FOUR DECADES OF Cloudy Bay

As Cloudy Bay celebrates its 40th anniversary, we take a look back at the history of this iconic New Zealand winery

- EMMA JENKINS MW

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.

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. 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.