News & Media

December 2025

Dear Friends of Bell Hill,

We hope the year so far has brought positive experiences for you and we appreciate your ongoing support for what we do and believe in as well as, at times, your patience in waiting to hear from us. By now, we know the vines won’t wait - demanding our attention, marching to the beat of their drum - therefore, everything else must wait…thank you.

In July last year, we put together our first Methode Traditionelle NV tirage bottling blend. Likely another two years on yeast before we decide on the dosage and cork age so now, we wait, watch, taste, and learn - the next vital steps in development. It has been a rewarding process to work on and piece together wine spanning six vintages, but we feel the essence of Bell Hill and its soil will speak in the glass in one effervescent form or another.

Excitingly, the North Arm, our young vineyard planted from 2020 to 2022, had its first crop in 2025! With these vines, Bell Hill is now 55% Pinot Noir and 45% Chardonnay, very close to our original concept of varietal mix. The North Arm soil profiles mirror our older parcels of Bell Hill transcending from very hard, rocky limestones to heavy calcareous clays.

Vintage 2025 at Bell Hill came at the end of a very mixed growing season – we had all the elements – at times Mother Nature’s gentle hand, at other times her cold shoulder…perseverance and forward thinking were the key and we negotiated with her all through autumn. We began with sparkling wine – Pinot Noir from our young North Arm blocks and some targeted rows from our older Pinot Noir blocks. After that we were bringing in Chardonnay from Marlborough and Pinot Noir from Otago as well as our new Chardonnay plantings, going back to Bell Hill older vine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in a fast and furious 4-day consecutive pick before rain settled in. Some big days and long nights of sorting, thankfully we didn’t break anyone, but we had a purpose, and everyone rose to the challenge. Fermentations ensued and now we’re starting to evaluate, very positively, what we have in barrel.

Our team has been joined by Fergus, with us since harvest and now our Winegrower, he oversees the daily vineyard and winery operations and sets the team to work. We still have Sarah in the office, plus Agnieszka as team leader in the vineyard, and, primarily in the machinery space – Shane and Garry, complemented as usual with seasonal and casual staff.

After vintage, Marcel and I had just over two months in Europe, the first time back in 7 years, plus a few days of marketing with our Singaporean importer on the way. We had some side trips including meeting with our UK importer in London, and some family time in Germany and The Netherlands, but mostly, we stayed in Burgundy – catching up with friends and colleagues and watching the 2025 season unfold on the vine, experiencing the intense heat, and anticipating its effect on the harvest.

While away, we continued to reflect on why we’re here, where we are, and what we belong to – the land, its history, our presence and activity here. Our local Waitaha artist friend, Warren, looked after our home and our dear cat, Chairman Mao - very sadly, we could not be reunited with him in time, and he passed away the day before our return. Warren embarked upon a remarkable landscape project while here, The Divine Mother – Rongo Marae Roa (the Goddess of Peace) – this is preserved in stone and flax plants on The Shelf and utilises the elements of the hill, vines, steps, and retaining walls as part of her form – it is nurturing, majestic and empowering – a testimony to Warren’s spirit and connection to the land and history of his people.

Meanwhile at home the pruning progressed, and we returned to preparations for the onset of spring, bottling our 2024 vintage wines (Single Parcel Bell Hill Pinot Noirs from the Shelf and Slope included) and labelling the wines we have on offer for you with this release. We’ve had bottle uniformity issues which haven’t aided our labelling task and therefore changed our supplier from the 2023 vintage and are exploring an alternative packing concept to our traditional tissue wrapping – we’re happy to hear your feedback when you receive your wines. At the winery, we are settling into our new storage building and office area, still fine-tuning these spaces but it’s a breath of fresh air and gives room to breathe. In the vineyard we are still seeing some cold nights to keep us alert and are well into the spring canopy programme – the vines keep us moving and flowering is also well upon us.

We are currently working on naming and label concepts for the 2023 wines from our first foray of moving “beyond” Bell Hill, fruit from off-site and out of region. We sourced organically grown fruit from Otago and Marlborough that is maturing and developing well in bottle, and we’re excited to share these with you next year. There has been a follow up with vintages 2024 and 2025 and a planned continuation with 2026. Vintage 2023 at Bell Hill only gave us a couple of tonnes of sparkling base wine so the timing was right for new ventures and foundations. We see this as a path to continue what we do at Bell Hill and offer our customers something beyond our gate and small vineyard area. Please look out for the first release information on the 2023 wines next year.

We were also very humbled by the support we received through our Galabid auction of a selection of library wines for our dear friend and her cancer journey. The prices achieved and the sentiment and actions of care and generosity made us feel very emotional and honoured, thank you.

Events over the past year included attending the Southern Pinot Noir Workshop in Hanmer Springs in January, Pinot Noir 2025 in Christchurch in February, visits to Bell Hill from Robert Walters (Place of Changing Winds), Fongyee Walker (China), Katie Spain (Australia), Kathleen Willcox  (NY, US) Alder Yarrow (CA, US), Eric Asimov (NY, US), Dave Brookes (Australia), John Wilson (Ireland) plus Jane Skilton (NZ) and James Suckling (NZ/US/HK) with Ryan Montgomery late last year.

Now, here we are with the 2021 Bell Hill Vintage release, and we include our Single Parcel wines from 2020 with the Limeworks Chardonnay and Shelf Pinot Noir. We have a 2021 Single Parcel Shelf and will hold this over until the following Bell Hill 2022 wines are ready to meet you. Conditions and quality allowed for a Single Parcel Chardonnay, but volumes did not.

Please see our reviews for some of our recent press, highlights being…

Our New Zealand Wine of the Year, the Bell Hill Chardonnay North Canterbury Single Parcel Limeworks 2020. This 100-point white tastes like it could come straight out of the Burgundy region of Puligny-Montrachet – something akin to the premier cru of Les Pucelles – but it has a distinctive energy from the intense acidity (low pH), perhaps from its calcareous soils. Its few thousand vines are literally planted in a former lime quarry, producing wines of remarkable energy and distinction - James Suckling Top 100 Wines of New Zealand 2024, Dec 10, 2024, 100 points

Bell Hill Limeworks Chardonnay 2020 Palest gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon pith and crushed stones. In the mouth, saline flavors of candied lemon peel and electric acidity have a brilliant crystalline purity and amazing lemon oil brightness that lingers with a white floral sweetness for a long time in the finish. Outstanding. Silky AF (sic). I originally scored this wine between 9.5 and 10 on my scale, but I can’t stop thinking about it. Its presence, poise, and depth keep hounding me. So 10 it is. This wine won’t be released until October 2025. The price remains undetermined, though it will likely be north of $300, making it the most expensive white wine in New Zealand and among the top 5 most expensive wines in the country. It is, without a doubt, the best New Zealand Chardonnay I’ve ever had. Score:10

Thank you for your interest in what we do at Bell Hill and for reading this letter and its contents, we hope you enjoy the 2020 and 2021 wines and look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes from Sherwyn, Marcel and everyone at Bell Hill.