Emerald Wines

About

A joint passion for drinking and growing wine fused Emerald Wines together. Winemaker, Tom Hindmarsh and Agroecologist, Michelle Barry met thanks to the wine festival, Toast Martinborough, where the pair came together and the Emerald Wines journey began.

Both Tom and Michelle have extensive experience in the wine industry. Tom started out by studying Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University thanks to Mr Smithells, a career guidance counselor who gently nudged him in that direction. From here, Tom worked two vintages at Church Road in Hawke’s Bay, then headed to France, Australia, Northern Rhone, Clare Valley and Canberra district to work and learn as much as he could. Michelle is from Ireland, and moved to Martinborough in 2015 for a job at Craggy Range as a Viticulture Technician. Coming from a background in environmental science and with a research masters in soil science, the combination of working with soil and seeing the end product of growing grapes for wine had her hooked. After finishing a stint at Craggy she took up an assistant manager position at Giesen in Blenheim. The couple also worked a harvest in Germany together, before settling in Marlborough where Tom now works as Assistant Winemaker for Coterie, a small contract winemaking facility which served as the perfect platform for Tom and Michelle to launch their wine business.

“Wine is the perfect combination of science, art and agriculture. It brings together people, places and a moment in time. This is followed by the decisions we have to make in the winery trying to show wines that are interesting, textural, balanced and represent where they come from.”