Elephant Hill Salome Chardonnay

Elephant Hill set the bar pretty high when it comes to quality. That might be something to do with their German founders, Roger and Reydan Weiss, that spare no expense in running this state of the art winery located on the stunning Te Awanga coastline and boasts one of the finest winery restaurants in NZ!

The Elephant Hill “Icon” range is the absolute pinnacle of wine making at Elephant Hill and only ever released in the greatest vintages. With their meticulous standards you know it has to be better than good, it has to be near damn perfect!

This is a cellar worthy Chardonnay that’s hand crafted in small batches, with very small volumes, hand picked grapes from the specially selected vineyard blocks and aged in the best quality French barrels (65% being expensive new oak) for 11 months. These special wines are for collecting and cellaring and will age well in bottle for many years

Salome is the name of the Chardonnay produced under their “Icon” range and is named after an ancestor of the Weiss family tree, Maria Salome Ebner. If Maria was a Chardonnay drinking gal, boy would she of approved of this!

95/100 & Top Rank Award (Stephen Wong, The Real Review)
“A young and taut chardonnay with a lavish amount of new oak which would overpower a lesser wine. However, here, the sheer concentration of grilled lemon, café de Paris butter, seashell, savoury minerality and bay leaf rises to challenge it”

97/100 (Sam Kim)
“Tightly structured and exquisitely expressed, showing lemon pith, Gala apple, nectarine and almond meal characters on the nose with a hint of vanilla nuance. The concentrated palate is brilliantly focused and seamlessly flowing with a finely textured mouthfeel backed by splendidly pitched acidity. Gorgeously elegant and refined, making it sensually appealing and alluring. At its best: 2026 to 2036.”

96/100 (Cam Douglas MS)
“Tasted over 3 days this wine delivers on complexity, weight, elegance and sophistication. A bouquet and palate of ripe yellow stone fruits, sweet grapefruit peel, layers of wood spice and citrus, baking spices and some wood smoke. There’s also some earth smoke reflecting the essence of place with a saline and dry stone qualities. Full-bodied with a complexity and elegance, spice and acidity, gentle warmth form alcohol and a long complex finish. A great wine with best drinking from 2025 through 2034.”

Salome is a cellar worthy Chardonnay for all fine wine snobs or wine lovers with deep pockets. You can expect this one to cellar well up to 2035 and beyond. Extremely limited stocks, secure your little piece of Hawke’s Bay wine history.