Leavesden Vineyards

We are a Pioneer Family with our roots stretching back 150 years in Marlborough.  Farmers and fabricators, livestock and shop owners, and textile manufacturers, and never far from the land.  It has always been the land and family that has given us our strength and resolve.

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Enoch Blick first settled in Rapaura (Marlborough) in 1872 and his descendants have continuously owned and worked the land to this day.  When Bernice Squire (great granddaughter to Enoch) married Sydney “James” Adams, a carpenter, butcher, and tile manufacturer by trade;  she insisted that their path was to continue in the family business, and so the Adams family-name became interwoven into the land we now farm.  Their son, Keith Adams was born into agriculture, and learned his stewardship of the land from an early age as the 4th generation farmer tending these soils, on a farm his Mother christened “Leavesden Farm”.  A fifth generation is now serving his apprenticeship, with a sixth generation with whimsical thoughts of a “pink” John Deere being in her future.

As “Good Stewards of the Land”, our family has answered the call to family farming.  It is a calling to work, till and nurture the land; to keep fertile the soil; investing in man and machine; to study, educate and enlighten others;  and in so doing… serves and protects the land for future generations.

Grapes were first planted in Marlborough in large scale in 1973 by Montana Wines; with others soon following.  In 1992 vineyards covered 1,744 hectares; and by 2012 that number exceeded 22,000 hectares and transformed not only the local economy but the landscape as well.  Now with over 26,000 hectare in vineyard, gone are most of the grain and cereal farms, the sheep and cattle, olives and apple orchards… replaced by vineyards from one horizon to the other, with pressure on all family farms to either move or adapt to the new agro-economy of wine-growing.

In the late 1990’s, Keith Adams recognised this unquenchable thirst for more Marlborough wines; and he invested his vast knowledge of farming and soils, and employed the tutelage of Ivan Marinovich who imparted knowledge gained over his 40 years of experience with Corbans Wines.  His insight as viticulturalist proved priceless and timely in putting Keith’s vision into action.  Now, a lifetime of faming and nearly two decades as a grape-grower… Keith’s opinions are valued and sought-after, as are his grapes.  Located along the “Golden Mile” of Rapaura, Leavesden Vineyards have produced some of the finest Sauvignon Blanc grapes, with winemakers enjoying the prestige of Award Wining Wines from our golden harvests.