Palliser's founders knew they wanted to make good wine, but where does it all start? Palliser Estate's environment allows them to grow outstanding grapes to create magical wines. Palliser take pride in the care of their vineyard soils by encouraging diversity of plant life. The winemakers minimise spraying and use only friendly sprays where possible. Caring for the environment started as a notion, now it is an ethos.

The quality of the Palliser grapes are acknowledged as among the best in New Zealand. Locals say that Martinborough is the best place in the country to make wine. Winemaker Allan Johnson is first to agree and reels off the reasons: soil, water, and air, the three natural elements essential to making quality wine. Reliable dry autumns increase the intense flavours, and low cropping levels are produced by cool windy spring weather. Low cropping levels and undiluted flavours tend to create the essential ingredients of power and concentration from which fine, and even great wines are produced. Martinborough is one of the few areas where this situation is naturally imposed by the weather.

Palliser produces two labels that are recognised around the world for quality, Palliser Estate and Pencarrow. The Palliser Estate wines are a strong and distinct premium portfolio, whilst the Pencarrow range is in a different style, and offers very approachable wines of excellent quality. Palliser Estate's wines are served in some of the world’s finest restaurants, enjoyed by thousands of people every day and savoured by international passengers travelling the world with airlines such as Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and KLM.

Palliser firmly believe that they are responsible for the care and management of their environment. It is the unique combination of soil, air and climate that allows Palliser to grow such outstanding grapes for their wines. Palliser Estate have an environment management system throughout the company that ensures that everything the winemakers do is considered on its environmental impacts. Palliser Estate have introduced a new system that re-uses the winery's wastewater for irrigation. The wines are in recyclable or re-useable packaging.

Palliser owns 90% of their own vineyards and invest heavily in viticulture to produce a great product. To date that investment has been paid off by the production of world class wines. Palliser is proud to be innovative in their approach to environmental aspects. In 1998 Palliser Estate Palliser were amongst the first wineries in the world to be certified to the international environmental standard ISO 14001. Palliser Estate are part of the Living Wine New Zealand group www.livingwine.org.nz, a group of wineries all certified to ISO 14001 and dedicated to continuous improvement of their environmental systems.

Marion Bay is steeped with history. The vineyard overlooks where Abel Tasman first landed in 1642, raised the Dutch flag and went ashore to also collect water. Later in 1772 French Navigator Marion du Fresne anchored his ships Mascarin and Castries in what is now known as Marion Bay. Today, the Bream Creek district is a rural area with a small thriving coastal community- well known for its artisans- painters, sculptors, fine furniture makers, jewellers and potters. Central to this inspired environment, Bream Creek Vineyard is an integral part of this mosaic as a unique, quality focused premium wine producer.

Bream Creek Vineyard is planted on a north-east ridge above Marion Bay on the edge of the Tasman Sea. This gently sloping site, coastal location and maritime influence, result in growing conditions that are characterised by long mild seasons to create premium fruit quality. The vineyard enjoys a cool frost free spring, long sunny summer days with sea breezes and an extended autumn ripening period. Surrounded by neighbouring forest and windbreaks, the vineyard is nicely sheltered from strong and cold winds.

Soils are deep and range from brown to black clay loams with a little small stone on the higher ground. Particular attention has been made to match varieties to the different range of soil types within the vineyard. The site features a large dam which is used sparingly for trickle irrigation. All vines are vertical-shoot positioned and trained. They are also hand pruned and picked. Crop yields are very modest with both small berries and quite small bunches. This allows low yields of exceptional cool climate fruit with enhanced varietal characters – perfect for winemaking and the production of truly premium cool climate wines.

Bream Creek wines are hand-crafted to capitalise on the stunning flavours that originate from predominantly old vines. The wines (both red and white) are made to age. Aromatic whites are generally whole-bunch pressed with skin contact creating balance and good structure. Chardonnay goes through partial malolactic fermentation and lees-stirring to create texture and elegance.

The red varieties, particularly Pinot Noir are created utilising traditional methods and on some occasions wild ferments. Wines are matured in carefully selected new and aged French oak. These methods retain delicate flavours with multiple dimensions, palate weight and structure. After years of deliberation at Bream Creek the estate released a Reserve Pinot Noir and it was a stand out from day one! Already a multiple trophy and gold medal winner, 2005 produced near perfect conditions for flowering, fruit-set and ripening. The bouquet is exquisite, and palate shows true finesse.

The inaugural 1982 vintage is now considered a collector's item. The first Command Shiraz followed suit in 1984 making it one of Australia's oldest blockbuster wines. Elderton went on to be distinguished by Australia's most coveted wine award the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy (1993) and the prestigious London International Wine & Spirit Competition's World's Best Shiraz Trophy (2000). In 2003 Elderton finished building its own winery in Nuriootpa, formerly a Penfolds site. Elderton was now able to grow, produce and bottle wines all on the family estate. This means a greater to attention to detail.

The vineyard now comprises 70 acres with the principle varieties being Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The majority of the vineyard is between 40 and 100 years in age. This age, combined with minimal irrigation, produces rich, concentrated fruit for exhibiting classic varietal characters. The majority of the vineyard is planted east to west, allowing the breezes from the Barossa ranges to flow through the rows rather than across them. These breezes assist with canopy management.

The real strength behind the Elderton success is the ancient 72 acre Barossa Floor Vineyard, which produces fruit of the highest quality year in year out. Each block on the property is cherished but the two standouts are the 104-year-old Command Shiraz block and the 64-year-old Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon block. Some of the older blocks on the vineyard are planted with unknown clones, however, all plantings since 1949 are Shiraz 1654, BVRC12 or BVRC30, with the Cabernet Sauvignon being G9V3 or LC10. The trellising used throughout the vineyard for recent plantings is simply a double wire vertical with single wire trellising used on earlier plantings.

Following fast on the heels of the estate's world renown reputation for red wines, Elderton is gaining a reputation for white wines. The white grapes are mostly all picked in the cool of the night to ensure that they come into the winery at the right temperature. They are crushed at this temperature, where some whole bunch pressing is also done and only the free run juice is used, which in most instances is fermented at cool fermentation (14–16°C) levels.

The red grapes are also picked in the cool of the night, much of the old vine stock is hand picked to ensure the longevity of the vines and integrity of the fruit. They are crushed and fermented in open concrete, static stainless steel fermenters, or limited amounts of barrel fermentation. These ferments are temperature controlled (normally 20–24˚C) before they are fermented to dryness. The wines are then pressed off in the air bag presses releasing most of the colour and complex tannin structures before being blended back into the total blend. The wines are then pumped over to temperature controlled maturation cellars and carefully monitored before further blending and bottling. The best French and American oak and all barrels are benchmarked annually by the winemaking team and the respective coopers to ensure that the oak complements the wines fully.

John Casella, one of Filippo and Maria's three sons returned to the family business in 1994 and embarked on an ambitious expansion to build a new winery with the mission to blend old world heritage and new world technology. In 2002, Casella brought in Alan Kennett as Chief Winemaker. Alan previously worked with a number of other successful Australian wineries.

Based in the Riverina and operating as a winery since 1969, Casella Wines initially concentrated predominantly on the export market, and is now a key player in Europe, Asia, the UK, USA and Canada. In September 2003, Casella launched into the domestic market with [yellow tail] which has proved a remarkable success in Australia.

The [yellow tail] brand has become the most successful launch of an Australian wine brand in the history of the Australian wine industry. State of the art vineyards and wine production together with a solid infrastructure has allowed Casella Wines to maintain key markets and develop growing markets. In terms of volume, export sales have exceeded 12 million cases since 1998, and since June 2001 have seen considerable growth with the introduction of the export specific brand [yellow tail]

The Shiraz is currently ranked as the No.1 selling Australian 750ml red wine in the USA with the [yellow tail] Merlot being the No. 1 selling Australian Merlot in the USA. The wines are enjoyable, showing generous fruit flavours and excellent drinkability. Perfect anytime these wines excel when served with food.

[ yellow tail ] remains the most successful launch in the history of Australian wines. A global phenomenon and one of Australia's most recognized exports, [ yellow tail ] has proven to be the most formidable ambassador in Australian wine history. [yellow tail] wine is exported to over forty countries around the world. Over 2 million glasses of [yellow tail] are drunk around the world every day! The secret to the sucess is quality, selection, and the highest standards. John Casella hand selects only the best parcels for the Yellow Tail wines. He looks for flavour, acid balance and colour. His goal is to produce a premium, fruit- driven wine with the added complexity of French oak ageing, while maintaining the softness and drinkability of [yellow tail]. The ongong achievements extend to the international wine competitions circuit. [yellow tail] Limited Release 2004 Shiraz was awarded Gold at the 2007 inaugural Syrah du Monde competition, recognising the best Shiraz wines from around the world.