Valli Vineyards

General information

Valli is the personal vocation of pioneering Otago winemaker, Grant Taylor. Grant’s name is synonymous with Otago Pinot Noir. He has been crafting wines in the region since 1993 when there were only 20 hectares planted - today there are over 1700. Grant’s accomplishments are well known in the wine world and he is credited with winning the "Best Pinot Noir" Trophy at a major International Wine Competition in London an unprecedented THREE times – a feat achieved by no other winemaker in the world.

During the past 19 years he has made the first wines for a number of iconic Otago wineries, but now the serious focus is on his own creation, Valli. Established in 1998 and named after his Great-Great Grandfather, Guiseppe Valli, who immigrated to New Zealand from and Italian winemaking background, Grant founded Valli with the aim of creating true representations of Otago’s Sub-regions with unflinching intensity and purity. This was also a first for the region – no one had attempted to capture, let alone master the developing Sub-regional plot that has now begun to unfold as the next exciting chapter in the Otago wine story.

Valli, based around the close-planted estate vineyard in Gibbston, also produces Pinot Noirs from Bannockburn, Bendigo, and another from Otago’s exciting new Sub-region, the Waitaki Valley. Valli also produces a dry Riesling from 32-year-old vines in Alexandra and a botrytised Riesling, Dolce Vita, from Lowburn fruit. With holistic attention to detail in both the vineyard and winery, these wines both reflect and translate the sites they evolve from.