Dog Point Vineyard combines the considerable wine-growing experience of Ivan & Margaret Sutherland and James & Wendy Healy. Ivan and James met while working at Cloudy Bay Vineyards and quickly established an enduring friendship along with an appreciation of good wine. Ivan was Cloudy Bay's viticulturist for 18 years and in the latter years a Director, while James was the Company's Oenologist for 12 years. After finding they shared the same aspirations, James and Ivan decided to return to a more ‘hands-on’ winemaking approach.

Using fruit from the 80 hectare Dog Point Vineyard established by Ivan and Margaret, the pair launched the Dog Point label in February 2004 using fruit from the 2002 vintage. Dog Point is one of the earliest private vineyards established in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley, which means it has some of the oldest vines in Marlborough. The vineyard is centrally located at the confluence of the smaller Brancott and Omaka Valleys with some vineyard plantings dating back to the late 1970's. These older, well-established vines situated on free draining silty clay loams are supplemented with fruit from closely planted hillside vines on soils with a clay loam influence. Marlborough soils were laid down within the last 14,000...

Dog Point Vineyard combines the considerable wine-growing experience of Ivan & Margaret Sutherland and James & Wendy Healy. Ivan and James met while working at Cloudy Bay Vineyards and quickly established an enduring friendship along with an appreciation of good wine. Ivan was Cloudy Bay's viticulturist for 18 years and...