Dog Point Vineyard

The Free Bacchus Story

In 1979 Ivan and Margaret Sutherland, with a cousin, bought 52 acres on Dog Point Road for $1,300 an acre and were among the first to plant grapes in the region. In 1986 Ivan joined Cloudy Bay, the winery that made Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc famous around the world, as its viticulturist, and there he met the winemaker James Healy. The two couples launched the Dog Point label in 2004, with fruit from the 2002 vintage. The next generation of Sutherlands now runs the place day to day, and James Healy died suddenly in 2026.

The name is older than the vineyard. Early settlers kept dogs to guard their flocks; some wandered off, bred, and became a pack that attacked the sheep they had been meant to protect. Once the settlers cleared them out, the place was called Dog Point.

In 2009 the Sutherlands asked BioGro to certify the entire vineyard at once, against advice that converting in stages would be easier. Ivan wanted the whole team farming organically from the first day, with no half-converted block left to be neglected. Rural Delivery reported in 2018 that the hard part had been nitrogen, not weeds, once the synthetic fertiliser stopped. By 2016 every wine was certified. The general manager, Matt Sutherland, says the organic logo was never meant as a selling tool, and that picking every grape by hand is an accountant’s nightmare they have no plan to stop.

Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is usually loud, green and made to be drunk young. Section 94 is the other way of doing it. The fruit comes from a single parcel planted in 1992, named after the old survey title for that piece of land. It is picked by hand, pressed as whole bunches, fermented with no yeast added in used French barrels, left on its lees for about eighteen months, and then held back in bottle for five years before release. The front label leaves off the words Sauvignon Blanc on purpose, Matt Sutherland says, so that nobody buys it expecting the classic style.