Established in 2003, Elephant Hill is located within a stone’s throw of the Pacific Ocean on the idyllic Te Awanga coast of Hawke’s Bay on New Zealand’s North Island.

Proprietors Reydan and Roger Weiss first fell in love with the beauty of Te Awanga when visiting from Germany in 2001. Together they envisaged owning a state-of-the-art winery, merging the traditional values of wine making with an innovative approach and contemporary style to produce exceptional wines to savour and enjoy.

Hawke's Bay is located on the eastern side of the North Island and is one of New Zealand's warmest regions. With high sunshine hours and low rain fall (780 mm year) Hawke’s Bay is perfectly suited to growing wine grapes and crafting premium wine. Our belief is that great wines are hand-made wines where meticulous attention to detail starts in the vineyard. This is why we hand-pick our grapes in order to be very selective in using the best possible fruit to make our wines.

Elephant Hill has three vineyards in the renowned sub-regions of Hawke’s Bay. The coastal Te Awanga Vineyard, the inland Gimblett Vineyard in the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers District and The Triangle Vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle region.

Our vineyards have a variety of soil types and micro climates which give us the ability to capture the different elements and nuances of each particular site to make wines of complexity and character. Each grape variety has been carefully matched to the varying soil types, ranging from shingle to clay to very old, stony river beds producing a range of flavour profiles in the wines. This gives us extensive blending options or the opportunity to make terroir based, site specific, single vineyard wines.

The winemaking at Elephant Hill is driven by tradition while not losing sight of what innovation can bring to the blend. Our aim is to make wines that are balanced and elegant and a true expression of the vineyards they come from.

The technology associated with winemaking is always improving, as is the knowledge and understanding of the science of wine. Important as these factors are, to preserve the varietal integrity of the fruit from our vineyard is key. In the winery we ferment our grapes in many small, separate batches. This allows for the nuances and character of each separate fermentation to come to the fore and be considered when blending for our Estate, Reserve or Icon wines.

The perfect vintage is warm and dry throughout autumn; the climate so benign of threats that we can pick the fruit when it is truly flavour-ripe for the style of wine desired. The perfect vintage, of course, does not exist. In crafting wine one learns to deal with the weather nature hands you, and gradually to enjoy the variation from year to year. Great wine should reflect the site and the climate of where it is grown. One of the most rewarding challenges in making wine is to craft a wine that best represents the vintage in which it was grown, that plays to the strengths of the harvest and mitigates the challenges that were faced.

Architecture

Inspired by the Pacific Ocean, Cape Kidnappers and the natural beauty of the Te Awanga coast, the foundation of the design of Elephant Hill is built on an ethos of respect for the environment and landscape.

Design

The driving principles of our architecture is to evoke a sense of relationship through a common link of shape, colour and detail to unify the “family” of estate buildings and create harmony through shape, colour and details. The function of the estate buildings is understood by the many processes of the cultivation and harvesting of grapes and of wine making. With respect to place, the priorities were to ensure the buildings fit into their setting and acknowledged the surrounding natural elements. The pre-aged copper wall cladding is significant in its ability to withstand the climatic conditions and is visually compatible with the colour of the ocean and the grape vines.

Design Philosophy

To simulate the ocean colours our buildings are clad in a natural green pre-patinated (aged) copper, not previously used in New Zealand, the material in this form is incorporated in some notable new European works and also used in historic restorative projects. Over time the effects on the copper exposed to the salt laden air will result in a continuing natural aged effect. The matt finish renders the material non reflective and negates any glare. Our buildings uncluttered rectangular shapes with a horizontal emphasis evoke a complementary sense of space and freedom, and blend into their background.