Elephant Hill Earth Chardonnay 2022

Stephen Wong MW writes "Very spicy nose with ripe pineapple, calamansi and exotic passionflower. The palate abandons any notion of fruit yet is dense, concentrated and compact with late, building acidity (incomplete malolactic?) which gets increasingly saline as it develops. A complex note of deliberate oxidative development expands across the back-palate, giving a savoury tone to the intense green-olive flavours on the finish before it submits to the grip of oak. An intriguing and deeply complex wine which is firmly on the savoury, saline and mineral side of the equation. Powerful and ageworthy."

Cameron Douglas MS writes "A rather delicious wine with a mouthful of texture and flavour. Aromas of fresh and roasted stone fruits, barrel spice and nut. There’s a Brazil-nut quality with peach and red apple then a mineral stone quality. Almost full-bodied with a tannins and acidity for contrast against a backdrop of ripe sunbaked fruit flavours and lees adding breadth. Well made, taut with a youthful energy, best drinking from 2025 through 2032+."

David Walker Bell writes "A pale gold colour in the glass. The perfume is equally golden in style, with good breadth and aromas of peach, vanilla, mandarin, cashew nut, apple pie, grapefruit and baking spice. Dry, with a spike of crisp acidity giving length and drive through the palate. Quite full and generous, there is also mouth-filling texture that fattens up the back of the palate nicely. A whisper of tannin adds to the chalk and green olive savoury elements towards the finish, which has good length."