Elephant Hill

Elephant Hill begins not with a Hawke's Bay winemaker but with a German family on holiday. In 2001, Roger Weiss, a Nuremberg-rooted entrepreneur, and his wife Reydan, a yacht designer, visited the Te Awanga coast on a trip to New Zealand and became convinced that the strip of Pacific frontage south of Cape Kidnappers had the makings of a serious estate. Within two years they had bought the land, by 2003 they had begun planting vines, and by 2008 they had completed a Fearon Hay-designed winery, restaurant, and cellar door and produced the inaugural commercial vintage. The estate name is a piece of family lore: Roger's father is said to have woken in Myanmar with the conviction that the winery should be called Elephant Hill, and when Roger's mother pointed out that there was neither an elephant nor a hill on the Te Awanga site, his father is reported to have answered, exactly, which is why you will never forget the name. The family went on to align the brand with Asian elephant conservation, the cause Reydan in particular continues to champion. Roger died in 2016. The Weiss family's second generation took the business forward: Andreas Weiss has been CEO since 2015, working alongside Managing Director Robert Greifenberg. In November 2024, Elephant Hill Holdings Limited Group, including the Te Awanga lodge, all three vineyards, the winery and cellar door, the restaurant, the brand, and the established global distribution network, was listed for sale.

• Roger and Reydan Weiss visited Te Awanga from Germany in 2001 and committed to the site; planting began from 2003 and the Fearon Hay-designed winery opened with the inaugural 2008 vintage
• The name is a Weiss-family inside joke from a Myanmar trip rather than a topographic reference, but the family aligned the brand with Asian elephant conservation early on and has retained that identity
• Roger Weiss died in 2016; second-generation Andreas Weiss has led as CEO since 2015 alongside Managing Director Robert Greifenberg
• Elephant Hill Holdings Limited Group was placed on the market in November 2024, listing the full estate, three vineyards, brand, and distribution network for sale

The Te Awanga winery is one of the most architecturally distinctive in New Zealand wine, and it is the work of Auckland-based Fearon Hay Architects. The complex sits low along the coastal terrace with the production building, viticulture building, and restaurant strung along the seaward edge of the vineyard. A barrel-vaulted in-situ concrete basement houses the winery; above it, prepatinated copper cladding over precast concrete panels delivers the muted bronze-green facade that reads as a deliberate echo of the Pacific water beyond. Floor-to-ceiling glass in the restaurant frames Cape Kidnappers and the open ocean, and the building has been used in Hawke's Bay tourism marketing for the better part of two decades. The architectural identity is the public face of the estate: the winery and restaurant are major drawcards in their own right, and they have anchored Te Awanga as a wine-tourism destination alongside Mission Estate, Black Barn, and Craggy Range further inland. The restaurant operates Thursday through Monday and pairs estate wines with contemporary cuisine; the cellar door offers tasting flights across the Estate, Reserve, Elemental, and Icon ranges.

• Designed by Fearon Hay Architects of Auckland, completed for the inaugural 2008 vintage; ultra-modern coastal complex with production, viticulture, and restaurant buildings strung along the seaward edge
• Materials: barrel-vaulted in-situ concrete basement, prepatinated copper cladding over precast concrete panels, full floor-to-ceiling glass in the restaurant facing Cape Kidnappers and the Pacific
• Restaurant and cellar door anchor the Te Awanga wine-tourism identity and operate as a major drawcard for visitors to coastal Hawke's Bay
• Tastings span the four tiers of the portfolio: Estate, Reserve, Elemental (single vineyard), and Icon (Hieronymus, Airavata, Salome)

Elephant Hill's vineyard portfolio is the conceptual core of the estate's range. Rather than concentrating on a single terroir, the Weiss family deliberately assembled blocks across three distinct Hawke's Bay sub-zones, each given an elemental designation that runs through every level of the range. Sea is the home Te Awanga Vineyard on the coast, where Pacific breezes, free-draining shingle and silt loam soils, and a cool maritime microclimate suit Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Viognier, and aromatic whites; this is also the only one of the three sites on the coastal fringe of Hawke's Bay, and Merlot originally planted here was eventually replaced by white varieties when the climate proved too cool for the structure the Weiss family wanted. Earth is the Triangle Vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle, the inland alluvial sub-zone that sits between the gravels and the foothills; deeper red and yellow clays over alluvial layers grow Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Tempranillo, Syrah, and Chardonnay with a more generous mid-palate character than the gravels can deliver. Stone is the Gimblett Gravels Vineyard, planted on the famous hot, free-draining greywacke gravel beds laid down by the old course of the Ngaruroro River; Stone is the source of the most structured reds, particularly the Syrah and the fruit that goes into the Hieronymus Bordeaux blend. The three-sub-zone architecture is what allows Elephant Hill to make a coastal Sauvignon Blanc and a Gimblett Gravels Bordeaux blend under the same roof and offer single-vineyard expressions of each in the Elemental range.

• Sea = Te Awanga Vineyard (home estate on the coast): cool maritime microclimate; Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Viognier; Merlot originally planted here was removed when the site proved too cool for it
• Earth = Triangle Vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle: inland alluvial sub-zone; red and yellow clays over alluvial layers; Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Tempranillo, Syrah, Chardonnay
• Stone = Gimblett Vineyard in the Gimblett Gravels: hot, free-draining greywacke gravel beds laid by the old Ngaruroro River; the source of the most structured Syrah and Hieronymus Bordeaux blend fruit
• All three vineyards are Sustainable Winegrowers New Zealand (SWNZ) certified; biological water treatment recycles winery wastewater on site

The Icon range sits at the top of the Elephant Hill portfolio and comprises three wines made in strictly limited quantities from the best fruit, best blocks, and best barrels: Hieronymus Bordeaux blend, Airavata Syrah, and Salome Chardonnay. Hieronymus is the flagship Bordeaux-style red blend, named after Hieronymus Wilhelm Ebner von Eschenbach, the Lord Mayor of Nuremberg from 1512 to 1524 and a forebear of the Weiss line through the Ebner patrician family, which has been documented in Nuremberg city records since 1234. Hieronymus is built almost entirely from the Gimblett Gravels Stone Vineyard, with a varietal split that has typically run Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant with Merlot and Cabernet Franc, sometimes incorporating small amounts of Malbec and Tempranillo, aged 22 months in French oak with roughly half new. Critical reception has been consistently in the upper register of Hawke's Bay reds: the 2019 Hieronymus drew 98 points from Sam Kim and 97 from Cameron Douglas MS, and the wine is regularly cited as a benchmark Gimblett Gravels Bordeaux blend alongside Te Mata Coleraine and Trinity Hill The Gimblett. Airavata is the Icon Syrah, named after the white elephant of Hindu mythology that carried the deity Indra. Unlike Hieronymus and Salome, which are named after Weiss-family Nuremberg ancestors, Airavata draws on the elephant theme that runs through the estate's brand identity. The wine is 100 percent Syrah and the only multi-site cuvee in the Icon range, blending fruit from all three elemental vineyards (Sea Te Awanga, Earth Bridge Pa, Stone Gimblett Gravels) and aged 22 months in French oak with around 33 percent new; production is around 300 cases. The white Icon is Salome Chardonnay, named after Maria Salome Ebner von Eschenbach, an 18th-century family forebear. Salome is the cool counterpart: hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed, wild-fermented, aged around 11 months in French oak (62 percent new for the 2019 release), and made in tiny volumes (around 1,320 bottles for 2019). Roughly four-fifths of the fruit comes from the Te Awanga Sea Vineyard with the balance from the Bridge Pa Earth Vineyard, giving a wine with the coastal acidity and salinity of Te Awanga and the broader mid-palate of Bridge Pa.

• Hieronymus: flagship Bordeaux blend, named after Lord Mayor of Nuremberg Hieronymus Wilhelm Ebner von Eschenbach (1512-1524 in office); fruit almost entirely from the Gimblett Gravels Stone Vineyard; 22 months French oak with roughly half new; 98 (Sam Kim) and 97 (Cam Douglas MS) for the 2019 vintage
• Airavata: Icon Syrah named after the white elephant of Hindu mythology that carried the deity Indra; 100% Syrah and the only multi-site Icon wine, drawing from all three elemental vineyards (Sea, Earth, Stone); 22 months French oak with around 33% new; production around 300 cases
• Salome Chardonnay: Icon-tier white, named after 18th-century ancestor Maria Salome Ebner von Eschenbach; sourced mostly from Te Awanga (Sea) with a Bridge Pa Triangle (Earth) component; whole-bunch pressed, wild-fermented, around 11 months in French oak (62% new in 2019), tiny production around 1,320 bottles in 2019
• Reserve range sits below Icon: single-varietal Syrah, Chardonnay, Merlot-Cabernet-Malbec, and others made in larger volumes from the best blocks
• Estate range is the entry tier and the foundation of cellar-door tastings: Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Syrah, and the Le Phant Rouge Bordeaux-Syrah blend

Between the Estate tier and the Icon tier sits the Elemental range, the most explicit articulation of Elephant Hill's three-sub-zone philosophy. Each Elemental wine is a single-vineyard, terroir-driven bottling labelled by its elemental origin: Sea for the Te Awanga Vineyard on the coast, Earth for the Triangle Vineyard in Bridge Pa, and Stone for the Gimblett Vineyard in the Gimblett Gravels. The Elemental line includes Sea Chardonnay and Sea Sauvignon Blanc from the coast, Earth Chardonnay and Earth Merlot-Malbec or Bordeaux-style reds from Bridge Pa, and Stone Syrah and Stone Merlot from the Gimblett Gravels. The wines are made in small, allocated volumes and are designed as a direct teaching tool for the three contrasting Hawke's Bay terroirs. The Reserve range slots beneath Elemental in volume but at a similar price point in some markets: it includes the Reserve Syrah from Gimblett Gravels, the Reserve Chardonnay, the Reserve Merlot-Malbec-Cabernet, and a Tempranillo rose in some vintages. Across the range, Hugh Crichton, head winemaker since 2021, has continued the precise, restrained style established under his 15-year predecessor Steve Skinner: wild ferments where possible, whole-bunch components in the Syrahs and Chardonnays, French oak as a frame rather than a flavour, and an explicit goal of letting the three sub-zones speak in their own register.

• Elemental range: single-vineyard, single-sub-zone wines labelled by elemental origin (Sea = Te Awanga, Earth = Bridge Pa, Stone = Gimblett Gravels); the most explicit expression of the three-sub-zone vineyard portfolio
• Elemental Chardonnays from Sea and Earth offer contrasting coastal and inland expressions; Stone Syrah and Stone Merlot are the most structured single-vineyard reds; Earth Bordeaux blends represent the alluvial mid-style
• Reserve range sits beneath Elemental in volume: Reserve Syrah (Gimblett Gravels), Reserve Chardonnay, Reserve Merlot-Cabernet-Malbec, occasional Tempranillo rose
• Le Phant Rouge is the Estate-tier multi-sub-zone Bordeaux-Syrah blend (Merlot-led with Syrah and Malbec) drawing fruit from all three vineyards as an introduction to the house style

Elephant Hill is one of Hawke's Bay's most decorated recent estates. The 2013 Syrah won Champion Wine of Show at the 2014 Spiegelau International Wine Competition, the 2012 Syrah won the Champion Syrah Trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, and the 2012 Syrah and 2011 Chardonnay both won Trophy & Gold at the Hawke's Bay A&P Wine Awards. The 2009 Syrah won trophies at the Sydney International Wine Competition including best wine of the competition. The Hieronymus has been a fixture in regional Bordeaux blend top tiers since the mid-2010s and routinely sits in the upper range of Hawke's Bay critical scores alongside Te Mata Coleraine, Trinity Hill The Gimblett, and Craggy Range Sophia and Le Sol. Sustainability has been a stated priority since the founding generation: all three vineyards are SWNZ certified, the Te Awanga winery features a state-of-the-art biological water treatment system that recycles wastewater on site, and the family's public alignment with Asian elephant conservation runs through the brand identity. With Elephant Hill Holdings on the market as of late 2024, the family has signalled a transition, but the architectural footprint, the three-sub-zone portfolio, and the Hieronymus, Airavata, and Salome icon program are designed to outlast any change in ownership.

• 2013 Syrah: Champion Wine of Show, 2014 Spiegelau International Wine Competition (Auckland)
• 2012 Syrah: Champion Syrah Trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards; 2012 Syrah and 2011 Chardonnay both took Trophy & Gold at the Hawke's Bay A&P Wine Awards
• Hieronymus 2019: 98 points (Sam Kim), 97 points (Cam Douglas MS); a consistent benchmark Gimblett Gravels Bordeaux blend alongside Te Mata Coleraine, Trinity Hill The Gimblett, and Craggy Range Sophia/Le Sol
• SWNZ certified across all three vineyards; biological water treatment recycles winery wastewater on site; Weiss-family alignment with Asian elephant conservation is core to the brand; Elephant Hill Holdings listed for sale November 2024