Four decades of Dry River

Dry River farmgate

We conclude this week's run of features on New Zealand wines with a detailed look at one of the country’s superstars. 

As I reported in ‘Syrah, not Pinot, is NZ’s best red’, the founders of New Zealand’s cult Dry River winery came to London in June, with current winemaker Wilco Lam, to host a retrospective tasting to celebrate the 40 years of the estate’s first plantings. The timeline below tells the story of a remarkably quality-driven enterprise. Dr Neil McCallum set himself particularly high standards and throughout his life as a winemaker constantly fretted that he had not met them...