“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.

August 2023 marks 50 years since the first vines were planted to launch the Marlborough wine industry. BRENDON BURNS looks back at some of the major challenges and monumental achievements over the past half century. These stories were first published in our Winepress Magazine in 2023.

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.”

Four pioneers of the Marlborough wine industry have been presented with Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Awards at a celebration dinner in Blenheim.

James Healy, Dave Pearce, Tessa Anderson and Murray Gibbons were recognised at The Marlborough Wine Celebration Evening, which also celebrated 50 years since the beginning of the modern Marlborough wine industry.

This year was the first year that four recipients have received the award in one year, each having demonstrated tireless dedication to the industry for the best part of five decades.

AFTER MORE than 40 years driving trucks, much of it transporting wine, Murray Gibbons is ready to hang up his keys. Murray never set out to be a truck driver, or a business owner for that matter, but when opportunity came knocking, he didn’t shy away. The only problem has been slowing down in an ever-expanding industry, he says. “I’m no businessman; just a truck driver who somehow ended up with a trucking business,” Murray says from ‘HQ’ – his tongue-in-cheek reference to the humble portacom tucked away on a corner site in Riverlands Industrial Estate, which houses operations for his company, Bulk Wine Distribution.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to leave the industry, or slow down, or downsize, but I’ve failed miserably every time,” the 67-year-old says. “Somehow I ended up buying land, more trucks, wine tankers then a tanker wash.” His work has adapted to meet the needs of an ever-evolving industry. “If there’s one thing that’s constant in the wine industry, it’s change,” Murray says.

Congratulations to Callum Haynes from Matua Wines who is the 2023 Tonnellerie de Mercurey Marlborough Young Winemaker of the Year. The competition was held on 13th September and the winners were announced at the Awards Dinner the same evening.

Callum, 29, was thrilled to take out the title “I really wanted this and have worked hard to get here” he says.

Congratulations to Zac Howell, from Indevin, who became the Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year 2023 following the competition on 6th July. 

Congratulations also goes to Laura Hammond from Cloudy Bay who came second and Liv Bishop from Delegat who came third.   The other contestants were Harry Panesar, Aaron Hood, Gordon Browne, Josh Anderson and Henrietta Steele.  They all did themselves proud, getting out of their comfort zone and tackling the various challenges with gusto. 

ALLAN SCOTT took a punt on a new job in August 1973, joining 90 bewildered workers in the dry and dusty Brancott Valley. A few months later only a dozen of the team remained, toiling to plant Montana’s first Marlborough vineyard, with little idea of what they were doing or why.

“Having to carve out a whole new life I didn’t know about was probably one of the best decisions I made,” says the recipient of the 2022 Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognises his enormous contribution over the past 50 years.

“WHAT WILL your vineyard look like in 10 years with no intervention?” That’s the question Mark Allen likes to ask vineyard owners, given the risks of trunk disease and virus, and the opportunities of replanting. “Marlborough is in a huge transitional phase at the moment,” says Mark, who was awarded a Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award in late October, recognising his relentless commitment to viticulture over the past 35 years. “Now is the time to think about the future.”

Mark began his career in kiwifruit in Tauranga but was lured over to grape vines when his good friend and neighbour Morton Brown established Morton Estate Vineyards. His kiwifruit skillsets served him well in his new field, with soils and vines and canopy management key to the success of both crops, he says.

Congratulations to Alun Kilby from Marisco in Marlborough for becoming the 2022 Tonnellerie de Mercurey NZ Young Winemaker of the Year.

Alun, 28, is Production Winemaker at Marisco. He has worked in the New Zealand wine industry for 13 years from Auckland to Central Otago before settling in Marlborough and is thrilled to take out this prestigious title.

Congratulations to Alun Kilby from Marisco, who came became the 2022 Tonnellerie de Mercurey Marlborough Young Winemaker of the Year. The competition was held on 21st September at MRC and the winners were announced at the Awards Dinner the same evening.

Congratulations to Tahryn Mason from Villa Maria in Marlborough, who became the 2022 Corteva Young Viticulturist of the Year. The National Final was held on 30 August at Indevin’s Bankhouse in Marlborough with the announcement made at the Awards Dinner the following evening.

Congratulations to Tahryn Mason from Villa Maria who became the 2022 Marlborough Corteva Young Viticulturist of the Year on 7 July at the competition held at Giesen House in Rapaura. He will now go through to the National Final which will also be held in Marlborough at the end of August.

When Dominic Pecchenino arrived at Matador Estate in 1993, Marlborough winegrowers were plagued by phylloxera and sceptical of plant science. Three decades on, the viticulturist has been recognised for his tireless work - using innovation, research and collegiality, to improve the way we grow wine.

It is hard to imagine the Marlborough landscape without hundreds of thousands of vines. But it hasn’t always been this way. In reality the march of vines across the plains and gently sloping hills of the region only began back in 1973. Prior to that Marlborough was better known for its abundance of sunshine and its production of barley and lucerne. No one could have imagined that a little known wine company based in Auckland would change the face of Marlborough forever.

Peter Russell retained his title at the 2021 Tonnellerie de Mercurey Marlborough Young Winemaker of the Year competition, taking top spot for the second year running. But the Matua winemaker says there was seriously tough competition, with the calibre of contestants climbing as the event matures. “It gets pretty intense,” he says, thankful that he had plenty of past experience to remind him to “take a breath” and take stock of each question.

Jess Wilson reckons she has the best job in the world. The 29-year-old Whitehaven viticulturalist loves the variety her role involves, satisfying both her love of horticulture and science, enjoyment of dealing with people and a good balance of indoor and outdoor work. 

Last month Jess took the title of Corteva Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year, following a competition that saw her tested on everything from trellising and irrigation to her interview and speech skills. 

When Neal and Judy Ibbotson bought a bare block of land on the outskirts of Blenheim, it was meant as a stepping stone to something bigger. Instead it was the “right place at the right time”, say the founders of Saint Clair Family Estate, 42 years after planting their first vines.