Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award

Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award 

A Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award is “very premature”, say Kevin and Kimberley Judd, nearly 43 years after they came to New Zealand for a three year stint. “We haven’t finished yet.”

Photo: Richard Briggs

When Kimberley and Kevin Judd moved to New Zealand in 1983, they planned to stay for three years.

Now, more than 40 years after Kevin made the first Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, and 16 years after they launched their own label Greywacke, the couple have received the Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award for 2025.

“Kevin’s influence on Marlborough’s global reputation has been profound, through the extraordinary wines of Cloudy Bay and Greywacke, and the beautiful photography that has put our vines and vineyards on coffee tables and walls around the world,” says Wine Marlborough General Manager Marcus Pickens.

“Kimberley’s wine marketing, hosting and support, from the fledgling days of Cloudy Bay to the growth of Greywacke since 2009, have helped cast a light on Marlborough.”

The Judds were on a photography trip in the mountains of Southeast China when the award was announced at the Marlborough Wine Show Celebration, held on 14 November. In a video recorded for the event, Kevin said they were proud to be part of Marlborough’s wine industry, but noted a lifetime award seemed premature. “We haven’t finished yet.”

Kevin and Kimberley were both born in England, but moved to Australia when they were young. Kimberley went on to study politics and history at Adelaide University, and soon met Kevin, who’d taken up winemaking studies at Roseworthy College. In the third year of his studies, he worked the vintage at Chateau Reynella, south of Adelaide, with “larger-than-life” winemaker Geoff Merrill. “That’s when I realised it really was an interesting and really cool industry.”

In February 1983 Kevin took a job with Selaks in West Auckland, with the couple planning to stay in New Zealand for three years. But the next year he met David Hohnen at a wine show, changing the course of the Judd’s lives, and of New Zealand’s wine story.

Kevin accepted an offer to be winemaker at David’s new Marlborough winemaking venture, and in 1985 the first Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc took the world by storm. Kimberley recalls being in the United Kingdom when the wines were first released there, and seeing the ripples created from Marlborough. “We were listening to this bunch of upper class English people going on about Cloudy Bay and thinking, ‘are we talking about the same place here?’”

David says Kevin is a perfectionist in winemaking, as he is with photography, always looking for the extra 1% in quality. And Kimberley has been a key part of the success, he adds. “They have been team Judd; there's no doubt about it.”

Kevin stayed with Cloudy Bay for 25 years, his name synonymous with the label, but left in 2009 to launch Greywacke with Kimberley, in the midst of the global financial crisis. The first year he created seven wines and 6,000 cases, and 16 years on Greywacke is exported to more than 50 markets.  

While Kevin’s father convinced him to study winemaking instead of photography, the two careers have run in parallel, with stunning images that have reflected Marlborough’s landscapes and vineyards across the seasons and years, including those in Kevin’s books The Colour of Wine, and The Landscape of New Zealand Wine. He has forged an international reputation for his photography, and earlier this year was named the Marlborough Living Cultural Treasure for 2025, bestowed by the Marlborough District Council.

Meanwhile, the Judds have built a strong culture at Greywacke, emulating the collegial, can-do ethos they loved in the early days of Cloudy Bay. “They're both so generous and open hearted,” says Greywacke winemaker Richelle Tyney. “We are kind of like a little family. They've had such dedication to the Marlborough wine industry, and it's great that they're being recognised for it.”

Photo: Jim Tannock

Richelle Tyney and Ben Leonard accept the Wine Marlborough Lifetime Award at the Marlborough Wine Show Celebration event 14 November 2025. Photo: Richard Briggs