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Switzerland has a mild climate - not that we’re looking at extremes in New Zealand, but the opportunity to grow interesting and varied grapes was limited, at best, in Hans and Therese’s home country. In Marlborough, they’re free to grow almost anything they please (29 varietals and counting) - and by golly, do they do a good job of it!

Having worked for some great Oregon wineries throughout his career, in so many cases, founder Ryan Harms’ friends wanted to support him, but simply couldn’t afford to. He decided that he wasn’t going to accept that wine made in Oregon had to be so darn expensive. So he created Union Wine Co., (which makes Underwood) so he could finally make accessible wines he could share with friends and family, without sacrificing quality.

Chad and Bree Stock, a husband-and-wife team, have merged their superpowers and unique backgrounds in wine to create Ltd. +, which emerged as a collaboration with farmers in the area, inspired to develop a diverse and sustainable wine landscape. The wines, often made from less common grape varieties adopting innovative techniques, are changing preconceived notions of Oregon wine. 

Chad and Bree Stock, a husband-and-wife team, have merged their superpowers and unique backgrounds in wine to create Ltd. +, which emerged as a collaboration with farmers in the area, inspired to develop a diverse and sustainable wine landscape. The wines, often made from less common grape varieties adopting innovative techniques, are changing preconceived notions of Oregon wine.

Baby-brother brand to Sokol Blosser, this started as a project to continue releasing wines when a nasty pest called phylloxera wiped out most of their vineyards. Through luck and intention, it has evolved (see what we did there?) into a brand in it’s own right under siblings & co-presidents Alison & Alex Sokol Blosser.

Having worked for some great Oregon wineries throughout his career, in so many cases, founder Ryan Harms’ friends wanted to support him but simply couldn’t afford to. He decided that he wasn’t going to accept that wine made in Oregon had to be so darn expensive. So he created Union Wine Co., (which makes Underwood) so he could finally make accessible wines he could share with friends and family, without sacrificing quality.

Jacques de Klerk, viticulturist and winemaker at Radford Dale by day, makes tiny batches of Chenin and Pinotage under his own brand, Reverie – started the year his first daughter was born. Reverie is an exploration of old vineyard sites, old winemaking styles and an old school passion for experimenting with the potential of familiar grapes to be something completely different

So much of our approach to wine has been inspired by Pieter Walser and his BLANKbottle wines – where the bottles typically don’t show the varietal to avoid any preconceived ideas about what people think they like and don’t like when it comes to wines. “You can’t judge it by the label; it takes drinking a whole bottle to get to know the wine.” He also designs those labels.

Chad and Bree Stock, a husband-and-wife team, have merged their superpowers and unique backgrounds in wine to create Ltd. +, which emerged as a collaboration with farmers in the area, inspired to develop a diverse and sustainable wine landscape. The wines, often made from less common grape varieties adopting innovative techniques, are changing preconceived notions of Oregon wine. 

Founded in the late nineteenth century by Camille Vazart, the family is still based in the same house on Chouilly’s main street, and, after a 16-year ‘apprenticeship’ with his father, Camille’s grandson Jean-Pierre Vazart now manages the estate. He has just finished converting the vineyards to be certified organic - protecting the vineyards for future generations.

The Glover family farm spent four generations building its reputation as a dairy farmer. When, in the late 80s, Owen realized his four children were not inclined to get up at 5 am, he took inspiration from his pioneering neighbours and planted vines. That was a good call since 2 of his sons ended up working in wine. The wonderfully amiable, and perhaps a little eccentric Ben Glover now runs the farm, after more than 2 decades of making wine for some of New Zealand’s most acclaimed wineries. Gardener, janitor, chef, and dad are titles he carries along with winemaker. With the help of his beloved wife, Suzie, they’re converting the farm to organics to further their emphasis on wine growing through soil health, biodiversity, regenerative farming, and ultimately mindful consumption.

What happens when you hire a viticulturist from Penfolds and give him a sheep farm? He hires an ex-accountant studying wine and sets about planting vineyards destined for making some of the world’s best Pinot Noir (seriously, they’ve won an award) in less than 2 decades. Named after the unique limestone soils, a mix of fossils, seashells and small pebbles that have been fused together through the seismic movement of North Canterbury, Greystone has made big waves in the wine world under the stewardship of viticulturist & GM, Nick Gill and winemaker, Dom Maxwell.

A tale as old as time, women in wine baby! Matilde Poggi’s first harvest, on her family-owned 15th-century farmhouse, happened in 1984. She worked tirelessly at a time when large, quantity-driven firms and cooperatives dominated local production. Rather than following the masses, Matilde chose to concentrate on quality, revamping her vineyards to better express the area’s native grapes. Today, she is one of Italy’s most respected producers, and, in 2013 was elected President of the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti (Italian Federation of Independent Grape Growers or FIVI). More recently, she became the first Italian and first female president of the European equivalent, the European Confederation of Independent Winegrowers (CEVI).

Matilde has three daughters, to whom she’d like to pass on Le Fraghe one day (but we’re volunteering in case her girls don’t want it – wanna come?).

Having worked for some great Oregon wineries throughout his career, in so many cases, founder Ryan Harms’ friends wanted to support him, but simply couldn’t afford to. He decided that he wasn’t going to accept that wine made in Oregon had to be so darn expensive. So he created Union Wine Co., (which makes Underwood) so he could finally make accessible wines he could share with friends and family, without sacrificing quality.

Having worked for some great Oregon wineries throughout his career, in so many cases, founder Ryan Harms’ friends wanted to support him, but simply couldn’t afford to. He decided that he wasn’t going to accept that wine made in Oregon had to be so darn expensive. So he created Union Wine Co., (which makes Underwood) so he could finally make accessible wines he could share with friends and family, without sacrificing quality.

“A dope-smoking political anarchist meets an upstanding young goody-goody sportsman at a mutual friends 21st” – 35 years and 3 kids later, they are the family behind Luddite Wines. After a few years abroad, Niels and Penny returned to South Africa and found their plot of land in Bot River. Niels had a definite plan as to how he wanted to make wine and Penny knew that she wanted to farm as “green” as possible. Everything had to be about the wine. No intervention, no shortcuts and staying true to only bottling what, hand on heart was the best.

The story of Ottomani began with four friends who grew up together and turned a dream into reality. Not that far off from us girls at Crushed!

They graduated from the University of Florence with Oenology (that’s the science of wine) degrees and chose to separate for a while to get some exposure working in real wineries. With a few years of experience and some real savoir-faire in their back pockets, the boys came back together and purchased a farm of their own. In 2006, Ottomani was born with indigenous grape preservation and sustainability sowed into its mission statement.

Just unpacking the name of the brand gives you a sense of how proprietors Martin & Welma Smith view the world. Atlas, the titan of perseverance, tasked with holding up the sky represents how very seriously they take their commitment to protecting the lands on which they grow their grapes. It also speaks to the maps on which the terroirs they work with are laid out. Swifts, one of the fastest and most aerial of the bird species, represents their nimble exploration to find said terroirs. The project, which on the surface, focuses on site-specific Chardonnays from distinctive places scattered across the Western Cape of South Africa, carries with it so much more than just beautiful wines of exceptional texture (Martin is the KING of texture! – Cami). It carries with it the dreams of some of the most authentic souls we have the pleasure to know.