Damon Lovell

It has been 20 years since the inaugural Burgundy Exchange, in which a group of young Central Otago winemakers and viticulturists are selected to head to Burgundy each vintage, before French participants travel to New Zealand for a Central harvest.

Wine barrels in the original tin shed winery at Kaikino, Northland.

Josip Babich made his first barrel of wine in Northland in 1916, aged 20, having immigrated to New Zealand to join his brothers in the gum fields. His grandson David Babich, Chief Executive of Babich Wines, looks back at one of New Zealand's oldest wine stories.

You can spot the frolicsome vibe of Lauren Swift’s wine well before it reaches your glass. It’s signalled in the perky-pink feature wall of her cellar door; in the brand’s pun-cheerful tagline, ‘Swift Wines: stop and smell the rosé’; and in the trio of her “silly sausage dogs”, who lend…

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