Mount Edward

Mount Edward is the second chapter in Alan Brady's Central Otago story. The Irish-born Brady planted his first vines on three hectares at the head of the Gibbston Valley in the early 1980s, producing Central Otago's first commercial Pinot Noir under the Gibbston Valley Wines label from the 1987 vintage. Those early bottles proved that the cold high country could ripen Pinot Noir at all, and Gibbston Valley grew into one of the region's flagship operations. By the late 1990s Brady had stepped away from the day-to-day of the larger company to chase a smaller, hands-on project at the foot of the mountain he could see from his Gibbston front gate: Mount Edward. Founded in 1997 as a personal venture aimed at limited-production premium Pinot Noir and Riesling that would reflect the soils and climates of Central Otago, it gave Brady the chance to be winemaker, cleaner, and grower again rather than chairman. In late 2003 winemaker Duncan Forsyth, who had arrived in Central Otago in 1993 and worked his way up through Chard Farm and Peregrine before planting the Morrison Vineyard in Lowburn himself in the late 1990s, partnered with John Buchanan to take over Mount Edward in 2004, purchasing the business outright from Brady. Brady later went on to establish Wild Irishman Wines as a third venture, while Forsyth and Buchanan steered Mount Edward into its modern shape as a multi-sub-region single-vineyard house.

• Alan Brady founded Gibbston Valley Wines in 1981 (planting through the early 1980s) and produced Central Otago's first commercial Pinot Noir from the 1987 vintage; Mount Edward followed in 1997 as his back-to-roots small-scale project
• Duncan Forsyth: post-graduate diploma in oenology and viticulture from Lincoln University, arrived in Central Otago 1993, climbed from assistant to winemaker at Chard Farm before two years at Peregrine, with stints in Oregon, Germany, and California; planted the Morrison Vineyard in Lowburn in the late 1990s before joining Mount Edward
• In 2004 Forsyth and business partner John Buchanan purchased Mount Edward Wines from Alan Brady; Forsyth has since become one of Central Otago's leading voices on organic, minimal-intervention winemaking
• Alan Brady's third venture is Wild Irishman Wines; the Mount Edward story is the middle chapter of three across Central Otago's defining figure

Mount Edward's modern identity is built on a portfolio of estate sites spread across four of Central Otago's distinctive sub-regions, each offering a different geological and climatic argument for Pinot Noir and aromatic whites. The Gibbston home block sits at the foot of Mount Edward itself, the coolest and highest of the major Central Otago sub-regions, where the steep north-facing 25-degree slope of the Drumlin Riesling vineyard (planted 1995 on schist with old Riesling clones) sits directly beside the winery and the Stevens Vineyard, a tiny half-hectare parcel just 200 metres from the winery whose owners Susan and Terry Stevens give the site its name. The Morrison Vineyard in Lowburn, planted by Duncan Forsyth in 1997, is a 7.5-hectare site at the foothills of the Lowburn terraces composed of layered glacial deposits of schist and quartz gravels, with the snow-capped Pisa Range to one side and Lake Dunstan to the other. Muirkirk on Felton Road sits in Bannockburn, the warmest of the main sub-regions, on the rocky north-facing terraces that have made Felton Road one of the most celebrated wine streets in the country. Pisa Terrace sits on the upper terraces of the Pisa sub-region, contributing a perfumed, dry, full-bodied Riesling and a Pinot Noir bottling alongside the others. Each site is farmed organically, hand-harvested, and bottled separately to let the differences in altitude, aspect, and soil speak.

• Gibbston (winery site): Drumlin Riesling planted 1995, steep 25-degree north-facing schist slope next to the winery; Stevens Vineyard, half-hectare just 200 metres from the winery, owned by Susan and Terry Stevens, and the first single-vineyard wine ever released by Mount Edward
• Lowburn: Morrison Vineyard, 7.5 hectares of glacial schist and quartz gravels planted by Duncan Forsyth in 1997, between the Pisa Range and Lake Dunstan; the estate's oldest Pinot Noir block
• Bannockburn: Muirkirk Vineyard on Felton Road, warm rocky north-facing terraces that give the most structured of the single-vineyard Pinot Noirs
• Pisa: Pisa Terrace block on the upper terraces of the Pisa sub-region, yielding a perfumed dry Riesling and a Pinot Noir of aromatic intensity

Mount Edward is one of the houses most strongly associated with the natural-winemaking conversation in Central Otago. All five estate vineyards and the winery itself are certified organic by BioGro New Zealand, and the philosophy in the cellar reads as a statement of principle: ferments are wild and indigenous, plunging is done by hand, and fining or filtration are reserved for the rare bottling where structure or balance demands them. The aim, as the house puts it, is to make great wine that has personality and reflects its origins, with everything hands-on. The result is a portfolio that prizes texture, transparency, and savoury complexity over polish. Whites are often handled with extended skin contact and lees aging that produce a deliberately textural, almost savoury palate, and the Pinot Noir program leans toward regional translucence rather than extracted concentration. The white-wine portfolio is unusually diverse for Central Otago, where most producers anchor on Pinot Noir and a single white: Mount Edward instead makes Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Albariño, and Grüner Veltliner across a serious aromatic-white program, plus Gamay, orange wines, and Pet Nat sparkling that mark the house as one of the more adventurous addresses in the region.

• All five estate vineyards plus the winery certified organic by BioGro New Zealand; one of the most committed organic programs in Central Otago
• Native-yeast fermentations, hand-plunging, minimal fining and filtration; the house philosophy is restrained, organic, and hands-on at every stage
• Aromatic white program rare in Central Otago breadth: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Albariño, Grüner Veltliner; plus Gamay reds, orange wines, and Pet Nat sparkling
• Second-label TED wines (Rosé, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir) offer fruit-forward, approachable bottlings; the main label is reserved for the single-vineyard and estate work

The most thoughtful argument Mount Edward makes is the side-by-side single-vineyard Pinot Noir series, which puts four Central Otago sub-regions next to each other in the glass. The Morrison Vineyard from Lowburn, the house's oldest Pinot Noir block (planted in 1997 by Duncan Forsyth himself), is the brighter and more floral expression, with lifted rose-petal aromatics and red plum and dark cherry concentration over the glacial schist and quartz soils. The Muirkirk Vineyard on Felton Road in Bannockburn (the warmest of the major sub-regions) delivers the most structured wine in the lineup, with darker fruit, firmer tannin grip, and the savoury minerality that Felton Road has made a Central Otago signature. The Stevens Vineyard from Gibbston (the coolest sub-region, planted on schist next to the winery) is the slenderest, most concentrated, and most herbal-tobacco-spiced of the series, reflecting Gibbston's elevation and cool ripening. The Pisa Terrace bottling, from the upper terraces of the Pisa sub-region, contributes the most aromatically intense of the four. Each is hand-harvested, wild-fermented, hand-plunged, aged in French oak, and bottled separately, giving drinkers an unusually clean comparison of how a single producer and a single variety read across the Central Otago map.

• Morrison Vineyard (Lowburn): house's oldest Pinot Noir block, planted 1997, 7.5 hectares of glacial schist and quartz; the bright, floral, rose-petal-and-red-fruit register of the lineup
• Muirkirk Vineyard (Bannockburn, Felton Road): warmer site giving the most structured, savoury, dark-fruited Pinot Noir in the program
• Stevens Vineyard (Gibbston): tiny half-hectare cool-climate parcel next to the winery, the slenderest and most concentrated bottling with herbal-tobacco lift; the first single-vineyard wine ever released by the house
• Pisa Terrace (Pisa): upper-terrace bottling with the most aromatic intensity; the four wines together give a sub-region masterclass across one producer

Mount Edward has earned a reputation that runs deeper than its small production might suggest. The single-vineyard Pinot Noirs are regularly cited among the region's most thoughtful expressions of site, and the Wandering Palate awarded Mount Edward Pinot Noir its New Zealand Red Wine of the Year. The Drumlin Riesling and Pisa Riesling sit among Central Otago's most considered aromatic whites, and the broader portfolio (Chenin Blanc, Albariño, Grüner Veltliner, Gamay, orange wines, Pet Nat) has made Mount Edward a go-to for sommeliers looking for the region's most adventurous bottlings. Duncan Forsyth has been recognised for his outstanding service to the New Zealand wine industry, and his voice carries weight on questions of organic farming, minimal intervention, and the future shape of Central Otago. The cellar door at Gibbston is by appointment only, in keeping with the small-batch, hands-on character of the operation, and tastings are arranged by phoning the winery directly.

• Mount Edward Pinot Noir named New Zealand Red Wine of the Year by the Wandering Palate; the single-vineyard series regularly cited among Central Otago's most thoughtful expressions of site
• Drumlin Riesling and Pisa Riesling among Central Otago's most considered aromatic whites; the broader portfolio drives interest from sommeliers seeking the region's most adventurous bottlings
• Duncan Forsyth recognised by New Zealand Wine for outstanding service to the industry; a leading voice on organic farming and minimal intervention in Central Otago
• Cellar door at Gibbston is by appointment only; small-batch single-vineyard production from five estate vineyards farmed organically across four sub-regions