Is there any doubt that Bell Hill has emerged as one of New Zealand's top Pinot Noir producers? The 2015 Pinot Noir continues a fine run of recent releases, deftly combining savory hints of smoked meat, clean compost and dried spices with notes of Bing cherries and strawberries. It's medium-bodied yet packs in plenty of flavor, adds a fine, silky texture and plenty of length and intensity on the finish.

The 2014 Pinot Noir was entirely destemmed, yet it's fresher and redder in fruit profile than the 2013. Sous bois notes accent cherry and raspberry aromas on the nose of this elegant, medium-bodied wine. There's ample complexity on the palate as well, where herbal notes seamlessly entwine with the fruit, finishing fresh, silky and long.

Pale to medium ruby colored, the 2013 Pinot Noir offers an earthy/meaty nose to begin, morphing into dried cranberries, kirsch and lavender notes with sauteed herbs and Ceylon tea emerging in the undercurrent. Light to medium-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-filling earth, herbal and evolved red berry flavors with a compelling distinctive perfume and notable grip coming from the ripe grape and stem tannins. It finishes with great length and depth.

Medium to deep ruby colored, the 2011 Bell Hill Pinot Noir offers a black fruit nose with notes of black cherries, mulberries and blackberries plus nuances of cloves, cinnamon and anise. Medium bodied, the palate is densely packed with black berry and baking spice flavors and highly structured with a refreshing acid backbone and firm, grainy tannins, finishing long with a pleasant herbal lift.

Medium to deep ruby-purple in color, the 2010 Pinot Noir takes the level of complexity coming from this incredible vineyard up a notch! Revealing a seductive, dark and exotic fruit core of black cherries, wild blueberries and pomegranate, the nose is further perfumed by aniseed, cloves and lilacs with earthy/savory nuances. The palate offers incredible depth with layers of red and blackberry fruit interlaced with minerals, earth and savory/yeasty notes and supported by medium to firm, finely-grained tannins with just enough acid to contribute lift through the very persistent finish. Drink it 2015 to 2022+. First planted in 1997, as the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines continue to mature on this incredibly placed remote vineyard and winery positioned on an old limestone quarry, Bell Hill just gets more and more exciting. Marcel Giesen and Sherwyn Veldhuizen have raised the bar high here, not just for New Zealand but for the world. Production is tiny and sadly even tinier in 2010 due to poor flowering. Only 1.5 barrels of the Chardonnay and 4 barrels of the Pinot Noir were produced in 2010 but the wines, in a word, rock. Anyone who truly wants to understand the potential of New Zealand’s greatest terroirs must find a bottle of Bell Hill. Importer: Ronnie Sanders, Vine Street Imports, Philadelphia, PA; tel. (215) 533 9464; Terrell Wines, www.terrellwines.com