Top Wineries of New Zealand 2024
New Zealand is truly a young wine nation. Although we can technically trace winegrowing here to 1819 when colonists and missionaries arrived with Vitis vinifera, the modern wine industry only started in the 1970s.
In practical terms, this makes us only half a century old. As such, there are some things which are part of the fabric of Europe’s wine stories but rather rare in Aotearoa; most notably, wine dynasties. In contrast to some Italian, German and French wine regions boasting 14 to sometimes 20 generations of winegrowers, we are just celebrating our third generations. Since everything has to start somewhere, The Real Review is highlighting the wine families and legacies in some of our Top Wineries of 2024.
Ivan Sutherland’s three children, Kirsty, Anna and Matt are all part of Dog Point. Matt is the most visible of the three, being general manager and he works closely with Nigel Sowman, viticulturist and Murray Cook, winemaker. The other founder, James Healy, also has a daughter who works in wine, but she runs a separate wine business with her husband: Abel Wines.
Succession is a big thing in the Mills family, who keep their family affairs rather private. The late Rolf Mills left the vineyard in the very capable hands of his and Lois’s children, with Nick Mills taking the lead as winemaker but the whole family
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
