A family affair

Inevitably, the answer will have two or three themes. Either ‘we owned some land and didn’t know what to do with it’, ‘we grew up in a rural environment and always wanted to grow something’ or ‘we love wine and wanted to create our own’.

For Alistair and Julie Ashcroft the reasons for starting Kina Cliffs Wines was a combination of all three things. 

They bought their block of land on Cliff Road at Kina (just west of Nelson), overlooking the remarkable Tasman Bay in 2000. There were no long term plans, other than a desire to one day live in a more rural environment rather than a city. 

At the time, software developer Alistair had a one-year contract in Zurich, where ironically they met their Kina Peninsula neighbour for the first time. (They had to travel to the other side of the world to meet him – that’s more than a little ironic). Renat Nussbaumer who spends much of the year in his Swiss homeland also owns an adjoining vineyard at Kina and it was him who suggested over a bottle of wine, that maybe the Ashcrofts might like to plant some grapes. 

The gently sloping 3.5 hectare property would be ideal for vines he said. The soils are clay with gravels running through so it retains moisture while the gentle slope helps excess water drain away. 

Being on the coast a nice gentle coastal breeze drops in around 11am each day which would help keep the vines dry and prevent frost damage. And given the slope is north-facing means it gets plenty of Nelson sunshine.

The idea of planting vines smouldered away for a while, until Julie began thinking of a career change. With a background in human resource management, she was working primarily in employment law. It was an area of the sector she didn’t really enjoy and she had a yearning to move into a job that had more of an outdoor focus.

An advertisement for a viticulture course at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) caught her attention and she decided to enroll. At that stage it was more a case of gaining some knowledge, before making a financial commitment to turning their property into a vineyard. 

Julie is no stranger to the world of horticulture, having grown up on a kiwifruit orchard. But wine – that was a different story. Although she admits that at the time, (2003) the Nelson wine industry was going through a growth phase, and appeared to be economically viable, a major attraction for her.

While the NMIT course provided her with the technical know-how, it was very much a family affair when it came to setting up the vineyard.

Julie’s parents had removed their kiwifruit orchard some years earlier, but had held on to a range of equipment, such as a tractor, posts, and irrigation pipe. With a waste not, want not attitude, the equipment was put to good use in the establishment of Kina Cliffs, cutting down the set up costs significantly.

Alastair’s family, Southland sheep farmers, were also on hand to help, travelling north regularly to help drive posts, run wires and even plant vines. Having been involved in the pleasures of fencing as a youngster on the farm, Alastair was not let off lightly during this period. It was a far cry from his day job of software development, that had seen him working throughout the world developing trading systems for a bank. (He still works in software development, but these days he does it from an office overlooking the vines.)

So far so good, the vines had been planted, the set up costs had been lowered thanks to family and the Ashcrofts were in the waiting game, as the vines took over. Within a year of planting however, Julie discovered she was pregnant with twins. That put an end to working 24/7 in the vineyard, and meant the couple had to employ a contractor to take over.

During the first few years the fruit was sold under contract, but then along came 2008 – and all of a sudden there was an over supply. 

The Ashcrofts  had always intended to make their own wine but maybe not quite so early. It was the over supply situation that motivated them to take control from ground to bottle, and the Kina Cliffs label was born. It is very much a hands-on operation, being small enough that the Ashcrofts can manage it themselves.  They make just enough wine to sell in the Nelson region through restaurants, wine shops and at their cellar door outlet, which adjoins their home. 

In essence they are the classic Nelson producers, family owned and operated, and making the most of their special slice of paradise.