Te Mata Estate Chardonnay

Product Description

Established in 1896, Te Mata Estate remains family owned, producing internationally recognised wines exclusively from its Hawkes Bay vineyards. Te Mata Estate Winery originated as part of Te Mata Station, a large pastoral land-holding established by English immigrant John Chambers in 1854. John’s third son, Bernard had the original vision for wine production off the north facing hillside slopes bordering Havelock North. Bernard was well travelled and had observed similar, successful wine growing conditions in France. When John formalised the division of his estate between his sons, Bernard retained the 1,960 hectare Te Mata Estate homestead block. In 1892, he went onto plant grape vines on three parcels of hillside land above the homestead. Today, Te Mata Estate still utilises those original three vineyards to produce its most famous wines; Coleraine, Awatea and Elston. The Chambers family sold the property in 1919. It had various owners until it was acquired by the current owners in 1978. Both vineyards and winery were run down, although still making wine. The opportunity to purchase brick cellars, dating from 1872, and two wonderful vineyard sites were irresistible to the Bucks and the Morris’s, the two families behind the current company. Te Mata Estate is committed to improving its performance in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability through the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) programme. Every Te Mata Estate wine displays the SWNZ symbol as your assurance that all of our wine production, from vine to bottle, is fully accredited and audited.

A bright green colour with gold highlights. It is fresh and expressive with white meadow flowers, hazelnut, white peach, green melon and, oat butter biscuit characters. The palate quickly builds in intensity with the rich citrus and ripe stonefruit flavours that are classically Hawke’s Bay in a great year, leading through to a long, fine, finish.