Cloudy Bay at 40: Raising a glass to a game changer

David Hohnen calls it the ‘eyebrow effect’. ‘You watch them shoot up as soon as they put their nose in a glass,’ he says, chuckling.

Back in 1985, the Cloudy Bay founder leveraged that instant reaction to gain a foothold in UK independent retail for his inaugural vintage.

As savvy a storyteller as he is a winemaker, Hohnen also sent samples abroad with a jar of Marlborough green-lipped mussels, telling recipients to get a corkscrew and some fresh, crusty bread.

The UK market took off and soon eyebrows were lifting worldwide.

Scroll down to see notes and scores of six brilliant Cloudy Bay wines

Cloudy Bay’s story began in 1983, when Hohnen, an Australian winemaker at Cape Mentelle in Margaret River, encountered the eyebrow effect himself.

Visiting New Zealand, winemakers left him a bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that ‘blew my socks off’. The following year, he sought out its source.

Flying into Marlborough, he recalls looking across the summer-brown hillsides and thinking, ‘Yes, this is the place.’ His initial plan was a fly-in, fly-out winemaking venture but that quickly changed.

A Marlborough legend

Convincing his Cape Mentelle backers – his brother Mark and business partner Simon Fraser – to borrow NZ$1 million at an eyewatering 23.5% interest rate, Hohnen purchased land on Jacksons Road, built a winery and hired a young Australian winemaker named Kevin Judd to oversee production.

The first vintage, in 1985, was made with 40 tonnes of purchased fruit trucked to Selaks’ Gisborne winery, where Judd was working.

From the start, Cloudy Bay set a benchmark for its Sauvignon Blanc, defined by vibrant tropical fruit, racy acidity and a signature pungency.

‘We produced wine without compromising on quality,’ Judd explains. ‘There were never any questions about that. We also delivered consistency across those early years. David had also just won two Jimmy Watson trophies, and the wine world trusted him.’

As demand surged, Champagne house Veuve Clicquot took an interest, investing in Cloudy Bay in 1990 after purchasing a nearby vineyard that became known as the Widow’s Block (a tribute to Madame Clicquot), now a key source of fruit.

This partnership ultimately led to full ownership by the LVMH group in 2003, unlocking investment and global reach while maintaining Cloudy Bay’s hands-off, quality-first approach. In 2014, the winery expanded into Central Otago, home of its flagship Pinot Noir, Te Wāhi.

Cloudy Bay: A timeline

1985: Cloudy Bay established

1990: Veuve Clicquot takes a stake

1992: First Pelorus méthode traditionnelle release

1994: First Marlborough Pinot Noir release

2000: First Te Koko release (1996 vintage)

2003: LVMH purchases Cloudy Bay outright

2009: Cloudy Bay begins to explore Central Otago

2014: Purchase of the Northburn vineyard and leasing of the Calvert vineyard, both in Central Otago

2016: First release of Te Wāhi Pinot Noir (2014 vintage)

‘Change but no change’

Four decades on, much remains as it was.

Sauvignon Blanc is still Cloudy Bay’s cornerstone – both the classic bottling and the wild-fermented Te Koko – alongside Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and the Pelorus sparkling range.

Winemaking director Nikolai St George (pictured, above) leads a passionate, focused team, with technical and sustainable development senior director Jim White observing that ‘the winemaking approach is bigger than one person; any change happens in incremental steps’.

The evolution of Te Koko exemplifies this ethos – once a bold, funky, barrel-driven experiment, it has been slowly refined with the addition of concrete tulip tanks, foudres and shorter ferments, bringing greater precision to its wild-ferment profile.

St George believes that ‘New Zealand is good at understanding something and then making it our own’, echoing Hohnen’s view that Cloudy Bay blends Old and New World influences.

‘I’ve always felt grateful to have the Old World’s knowledge and the New World’s ability to discard traditions that didn’t work,’ he says.

‘At Cloudy Bay, there’s change, but no change. The winemaking remains hands-off, the place still feels right. But LVMH has brought investment that we could never have imagined back then.’

Sustainability is now a key focus, including a winery rooftop solar system, a carbon-reducing autonomous tractor and, thus far, 190ha of vineyards farmed without herbicides.

A social initiative supports Pacific Islander seasonal workers with entrepreneurship mentoring and interest-free loans, reflecting a deeper commitment to the people behind the wine.

Looking forward, Cloudy Bay’s focus is refining its Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, expanding Chardonnay plantings and maintaining the quality-driven ethos that has defined it for 40 years.

Cloudy Bay’s Marlborough vineyards

702ha in the Wairau and Southern valleys: 524ha of Sauvignon Blanc, 102ha of Pinot Noir and 76ha of Chardonnay. There are also about 550ha of Cloudy Bay-owned or directly managed/leased grower blocks and about 150ha of grower blocks managed to Cloudy Bay guidelines.

Style pioneer

Cloudy Bay’s trailblazing success in the UK in the late 1980s undoubtedly helped propel the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc category forward, paving the way for greater investment and increased global recognition.

‘Cloudy Bay benefited from its reputation coming from winemakers, not marketers,’ says Judd. ‘David’s credibility certainly drove international interest.’ Today, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc accounts for more than 70% of New Zealand’s wine exports.

Hohnen, now 75, first revisited Cloudy Bay in 2022 after almost 20 years away. ‘I almost felt a sense of vertigo,’ he admits. ‘I was so surprised by the degree of emotion I felt.’

Reflecting on the early days, he muses: ‘I had a three-year plan, driven by my methodical nature. Never would I have thought to look 40 years ahead.’

Few wines have shaped a country’s global reputation like Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc did for New Zealand.

As the winery celebrates its 40th anniversary, it’s a moment to reflect upon an extraordinary journey, and perhaps to wonder what the next 40 years will bring.

Celebrating 40 years in style 

At the end of February, Cloudy Bay celebrated its 40th anniversary with a three-day event for 40 international guests, who were treated to a series of tastings, vineyard and winery activities, and long lunches and dinners that showcased Cloudy Bay’s current and library releases, alongside a fabulous array of local produce. 

The finale was a 40th birthday celebration for 200 on the winery lawn, at which founder David Hohnen gave a moving and amusing speech before guests danced the night away under the A Pelorus rosé tower Marlborough stars.

The Jenkins pick: Cloudy Bay across the decades

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