual plots within Te Mata Estate’s vineyards.
Origin
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.
Elston '08 - 'Touches of kiwi fruit, orange zest and passion fruit vie for attention on the palate that leads to a smooth, rounded, very polished finish.' 90 pointsNeal Martin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, October 2010 All Reviews
