Anna and Jason Flowerday are our inaugural Vignerons of the Year New Zealand 2025. The perfect example of a Trans-Tasman partnership which works; mainly involving the bringing of Australian talent to New Zealand.

Anna and Jason met in Anna’s home state of South Australia when they were just starting out their wine production careers after finishing their studies. Winegrowing runs in their blood, as they say: Anna is the sixth generation of a winegrowing family in McLaren Vale (they started early) and Jason is the third generation of grape growers in Marlborough (his father still grows grapes).

New Zealand’s irresistibility—in this case, tall and handsome—drew Anna back to Jason’s home region of Marlborough after the pair had their first taste of working together in the Clare Valley. In 2003, they had the opportunity to purchase the 11-ha estate Te Whare Ra on the outskirts of Renwick. This vineyard is of historical importance to the region, having been planted in 1979 and containing old vine aromatic whites in the form of riesling and gewürztraminer. The couple moved to Marlborough, converted the vineyard to organics, planted a wider set of varieties including sauvignon blanc, syrah, chardonnay and pinots, as well as having two pairs of twins.

Vignerons of the Year NZ Jason and Anna Flowerday. Te Whare Ra Wines

Over the years, they have expanded and subsequently consolidated, adapting to market conditions and demand for sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, and currently pick fruit from their own vineyard, Jason’s father’s vineyard, and the Clayvin vineyard. The single vineyard wines bear a series of numbers which relate to their BioGro organic certification, so the home vineyard wines are all 5182. Although they are not certified biodynamic, Jason and Anna incorporate several biodynamic practices into their viticulture on a sensible basis.

On a corner right by the highway leading deeper into the Wairau Valley, Te Whare Ra’s home vineyard seems incongruously biodiverse, rudely healthy and full of life. Jason sometimes grows crops in between the rows for eating and their cows wander contentedly around the paddock next to their house (oh, did I mention that they live on the vineyard?)

One of the things which often gets overlooked is the importance of the winery: not so much that there is one, but that it is set up specifically to allow for small-batch winemaking. For Anna, having a small winery—configured to allow for small-scale projects, adaptable and adjustable areas for different winemaking techniques and open to try things out (and discard them if needed)—is key to truly understanding the land they farm.

They have participated in Auckland University trials involving native yeast populations and are not bound by dogma to either intervene or leave things alone as the wines dictate. The result of all this is the set of wines released bearing the Te Whare Ra name. They are not cult wines, they are not wildly expensive, nor are they traded on the secondary market. But they are consistently and uniformly fantastic wines with soul, finesse, ageworthiness, elegance and a sense of place. Vignerons of the Year, and very well deserved.