Steve Davies

The Climb

Formal study at Lincoln University (2002) sits alongside a working sequence that began in the vineyard and stayed there. At Akarua Vineyard in Bannockburn (1998–2001), Steve Davies worked as winemaker; at Carrick (2002–2008), he held the same role. The line between those jobs is the useful one: each season adding to the reading of fruit, site and cellar decision, with no reliance on spectacle or shortcut. Today, Steve is farmer and winemaker of Doctors Flat (since 2008) and owner and director of Doctors Flat Vineyard Ltd and Rubicon Hall Road Ltd.

Today

The work at Doctors Flat is carried in two registers at once: farming in the vineyard and winemaking in the cellar. For Steve Davies, the field side and the cellar side are not separate disciplines but one continuous practice, with the finished bottle reflecting decisions made across both. His specialty is Pinot Noir from that site, made from a small organic vineyard and described as true to place, with density, fine tannin and a clear sense of place. The cellar programme is pared back and direct. Davies works with small open tanks, minimal inputs, very light extraction, spontaneous fermentation, and delayed malolactic and sulfur additions. The method gives precedence to what the fruit and season already contain, using restraint rather than correction. That leaves room for site character to remain visible in the wine’s texture and shape. Landholding, farming and sales sit under the same structure, keeping the business tied to the vineyard that supplies it. The result is a model of continuity: the ground, the crop and the bottle remain legible to one another, with Steve Davies managing all three as parts of the same working system.

Signature

Steve's signature wines include Doctors Flat Pinot Noir 2021 and Doctors Flat Pinot Noir.

In Their Words “Since 2008 I have been farming the Doctors Flat vineyard and making and selling Doctors Flat Pinot Noir.” “I am a viticulturist and winemaker.”

Recognition

Recognition here rests on consistency rather than flourish. In Steve Davies’s work, Bannockburn fruit, organic-vineyard scale, density, fine tannin and a clear sense of place are matched by light extraction, spontaneous fermentation and low-intervention timing in the cellar. The craft is legible because the same discipline governs both vineyard and winery. That coherence is the point. The work reads as site-led and steady, with the title Davies gives himself — viticulturist and winemaker — aligning with the way the wine is made and presented.