From McLaren Vale to Marlborough, straight-shooting natural farmer Anna Flowerday has walked the walk with “vine Jedi” husband Jason—all the way to the title of NZ Vigneron of the Year.

“Wines made with cowshit not bullshit” went the famous tagline at Te Whare Ra (TWR), the Marlborough estate Anna runs with her husband, Jason. It’s apt in so many ways: the indelicate language, the allusion to the use of manure in biodynamic viticulture and the disdain for dissimulation in the way people present their wines.

Te Whare Ra is a Māori name meaning ‘house in the sun', and the vineyard was originally planted in 1979. Anna and Jason purchased the land in 2003 and have developed it into a humming 11-hectare site of predominantly loam over clay soils.

Anna is a straight-talker, and one happy to voice and stand by her beliefs. She is a fierce advocate for organic viticulture, and TWR is certified by BioGroNZ. She champions her region of Marlborough as loudly as anyone. She has organised and spoken at a string of industry conferences, including a star turn at the Terroir Conference in Shanghai in 2017, where she shared the bill with global luminaries Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, legendary consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, Château Ausone owner Pauline Vauthier, and Rhône royalty Philippe Guigal. She is also thoroughly at home in the cellar door in Renwick, where she loves to encourage curiosity in all-comers and won’t shy away from difficult questions.

She is, as this episode shows, what we used to call “natural”. Like the aromatic whites that make up the lion’s share of the TWR range, her candour is refreshing, too.

I have known Anna for over a decade and have had the pleasure of seeing her and Jason in their element on the farm. I used to work for her Australian importer (whose co-owner, Patrick Walsh, appeared on episode 4), and refer here to an interview she gave in October 2014.

The conversation for this episode took place during the week she and Jason were named New Zealand Vigneron of the Year by The Real Review, a prominent wine ratings website in Australia. We talk about the implications of this accolade for their small business.

From her McLaren Vale childhood, she mentions Corrina Wright (née Rayment) of Oliver's Taranga and Malcolm and Richard Leask of Hither & Yon. The mentor she cites in her early hospitality role is Peter Morelli of Red Ochre Grill.

Of Jason Flowerday’s history, the wineries he’d worked at in the Clare Valley (where Leasingham, then a brand of Hardys, is located) were Skillogalee and Crabtree. He was initially in Australia with NZ company Selaks (which also appears in my story on Kiwi-born Clare-dweller Col McBryde).

Several names crop up going back to Anna’s days at BRL Hardy, including the inspirational higher-ups at the time, Peter Dawson and Tim James, who now make wine together in Tasmania under the Dawson James label. Stephen Pannell (Pannell Enoteca) and Glenn James (Billy Button) were the seniors then, and he talented group of namechecked peers include Pannell was group Red Winemaker then and Glenn James was group White Winemaker and then yeah was like Sue Bell (Bellwether), Larry Cherubino (Cherubino), Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT), Rob Mann (Corymbia), Fran Austin (Delamere) and Cynthea Semmens (Marion's Vineyard). Tintara is the name of a brand and historic winery in McLaren Vale.

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