Visionary grape-growers Don and Carole McCrone (pictured) own a 10 acre pinot noir vineyard in Yamhill, Oregon, supplying grapes to leading producer Ken Wright Cellars, in our opinion one of the finest pinot makers in the US, and certainly one whose philosophies are arguably most closely aligned with our own. Ken Wright, his wife Karen and his son Cody specialise in sought-after, single vineyard wines, which are almost all purchased en-primeur, at an eagerly awaited barrel tasting held soon after each vintage. 

Don and Carole McCrone dreamt of replicating the single vineyard concept in the southern hemisphere, and made several visits to New Zealand in their search for two key things: a suitable vineyard site and a producer to work alongside. Clive and Phyll first met Don and Carole over 10 years ago at the International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon. They'd quickly became firm friends with the Ata Rangi family, so when the block next to us in Regent Street came up for sale and their proposal put forward.....well, the rest is history as they say. 

We planted their vineyard (with our twenty-something years of experience of Martinborough conditions) in what we considered an ideal mix of clones (Ata Rangi Abel clone, naturally, plus Dijon selection and Clone 5) with optimal trellising and spacing chosen as well.

And in July 2007 we bottled the very first "ATA RANGI - McCrone Vineyard" pinot noir. We're thrilled with the quality - quite a fat and opulent, sweet, fruit-driven Pinot with some lovely spice and oak. It's extremely limited in supply, but we will be offering this to a few lucky mailorder customers early next year. Eventually we will make enough to export to the USA and Canada where we hope that some of Ken's loyal customers will take the opportunity to stock up and compare the Kiwi version!

Meantime, the McCrones spend about six months in each of their 'homes' with Carole providing exquisite All-American home baking (hummingbird cake, cherry and almond cake..) for all our staff each Wednesday while they're here over our summer.

Cody Wright, winemaker son of Ken Wright, was here for vintage 2007, while Jannine Rickards, our own assistant winemaker, joined the Oregon team for their vintage six months later.  The exchange of these young people has been so successful, that 2008 vintage saw two more of Ken's crew, Tim Rippa and Seth Miller, with us for harvest. We cannot imagine how we'd have got through the record tonnage 2008 vintage without them!