A family run winery with sublime food and wine. Sleek, modern lines and a teal colour scheme meant to echo the nearby ocean, a culinary powerhouse restaurant and award winning wines including the spectacular reserve Syrah are the hallmarks of this Hawkes Bay winery. Owners, the Weiss family, seamlessly blend traditional winemaking and modern techniques.
/ Courtesy Elephant Hill; K&S Media
Andreas Weiss shows me a globe in his office at Elephant Hill –there’s just one thing – it’s upside down. “See, it’s a matter of perspective,” he says of the custom made piece where New Zealand floats above the other continents. It’s a fitting symbol for the family-run winery where unusual thinking and “love, passion, patience and control the whole chain.”
Chef Ashley Jones creates intoxicating plates (and some of the best food I had in New Zealand) including homemade bread with estate olive oil (“my mother wanted to have it,” says Weiss).
Lunch by Chef Ashley Jones was exceptional- creative, visually intoxicating plates and out of the world flavour [Homemade bread baked daily with estate olive oil and butter, Char Siu tuna, cucumber, soft shell crab, wombok, peanut, sesame; local fish, pickled tomato, beetroot, orange butter and green olive and Agria fries and aioli (people visit just for these) with 2015 Elephant hill rose, 2015 Elephant hill [Elephant blanc].
Winemaker Steve Skinner has a detailed yet laid back yet artfully skilled approach to winemaking, (like his predilection for playing different genres of music in honour of the different stages of the winemaking process,), producing wine with true finesse and skill (the reserve Syrah and Merlot Malbec are both sublime). This is a winery of handcrafting not just hand picking.
/ K&S Media
By far one of the best experiences of CSL’s trip to New Zealand, our time spent at and meeting second generation of the Weiss family, Andreas Weiss, who had a familial warmth and embodied the spirit of Elephant Hill. This is one very special place and one to remember for a very long time!
86 Clifton Rd Te Awanga, Hawke’s Bay,
+64 6 873 0400;
