Elephant Hill

Elephant Hill is unique in having three vineyard sites – a coastal vineyard at Te Awanga, the inland Gimblett Gravels vineyard and The Triangle Vineyard in Bridge Pa. In 2001, German husband and wife team Roger and Reydan Weiss visited Hawke’s Bay to collect their British Racing Green Jaguar from a specialist mechanic. They fell so in love with the area, and the local wine industry, that in 2003 they established their own state-of-the-art winery. In 2015 the Weiss’ offered their son, Andreas, the opportunity to manage the winery, which he gladly accepted. Sadly, towards the end of 2016, Roger died unexpectedly, leaving Andreas to continue his father’s legacy.

The team at Elephant Hill aims to create wines that not only reflect the site and the climate of where the grapes are grown, but which also best represent the vintage in which they are grown. The wines follow the structural framework and fruit profile of the Northern Rhone and Burgundy - classic fine wine regions beloved of winemaker Steve Skinner – yet with a contemporary accent. Steve’s meticulous attention to detail in both the vineyards and winery is key to the quality of the wines, as is the support of Andreas, which has enabled Steve to experiment with different viticultural techniques and microvinifications.