North Canterbury's famed Bell Hill needs no introduction amongst collectors.

This isn't just one of New Zealand's great wines - it is one of the world's great wines. A must-try before you die bottle produced in minuscule numbers that we're very lucky to share in here in Mount Eliza.

The wine offers a bouquet of white flowers and palate of lime with a touch of orange blossom interspersed with oyster shells and a flinty minerality. A hit of cream gives the wine some perfectly balanced body. This is the kind of wine that gives you something new each time you put your nose in the glass. Combine this with an exceptionally long finish and you can see what makes this wine so revered.

For the geeks out there, here are the tech specs lifted straight from bellhill.nz:

Harvested between the 27th of March and 9th of April 2021 with a range of 21.6 to 23 Brix, the Bell Hill Chardonnay is a 6-barrel blend of the Shelf, Roadblock, and Limeworks parcels. Most fruit was whole cluster pressed (Limeworks 99 and Roadblock) except one parcel which was crushed (Limeworks 09 and Shelf combined pressing), and had 17% new, 50% 1 year old, and 33% 3-year-old French oak, an elevage of 12 months before racking and blending with a further 8 months in tank. Bottled on the 21st of December 2022, with 3.36 pH, 6.4g/L TA and 13.5% alcohol. 1,795 bottles were produced. Yields did not allow us a Single Parcel Chardonnay this season.