Our unique collaboration with Valli Vineyard was borne out of a 30-year friendship, and a shared passion for Pinot Noir, between our winemaker, Claire Mulholland, and Grant Taylor, the owner and winemaker of Valli.

The Colab saw us sending Valli a ton of hand-picked Burn Cottage Vineyard Pinot Noir. In return, Grant sent us a ton from the Valli Gibbston Vineyard. We crafted and bottled Burn Cottage “Valli” Vineyard Pinot Noir, and Grant created the Valli “Burn Cottage” Vineyard Pinot Noir.

In essence, we got to see the Burn Cottage Vineyard through the Valli wine-making lens, and Grant got to see the Burn Cottage wine-making reflection of the Valli Vineyard Pinot Noir.

At the start of the 2022 season, we both decided that it would be our last vintage, as we both needed the extra ton of fruit that we had been swapping.

We and Valli have loved making all eight vintages of the Colab, and it has been an absolute pleasure working with a great friend and one of the region's most respected winemakers.

Our long friendship will no doubt continue, and many good evenings will be shared and great bottles of wine opened.

Claire has captured her thoughts from making the wine over the eight vintages, and we managed to get hold of Grant in the Waitaki (you must visit his wine bar if you are passing through) and got him to pen a few thoughts on his experience from the collaboration.

"We’ve come a long way from the original discussion in 2013 to start a new adventure together with Grant, Jen, and the team at Valli to ‘swap’ grapes from each other’s unique estate vineyards and to make a special vineyard designate wine from it. Whether it was walking through each other’s vineyards to look at vines, fruit, and seasons, to combined tastings and sharing insights on the vintages and wines, we have experienced together eight years of this fun and interesting collaboration which has brought insights and produced delicious wines. It has added layers to the experience with every Central Otago vintage being different, and additionally with Gibbston and Lowburn subregions capturing a different snapshot. The wines have brought much discussion around the reflection of each place and the similarities or differences of showing each site through a different winery lens.

It’s been a great pleasure to share these wines and take you on the journey of each vintage as well. We will miss filling the space in the cellar reserved for three special barrels of Valli Vineyard, however, we will be able to revisit the wines from our library over the years to come, and with our friends at Valli".

If you haven’t tried these wines before, grab a little piece of this history from this much-treasured collaboration with some of our dear friends in Central Otago. If you have some of the previous vintages, we hope you enjoy lining a few of these wines up for a fun tasting as much as we do.

Claire Mulholland – Winemaker/GM Burn Cottage

Valli: Our Reflection on the Colab

After eight years, our fruit exchange with Burn Cottage has come to an end. The friendship, however, continues and is stronger than ever.

There is still more to learn—there always is, of course—but my move to the Waitaki to focus on those vineyards and the Valli Wine Bar in Kurow (further away from Burn Cottage’s vineyard) makes it a little harder to do our joint project justice.

I can tell any winemaker reading this that the best way to understand your own vineyard and fruit is to share some with another winemaker you trust and respect. Their different picking date choices, barrel selection, fermentation temperature, time on skins, percentage of whole bunch, etc., will teach you things you would never have learned by yourself.

Seeing our wines improve vintage after vintage with this shared knowledge has naturally been a pleasure, but the real joy has been putting the four wines (Valli’s wine from Valli Vineyard, Burn Cottage from Valli’s Vineyard, Valli’s wine from Burn Cottage Vineyard, and Burn Cottage’s wine from their own vineyard) covered by paper bags in front of people and asking tasters which two wines they found most similar.

Was it the place, i.e., source of grapes? Or the winemakers’ style (perhaps lack of it and heavy-handedness) that made two wines similar?

If this is not something you have already done with our collaboration wines, I suggest you do so, and this being our last vintage will be the last chance to do so. And please, please write to us and share the results of your “research.”

Grant Taylor – Winemaker/Owner Valli Vineyards