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Michelle Richardson - "Winemaking Unplugged"

A Waikato girl, Michelle after completing her Bachelor of Science degree travelled through Europe by motorbike and train, backpacked around Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Nepal and India.  In 1987 she travelled to Kenya and hitch-hiked through Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Face to face with silver-backed gorillas in the Rwandan mountains, held at gun-point at the Burundi border, mugged in Bujumbura and  stabbed in Malawi, but her time in Africa remains one of the most pivotal and positive influences in her life.  On returning to London, Michelle felt it was time to address the career issue and was accepted into Rosewothy College, Adelaide and returned to complete the Post graduate Wine Science degree.
 
Michelle’s nabbed her first full-time winemaking job at Cassegrain Vineyards, Port Macquarie, NSW, with the title of Assistant Winemaker. The foreman taught her, with great patience, the hands-on and mechanical side of winemaking.   She was then offered the opportunity to be an assistant winemaker in France as part of the Hugh Ryman flying winemaking scheme for the French 1991 vintage.  Due to circumstances Michelle ended up running the winery which provided her the opportunity to learn and gain confidence in her winemaking.  Returning to New Zealand in 1992 to work as a vintage cellar hand at Villa Maria, in March the following year the owner of Villa Maria, George Fistonich offered her the role of Senior Assistant Winemaker.  She was made the Villa Maria winemaker in 1995 and during the next seven years she won many winemaker awards, gold medals and trophies for her wines.  Michelle retained her winemaking role at Villa Maria but also took on the role of Group Winemaker for the Villa Maria Group.

In 2003 Peregrine Wines gave Michelle the opportunity to work with Central Otago fruit namely Pinot Noir and thus created her first vintage being (RICHARDSON 2003 Central Otago Pinot Noir) After two vintages at Peregrine, Michelle went out on her own, both with her own brand and as consultant winemaker to Wild Earth Wines, Kim Crawford Wines and Northburn Vineyard (Pinot Noir). She also began a joint venture with Peter Gordon, Celebrity Chef and part-owner of Providores in London; his partner Michael McGrath, part-owner of Providores and investment banker Steven Cozens. She makes their wine from the newly established wine growing area Waitaki Valley in North Otago, under the brand Waitaki Braids.
    
Michelle continues to make wine for her own brand, sourcing fruit from areas in the South Island where she prefers the variety.  She leases space at a winery and during vintage is a hands-on winemaker in every sense. The rest of the year is spent selling her wine, bottling and overseeing clients’ wines. She lives in New Zealand with her Czech Republic partner Richard their daughter Valentina, and dog Erik.

Blog Posts

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ABC - Anything but Chardonnay or LLC - Long Live Chardonnay (comments 2)

My 2009 Chardonnay is not behaving as normal, well, part of it. I have a volume that is taking its time to ferment. It stopped in winter (while the remainder of the chardonnay in a different vessel completed sugar conversion to alcohol).   more>

 16/01/2010 01:18 p.m.

The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover or should it be the Winemaker, the business women, the mother and her dog (comments 4)

Ok...deep breath, here we go. Foodie have very patiently and very politely requested this blog 3 if not 4 times over a period of a month, and now I am under sufficient enough pressure and guilt to have the writing juices flowing, except I have no idea what to write more>

 22/10/2009 08:04 p.m.


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