TINPOT HUT

Launched in 2006, Tinpot Hut is the exciting solo venture of highly regarded consultant winemaker Fiona Turner. Drawing on her considerable experience in Hawkes Bay and Marlborough, Fiona has identified vineyards which produce exceptional fruit for her own label, under which she makes a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris, and a Hawkes Bay Syrah. The inaugural Tinpot Hut Sauvignon Blanc was released to critical acclaim and the international endorsements have continued ever since, with consecutive Gold Awards for the Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah at the 2008 and 2009 London Sommelier Wine Awards. A quality-focused brand, Tinpot Hut is quietly making itself at home in some of the best restaurants in New Zealand and around the globe.

The Tinpot Hut that gave its name to the wines is an old mustering hut in the remote hills between the Wairau and Awatere Valleys. These huts were used as a base for musterers as they rounded up the sheep that had been in the hills from spring to autumn. The name links Marlborough's past as a sheep farming centre with its current state as one of the world’s most dynamic wine regions.

Fresh from university with a Masters in Chemistry, Fiona joined the wine industry in Marlborough in 1995. Little did she know that her job in the lab of a busy contract winery would be the start of a thrilling career in wine. Curious to discover how things were done in other parts of the wine world, her two years at Rapaura Vintners in Marlborough were followed by wine-related jobs and adventures in California and Europe, including a stint on the retail floor at Oddbins in the UK. Back in New Zealand she then worked for Sacred Hill in Hawkes Bay and Vavasour in Marlborough. During this time she gained experience across the full winemaking spectrum from old world vinification to the newest techniques in the lab, the cellar and the bottling hall, before landing her ‘dream job’ as a winemaking consultant for international ‘flying winemaker’ Matt Thomson.

Now working alongside Matt, Fiona consults to many of Marlborough’s best known wineries and makes wine under her own label, Tinpot Hut. Fiona and her husband Hamish run a 50 acre vineyard in the Blind River sub-region of Marlborough, the fruit from which goes into the Tinpot Hut Sauvigon Blanc and Pinot Gris. Fiona and Hamish have two young tractor enthusiasts, Alistair (2 years old) and William (born in July in 2009).