Grant Taylor is one of New Zealand’s most awarded winemakers, earning a string of gold medal and trophy accolades throughout his long career. However, none surpasses winning the trophy for ‘Best Pinot Noir’ at a major International Wine Competition in London an unprecedented four times – a feat achieved by no other winemaker in the world. Grant established Valli in 1998 after eighteen years of winemaking experience in the USA, Australia, France, and New Zealand. His philosophy was to highlight the differences between subregions in Otago.
Born in Otago, Grant was educated at Lincoln College in Canterbury. In 1980, he helped establish Pine Ridge Winery in Napa, California and made wine there until 1986. In 1987, he helped build another Napa winery, Domaine Napa, and worked there as head winemaker until 1993. Lured back to Otago in 1993 by the promise of large and plentiful trout, clean air, fewer people and the potential he saw for Otago wines, Grant signed on as winemaker for Gibbston Valley Wines. At that time, only 20 hectares of grapes were planted in Otago; today there are over 2000.
As a pioneering winemaker in Otago, Grant produced the first vintages for many of the region’s well-known labels including Mt Difficulty, Felton Road, Carrick, Peregrine, Mount Edward, Hawkshead, Mondillo, Bald Hills, and Rockburn. Grant has kept his American ties along the way, helping to establish Oregon’s renowned Pinot Noir producing winery, Archery Summit, in 1995. He has consulted there for many vintages since. In 2006, Grant left Gibbston Valley to concentrate solely on Valli, and the rest is history. Having now completed almost 60 vintages, he looks forward to the next 60 and to seeing how vines with some serious age will perform in Otago. Media Inquiries: grant@valliwine.com | www.valliwine.com
What’s the ONE THING most unique, authentic, & memorable about your brand?
The most unique thing about Valli is the intention with which it was established. In Central Otago wines were originally either made by one winery from one site, or by a winery getting grapes from multiple regions and blending to make generic Central Otago wines. As a winemaker seeing grapes from different subregions and how different the resulting wines were I realized this was the most exciting Central Otago wine story, and it wasn’t being told! Valli was established to do this, to make single subregion wines (in a similar manner) displaying the differences between Gibbston, Bannockburn, Bendigo, Lowburn Waitaki etc. Afterall in Burgundy we see consistent differences in vineyards 100 meters or so apart so its logical, even in our early years with young vines to see differences in vineyards 20-40 Km apart. We were at the very start of the conversation around terroir in Otago and it remains our focus.
Describe how and what you’d do with your winemaking career or winery business if you were not constrained. Sky’s the limit!
Build a winery on our vineyard in the Waitaki Valley – that’s an easy answer but really deserves more explanation – Valli, like many other Otago producers, leases a building in the industrial part of the town of Cromwell. It is harder to imagine a better scenario for premium winemaking as things always go wrong during vintage, a weld on the bin tipper snaps, a fuse in the press blows, the pH meter dies. Being in the Industrial part of a town you are surrounded by plumbers, welders, electricians, supply shops etc, things usually get fixed fast and if not, you can just go next door or across the road and borrow what’s needed from a neighbouring winery.
Back to building in the Waitaki. The Waitaki Valley (Australasia’s only Unesco Global Geopark) is famous for its limestone, often quarried to produce a most prized building material. Our Waitaki vineyard has a large limestone hill on one side into which caves for barrel storage could easily be built, the winery would be built out in front of those, and it would not be ugly!
What is the One Wine most emblematic of your brand and/or winemaking style? Tell us its story.
The Valli Waitaki Pinot! I remember having an intern from a Burgundy Domaine saying how sorry he felt for us as every vineyard in Otago was new and we didn’t have our fathers, grandfathers, in fact generations of knowledge about the site to lean on. I felt sorry for him as he never had the pleasure of discovering something for himself, he was just plodding along in his ancestors’ footsteps.
The early eine days of discovering Central Otago were an absolute joy, it was all so new, and still feels like a gift. Then to experience that excitement in the Waitaki Valley with its fossiliferous limestone soils and its completely different climate was something to say only yes to. It also is the style of Pinot Noir I have gravitated to over the years, more floral, spicey and perfumed, they are lighter in colour, usually naturally lower in alcohol, live on their acidity and length of flavour rather than fruit sweetness and tannin. The term “ethereal” is often used in describing Pinot Noir from Waitaki Valley. Check out this wine review here: https://winecharacters.com/2022-valli-waitaki-vineyard-pinot-noir/
What would people would be surprised to learn about you.
This is as much about Valli Wine as it is about me. It’s my historical connection to winemaking in Otago. In 1861 my great-great grandfather Giuseppe Valli (now you know where the name came from) emigrated to NZ from Como, Italy. He had an older brother Luigi Valli, who left Italy about 10 years earlier for the goldfields of California. From California he went to the Australian goldfields then to Otago’s arriving in NZ about 1862. As well as goldmining, Luigi was apparently making wine near Alexandra, at an establishment called Como Villa.
Luigi’s death notice says he passed away with “no known relatives in the Colony”. The two brothers had no idea the other was in NZ and only about 200 miles apart. All this has given me a stronger link to this place and its wines and I have a role to play in making sure it doesn’t fade away as it did before.