Bell Hill Old Weka Pass Road Pinot Noir 2020

Bell Hill was first surveyed and named in 1917 for Charles Trounce to conduct a lime quarrying operation. This continued until the late 1930’s and the current Waikari Limeworks is situated nearby. On settling here, we found remnants of the machinery used for quarrying. This gave Bell Hill an interesting historical as well as geographical aspect and encouraged us to express a connection with location and history in considering the wine label (the name Bell Hill comes from its bell- curve shape on the southern side, once the first view for travellers coming into the Waikari Valley). The “Old Weka Pass Road” was from our first releases of younger vines and features the Waitaha iwi rock drawings found in the Weka Pass painted 500-1000 years ago. The moa fossil discovery at our vineyard in May 2001 gave us a glimpse even further back into New Zealand’s natural history. Our first “Bell Hill” wines were released from the 2003 vintage and the label features our “bellhill” logo. Bell Hill is a long-term project driven by our desire to achieve the absolute in wine definition from this site. In 2015 we added a neighbouring paddock (The North Arm) to our fold giving us potential for future endeavours. This is organically certified, and was planted in 2020, 2021 and 2022 at 10,632, 12,987 and 18,181 vines/ha. We increased our land holdings in 2020 and 2021 to complement our vineyard systems in the direction of regenerative farming, mixed cropping, animals, increased wetland area and viticultural inputs. These parcels surround Bell Hill and are in the BioGro organic transition programme, our land holdings now total 63ha.

Finally, seasonal variation means always evaluating what you do and for which outcome, striving for excellence, adapting to challenges, and celebrating the small gains along the way...