Wine Story

Determination, friendship and a deep commitment to quality lies behind one of Marlborough’s longest enduring family-owned wineries. KAT PICKFORD talks to Warwick Foley and Edel Everling about the realisation of a joint dream, and the legacy of Johanneshof Estate. 

JOHANNESHOF ESTATE, perched prettily on steep slopes between Picton and Blenheim, is a labour of love for its founders, who’ve called it home for more than 30 years. This Koromiko winery, vineyard and underground cellar is also testament to Warwick Foley and Edeltraud (Edel) Everling’s resilience, and the “bloody hard work” it has taken to keep the business alive during three tumultuous decades. 

Warwick, who grew up on the property, hatched the idea of planting a vineyard on its steep gorse-covered hillsides in 1977, after he received a copy of Wines of the World for his 19th birthday. “I was brought up here and I always wanted to stay here, so I was looking for ways to work the land and make it more productive,” Warwick says. “When I saw the photos of the Mosel vineyards in Germany, planted on steep country, I thought, ‘if they’re doing that, why can’t I?’” 

The Marlborough wine industry was in its infancy, but not everyone was excited about its potential, and the Marlborough County Council banned any grapes from being planted north of the Wairau River. On advice from his lawyer, Warwick defied the rules and planted his first vine cuttings just five months after receiving the book. He created the first hillside vineyard in Marlborough, named ‘Maybern’ in honour of his parents May and Bernhard. “Planting just four years after Marlborough’s first plantings in 1973, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Warwick laughs. “There were no manuals, just a small group of people in Marlborough who were keen enough to have a go. “People thought I was mad, planting on a hillside slope, without irrigation.” Warwick’s first cuttings of Riesling and other varieties, sourced from Te Kauwhata Viticultural Research Station, were eventually replaced by grafted Pinot Noir vines. 

Meanwhile, Edel, who was born in Rüdesheim am Rhein, in the German wine region of Rheingau – renowned for its Riesling, Pinot Noir and aromatics – was travelling around New Zealand as part of a year-long solo world trip. Edel came from a winegrowing family and after spending her childhood holidays working in the vineyard and cellar as a “child labourer”, had no intention of becoming a winemaker. However, she gave up on her dream of becoming a surgeon when she was offered a job at the famous Geisenheim Wine Research Institute, in the grape breeding program. With a master’s degree in viticulture and oenology from Geisenheim University she went on to work in production and export at German wine estates before emigrating to New Zealand. 

Warwick, who had met Edel at Te Kauwhata in 1983, was keen to learn more about the wine industry from one of the world’s famous wine regions. So, he abandoned his newly planted vineyard and joined Edel as a guest student at Geisenheim while working in a number of iconic Rheingau wineries. 

Inspired by what he’d learned in Germany and their European travels, Warwick returned to Koromiko five years later, in 1990, ripped out the posts and vines, rotary-hoed the hillside and replanted the vineyard in Riesling, Pinot Noir and other varieties. Edel joined Warwick a year later, with all the earnest passion and energy of a graduate winemaker. “We wanted to stay true to the traditional low intervention style of winemaking, following long-established practices, with new world terroir, creating exceptional wines, sparkling wines and spirits,” Edel says. 

The industry in Marlborough was still small and tightknit at that time, with knowledge and resources readily shared. Winemaking equipment was in short supply and was often improvised along the way, such as using dairy tanks to make wines. Johanneshof was named in 1991 – inspired by Edel’s father Johannes, it translates as John’s estate. With a lot of outgoings and not a lot of income in Johanneshof’s early days, the pair both had to get paid work. While Warwick continued to work fulltime for ten years at two local wineries, Edel gave up her work at a local distillery to open the Johanneshof cellar door in 1994 and run the day-to-day business. 

Bottles were hand labeled and packed into boxes and onto pallets by hand. Edel soon became recognised driving around Blenheim in her red Morris Minor and trailer, delivering wine to restaurants, hotels and transport companies. “I could fit 12 cases of wine into the Morri and 44 onto the trailer to make up a pallet to deliver to Railways for New Zealand distribution,” she laughs. 

Their first wine, a 1990 Méthode Traditionnelle, was made onsite at Koromiko and disgorged at Cloudy Bay in 1993, the same year Johanneshof established its iconic underground cellar. Blasted out of the rock beneath the vineyard by contract coal miners, the cellar runs 50 metres underground the 35-degree slope and is seven storeys deep. It was the first underground cellar in New Zealand and remains only one of two blasted from natural rock in the country, Warwick says. “In New Zealand we build everything above ground,” he says. “But after visiting Europe and seeing the great natural advantages of underground cellars - naturally cool, higher humidity, stable temperature, no risk of UV rays - we wanted to create one here too. While it is a working cellar where we age wine in oak and bottle fermented sparkling wines on their lees for ten years, it also has become a unique tourist attraction”. 

As they grew – from four hectares to 10, with a number of contract growers – business became ever busier and the line between wine and the rest of their lives became increasingly blurred. The Global Financial Crisis, coupled with the oversupply of grapes in 2008, hit the business hard. Followed by the disruption caused by the severe earthquakes in 2013 and 2016, and then the pandemic in 2020, it has not been easy for the boutique wine producer, Edel says. 

Their unwavering vision to make wine their way may not have been the most financially rewarding, but many significant accolades and praise from their customers has buoyed them up during challenging times. “The highlight in my 40-year wine career has been receiving the inaugural Marlborough Businesswoman of The Year Award five years into my self-employment, and the International Trophy for Best Aromatic White Wine in the World at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London in 2005,” Edel says. “When you hand craft something and you’re passionate about it, you want to do it the best you can,” she adds. “Wine is not just a commodity, it’s a beautiful, multi-faceted product and we both get a lot of joy out of sharing it with others.”