What happens when a winemaker with two decades of experience decides the safe salary isn't worth the compromise? In New Zealand, four of them have recently found out — and their stories double as a guide to some of the country's most interesting small-batch bottles.
Dom Maxwell spent 21 years making wine for others before launching Forager Wines full-time this January. He'd started the brand back in 2012 with just two barrels, building it slowly while still employed — a playbook worth noting for anyone tempted by a similar leap. Based in North Canterbury, he was part of the Greystone team that took home Best Pinot Noir in the World at the 2014 Decanter awards, and his experimental "vineyard ferment" approach — fermenting wine in a tank planted right in the middle of a chilly vineyard — now shapes his own Isolated Hill Pinot Noir. August brought a second label, Potager, covering Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
In Hawke's Bay, Tony Bish walked out of his job in 2016 after one meeting too many where his ideas hit a wall. He's since become New Zealand's self-styled "Chardonnista", running an entirely Chardonnay-only brand from Napier's Urban Winery, housed in an art deco building since 2017. He imported concrete egg fermentation vessels inspired by a trip to Argentina, breaking several before getting one that worked. Cyclone Gabrielle wiped out 80% of his grapes in 2023 — proof that weather, not cash flow, can be the scariest risk. His flagship Zen Chardonnay (about NZ$150) comes from Ohiti Valley fruit.
Jannine Rickards left salaried winemaking in 2024 to go all-in on Huntress Wines, which she'd started as a side project in 2017 while at Urlar in the Wairarapa. She works only with organic grapes from small sites across Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and North Canterbury, and her Pawero Pinot Noir (NZ$70) — just three barrels from Martinborough fruit — is the kind of bottle that rarely makes it out of the country.
Kate Radburnd's story is the most dramatic. She launched Radburnd Cellars in 2018 after leaving CJ Pask, lost nearly everything in the 2023 cyclones, and this September bought the historic Stonecroft Winery with her husband — giving her small three-wine brand, and her team, a permanent home. Her daughter Penelope works alongside her.
Why should travellers care? Because independent labels like these are where New Zealand's most characterful wines are coming from right now, and most are far easier to taste at the cellar door or a Napier wine bar than to find on shelves back home. Hawke's Bay makes an easy base: its art deco city, bike-friendly winery trails and farmers' markets put several of these producers within an afternoon's drive. North Canterbury adds a wilder, cooler-climate counterpoint for Pinot lovers.
