Grant Taylor – Owner, Founder 

Grant Taylor is New Zealand’s most renowned vintner, owning a string of gold and silver medals and trophies throughout his career. However, none surpasses winning the trophy for Best Pinot Noir at a major International Wine Competition in London an unprecedented four times, a feat no other vintner has accomplished.

Grant established Valli in 1998 after 18 years of winemaking experience in the U.S., Australia, France, and New Zealand. With his philosophy of highlighting the differences between sub-regions within Otago, Grant was born in Otago, New Zealand, and graduated from Lincoln College in Christchurch.

In 1980, he helped establish Pine Ridge Winery in Napa, California, where he began making wine until 1986. In 1987, he helped build another Napa Valley winery, Domaine Napa, and worked there as its chief Winemaker until 1993.

Lured back to Otago in 1993 by the promise of vast and plentiful trout, clean air, fewer folks, and the potential he saw for Otago wines, Grant signed on as Winemaker for Gibbston Valley Wines. Only twenty hectares of grapes were planted then in Otago; it now has more than two thousand hectares.

As a pioneering winemaker in Otago, Grant made the first vintages for several of the wine region’s famous labels, including Mt Difficulty, Felton Road, Carrick, Peregrine, Mount Edward, Hawkshead, Mondillo, Bald Hills, and Rockburn. Grant has kept his American connections over the years, helping to establish Oregon’s renowned Pinot Noir producing winery, Archery Summit, in 1995. He has consulted there for many vintages since.

Grant left Gibbston Valley in 2006 to concentrate exclusively on Valli, while the rest is history. He has completed over 60 vintages, and he looks forward to the next 60 and seeing how vines with some considerable age perform in Otago.

Jen Parr – Winemaker

An Oregon native and a graduate of Stanford University, Jen has condensed a breadth of vintner’s experience as in the USA, France, South Africa, and Australia for several years. She has also completed 17 New Zealand harvests and 30 vintages overall.

Here in Otago, Jen was the head winemaker for Olssens (which later became Terra Sancta) from 2009 to 2014. Her wine was frequently featured in food and wine magazines and landed on various top 10 lists. Before coming to Valli, Jen won 5 Trophies for Pinot Noir and Pinot Noir Rosé, including Champion Wine of Show in 2012. She was the first winner of the Champion Winemaker Award at the prestigious New Zealand International Wine Show. Since joining Valli, our wines have continued to receive top recognition. Jen has received the Winemaker of the Year award as part of the NZ International Aromatics Competition in 2018 and was nominated as one of only six finalists in the Gourmet Traveller WINE New Zealand Winemaker of the Year in 2019. In 2020, she was nominated for a second time, but this time she won the New Zealand Winemaker of the Year award.

Beyond her commitment to making consistent, top quality, site expressive wines, Jen’s open-mindedness and inquisitiveness, put her at the forefront of innovation and experimentation with on-skins Pinot Gris, fermentation techniques and earlier picking to preserve freshness and restrain alcohol.

Jen shares her passion for wine, teaching others about it and its endless potential for enjoyment. She is a capable Wine Judge and is very active in the local wine industry, having served twice as the Chairperson for our Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration. She is one of the nine Mentors nationally in the 2018 Women in Wine’s Pilot Mentor Programme. She has been very involved with the organisation of both the National and Central Otago Winemakers Workshops.

No longer enticed by winemaking opportunities elsewhere, Jen understands that her heart is here in Central Otago, and she’s fulfilled and inspired by working with Grant Taylor, a legendary figure, to help make what she considers to be New Zealand’s most remarkable Pinot Noirs: Valli.