CANTERBURY

The Crater Rim Ltd is a family-owned boutique winemaking company situated in the rolling hills of North Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand. They grow, make and market limited quantities of terroir-specific wines from around the country, in particular the various sub-regions of the Canterbury province.

The wines are produced from contracted sites carefully selected for their particular mix of varietal, topography, soil and microclimate – creating high quality, site-specific wines of individual character and drinkability. They work closely with each grower to ensure that vines are cropped low and managed sustainably, guaranteeing the best quality fruit possible from each vineyard site. These are exceptional wines from exceptional regions.

Haydon Good is the winemaker and viticulturist for The Crater Rim. After an early career as a Mechanical Project Engineer for a stainless steel fabricator, he went on to study Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University. Since then, he has travelled the wine world, working vintages in a number of new world and old world regions – including two in Martinborough for Julicher Estate, the Okanagan Valley at the highly acclaimed Quail's Gate, Grant Burge in the Barrossa and at Karl Joseph Loewen in the Mosel. Haydon worked as the winemaker for Stéphane Montez in the Northern Rhone valley for two years. During this time he practiced traditional winemaking techniques, which have become the basis of his winemaking philosophy. Haydon's philosophy in the winery is based on creating wines of character and quality through a policy of watchful, non-interventionist winemaking. He uses a combination of new and traditional techniques and technology to allow the fruit to become wine.

Haydon focuses on allowing the vineyard character to shine through to produce complete, balanced and unique wines – this is reflected in The Crater Rim's aim to produce a range of vineyard designated wines from each of the varieties and sites in the range.