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Life Between the Vines: A Conversation with Barker’s Marque – Waverley Vineyard

“What is the key to making great wine in New Zealand? Terroir. Terroir. Terroir. And Blind River. And Marlborough. Not to mention passion, heart and focus. I met up with Barker’s Marque Winery Co-Proprietor Gillett Johnson to learn more about these New Zealand wines. Gillett along with his partner and Simon Barker have taken Sauvignon Blanc to its highest level. My eyes have been opened and my palate made happy.” Ray Fister.

About Barker’s Marque – Waverley Vineyard

Our philosophy has always been rooted in the vineyard: grow exceptional fruit, intervene as little as possible, and allow each part of Waverley to express its own character. From one vineyard have emerged distinctly different expressions of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, alongside our estate Riesling.

Listen to the podcast episode.

At Barker’s Marque – Waverley Vineyards, we don’t make just one Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. From our single estate vineyard in Blind River, the vineyard invites us to craft four distinct expressions: Arona, Three Brooms, The Loop, and ranga.ranga. Four wines, four personalities, all shaped by the similar coastal terroir and our minimal-intervention approach.

Watch the podcast episode.

May We Suggest…

Arona Sauvignon Blanc
The riper, more tropical and exotic side of Barker’s Marque, features a wide spectrum of flavours. Ripe stone-fruit and pineapple with lifted floral notes filling out the edges. A fruity alternative to the many grapefruit bombs available. 

The Loop Sauvignon Blanc
Wow! Simply Wow! The intensity here is incredible and it starts with wet stone minerality and a rich smokiness. It is also amazingly delicate and complex, with citrus blossom, elderflower, gooseberry and nettle. It’s almost sensory overload, with so many layers and so much interest. 

ranga.ranga Sauvignon Blanc
Estate grown and “Old School”. The crisp citric flavors carry a solid core of lemon grass, lime zest, the tang of cut lawn, plus a hint of dried herbs and a touch of Awatere minerality. And it packs a fresh, zingy punch on the finish that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Three Brooms Sauvignon Blanc
Our single singie vineyard is elegant and intense, creamy and full of fruit. Lower yields, French yeast, long and very cold fermentation and our version of battonage produce a wine of lush flavors, true elegance, varietal definition, classic Awatere minerality and a weighty mid-palate. 

Listen to Gillett defining the phrase “New World Battonage” for Three Brooms.

About Ray Fister & Life Between the Vines

Ray Fister is the creator and host of Life Between the Vines, a wine podcast built around a simple idea: wine doesn’t have to be intimidating. Through conversations with winery owners, winemakers and wine professionals, Ray brings listeners into the stories, personalities and places behind the bottle. Ray has been producing Life Between the Vines since 2008 and has recorded more than 1,400 interviews with winery owners, winemakers and wine-industry professionals. He is also a wine contributor to NPR Milwaukee’s WUWM Lake Effect and the author of Vino Lingo.

A big thank you to Ray for the conversation – and for giving us the opportunity to share a little more of the Waverley story.

Find Our Wines

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Barkers Marque – Waverley Vineyards offers award-winning wines from Marlborough, New Zealand. These are the kind of wines that enthusiasts are looking for from this land of discovery – clean, fresh, intense and exotic wines of the highest caliber. They come from unique terroir with a unique profile. Barker’s Marque – Waverley Vineyards – nestled between the bluffs of Blind River, a half mile from the sea in the cooler Awatere Valley – is home to our award-winning family of Estate Grown and Certified Sustainable wines. Our brands from Waverley Vineyard are: ranga.ranga, The Loop, Arona, and Three Brooms 

These Sauvignon Blancs are crafted by using grapes from the winery’s Waverley vineyard in Blind River, Marlborough. The original vision was to plant grapes on land that would produce wines that stand out from the crowd. The wines are rich with complex flavors of honeydew melon, orchard fruits, tropical fruits, lemon grass, fine minerality, and ripe citrus flavors, with no aspect overpowering the others. Attaining this level of layers and flavor in the wine is truly a testament to artful winemaking and dedication to creating wines of distinction. So you think you know Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc?

The Story

Our four distinctive Sauvignon Blancs and single estate Riesling, represent the finest wines in the region. Driven by a passion for wine, and for bringing exceptional quality to our customers, our aim is to enjoy “the ride” while building our wine business. We value integrity, openness and transparency in everything we do. We keep things focused and simple and plan to continue what we are doing for many years to come. Setting out to make a wine of distinction was our goal – only to find that if we were to be true to making the best “wine” we would need to listen to the vineyard – which told us that there were 4 distinguishable wines that were present. Using his vast international winemaking experience, and Vanessa’s viticultural expertise, 4 SB’s emerged from the one contiguous vineyard we planted in 2004 and 2005 Our price advantage comes from building direct and trusted partnership, one route to market, and being on the ground. Because we grow, make, and import the wine to the U.S, we can offer superior value. The New Zealand branch can be found on the Waverley Vineyard in Blind River on the southeastern corner of Marlborough’s wine growing region. Simon Barker, our wine- maker, and his viticulturalist wife Vanessa live here with their family, to keep a daily eye on vineyards and winemaking.

An Influential Start

Gillett Johnson, CEO

Gillett Johnson grew up in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York where he was surrounded by vineyards. While he did not begin his career in the wine industry, he knew from the time he was in college that it would one day be how he spent his professional life; living and loving wine. “The idea of nature and nurture working together cannot be lost when you grow up in a place like the Finger Lakes,” Gillett said. “There were influences, like the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, where they developed the Geneva Double Canopy vine growing system. Several universities nearby with great people had an influence, and our region drank wine early on.”  He earned his International Business degree at The American University in Paris.

Gillett loves the business he is in, and says a good day is when everything goes right. “When we have connected all the disciplines in the business and I’ve made good consumer, financial, and creative decisions. Seeing our partners enthusiasm is a good day. And when a consumer says they like our wines we are flattered and always will be,” he said. Gillett’s personal business philosophy is to get wines to market that have great stories, and wines that are brought to market with uncompromising execution at every level.

Today, Gillett has three partnerships with vineyards including one where he is an owner. “Whether I am a direct owner or not, everything for me is a partnership,” Gillett said. “To bring a wine to market, I look for a great value wine as well as like-minded partners. Building a wine brand is a life-long goal for them, and often it’s a multi-generational discipline. Very few people get lucky, and their wine brand grows fast, but to make it, it usually requires stamina and dedication for the long haul. – it’s the journey not the destination stupid” “Sales of US wines in the United States account for two thirds of national sales. “There are 9,600 wineries in the U.S., and if each makes five wines—that’s a lot of competition,” Gillett said. “With imports being a little over a third of the U.S. wine sales, that means there are about 100,000 products vying for shelf space.”

Simon Barker, COO

Simon is a winemaker who arrived in Marlborough nearly twenty years ago and, quite simply, didn’t leave.  He doesn’t treat making Barkers Marque’s wines as a job; rather a way of life.  Basically, he is living the dream of being a vigneron in one of the most beautiful winemaking regions in the world, and that is saying something as areas where wine is produced tend to be rather beautiful.

Since arriving in Marlborough Simon has honed his craft and changed as a winemaker from someone who wants to influence how the wine tastes by using every winemaking tool in the book to a winemaker who lives by Barkers Marque’s mantra of “minimal intervention” and is a custodian of flavour rather than a chef du vin.  The fruit really is the hero in his wines. Winemaking ventures at Folie a Deux (1990) in Napa, several Domaine’s in France, Gentilini on the Greek island of Cephalonia and even Chapel Down in England has given him a broad look at winemaking techniques and philosophies but, apart from Marlborough, his most important time was spent at Pascal Jolivet in Sancerre.  Here he learned the difference between Old and New world Sauvignon Blanc and how the line between the two can be subtly blurred.

Marlborough and, more particularly, the Blind River area of the Awatere Valley is now his passion and bringing wines from there to the world is what drives him to continue to evolve as a winemaker.  He does this by not fixing what isn’t broke whilst watching what is happening at the cutting edge of modern winemaking and incorporating it where appropriate.  He remains, and will always be, a student of all things Sauvignon Blanc.

Keys To Their Success

Simon and Gillett love their jobs and don’t miss a beat when it comes to winemaking and the delivery route to market.  They work closely with their wholesalers understanding, market conditions, category trends, as well as quality and volumetric needs of their partners.  Looking towards the horizon and not at the ground is also a key element of staying out ahead of the pitfalls that dot the wine-scape.  They are realistic and honest with the information they share together and with the company, resulting in policy and execution based on factual evidence.  Most of all they have strong, loving and supportive families that energize their efforts.