Deep, dense ruby in colour. Intense, complex floral nose with aromas of herbs, spices, darker fruits and berries, earth and fine oak. Medium to full bodied with a lush silky texture. The tannins are persistent but finely polished. The palate is deeply layered and complex with flavours of cloves, sweet cooking spices, thyme, earth, plum red, blue and blackberries, tea, a trace of sour cherry with additional forest floor and savoury complexities. The finish is long and lingering. To me this wine has the complexity, power and elegance of a fine red Burgundy and is a move away from that largely fruit driven, glossy Pinot Noir New Zealand is well known for. 94
I’ve heard good things about this producer but did not spy any bottles when we traveled through the North Island a few weeks ago. Would be nice to see some bottles in the US of A but it looks like they are highly allocated to begin with.
That is the big question, will they age and develop…I guess only time knows the answer to that question. In September2013,London they held a tasting of ever vintage of their Chardonay and Piont…here is what’s they said…
Looking back over the last year we think about what we have been doing, where we have been, and what has changed since our last release letter…In September we attended the annual trade tasting of our UK importer, Armit Wines, in London. It was great to meet the team and cement the relationship which is fairly new for us. They helped us organise a vertical tasting with a select group of MW’s (please see our reviews on the website), sommeliers and trade members over lunch at the Pollen Street Social Restaurant. We poured every Bell Hill Chardonnay and Pinot Noir we have made – this goes back to 2003 for the Pinot Noir and 2004 for the Chardonnay. The wines looked very good with the Chardonnays having youthful green hues and showing their backbone/minerality with time to open up. The vintages of 2005 and 2007, being very small yields and cooler years showed a slightly higher propensity to mature earlier. We had not done a line-up of this extent in the past and it was a great experience to be able to take a step back and see the wines in another context yet recognise that thread and sense of place that can be seen in the wines, despite our significant NZ vintage and seasonal variations. This was a quiet confidence booster as sometimes I feel the daily activities of farming and dealing with the weather can make you relate too closely to the specifics without giving the wines the space to speak the language of the site.
I have heard that those allocations may be correct, but when you consider for 2010 they only had a barrel and a half of Chardonnay and 4 barrels of Pinot…that is not much to go around. But I can confirm that the allocations, that have just been completed for 2011 are considerably more.
2010 is a very small vintage for bell hill. On top of the PN they had, from my vague memory, only 568 bottles of the old weka pass and 458 bottles of the Chardonnay produced…
Doug, you share my frustration !! I have been looking on retail shelves for a couple a years here and have not found a single bottle. Best to get on their mail order list if you can or…in the USA distributors are:
J J Buckley Fine Wines, Oakland, California
Sherry-Lehmann Wines and Spirits, New York
Terrell Wines - California
Terrell Wines - Oregon
Terrell Wines - New York
Terrell Wines - Washington
Enjoyed tasting their wines at IPNC last year. Very good people and fine quality. I was somewhat surprised at the pricing, which makes a decent number of Burgundy 1er Crus look like a bargain. I’m told they’ve reached “cult” status down under. High demand isn’t such a bad problem!
!![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}