To the south and west the Short Hills Bench is bounded by the dolomite capped rock-face of the Niagara Escarpment while its northern boundary is an open plain that ends at the top of a series of steps leading to Lake Ontario.
The Short Hills Bench is a shale and limestone basin, 30 – 40 feet (12 m) of glacial clay and silt and a 1 – 2-foot (0.61 m) mixture of clay-mixed top soil.
Air and water flows to the east and the north but the area's wine-grape growers are required to under-drain their vineyards to remove excess moisture from the slow drying clay.
It is typical for vines to produce small yields of tiny berries with high concentrations of sugars, acids, minerals and other flavour compounds.
During the winter it is the relatively high elevation of the Short Hills Bench which allows it to benefit from rising warm air currents blowing south off Lake Ontario, in much the same way as the lower lying coastal sub-appellations do.