Larry McKenna

New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame, 2014 The 2014 New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame recognition sits on the back of a career built around one variety and one region. Training at Roseworthy Agricultural College in 1976 gave Larry McKenna the technical base; Martinborough gave that training a field of application. From the moment he said he moved to Martinborough in 1986 “with the express intent of being involved with Pinot Noir,” the line of work was clear. Pinot Noir became the organising principle of the career, not as slogan but as repeated practice.

Coming Up

Training at Roseworthy Agricultural College came before the first winery role at Delegat's Wine Estate in Auckland, where Larry McKenna began putting that education into use. The next long stretch was Martinborough Vineyard in Martinborough, where he served as chief winemaker and chief executive from 1986–1999. That pairing of titles matters: one part cellar oversight, one part business direction, with both carried at once. In Martinborough, the work sat close to the broader case being made for what the region could do, and McKenna was part of that argument through the day-to-day discipline of the job. From 1999–2022, he was founding winemaker and CEO at Escarpment Wines in Martinborough. The length of that tenure points to a method based on continuity rather than movement. Escarpment extended the same central focus already visible in the earlier years: place, Pinot Noir, and the slow correction of details over time. The role changed, but the line of work did not.

Where They Are Now

Pinot Noir stayed at the center of Larry McKenna’s thinking, including in his line that “It suits modern cuisine perfectly.” Read as a trade statement, it places the grape in direct conversation with the table. His other remark — “I really thought that variety suited this climate so much better than the Bordeaux varieties.” — is the same kind of judgment: specific, comparative, and rooted in what the site and the wine can actually support. The result is a career defined less by broad claims than by a sustained choice of variety, climate, and use.

In Their Words “I really thought that variety suited this climate so much better than the Bordeaux varieties.” “I moved to Martinborough in 1986, with the express intent of being involved with Pinot Noir.”

Honors

Larry's honors include New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame (2014) and Sir George Fistonich Medal for services to the New Zealand Wine industry.