No vineyards, no problems

Despite not owning vineyards of wineries, they seek to craft individualistic wines while proving that success is about much more than just the product itself - it's about the connections, values, and authenticity that shape each bottle.

For Janine Rickards, founder of Huntress Wines in Wairarapa, it's a deeply personal endeavour. After years with predominantly small, family-owned businesses, Huntress began as a side hustle that blossomed into a small but fiercely committed business sourcing organically-farmed grapes. "Hard to believe it's been seven years since I made that first wine with a tonne of Pinot Noir," she reflects. "I started with no business plan and to be honest, I am still working on one. For me, the story needs to encompass diversity, community and kai."

With limited resources, Huntress relies on the support of a close-knit wine community, loyal friends and whanau. "Small business is about relationships, connections, honesty, and not being a dick. I don’t have a vineyard and can’t see that on the cards. I have Huntress, which I have poured so much of my energy into.” For Jannine, making her own wine is more than a business though, it’s also a way for her to “connect with the whenua (land) and protect my wairua (spirit)” while navigating a path to long-term sustainability.

Similarly, The Marlborist, founded by Richard Ellis, Stu Dudley and Dave Nash, emphasises the importance of industry relationships. By leveraging decades of experience, the trio access premium Marlborough sites, including Auntsfield and The Wrekin, which supply all of their Pinot Noir. “We are continuing to explore greater regional and subregional identity within Marlborough which is enormously exciting,” Richard says. “Early in my winemaking career, working for a larger winery, we’d taste around 50 Pinot ferments daily from across Marlborough. You very quickly build up a picture of which parts of the region give particular styles.”

He describes the Southern Valleys’ hillside sites, such as Ben Morven and Brancott Valley, as offering “cooler temperatures, heavier loess clay soils and northerly aspects that produce some of Marlborough’s most beautiful, rich and perfumed Pinots.”

Managing growth has been trickier, especially as international markets took notice of their wines early on. But Richard says good relationships, this time with their bank manager, have helped. “With land and wineries increasingly out of reach for young winemakers, models like ours make it much easier to enter the market. In time our dream is to have a small home block… just gotta walk before we run.”

Fellow Marlburians Rachel Jackson-Hoare and William Hoare have carved out their own path with Novum Wines, via tightly held commitments to quality, consistency and older vines – in their case 45-year-old Chardonnay and 30-year-old Pinot Noir vineyards. “We are essentially speeding up the process to make a great wine by a generation,” Rachel says. “Old vines produce better grapes and therefore better wines.” Though Novum doesn’t own its vineyards it does manage them, “as if they are our own”, she says. “Growing grapes for yourself takes a very different mindset than buying them. To be honest it’s one of the best decisions we made for quality, but also one of the most stressful and time-consuming.”

Choosing not to invest in land or a winery also allowed Novum to prioritise building the back end of the business. “Producing consistently good fruit, controlling the winemaking process end-to-end, and developing a strong reliable customer base have become our sustainable building blocks.”