Our
Vineyard
OUR WINEMAKER
Meet Jen Parr. An Oregon native and graduate of Stanford University, Jen has called Central Otago home since 2007 and she became a NZ citizen in 2013. She has extensive international winemaking experience including in the USA, France, South Africa and Australia in addition to 17 harvests in NZ.
Jen has been a Winemaker in Otago since 2007 and assumed her current position as Winemaker for Valli Vineyards in 2015. She also consults to several other boutique brands in Central Otago including Black Quail (from 2017) and has a small wine barrel import business.
In 2018 she was awarded the Winemaker of the Year in the NZ International Aromatic Competition and was nominated as one of six finalists for the Gourmet Traveler Magazine NZ Winemaker of the Year in 2019. Jen passed the WSET Level 3 with distinction and regularly judges NZ wine shows.
OUR VITICULTURISTS
Meet Timbo and Jason of Vutucultura
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Timbo Deaker has been involved in the Central Otago wine industry since 1992 with Alan Brady at Gibbston Valley Wines, then moving to Blenheim to study Viticulture in 1993. He returned to Chard Farm, in Central Otago for 2 years, before participating in a winery exchange program into California in 1995 and a vintage in East Sussex, UKin 1996. From there he spent time investigating Sherry production in the south of Spain before heading the Yalumba winery Barossa valley, in Australia.
He returned to Central Otago to co-manage several vineyards and establish a vine nursery operation. In 1999 he did a Post Graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln university.
Viticultura was established in 2004, with Jason Thompson
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Jason Thompson has been involved in the horticulture and viticulture industry since 1995. He has owned a successful landscaping company in London . In Australia he completed a floriculture and horticulture diploma. After spending time in the Margaret River and realising viticulture was his passion. He returned to New Zealand and did a Horticulture Science degree at Lincoln University.
In 2001 he set up a vinyard management company and in 2004 began working with Timbo on their machine contracting, and brokerage businessand in 2010 joined forces to manage vineyards as Viticultura.
VINTAGE REPORTS
The following comments are courtesy of Central Otago Pinot Ltd and from our viticulturist Gary Crabbe and are generalisations only. Please remember that the mountains separating the sub regions of Central Otago range from 1400-2000 metres causing climatic conditions to vary considerably.
Rainfall and harvest dates are from Felton Road Wines Ltd in Bannockburn (harvest date being the beginning of Pinot Noir harvest). Being tucked at the bottom of the Carrick range our rainfall figures would no doubt be higher than Bendigo or even Northburn and Cairnmuir which are only 4km away.
