 Founder Alan Brady, a Central Otago pioneer, was both the first person to plant grapes in beautiful Gibbston in 1981 and the very first to take Central Otago wine to the world in 1987. He has been one of the most influential figures in Central Otago to date, helping put our region on the map as one of the world's exciting new Pinot Noir regions. In 1997 he established Mount Edward, as a small, specialist Pinot Noir producer, and guided it to a place amongst New Zealand's leading pinot labels.
 Duncan Forsyth, a professionally trained vintner, arrived in the area in 1993. By coincidence his first day at work in the Central Otago wine industry was with Alan bottling his 1992 Pinot Noir. After working with many of the region’s top estates, plus working in Oregon, Germany and California, Duncan then put roots down in the late 1990's as he and partner Helen planted the Morrison Vineyard on Wanaka Road near Cromwell. In late 2003 he teamed up with John Buchanan with the pair then joining with Alan and Mount Edward in 2004.
 John Buchanan, a New Zealander living in Bermuda, returned to his native Otago in 2003 on a mission to find a winemaking partner. He hooked up with Duncan during that year and together they further developed the Morrison vineyard in Lowburn before joining forces with Alan. John has since gone on to be instrumental in developing the Muirkirk vineyard on Felton Road, Bannockburn, set to be Mount Edward’s key vineyard in the future. Still based in Bermuda, John is actively developing the company's export markets and future direction.
 Tim Austin Moorhouse, our viticulturalist, joined Mount Edward in January 2006. Tim comes on board after a 5 year period working in the Lowburn area for several top growers. Extremely knowledgeable in all aspects of vineyard care Tim is also responsible for the conversion of all our vineyards to be run along Organic principles. He is the guiding hand on the ground for all our winegrowing, his skills have earned him many plaudits including in 2008 winning the top young viticulturalist award for Central Otago.
 Yoshiaki Sato – or Yoshi as he is known to us – has recently come on board to the winemaking team. As passionate a winemaker as you could find Yoshi is fully comitted to natural winemaking and will be helping and pushing us along this paths for the foreseeable future. Having left the dark side of banking (hopefully with some loot) some 5 years ago – he is nearly a local amongst us, and with the exception of flying to old school European wine estates every spring, can be found amongst the wines and vines of Central Otago every day. Watch for Sato wines in the coming years and in the meantime even more improvement to our wines here at Mount Edward.  Helen Forsyth, the real boss of the winery, keeps us all in line. Most definitely in charge of all things, Helen is the person who keeps the place ticking over, administering the entire winery and vineyards, keeping us all happy and providing some much needed left brain balance.
|
