Our History

We are owned by a 5th generation NZ family of New Zealanders who have lived in a range of countries around the world before returning to New Zealand.

We were established a decade ago after a massive four year search around the globe, which took us 50,000 km across Europe, California, Australia and New Zealand, for the perfect vineyard site.We felt that this was the most important decision of the next 50 years – if one chooses the right vineyard site, everything else will fall into place, if not, nothing can fix this mistake. So, in the end we looked at a short-list of 100 sites, in many cases, sending soils to the US for detailed analysis.

The top five sites were in Northern Italy (Alto Adige), Southern Spain (Andalucia), California (Carmel Valley) and New Zealand (Waiheke Island and Marlborough). We eventually settled on the top end of the valley in Marlborough (we were one of the first to plant there) because of its climate (huge range of day-night temperatures), soils (very free draining alluvial gravels) and the unrivalled potential for wine tourism.

Our wines have stormed the world's wine markets and achieved a spectacular following in 33 markets around the globe – so we must have made a good choice with Marlborough.

Our first serious harvest was not until 2001 and growth since then has been exponential. In 2004/5 we tripled production of our wines and this year will double them again.