Each winery has its own, slightly unique harvest traditions, but for the most part the idea remains the same: to celebrate the arrival of fruit from the vineyard into the winery, as well as the people behind tending to the grapes both throughout the year and during vintage.

For the most part, celebrations have been social in nature, and as such have seen some changes since the arrival of covid-19 on New Zealand shores in 2020.

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.

There’s nothing quite like a crisp wine on a hot summer’s day, and recent years have seen a rise in the status of Marlborough Rosé. ⁠

⁠With help from Nick Entwistle, Wairau River Wines and Dave Clouston, Two Rivers, here's our Guide to Marlborough Rosè [link in bio].⁠

⁠NZ Rosé Day is this Saturday, 5th of February. Have you got your glass of Marlborough Rosé ready to raise?⁠

Great wine is made in the vineyard and that is never more true than when talking about Pinot Noir. The variety, which is Marlborough’s second most planted, is renowned for being tricky. It requires the right conditions to flourish, in terms of site, soil and climate.

Many winemakers and grape growers in Marlborough will admit that getting consumers to identify with Pinot Noir from this region has been a tough ask. Why? Because mention Marlborough to wine consumers and their first thought is Sauvignon Blanc.

Pinot Noir, once described as being like a prickly house guest that you have to go out of your way to please, is Marlborough’s second most planted grape variety. With 2,722 hectares it is a long way behind the region’s flagship wine, Sauvignon Blanc, which has a total of 22,777 hectares.

In the mid 1980s, the world’s eyes and palates were drawn to a maritime province at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, thanks to startling Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough’s Wairau Plains.

Thirty-five years on, those lean and stony river flats are covered in verdant wines, producing fresh, lively and aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. But they are increasingly rivalled by neighbouring subregions, including the Southern Valleys and Awatere Valley, each bringing a unique flavour profile to the ongoing story of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

The variety is the star of today and the star of the future, says viticulturist and wine research stalwart Dominic Pecchenino, who moved to Marlborough from the US in the early 1990s. “Marlborough owns Sauvignon Blanc – we own the style, no one else can do it.” There is no “secret clone”, he says. “The fruit develops at a time when the weather conditions are perfect.”

Leading British wine writer Oz Clarke clearly recalls the moment he discovered Sauvignon Blanc. “A wine that took the whole concept of green and expanded it, stretched it and pummelled it, and gloriously reinterpreted it on a riot of gooseberry and lime zest, green apples, green pepper, sliced through with an ice-cold knife of steel.”