Winemaker Notes
Katherine Jacobs and Jeremy Corban started Big Sky Wines in 2005. They had returned to New Zealand from living in France, and knew the time was right to pursue their longheld ambition – to make world class, hand crafted wines, that give true expression to the character of their place. And that’s what the pair is doing.
Jeremy is a 4th generation winemaker, from a family with a 100 year winemaking history in New Zealand. Deep roots.
Katherine is pure energy and passion. She studied viticulture and winemaking from New Zealand, while living in France, and doing vintages in Bordeaux.
Together the two make a great team.
Part of the Wairarapa region in the southern end of the country’s North Island, Martinborough is a bucolic appellation full of artisan, lifestyle wine producers. Above all else, their goals are to tend vineyards for low yields and create wines of supreme quality. Pinot noir is the main grape variety here, occupying over half of the land under vine.
Comparing topography, climate and soils, the region is nearly identical to Marlborough except that it produces top quality reds on the regular.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”