Elephant Hill Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2021 $34 
This Chardonnay is a cracker. Boasting incredible freshness and stonefruit intensity laced with attractively balanced oak and zesty citrus textures on the finish. Crafted by winemaker Hugh Crichton and his team, this chardonnay is made mostly from Elephant Hill’s ‘Sea’ vineyard on the Te Awanga coastline, just metres from the Pacific Ocean, together with an 18% splash of fruit from the iron-rich soils of the Bridge Pa Triangle subregion, many kilometres inland to the southwest. It’s a 100% handpicked, whole bunch pressed and aged for 12 months in French oak barrels (20% of them were new). It’s a delight.
