Whitehaven

Dropping anchor after crossing the Pacific

In the early 1990s New Zealanders Greg and Sue White put aside their careers in finance and set out to sea. Boarding the 48-foot yacht Chanticleer in Auckland, they roamed the Pacific for two years. Their daughter Samantha spent the first six months of her life on board.

Sheltering from the Pacific hurricane season, they found refuge in the Marlborough Sounds at the northern tip of the South Island: calm waters, deep bays and, beyond them, the vineyards of Marlborough. There the couple ended their voyage and began to dream a new dream.

A family name, a name for a haven

In 1994 they founded a winery in Marlborough and named it Whitehaven, combining the family name “White” with “haven”, the quiet harbour where they had dropped anchor. The anchor emblem on every label still tells of a winery that began at sea.

Greg’s meticulousness from his finance career and Sue’s tireless energy made a fine match. Winemaker Simon Waghorn joined them, and their second vintage, the 1995, won a trophy straight away and made their name.

On Marlborough’s “Golden Mile”

In 2002 Whitehaven moved to land on Rapaura Road that had been an apple orchard — Marlborough’s “Golden Mile”, lined with renowned wineries. Loved early in the US market too, it became the first New Zealand wine to appear on the list of top 100 wines in American restaurants.

Greg has passed away, but Sue White still leads the dream they shared. In 2020 their daughter Samantha, who grew up aboard the yacht, joined the family company with her husband Josh. A family story that began on a yacht is now passing to the next generation.

The bay of a proposal: Mansion House Bay

Before Whitehaven was born, there was the place where Greg proposed to Sue: Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf off Auckland. Its mansion is a landmark of New Zealand history, bought in 1862 by Sir George Grey, a former Governor of New Zealand, who lived there until 1888 and introduced all kinds of trees and animals.

The couple named a wine after the sea where their story began. Mansion House Bay is Whitehaven’s own second label — Whitehaven’s younger sibling, so to speak. Its grapes are 100% from Marlborough.

Marlborough, every day

The Sauvignon Blanc is harvested in the cool of the evening, with skin contact kept to a minimum, and fermented at low temperature in stainless steel. Without oak, grapefruit, lime, passion fruit and herbs come through transparently. Residual sugar in the 2024 vintage is 2.4 g per litre, for a clean, dry finish. The Pinot Noir, mainly from the Omaka and Awatere valleys, spends about ten months largely in older French oak, gaining cherry, hazelnut and soft tannins. Add the Pinot Gris, and this is a line-up that brings Marlborough to the everyday table.

Stars the critics gave first

• Mansion House Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2020 — Sam Kim (Wine Orbit) 93 points
• Mansion House Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2019 — Sam Kim (Wine Orbit) 91 points
• Mansion House Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2018 — Sam Kim (Wine Orbit) 91 points
• Mansion House Bay Pinot Noir 2020 — Sam Kim (Wine Orbit) 91 points (4.5 stars)

A wine dedicated by a family who crossed the Pacific to the sea of their proposal: Mansion House Bay.