ELEPHANT HILL HAWKE'S BAY, NEW ZEALAND ICONS & ELEMENTS, 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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“Ambition is a dream with a v8 engine.” ELVIS PRESLEY
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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ELEPHANT HILL HAWKE’S BAY ICONS & ELEMENTS
We are delighted to be able to share with you our inaugural and longawaited release of Elephant Hill’s ‘Icons’ and ‘Elements’ wines - the fruits of an ambitious ongoing project to understand and champion the distinctive and different terroirs of New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay.
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For this young winery, established in just 2003, the release of these wines marks a certain coming-of-age, a thrilling testament to the achievements of its small, close-knit team. First and foremost however, Elephant Hill is a story of human enterprise, of dreams and determination, and more than a little serendipity.
REBECCA PALMER April 2019
ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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THE STORY OF ELEPHANT HILL Elephant Hill winery is located on the Te Awanga coast, a stunning stretch of Pacific coastline in the heart of the Hawke’s Bay.
Flanked by the clean lines of never-ending vines, the winery's spare structure sits serenely above the ocean, as if it has somehow owned this part of the Hawke’s Bay forever. Yet Elephant Hill is a young venture, one that in little over a decade, has made a name for itself as a pioneering force, champion of experiment and quality; a leading light in this small and increasingly prestigious viticultural enclave. The first chapter in the story of Elephant Hill starts in 2001, and not with an elephant - though a love of elephants inspired the name - but with a Jaguar, of the motoring kind. German businessman Roger Weiss, vintage car fanatic, had long coveted a Jaguar Mk II, an unconventional yet iconic model of increasing rarity. Even after tracking one down, Roger had faced a significant obstacle, in that the car had fallen foul of the fearsome TÜV - the Technischer Überwachungsverein (a German technical body authorising certification akin to the British MOT) and he had struggled to find a sufficiently specialised mechanic to make it roadworthy. Hoping to find a solution, he headed to Essen for the annual Techno Classica, Germany’s prestigious vintage automobile fair, an annual mecca for motorheads the world over. It was here that Roger met a New Zealander and fellow classic car devotee, and the pair got talking. Dr Greg Beacham turned out to be an award-winning restoration expert specialised in remodelling 1950s and 60s Jaguars. He spoke thrillingly of the ‘space, pace and
grace’ of older Jaguar models, of re-engineering de Dion axels and retro-fitting supercharged V8 engines. He had come over to Techno Classica to view a number of rare classics to restore to glory. Serendipity will be saluted! And so Roger and Greg dreamt up a plan: Greg would plunder his little black book and source the exact model, ship it all the way to his bodyshop in the Hawke’s Bay and work his magic. Roger and his wife Reydan would then fly down to collect it for a driving holiday. And so it came to pass. A 1956 Mk II was duly found, and over many weeks and months, Greg worked painstakingly to restore it, respecting the unique curves and detail of its beautiful bodywork, its vertical oval grille and chrome wire wheels, while at the same time bringing the mechanics bang up to date. TÜV? Kein Problem! Finished in classic British Racing Green and proudly harbouring a 1999 Compressor V8, the car was resplendent. Little did Roger and Reydan realise, wending their way south at 37,000 feet to collect their magnificent motor, just how life-changing the coming days would prove to be. They found the Hawke’s Bay enchanting. Spellbound by the raw beauty of the place, its wines, and the warmth of the local people, they found themselves visiting a plot of land for sale on the coast at Te Awanga, courtesy of an introduction from Greg, who had rather taken them under his wing. This was a beautiful seaside spot – just big enough to build a modest holiday home. Or so they thought.
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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Andreas Weiss, CEO, Elephant Hill
The story goes that a ‘slight slip-up’ involving a decimal point or two had netted them a rather more sizeable acreage. Barely had their ‘miscalculation’ come to light, than Roger and Reydan had conceived of a plan for the land they had inadvertently acquired. ‘Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine’, said the King of Rock and Roll, somehow rather apt in context: by all accounts, the Weiss household is rarely short of ambition, dreams or the energy to drive them. So: why not plant their own vineyards? They could even build a winery one day and produce their own wines in the Hawke’s Bay! Carpe diem clearly translates pretty well into German. Just two years later, vineyards were planted and plans were made for a winery, completed in 2008 when the first commercial vintage was produced. Elephant Hill was born, named in homage to the Asian elephant, whose cause the Weiss family have long supported. Fast forward 16 years, and the winery operation is thriving. Andreas Weiss, Roger’s son, is now at the helm of the business, working with a small, tight-knit team including chief winemaker Steve Skinner and viticulturalist Jon Peet, both leading talents in their respective fields. While Roger sadly died in 2016, Elephant Hill today is testament to his pioneering spirit and determined work ethic. A modern winery known in the industry for pushing boundaries, there is also a deep sense of tradition here, rooted in a respect for the land and its produce, and a belief in responsible stewardship. Tread lightly - preserve the land - leave it in a better state for future generations. For the team at Elephant Hill, quality and sustainability are inextricable. To create world-class wines of elegance and balance, champions of their land and by extension the Hawke’s Bay, they must manage their vineyards with care.
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
UNDERSTANDING THE LAND: FAST-TR ACK TO TERROIR Elephant Hill has vineyards in three markedly different sub-regions of the Hawke’s Bay.
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While the original vineyards - along with the winery - are based in Te Awanga on the coast, the Weiss family later acquired additional sites in the Gimblett Gravels district further inland, and then the Bridge Pa Triangle region; three very singular areas in terms of prevailing climate and soil types; three budding ‘terroirs’, each with the potential to yield unique wines of high quality and distinctive character – the prize and ultimate challenge. The first step for the team at Elephant Hill was to lay the groundwork: analyse the sites comprehensively, their aspect, microclimates and soils; match appropriate combinations of grape varieties, clones and rootstocks to each vineyard, parcel, and row. These are the best-practice building blocks of any well-run vineyard, a process as meticulous as it is exhaustive, and sometimes brutal: one of Steve Skinner’s first actions on arrival was to rip up vast
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swathes of Merlot vines and replace them with Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, more suited to Te Awanga’s cool, dry microclimate. So far so correct, but as Steve Skinner and Jon Peet knew well, the ultimate challenge was far greater in scope. How might they attain the sort of profound understanding of site that would allow them to maximise the potential of their vineyards? The model was clear, implicit in traditional oldworld vineyard classifications such as that of the Côte d’Or, with its meticulously charted maps of crus and lieux-dits, an epic opus of mediaeval data-gathering. Could this depth of knowledge and level of understanding, rooted in close and repeated observation over decades and centuries, be fasttracked? Could the Elephant Hill team somehow expedite the process to acquire the insights they needed? Of course, the next question was ‘how can we do this’?
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
It is fortunate that neither ambition nor work ethic, are in short supply at Elephant Hill. Add a dash of single-pointed madman vision for good measure. Combining forces and inspiration, the viticultural and winemaking teams put forward a project proposal designed to push to the limits their understanding of the three sub-regional vineyards. If ever a viti-vini scheme had a V8 engine, it was this. While the venture would require significant backing, not least financial, it did not take long to convince the Weiss family of its potential. And so began this extraordinary mission, perhaps unique in its aspiration, scope and timescale, in pursuit of that age-old concept: a sense of place - distinct, unique and timeless.
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The project was far-reaching in scope, involving in-depth investigation and analysis of each different sub-region and its vineyards. The vineyard sites were separated into plots, and further sub-divided into plots within plots depending on aspect, microclimate, and soil type ranging from shingle and clay to ancient stony river beds. From the grapes yielded, multiple micro-vinifications were carried out amounting to hundreds of experimental cuvÊes each year, each contributing its own unique insight to the growing repository of knowledge; small pixels in an ever-expanding, ever-clearer picture, accelerating understanding. This ambitious work in progress has already paid dividends for Elephant Hill. Over and above the Estate and Reserve wine ranges, the team’s progressive understanding of their three distinct terroirs has led to the production of the exceptional Icons wines, the ultimate blends from the very best fruit drawn from across all vineyards, and now the Elements collection, a quite separate project bringing the spotlight on specific terroirs and varietal expression.
Steve Skinner, Winemaker, Elephant Hill
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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THE ICON WINES Hieronymus, Airavata, Salomé
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The Icon wines represent the pinnacle of achievement at Elephant Hill, in terms of absolute quality, character and exception (though also see later: Elements). These are essentially ‘statement’ wines, emphatically so, blended from Elephant Hill’s highest quality fruit: the ‘cuvée ronde’ par excellence bringing together the best of the best from all three vineyard holdings: the best barrels from the best rows from the best blocks, to create blends of different clones and in the case of Hieronymus and Airavata, different grape varieties. Each Icon is created in homage to a classic ‘old world’ wine style, with its unique Hawke’s Bay accent. As winemakers tend to say, quality begins in the vineyard, and this is certainly true of Elephant Hill’s approach in the making of the Icons and Elements wines. In each case, the process starts well before the the growing season, when blocks and rows are chosen specifically with each wine in mind. The vines are pruned severely, reducing the number of potential buds and bunches and thereby slashing production to as little as a single bottle per vine!
The leaf canopy is managed meticulously throughout the growing season, working day by day to balance the vagaries of Mother Nature and (with luck!) achieve a healthy, optimally ripe crop. Bunches are picked carefully, one by one, following a precise brief, often resulting in multiple passes through the vines. This is defined by viticulturalist Jon Peet, who spends every waking hour in the vineyards sampling and re-sampling the grapes on the approach to harvest, then ties ribbons on the relevant vine posts to let the harvest teams know which grapes to pick and which to leave to ripen further. High-tech optical sorting kit provides a final safeguard prior to the all-important ferments. Fermentation is carried out by block, and sometimes by clone, with a view to reflecting and respecting the specificity of site and the work carried out in the vineyard. To make the red wines, the initial crush is carried out by foot, designed to achieve gentle extraction and fine tannins, but also for pragmatic reasons: the batches are minuscule. Corney & Barrow has been able to secure a small allocation of these wines for the UK.
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Hieronymus 2015
Airavata 2015
‘Hieronymus’ seems a suitably dignified title to honour this signature wine. The word derives from Ancient Greek, meaning ‘with a sacred name’, but also pays tribute to a noble ancestor of the Weiss family, the Lord Mayor of Nuremberg in the early 1500s. While classical Bordeaux may be its stylistic inspiration, Hieronymus is created in aspiration, a vision of the potential of Hawke’s Bay as a world-class wine region. The blend brings together Cabernet Sauvignon (45% of the blend), Merlot (24%), Cabernet Franc (19%), and Malbec (12%), from Elephant Hill’s vineyard holdings in both the Gimblett Gravels (58%) and Bridge Pa Triangle (42%). The wine was released 4 years after production, including 18 months in bottle. Just 260 cases were made.
In Hindu tradition, Airavata is the King of Elephants. Elephant Hill’s Airavata is made in honour of its namesake, an animal beloved of the Weiss family. It is also an homage to Côte Rôtie, made in even smaller quantities than you might find from a vigneron in that hallowed appellation: the total production was just 252 cases. Airavata brings together Syrah (98.3%) with a small percentage of Viognier, co-fermented as they would be in the Northern Rhône. Before even scenting the wine, its credentials on paper suggest its profile: the warmth and structure of the hot, dry Gimblett Gravels (71% of the blend) tempered by cool, maritime Te Awanga (29%), a melding of both these characters.
Beautifully structured, the wine achieves concentration and freshness in perfect tension, a factor in part of the style of the vintage (a cooler period in mid-March slowed down the ripening process, extending all-important hang time, while preserving fresh acids). The resulting wine rides that sought-after line where the succulent and savoury meet and meld; ripe cassis restrained by taut blackcurrant, mocha melting to liquid chocolate, spiked with liquorice and minerals. The latent power of the fruit is held in check by fresh cabernet acidities and sleek, graphite tannins, the finish long and cooling. We have just 15 cases x 6 to offer. Corney & Barrow Score 18.5 - 19 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2025+
This is a wine of power and poise. Intense and brooding, it displays classic Syrah-Viognier characters spanning the spectrum from floral to animal: violet, baked plums, olives, dark meat. The wine lies intriguingly between the Old World and the New in terms of shape and suspension. It has massive concentration, yet remains taut and refined; deeply succulent yet impeccably cut, giving a sense of completeness and finesse. The wine is released only after the blend has been given proper time to marry: at Elephant Hill this means 4 years after vintage, of which 18 months in bottle. We have 20 cases (6 x 75cl) to offer. Corney & Barrow Score 19 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2025 £320/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
£245/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
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Salomé Chardonnay 2016 Named after a Weiss family ancestor, ‘Salomé’ is Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay on a golden platter (forgive the biblical allusion), Elephant Hill’s ultimate vision of the noble grape, in the mould of great white Burgundy. The grapes come from the Te Awanga (83%) and Bridge Pa (17%), and were trained to low yields (35 hl/ha on average). Cooler conditions meant the team could push back the harvest dates, allowing the grapes to come slowly and gently to ripeness, while acidities remained pristine. The fruit was handled carefully, and barrel-fermented by clone: predominantly the cool-climate clone 15 with a small amount of the rare, perfumed musqué clone 809, prior to blending. 20% of the blend was put through malolactic, to confer additional richness and depth while preserving acid tension. The blend was then aged in French oak barrels (30% new) for 12 months, with light bâtonnage. Total production of 137 cases. This inaugural Salomé is simply a fantastic wine, forged in richness and finesse. Beguiling on the nose, weaving subtle acacia scent, fresh white nuts and savoury citrus, the palate is similarly intriguing. Immediately enveloping with creamy orchard and stone fruit, its soft curves conceal a fine laser line of salinity and minerals at its core. We have 20 cases (6 x 75cl) to offer. Corney & Barrow Score 19 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2022 £210/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
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To Order LONDON
020 7265 2430 EDINBURGH
01875 321 921 sales@corneyandbarrow.com PLEASE NOTE These wines are released en primeur. Delivery dates to be confirmed. All prices are quoted in bond UK.
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ELEPHANT HILL 2015 & 2016 VINTAGE
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ELEMENTS PROJECT Sea, Stone, Earth
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The Elements wines mark the next stage of Elephant Hill’s terroirs project, its natural corollary. The fruit of a single site, single blocks, a single grape variety, a single year, these are wines designed to express the unique and specific characters of Elephant Hill’s three sub-regional vineyards – that age-old and very European notion of ‘sense of place’. Their very creation marks a certain coming-ofage, showing the team’s confidence in the potential of the sites and what can be achieved through careful viticultural practice and winemaking. Produced only in vintages that display with clarity and definition the true potential of these vineyards, Sea, Stone and Earth are the result: limited edition wines reflective of their site. The wines are conceived in a similar way to the Icons wines, in that specific blocks and vines are identified for their potential at the end of harvest of the previous year, deliberately pruned for low yields, then managed with kid gloves through the growing season to harvest. The canopy is carefully balanced and the vines managed meticulously to coax them to full potential. The attention to detail and man hours required are impressive. Obsessive? Absolutely!
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Sea
Stone
Sea is the wine of Te Awanga, on the shores of the Pacific. This area is something of a viticultural gem, encompassing an impressive range of sites and soils. It is fortunate in benefiting from persistent, luminous sunshine, the tempering effects of the ocean, and relatively low rainfall. As a result, the growing season is also extended, allowing a prolonged ripening period for the grapes.
Stone is the wine of Gimblett Gravels. An exceptional site, the 17 hectare vineyard is planted on deep greywacke gravels exposed after a cyclone in 1867 altered the direction of the Ngaruroro river. Free-draining with very little top soil, these are poor soils ideally suited to red varieties.
The predominating characteristic of the soil here is an extraordinary band of free-draining shingle running across the front of the vineyard, just 50m from the coastline. The block was formed by the famous 1931 earthquake which raised the sea bed by an extraordinary 4m. 2016 marked the first vintage of Sea Sauvignon Blanc. This was a generally even vintage in Te Awanga, with cooler temperatures in late summer helping to prolong the growing season, while retaining pristine acidities. The grape bunches were picked by hand involving three successive passes in the vineyard. The grapes were whole-bunch pressed, after which half of the must was fermented in old 500 litre puncheons, the remainder in stainless steel tanks. In a further bid for complexity, the fermentations were initiated with wild yeasts, and the resulting wines left on their fine lees for 16 months prior to bottling. This is an exceptional expression of Sauvignon Blanc, a stand-alone benchmark for the varietal, with crystalline fruit purity and an almost European backbone, alcohol weighing in at just 12%. Its aromatics are subtle and evocative, with green herbs and perfumed alphonso mango, a waft of saline. The palate is linear and fine, upright and fresh, underpinned by cleansing acids. Of a total production of a few thousand bottles we have 44 cases (6 x 75cl) to offer. Corney & Barrow Score 18.5 - 19 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2022 £110/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
Stone Syrah 2015 is a reflection of its vintage: promisingly dry and warm through summer followed by a cooler period in early March, which slowed down the ripening process and prolonged the season, allowing the fruit to develop greater aromatic and flavour complexity. The resulting fruit has yielded a classically structured wine yet silky and pure, emblematic of the Hawke’s Bay style: powerful yet contained, with dense, plush fruit, and a broad tannin weave. The grapes were picked and sorted by hand then again in an optical sorter. Fermentation took place in small batches combining open top traditional oak cuves and stainless steel fermenters, followed by ageing for 26 months in 30% new French oak barrels. We have 24 cases (6 x 75cl) to offer, of a total production of just 135 cases. Corney & Barrow Score 18.5 - 19 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2025 £210/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
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Earth Earth is the wine of the Bridge Pa Triangle. Like the Gimblett Gravels this area owes its unique soil type to a diversion of the Ngaruroro river, though it was formed many thousands of years earlier. Here, top soils of red metals have built up over the traditional greywacke gravels, so it should be no surprise perhaps that this area sports the highest concentration of vineyard plantings in the Hawke’s Bay. Earth Syrah offers a rather different expression of the 2015 vintage, a more feminine iteration of this classic grape. Yes, there is power; but the wine seems more about lift and grace, with its delicate perfumed aromatics, elegant fruit and fine, silky tannins. Bunches were picked and sorted by hand followed by a further optical sorting. Only the free run juice was used for this wine, with fermentation taking place in small batches in open-top fermenters (both oak and stainless steel) incorporating 20% whole bunch. This was followed by 26 months in 40% new French oak barrels. We have 29 cases (6 x 75cl) to offer, of the 135 cases produced. Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+ Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2025
Earth Tempranillo comes from the Bridge Pa’s small block of Tempranillo vines, which ripened to perfection in the cooler late-season vintage conditions of 2015. The grapes were sorted by hand, then fermented in small batches in a combination of traditional open-top oak vats and stainless steel fermenters. The ferments were plunged by hand to promote gentle tannins. 25% whole bunches were incorporated, contributing spice and structure. The wine then matured for 26 months in 3-year old oak barrels. Earth Tempranillo is classic Bridge Pa, its bright, lush fruit remaining upright and elegant nonetheless. Rich and firm, it is well-balanced with fresh acids and grainy tannins. We have an allocation of just 12 cases (of 83 cases x 6 produced). Corney & Barrow Score 18 Recommended drinking from 2019 – 2022
£180/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK £155/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
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