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 our range.