Nobilo Winemakers


Winemaking Introduction

The winemaking team comprises of three teams; one based at the Huapai, Auckland Winery, one at Drylands Winery in Marlborough and the third at the Corner 50 winery in Hawke's Bay. The bottling facility is based in Huapai, where, on average 50,000 bottles of wine are produced each day. All varieties, styles and prices points are bottled, labeled and packed at this facility. Warehousing is situated alongside the production operation. Our Winemakers Our Vitculturists
Our Winemakers
			Darryl Woolley Group Winemaking & Viticultural Manager Based at Drylands Winery, Marlborough Darryl continues to be responsible for the overall excellent standard of all the wines including the top quality Sauvignon Blancs for which Nobilo, Selaks and Drylands labels are renown. In the early 1980's, Darryl was one of the original pioneers of this now high profile and indeed, high demand variety. His fundamental wine background and training comes from the Clare Valley in South Australia, where he was responsible for some of their finest wines. Darryl was originally a winemaker at the prestige Leasingham Winery in the Clare Valley, South Australia from 1972 until 1977. He worked closely with Tim Knappstein (now hailed as one of Australia's top winemakers) for many years whilst studying microbiology at the Adelaide University. He then went on to set up a contract bottling and winemaking operation at Fareham Estate also in the Clare Valley. In 1980, after a three month extended wine holiday in New Zealand, and a period as winemaker at Clarevale Co-operative in the Clare Valley, he returned to New Zealand at the invitation of a leading wine operation at the time, Corbans Wines. He excelled himself as Gisborne's (now hailed as the Chardonnay Capital of NZ) Wine Manager and Winemaker for Corbans until 1985. He then moved to Selaks Wines later the same year. In September 1998, Nobilo Vintners, then a family business with four generations of winemaking and viticulture expertise, purchased the successful Selak winery, to form a strong association within the New Zealand wine industry. With the successful Selaks and Drylands brands, Darryl Woolley, their Chief Winemaker at the time, who had quickly made a name for himself in producing some the country's top Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs, Chardonnays and Rieslings, was also 'inherited', and today continues to conduct the winemaking orchestra at Nobilo Wine Group. He and his team are responsible for numerous international and local wine Trophies, Gold medals and top wine-writer accolades. His own personal passion is producing Riesling of all styles and sweetness. He is considered to be one of New Zealand's top creators and initial 'developers' of classic New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Back to the top

	Alistair McIntosh Group Senior Winemaker Based at Drylands Winery, Marlborough Alistair finished his secondary education at Huntly College and continued his studies in Palmerston North at Massey University where, in 1984, he graduated with a Bachelor of Technology degree, majoring in Food Technology. Alistair started his career as a brewer, working for DB Breweries in New Zealand for a couple of years. He then left for Europe. Alistair returned to New Zealand in 1989 after an extensive overseas trip and joined Montana Wines as a trainee winemaker in Auckland. After a stint in Gisborne, he returned to Auckland where he was promoted to the position of winemaker. In 1996, he undertook a three-week study trip to Portugal to examine and contribute to the continuing development of different corks. A year later he was promoted to position of senior winemaker, with the added responsibility of running the winery and laboratory. He was responsible for all staff and winemaking onsite at the Auckland winery, which included Methode Champagne production and the blending of wine in preparation for bottling. In 1998 he took on added responsibility with the strategic forecasting, sourcing and buying of imported bulk wines for Montana and then blending and finishing of these wines to meet bottling demands. He has travelled extensively to Chile, Argentina, Australia and Europe to visit vineyards, cellars and wineries to ensure quality consistency of the imported bulk wines. He joined Nobilo Wine Group in January 2003 as Group Senior Winemaker, responsible for all winemaking from grapes to bottling at all four Nobilo winemaking facilities. Since joining Nobilo Wine Group he has been involved in further development of the winemaking styles and ensuring their consistency, to enable the company to continue its rapid growth internationally. Back to the top


	David Edmonds Senior Winemaker Based at Drylands Winery, Marlborough A Lincoln University graduate, David headed north after his studies to put it all into practice at Esk Valley Estate, based in Hawkes Bay in 1996. He focused on red Bordeaux varieties assisting with the production of their sauvignon blanc and chardonnay wines as well. After experiencing a Northern Hemisphere vintage at De Loach Vineyards in Santa Rosa, Southern California, working with zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay styles, he returned to one of Hawkes Bay leading wineries, CJ Pask to assist with the production of their award-winning red wines and chardonnay. He continued to gain experience with other leading Hawkes Bay wineries making pinot noir, merlot and red blends at various leading wineries. He joined Nobilo Wine Group as Senior Winemaker in March 2002, after making excellent wine for the prestigious Sileni Estate in Hawkes Bay with further overseas experience in Germany. Back to the top


	Katrina Sutherland Winemaker / Winery Manager Based at Drylands Winery, Marlborough A far cry from wine-sipping and sniffing, Katrina was brought up on a sheep farm in Southland, New Zealand's South Island. Both her parents enjoyed wine, so wine was always a part of her upbringing. Graduating from a single sip, to a tiny liqueur glass to finally, a full wine glass, Katrina began her 'wine trek' in Queenstown, where she worked at a local hotel, after school. As all good Kiwis do, Katrina left on her 'big OE' (Overseas Experience, as it is called in NZ), where she spent most of her time travelling through the winemaking regions of France, Italy and Germany. Her return trip to New Zealand, from Budapest to Hong Kong via Russia and China sparked off an interest in the Russian language and this led her to studying a BA at Otago University in Dunedin, majoring in Russian. It was during another summer holiday, whilst visiting Martinborough, north east of Wellington (New Zealand's capital), that the wine spark was finally lit. Not much later, she found herself with other wine enthusiasts, enrolled in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University in Christchurch. The course is split evenly between viticulture and winemaking along with plenty of practice at wine tasting. Katrina's enjoyed a couple of vintages as a Cellar Hand with Montana in Marlborough. The travel bug bit once again and she found herself working in Oregon in the USA, learning about Pinot Noir. With more overseas experience in France and a period with another leading New Zealand winemaker, Villa Maria, Katrina was ready for the current challenge she now holds, as Assistant Winemaker at Nobilo Wine Group. Katrina enjoys being part of a team that works together and as wine and food have always been a natural part of her life, she is continuously in search of the ultimate wine and food matches. Katrina recently enjoyed an enriching 2002 northern hemisphere vintage experience, at St Emilion in Bordeaux, perfecting the art of producing world class merlot and red blends. Her southern hemisphere vintage 2002 was spent at home in sunny Gisborne (nicknamed 'Chardonnay Capital' of New Zealand), overseeing the production of Gisborne fruit at a new contract processing plant. Back to the top


	Brett Fullerton Winemaker / Winery Manager Based at Corner 50 Winery, Hawkes Bay Brett's first love of wine goes back to the mid 1980's, whilst doing school holiday stints each vintage at Matua Valley Wines, one of New Zealand's reputable wineries, based in West Auckland. He then worked three full-time vintages with Matua Valley from 1989-1991 before heading off to the Northern Hemisphere to the Napa Valley in California for the later September/October 1991 vintage. He returned from this wonderful experience to join Selaks Wines as Cellar Hand in 1992, working at their Auckland Winery before joining the Drylands Winery in Marlborough, when that was established in 1995. He took leave to complete the Graduate Diploma in Oenology, at the University of Adelaide. Brett, too, was 'inherited' by Nobilo Vintners from the Selaks purchase, in 1998. He then took on the role of Assistant Winemaker at Nobilo Wines, before becoming the Senior Winemaker towards the end of 1999. Back to the top



		c Constellation New Zealand 2008