Perfect spot for pinot noir

Slice of heaven... Bald Hills Vineyard owners Estelle and Blair Hunt, at the vineyard last week....
Slice of heaven... Bald Hills Vineyard owners Estelle and Blair Hunt, at the vineyard last week. Photo by Nicole Sharp
For Bald Hills Vineyard owners Blair and Estelle Hunt, it all began with their love of wine.

''We had always been interested in wine and had always enjoyed wine,'' Mrs Hunt said.

It was 1997 when the pair bought a bare block of land at Bannockburn that was used for extensive farming purposes at the time.

Now, more than 15 years later, the same land has 7ha of planted vines and is used for intensive viticulture.

Pinot noir was the first wine to come out of the Bald Hills Vineyard in 2002 and it appeared there was no turning back from there.

In 2003, the couple produced their first pinot gris, followed by a riesling in 2005 and a rosé in 2006.

But the Hunts said the Bannockburn land and the Central Otago air provided the ideal conditions for growing a great pinot noir.

That was reflected in the fact the Bald Hills 3 Acres Pinot Noir 2013 had just been awarded the Mike Wolter memorial trophy and champion pinot noir at the 2014 Romeo Bragato Wine Awards.

Over the years, the Hunts have won hundreds of awards across the range of wines they produce, but they agreed the pinot noir had been most successful. Winning the awards, which had included nine trophies and multiple gold awards in a large range of competitions, had put Bald Hills Vineyard on the map and had made marketing and selling their product from home easier. Mr Hunt said if you looked at where Central Otago was placed in the world, it was in a band of countries that produced excellent examples of pinot noir.

''We are a little bit biased but believe that we [Bannockburn] are a little subregion within Central Otago and have the good conditions for producing a great pinot noir.''

He added that as the vines at Bald Hills had aged, the flavour of the grapes had been enhanced.

Winning the 2014 Romeo Bragato Mike Wolter memorial trophy and champion pinot noir had been an early indication for the pair of how the wine was going to perform.

''The Bald Hills 3 Acres Pinot Noir 2013 was only bottled in February this year,'' Mr Hunt said.

Between them, the pair have large amounts of knowledge in agriculture, economics, business, art and marketing, but when it came to starting the Bald Hill Vineyard in 1997, it was the advice of others that set them on their way.

In the beginning, they wanted to see if Bald Hills was as capable as other vineyards in the area, and it has gone from strength to strength.

''Blair would say the vineyard itself has to be very well maintained and looked after to the best of your ability,'' Mrs Hunt said.

''You need to employ the best people, put in the very best you are capable of and nurture the vines and, having that, you not only need good land but a good climate.''

Nowadays, the Hunts harvest about 50 tonnes of grapes from the vines at Bald Hills but make only 20% into their own wine.

''For us, it suits with the economy and stage in life; we've succeeded and we've enjoyed it,'' Mr Hunt said.

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