The New Zealand wine industry

Welcome to a land of open spaces.

Where the pure elements are embodied in every drop of wine. Where each vine is embraced by the forces of nature and enriched by the sea.

New Zealand wine tastes like it does because it’s about our place, this young, dramatic landscape, youthful soils, and maritime influence, where every vine is touched by the ocean. And on top of that, we’re an island nation miles away from anywhere else. In the world of wine, there’s nothing like it. It’s entirely unique. Where distinct landscapes yield some of the world’s most invigorating new wines, and the land is treated with care and respect, now and for generations to come. We’re not denuding nature, we actually feel like we’re adding something back and making sure that this is something for the future. The long-term benefits of treating the land better is that the land treats you better.

Welcome to a country of open hearts, where doing the right thing comes naturally, and unique character always shines through. It’s about pono. Pono is about integrity. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to and being trustworthy, open, and honest. Where collaboration and community allow knowledge to thrive, and family wines grow stronger with each generation. We’re now known as one of the best wine-producing regions in the world, and we now have something that we’re going to be handing on to another generation, who are going to expand on that and take it into the future. And that’s extremely important to us. Welcome to a country of open minds, where tradition and innovation are blended to perfection, and simplicity builds complexity.

When we started out with wine in New Zealand, we didn’t have hundreds of years of history like they do in France, so we needed to be innovative. We needed to experiment with varietals, we needed to experiment with different sites. Probably the most classic example is Sauvignon blanc in Marlborough. The innovation there was to bring that grape to grow it in the stony, bony soils, and in doing that we discovered that the grape expresses itself completely different. It has the essence of New Zealand in it. When you taste a glass of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, you know exactly where it comes from. To me, that defines a great wine region in the world.

Where treading lightly and not interfering allows what’s good to be at its very best, and the pioneering spirit delivers inspiring results. Well, in 1961, when I first started making wine in New Zealand, if you wanted to be a winemaker you had to have a real passion for it. You had to be innovative and think for yourself. So that created a great foundation for us. It’s amazing, in virtually one generation we’ve gone from nothing into a world-class wine industry. Welcome to New Zealand, where our wine embodies the very essence of our land and people.

Here, we’re going to make great wine here, full stop.