WineNZ Summer 18-19 (1)

kevin judd | feature
lineup of top-quality entrants — Kevin’s
first entry, a chardonnay in 2016, was
judged five stars and top wine; then, in
autumn of this year, his Marlborough pinot
noir entrant was also five stars and top wine.
The third wine entered was for the
sauvignon blanc tasting in this issue — the
results of which can be seen on page 33.
So, three entries and a trifecta of brilliance.
But for any wine industry person reading
this magazine, they will know that it doesn’t
matter how good a wine is; the key to
success in this business is selling it.
It is here that Kevin’s time at Cloudy
Bay has clearly been a big help. His CV
has opened doors in the export market,
particularly in the UK, where his first
vintage was bought by a distributor sight
unseen, based solely on Kevin’s reputation.
He now sells to a long list of countries
in Europe, North America and Asia, and
spends three months a year travelling to
schmooze with his distributors. Dealing
with a few dozen importers can be less
time-consuming than dealing with hundreds
of shops and supermarkers, but the strategy
can have its downside, an example being
that in some Nordic countries and Canada,
which have state-run monopoly importers
of alcoholic drinks, if a government penpusher
has a change of heart over which
sauvignon blanc he wants on his country’s
shelves the following year, it can be a big
kick in the guts for a Kiwi winery that had
been planning on a repeat order to send
tens of thousands of cases.
Ninety-six per cent of Greywacke wine
goes offshore, which is why the name
doesn’t have a huge profile at home.
However, despite Kevin’s protestations
when he started Greywacke that he
wanted to keep the business small, with
no marketing manager and no HR manager,
Greywacke is now classed as a mediumsized
winery, in the same category as
Cloudy Bay — albeit at different ends of
the medium spectrum.
It was a nervous time in the early
Greywacke days. While Kevin’s reputation
assisted the venture, it was the time of the
world financial crisis, and finding importers
for a new brand in many markets wasn’t a
walk in the park.
But it all came together over the course
of a few nerve-racking years. Greywacke
consistently delivers quality wines, and
success was achieved without the need for
corporate marketing BS. The payroll still
only has half a dozen names on it, not all
of them working full-time, and no HR or
marketing manager.
Greywacke has a unique, agile business
model, which is perfect for this time, just
as Cloudy Bay’s model was exactly what
was needed for the 1980s.
A brief history
Cloudy Bay was established in
the eighties — a time when
the government was paying
grape growers $5000 an acre
to pull out vines.
West Australian winemaker David
Hohnen was inspired by an early bottle
of sauvignon blanc a Kiwi winemaker
had given to him, and he arrived in New
Zealand in 1984, borrowed $1 million at
23.5 per cent interest, hired Kevin Judd
— then a 25-year-old winemaker with
Selaks — and Cloudy Bay was born.
David came up with the idea for the
branding, and with his photographer’s hat
on, Kevin shot a picture of the Richmond
Range, which was converted into the
iconic bottle label with the help of a
graphic artist.
Cloudy Bay wasn’t the first company
to plant sauvignon blanc vines in
Marlborough – Montana Wine Company’s
Brancott vineyard was planted in
1975, but Cloudy Bay was among the
first five and, for reasons that aren’t
completely clear, was the one that went
on to be a stellar success, to the point
that the words “Cloudy Bay” and “New
Zealand sauvignon blanc” were virtually
interchangeable in the UK during the
heady years of the 1990s.
Champagne producer Veuve Clicquot
bought a majority share in Cloudy Bay
in1990, then mopped up Mark Hohnen’s
final 10 per cent, then finally David
Hohnen’s remaining 20 per cent in the
early 2000s. In 1987
Veuve Cliquot had
itself been bought
by LVMH Moët
Hennessy Louis
Vuitton SE, the
world’s largest luxury
goods group).
David is a clever
man, says Kevin, and
was prepared to take
a risk at a time when
the outcome was far
from certain. The
two are still in touch
occasionally, with
Kevin having recently
sent a congratulatory
email to David after he
became a member of
the Order of Australia
for his services to
the Australian wine
industry and as a promoter of the Margaret
River region.
After the sale, David re-focused on his
Australian businesses and Kevin stayed
on at Cloudy Bay, seeing the company
through its 25th vintage, before leaving
in 2009 to establish Greywacke.
LVHM has continued to invest in
Cloudy Bay, adding several new wines
to the range. In 2010 Te Wahi Pinot Noir
was introduced, marking its expansion
outside of Marlborough, as the fruit was
sourced from Central Otago. In 2013
and 2014, Cloudy Bay bought its own
vineyards in Central Otago.
While the sale of local wineries overseas
often sees them change dramatically
(Kim Crawford, Montana, to name but
two), Cloudy Bay is at the better end of
the spectrum of wineries with overseas
owners. The winery is a member of the
Appellation Marlborough Wine group,
which is striving to maintain the quality
reputation of Marlborough sauvignon
blanc, and it maintains high retail prices
at home and abroad, unlike some of the
other big international businesses involved
in the Marlborough wine trade which
have been forcing wine prices ever lower
with bulk (bladder) exports into foreign
markets and importing cheap Australian
sauvignon blanc for the New Zealand
market, undercutting local producers.
Cloudy Bay has an impressive cellar
door in Marlborough, and recently opened
The Cloudy Bay Shed in Central Otago.
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