Astrolabe Wines

Astrolabe Wines was launched in 1996 by Simon Waghorn, who had moved to Marlborough the year before to become the foundation winemaker at Whitehaven Wines for Greg and Sue White. Eager to explore his own ideas about Marlborough terroir, Simon registered the Astrolabe label in his and Jane Forrest-Waghorn's name in 1996 while still working at Whitehaven. He continued in the dual role until 2009, when he left Whitehaven to focus exclusively on the family business. The name Astrolabe was chosen for its direct local resonance. L'Astrolabe was the three-masted French navy corvette commanded by Jules Dumont d'Urville, the celebrated navigator and naturalist who charted long stretches of the Marlborough coastline during his 1826 to 1829 Pacific expedition, with the Marlborough survey taking place in early 1827. Many of the place names along the Marlborough Sounds and the Cook Strait coast date from that voyage, and Simon and Jane wanted a name that captured both the heritage of the place and the spirit of exploration that defines a young wine producer mapping unfamiliar terroir.

• Founded 1996 by Simon Waghorn and Jane Forrest-Waghorn while Simon was still foundation winemaker at Whitehaven
• Simon trained in oenology at Roseworthy College in South Australia after first working a 1982 vintage at Yalumba
• Earlier vintages in Barossa Valley, Waikato and Gisborne preceded the 1995 move to Marlborough
• Left Whitehaven in 2009 to work full-time on Astrolabe
• Named after L'Astrolabe, Dumont d'Urville's corvette that charted the Marlborough coast in 1827

Astrolabe has built its identity on the conviction that Marlborough is not a single homogeneous region but a mosaic of distinct sub-regions, each with its own soils, mesoclimate, and aromatic signature. The winery sources from four of these. The Wairau Valley, the original heart of Marlborough viticulture, contributes ripe stone-fruit weight to the whites and supple texture to the reds; the home Comely Bank Vineyard near Renwick sits on free-draining alluvial gravels in this sub-region. The Awatere Valley, cooler, drier, and windier than the Wairau, produces wines with markedly higher acidity, pronounced herbal tomato-leaf character in Sauvignon Blanc, and tight mineral focus in Pinot Noir. The Southern Valleys, a series of clay-influenced side valleys running south off the Wairau, are home to the organically certified Wrekin Vineyard on the upper slopes of the Brancott Valley, a site whose heavier clay loam soils produce structured, savoury Pinot Noir and a distinctive Chenin Blanc. The Kekerengu Coast, roughly an hour south of Blenheim along the coast and the southernmost officially recognised Marlborough sub-region, is a small, cool, wind-exposed strip where Astrolabe is one of very few producers working. The site delivers exceptional acidity and a saline, coastal lift to Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and an unusual Albarino.

• Wairau Valley: alluvial gravels, ripe stone fruit, home to the Comely Bank Vineyard near Renwick
• Awatere Valley: cooler, drier, windier, with high acid and pronounced herbal character
• Southern Valleys: clay-rich soils favourable to Pinot Noir; Wrekin Vineyard is organically certified
• Kekerengu Coast: southernmost Marlborough sub-region, cool and coastal, with saline acidity and lift
• Long-term relationships with a small group of grower families farming sustainably across the sub-regions

Astrolabe's portfolio is structured into three deliberately stepped tiers that reflect the winery's terroir philosophy. The Province range is the workhorse Marlborough expression: multi-sub-region blends of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling that draw on fruit from across the Wairau, Awatere, and Kekerengu Coast to give a complete picture of the wider Marlborough province. The Valley range narrows the focus to individual sub-regions, with bottlings such as Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Kekerengu Coast Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Albarino. The top Vineyards range, which absorbed the older Voyage premium tier in recent label updates, isolates specific single vineyards including the Wrekin Vineyard Pinot Noir and Chenin Blanc and Comely Bank single-vineyard releases. Across all three tiers the house style favours precision over power: aromatically lifted, transparently varietal, with clean acidity and restrained oak. The Sauvignon Blanc, in particular, is a benchmark for what sub-regional Marlborough blending and bottling can express beyond the commercial regional norm.

• Province: multi-sub-region Marlborough blends across Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Riesling
• Valley: single sub-region bottlings including Awatere Valley and Kekerengu Coast
• Vineyards: single-vineyard wines including Wrekin Vineyard Pinot Noir, Wrekin Chenin Blanc, and Comely Bank releases
• Vineyards range absorbed the older Voyage premium tier as labelling was rationalised
• House style emphasises precision, aromatic lift, and restrained oak

Astrolabe is certified under Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand and has achieved net carbon zero certification across its winery operations. The Wrekin Vineyard is also organically certified, a meaningful commitment on Marlborough's relatively wet Southern Valleys slopes. Beyond the estate itself, Simon Waghorn has been one of the most visible advocates for codifying Marlborough's sub-regions. He was a founding member of Appellation Marlborough Wine, the body established to define and protect an authentic geographical indication for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and to push back against bulk-export labelling practices that diluted the region's identity. The winery's three-tier portfolio is, in effect, a working demonstration of why that geographical-indication framework matters: the differences between Wairau, Awatere, and Kekerengu in the glass are precisely what the appellation system is intended to make legible to consumers.

• Certified under Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand across winery operations
• Certified net carbon zero
• Wrekin Vineyard in the Southern Valleys is organically certified
• Founding member of Appellation Marlborough Wine, advocating for sub-regional GIs
• Portfolio structure is itself an argument for sub-regional authenticity in Marlborough labelling

Astrolabe has always been explicitly framed as a family business and is now actively in transition to its second generation. Simon and Jane's daughters Arabella and Libby Waghorn both joined the company in the mid-2010s, with Libby Waghorn Levett appointed General Manager in September 2020 after a decade in wine sales and marketing. Simon remains the lead winemaker and continues to make every cuvee, with the family describing the current arrangement as a side-by-side handover rather than a retirement. The daughters' arrival coincided with the rationalisation of the wine labels into the current Province, Valley, and Vineyards architecture, and with an increased focus on direct-to-consumer engagement through the urban winery and barrel-room tasting room in central Blenheim. Jane Forrest-Waghorn, who manages the business and brand sides of the company and was profiled by Rural News as part of its Women in Wine series, has been central to Astrolabe's identity since the outset.

• Family business with founders Simon and Jane Waghorn still actively involved
• Daughter Libby Waghorn Levett appointed General Manager in September 2020
• Daughter Arabella Waghorn also works in the business
• Label rationalisation into Province, Valley, and Vineyards tiers coincided with the second generation taking responsibility
• Urban winery in central Blenheim hosts barrel-room tastings and direct-to-consumer experiences