ELEPHANT HILL
Elephant Hill is one of the most exciting new wineries in New Zealand. Located in Hawke's Bay, it is owned by a German couple Reydan and Roger Weiss. They have an unrelenting focus on top notch quality and it shows in everything they do. From the packaging, to the wines, to the property itself with its unbelievable restaurant! The ultra modern winery is an architectural masterpiece. It sits just a few yards from the ocean in the Te Awanga sub-region of Hawke’s bay on NZ’s north island. The vines that surround the winery / restaurant represent the coastal vineyard block which is complemented by more estate holdings slightly further inland within the Bridge Pa Triangle and Gimblett Gravels sub-regions. In quite a short time Elephant Hill have amassed some of the best pieces of dirt in the region and the wines reflect this in their quality and pedigree.
Despite all the flash surroundings and hi-tech equipment at Elephant Hill, winemaker Steve Skinner learnt his craft in Burgundy and has a very subtle “fingerprint” when it comes to winemaking artifact, there’s no heavy handed extraction or obvious oak here. The wines have impeccable purity and balance; they are very food friendly (which makes sense given the quality of the restaurant) with elegance and restraint. The main focuses here are Bordeaux varietals and Syrah, yet they also produce great Sauv Blanc, Chard, and Pinot Noir (from Central Otago fruit). You might think with all this serious investment that the wines are expensive…think again, thanks to our direct import approach these wines are an absolute steal.