Our Philosophy

1. Quality:

We've been described as being "on the lunatic fringe of the quality control spectrum" - an epithet of which we are proud. We're ferociously committed as a company to pursuing a world-class level of excellence in everything we do. So committed are we to this principle that we declassified all of our first two vintages – and often declassify half of our wines – selling it off in bulk at a loss.

2. Tradition:

We are also really serious about reviving the traditions of old - something that has been lost in the New World's rush to industrialise and mechanise this beautiful industry. We're determined to create a wine culture that is decidedly Old World – first and foremost, we won't use machine leaf pluckers or machine harvesters unless there's an absolute crisis - we believe that things are better done by hand are almost better than things done by machine, secondly we believe we've staked the future of developing a set of wines that are decidedly European in style and absolutely food-friendly (read on about the "doughnut hand-grenade" below),thirdly, we are re-introducing many of the great traditions of Europe in our day to day life - composting of grape material to be returned to the vineyards, classical music on the vineyard, traditional songs and great feasts under the trees during harvest, and a down-to-earth respect for every one of our team - including our 50 or so pickers during harvest. Call us eccentric, but we also believe in the principle that "right minds and hearts create right wine". That's one reason why we take time out to enjoy our lunches together and our weekends with our families - and why Martyn plays Rachmaninov to the vines every morning before work. We believe firmly that if we are true to our values, our wines will be beautiful and our customers will understand what we are striving to achieve… and if we cut corners, for money or fame, we won't be around in 50 years time.

3. Small and Artisanal:

We will always remain a small wine company that makes artisanal, handcrafted and wines that scream individuality. That is the commitment we made as a family 10 years ago when we sold our house and invested everything we had in this endeavour. It would be so easy for us to make formulaic, recipe wines - and we'd no doubt make a lot more money… but then there would always be a sense of regret about what we'd missed out on.

4. Family and Fun:

We are owned by a family and run like one as well - with a wonderfully closely knit team who enjoy each other both in and outside of the work place. We have a fishing boat, hunting sleep out and other outlets that we all enjoy together. Management meetings are informal and (unless it's raining) always held outside under the trees amongst the vines accompanied by great food and wine. We believe in the importance of humour to such an extent that we have created the formal position of "Fun Meister", a staff-member who is responsible for figuring out ways to make us take life less seriously and have a bit of fun while we work.

Part of our company's family culture is to become integrally involved in our local community - and we're always looking for ways to do that with a wide range of Gravitas Trophies. This year we're sponsoring a Trophy and prize money for the local winemaking/viticultural student who shows the most promise for the future. We're going to launch five more trophies for various activities in the community by the end of the year.

5. A Company with a Radical Customer (and Distributor)-centred Model:

We have a radical model for our company – which is to place the customer and our distribution partners at the very heart of our operations – This means that we sponser luxury weekends on the vineyard for customers who help us with things such as winery and label design, we are reserving a place on our board for a customer (she or he will be chosen by other customers through our website, rotating every year and will join us for a week trip to NZ to attend every board meeting). We're also about to launch a "rent-a-vine scheme" whereby our customers can rent some of our vines, pick the grapes and help make the wine – we'll even put their own label on the bottle. As for our distributor partners – we spent three years sending 7,000 emails around the world to prospective partners before deciding on our current 33. And because of this intensive research, we've had to change only one in our entire history. We can produce the best wine in the world, but if our partners can't communicate this to our customers, we won't succeed as a company.