Bell Hill

Bell Hill Vineyard was established by Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen and is situated at an old lime quarry in the Weka Pass, North Canterbury. This is a unique site with limestone derived soils and north facing hillside exposures. From 1997 through to 2009 we planted two hectares at high density with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Bell Hill is a long-term project driven by our desire to achieve the absolute in wine definition from this site. Vintage variation in this part of the world means you never stop evaluating what you do and for what reasons. There is no end to striving for excellence and learning from what you do.

The Bell Hill Estate

Our wines are estate grown at Bell Hill and include Bell Hill Pinot Noir - a selective and quite structural blend currently based around the Shelf and Quarry blocks and Old Weka Pass Road Pinot Noir – the sibling to Bell Hill, mostly from younger fruit giving it accessibility earlier on. With vine maturity and positive seasonal influences, all our blocks and clones have the potential to become part of the Bell Hill blend.

Each block is harvested and fermented separately (the Quarry in two parts) allowing for the wines to evolve in barrel and show us their true character before blending. In the future, when all plantings are well into production, we plan to release limited single block wines to demonstrate their individual characters - the Shelf is one block showing this potential now.

For more information on Bell Hill and their wines visit their website here.