Clive Jones Named 2025 NZ Winegrowers Fellow

Part of his growing fascination with wine back then was that there was no easy list for what made each one unique. "With a shampoo you can tell, but with wine you can't. It's part of the big mystery of what we now know as turangawaewae."

Thirty-three years after he traded cosmetics and cleaning products for a career in wine, Clive has been named a 2025 New Zealand Winegrowers Fellow, including as chair of the Marlborough Winegrowers and NZW boards. "It's my extension piece," says Clive, valuing the collegiality entwined with wine governance, and the insights he gained into the wider wine community. He has spent the past 27 years as winemaker at Nautilus in Marlborough, and governance work has "kept me stimulated", he says. "Rather than doing an MBA or something like that, it has been a vehicle to continue to grow and learn."

Clive grew up in Hamilton and followed an interest in chemistry to a science degree at Auckland University, then work in a second-generation product development lab in the mid-1980s. He was also growing his interest in wine, with a wine appreciation course, membership of the Villa Maria wine club, and catching up with Villa Maria's Nigel Davies, a peer in his chemistry degree. "He showed me around and by that stage I was really interested in wine," Clive says. "I knew I was either going to remain a passionate consumer, or I could jump in and give it a crack."

He opted for the jump, got a cellar hand job at Selaks Wines for the 1992 vintage, then started a wine science degree at Charles Sturt University in Australia, studying remotely while working as assistant winemaker. "It was really cool to do my start in the West Auckland wine industry. That's probably where I learned the importance of collegiality," he says, reflecting on the sharing of knowledge and equipment among the likes of the Selak, Brajkovich, Spence, and Babich families.

By the time he graduated in 1997, Selaks had built a winery in Marlborough, and Clive was yearning to make wine where the grapes were grown. In 1998 he applied for the winemaker role at Nautilus, which had been established a few years earlier by Robert Hill-Smith, whose family have been winegrowing in Australia for six generations. "The timing was just right. I had finished my degree and done my apprenticeship, and I wanted to be closer to vineyards."

Back then Nautilus had two vineyards and a shareholding in Rapaura Vintners, and had just started focusing on Pinot Noir. Clive barely had his feet on the ground before he became involved in the build of the new Pinot Noir Cellar, followed by the purchase of several vineyards. In 2006 Nautilus sold out of Rapaura Vintners and established a white wine winery. "That was ust reflective of what was going on in the industry in those early 2000s," Clive says. "Massive expansions; massive opportunity."

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Two years later the 2008 global financial crisis put the brakes on that growth. But while there was too much wine, there were still plenty of opportunities, including in the high-demand Australian market, where Nautilus's parentage gave it a hefty foot in the door. The United States market was "waking up", and the new winery meant Nautilus had supply, "whereas previously we were a bit stop-start in terms of having wine", Clive says. "It was still a challenge, but there was opportunity. More opportunity back then than there is now."

In 2010, Clive was elected to the Marlborough Winegrowers board, then "fairly rapidly" to deputy chair, and chair from 2013-2016. There was a "natural progression" to national governance, and in 2015 he stood unopposed as a medium-sized winery representative, expecting to spend little time at the board table, as an alternate member. But as a couple of members moved on, he was soon Chair of the marketing committee. At the end of 2015 the new levy system was introduced, with a smaller board, and Clive stood successfully, before pulling back from his Marlborough Winegrowers position, with one year of overlap. "One of the attractions of it was working with different people, different business models, different points of view, and learning from all of that."

In 2018 Clive became deputy chair, then had two two-year stints as chair, stepping up during the complicated Covid-19 years. In 2024, after 15 years of industry governance, "I felt that it was time to step aside and focus on my day job". He is also a committee member for Appellation Marlborough Wine, and a trustee for the Marlborough Research Centre, and became chair of its Advisory Committee in November 2024.

As Nautilus General Manager and Winemaker, he's still "an active labour component" of the business, particularly through vintage. Despite "office hands" he relishes the physical and practical aspects of winemaking, and a retrospective view of 20 Marlborough vintages. "From a personal perspective it has been amazing to be part of the growth of the wine industry," he says. "I was fortunate to be part of it when it was just waking up, and it's been a wild ride of continuous growth right up until a couple of years ago. But it does feel like we are entering a new phase. A bit more of a mature phase rather than a growth-focused phase, and the easy wins have probably been had in terms of selling wine to wine drinking, English speaking countries." When the ball is rolling down the hill you are just trying to keep up with it, he adds. "It's harder to push it up the other side."

But he notes that the GFC resulted in some "reflection and refocus", including companies becoming more site selective. "That was a benefit of that last hiccup... What ultimately will be the benefit of this one? We will come through strongly, and I suspect, more refined and, for us, more focused, I think... The fundamentals are strong and we just need to get supply and demand back in balance."

Three decades after he traded shampoo for Chardonnay, Clive has no regrets about switching aisles, still fascinated by the "origin stories" of wine. "I am grateful to be able to hang my hat here."