Durvillea is a ‘little sister’ wine for established label Astrolabe Wines. It’s made by Astrolabe’s winemaker Simon Waghorn. Taking responsibility for the wine after Simon’s actually made it are his wife Jane, and three daughters Meg, Libby and Arabella – with lots of help from the Astrolabe team. This is a great chance for all of us to be more actively involved in the industry that’s been a big influence in all of our lives.

A 25 year involvement in the wine industry can’t help but have some effect on the whole family. It’s shaped where we’ve been born, where we’ve lived, the pattern and rhythm of family life and even some of our family values. We’ve been very proud of our dad’s (or husband’s in Jane’s case) work so far and it’s exciting to be able to support it in a material way.

This is just a little introductory post to introduce some of the people you will hear from on this blog:

Meg – hi internet, I’m the one writing this post so I will go first! I’m 23, born in Adelaide and now living in lovely Wellington. I’m working in a library (another family profession!) and starting some (more) postgrad study.

Libby – Libby, the middle daughter, is 21 born in illustrious Te Kauwhata. She is currently in tropical Queensland studying law and international relations. In her spare time she works at a bottle store, subtly promoting quality Marlborough wines to Brisbanites.

Arabella – Bella the youngest is 18 born in Gisborne. She’s studying Fine Arts in Auckland and getting her relatively sophisticated palate used to the typical first year’s drinks of choice. There may be a bit of Durvillea winging its way to get her through if she’s lucky!

Jane – Jane, of course, is the mother. She lives on Astrolabe Farm (a vineyard and olive grove) in Grovetown, Marlborough. She manages the farm as well as working for Astrolabe Wines in all sorts of other capacities. She also spends a bit of time being the supreme hostess for any waifs and strays that find themselves on her doorstep.

Anyway, that’s all for this little post. Must go to bed as Jane, Bella & Sophie (our lovely cousin and Client Relationship Manager for Astrolabe) are arriving here in Wellington bright and early tomorrow to meet with our fabulous designers, Neogine.

-Meg

P.S – excuse the slightly crazy picture – it was surprisingly hard to find one of all five of us on my computer – this one’s a bit old really but we’ll update soon!