In 2022, winemaker Wilco Lam reached a crossroads. The winery where he had been working for a decade, Dry River, one of Martinborough’s oldest and most prestigious, was sold.

“Under the new ownership, it looked like I’d be losing the team I’d been working really closely with for years,” says Lam. “It dawned on me that these people [in the team] understood the intent we’re all trying to bring about in the vineyard, the intent we wanted to show in the wine. There was the prospect of losing that; [of] losing the wine culture we had [created] together.”