“The Marlborough wine industry has been extremely kind to me,” says James Healy, 32 years after he pulled up in an iridescent green Holden Premier packed with his family and belongings.

James had cut his oenological teeth with Corbans in Auckland and Gisborne, but found his people and place at Cloudy Bay when he started there in 1991. Experimentation was embraced, the work was “vital and free”, and his colleagues – including viticulturist Ivan Sutherland and winemaker Kevin Judd – were kindred spirits in crafting wines. “It was just a perfect bunch of people together,” says James, who was awarded a Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award in November last year, for his extraordinary contribution to the region’s wine industry. “If you had an idea, you just tried it out on a few barrels. You just did it. Which fits completely with how I feel. As soon as you start getting to, ‘we’ve always done it like that’, I feel like shooting myself.”

When Tessa Anderson raised the idea of a Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award, she never dreamed she would one day receive one.

“I would like to reiterate that it was for services, not for consumption,” she says with a characteristically warm laugh, having been recognised for 27 years telling extraordinary stories of the Marlborough wine industry – including as wine reporter at The Marlborough Express, a longstanding editor of Winepress magazine and Winegrower magazine, and the author of two books – Jane Hunter, Growing a Legacy, and 50 Years, 50 Stories, which was released this year to commemorate a half century of wine in the region.

Dave Pearce loved chess as a kid, which perhaps explains his habit of looking ahead before making a move.

It’s the kind of considered foresight that saw him and a handful of others launch the groundbreaking Screwcap Initiative in 2001, and made Grove Mill the world’s first carbon neutral winery in 2006, having already pioneered the use of a eucalypt woodlot for winery wastewater.

Years later Dave adopted the term “the bleeding edge” to describe the times people considered him “crazy” for bypassing the status quo. “I spent I don’t know how many years being ‘an idiot’ because I thought carbon zero was a good idea,” he says. “It’s great to be at the bleeding edge, but generally you bleed.”

A wine made only once every few years was this year crowned the Barrel Finance & Logistics Champion Sweet Wine at the Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect.

Wairau River Reserve Botrytised Riesling 2022 picked up the trophy, after a warm, humid growing season resulted in optimal fruit to make the wine.

Winemaker Mary Schneier says to win the trophy with a wine they only have limited opportunities to produce was exciting for the team.

She shared a little about the wine, including what you might like to pair it with this summer…

One of Marlborough’s pioneering winemaking companies has picked up the trophy for the region’s flagship wine at the 2023 Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect.

Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc 2023 was presented the WineWorks Champion Current Vintage Sauvignon Blanc trophy at the celebration evening, which was also a celebration of 50 years of modern winemaking in Marlborough.

Chief winemaker Nick Entwistle says the wine is made using grapes from their ‘Home Block’, the first vineyard block established by the Rose Family in 1978.

To receive the award in this milestone year was special for the team. He shared with us a little about what sets the wine apart…

The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival has taken a delicious leap forward this week, confirming more top chefs and – in a ‘festival-first’ – adding pop-up restaurants to the programme.

Wine Marlborough Ltd General Manager Marcus Pickens is delighted to announce Michael Meredith, Matt Lambert, Andy Hearnden and Sam Webb are firmly on the festival menu. These award-winning, celebrated chefs are set to inspire, entertain and share a few new culinary tricks in the Culinary Pavilion throughout the day.