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100% Martinborough

Martinborough, a small rural town with a permanent population of around 1000, lies east of the Rimutaka Range in Wairarapa. It is an hour's drive from Wellington, New Zealand's capital city and the Parkinson family's original home base. In the late 1970's careful research identified the conditions that make Martinborough ideal for viticulture - free-draining gravel river terraces, low rainfall, windy springs to control early season vine vigour, warm summers to ripen grapes, and long autumns with cool nights to preserve acid levels. The first commercial vineyards were planted in the area in 1979.

At the time of the home block purchase Martinborough had only four producing wineries and the vineyards occupied a few small pockets of land. It was a far cry from the vine-encircled town of today. Our early arrival conferred two significant advantages - the pick of some of the best sites and realistic land prices.

We believe there are two key elements to success: the site and the commitment, knowledge and experience of the people working on it. Our most important decision, which underpins everything we do, derives from this view. We produce only Martinborough wine from vineyards that we own or control. In this way we ensure that every decision having a bearing on the final wine is taken consistent with our objective of producing great Martinborough wine.

In the vineyard we pride ourselves on doing the little things well. Each vine is nurtured by hand, according to its needs and it is not uncommon to find neighbouring vines tended differently. Our vineyard management revolves around optimising sunlight on the leaves and bunches and low cropping levels to achieve concentrated, ripe flavours. Specific practices include training vines to the Vertical Shoot Positioning and Scott-Henry systems, bud and shoot thinning, correct shoot placement, leaf plucking and crop removal where necessary. We currently produce Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc from 10 hectares of vineyard.