Greywacke

Very few people can claim to being part of events that changed a whole industry globally. Kevin Judd can certainly raise his hand: since joining Cloudy Bay as a founding winemaker he played, over the company’s 25 first vintages, a key role in defining the style that led to its global success and to the world-wide recognition of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Born in England, he grew up in Australia, where he studied winemaking and started his career. But it was in New Zealand that he found his true landscape, both professional and personal.

In 2009 Judd, together with wife Kimberley, founded their family project at the heart of Marlborough’s Omaka Valley, overlooking some of the region’s most dramatic landscapes. He named the project Greywacke, after the drab grey stone found everywhere in New Zealand, and which consists of layers of grey sandstone and darker mudstone (argillite).

Two varieties, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, constitute the company’s core range, with limited releases of Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Gris complementing the line-up.

Each variety is grown and vinified with a common objective of delivering concentration of flavour and a harmonious balance of texture and acidity. Through minimal intervention winemaking and with a particular atonement to the character of each grape, Greywacke produced wines of great expressiveness and subtle seductiveness. Wild (indigenous) yeast fermentations are used extensively to incorporate savouriness to the flavour profile and build on the structure and intensity of mouthfeel.

In May 2021, Richelle Tyney, a Nelson-born oenology graduate, joined Greywacke as head winemaker after honing her craft at St Hallett (Barossa, Australia) and Spy Valley (Marlborough). Her low intervention approach is perfectly aligned with the principles upon which the Judds founded the estate. Both as a winemaker and brand ambassador she now travels the world to spread the word about Greywacke wines and their unique ‘turangawaewae’ (Maori: a place to stand).