Neudorf Vineyards

The Free Bacchus Story

Tim and Judy Finn planted their first vines in the Moutere hills in 1978, fresh, as Judy tells it, from the back-to-the-land movement of the late sixties. Tim had a master’s degree in animal behaviour and Judy a journalism career she calls unimpressive, and at one stage they had four mortgages and three jobs each. The old house had electricity in two rooms and no hot water. Some of the Chardonnay they planted that first year is still cropping on the Home Block.

Nelson is the small wine region at the top of the South Island, west of Marlborough, and the Moutere hills are clay: deep clay gravels laid down by long-melted glaciers, under a sandy loam. Clay holds water, and that is what lets Neudorf dry farm, leaving the vines to find their own through the Nelson summer. From the start, Rosie Finn says, her father was drawn to the idea, and the clay made it possible. Chardonnay is about 45 per cent of the vineyard, Pinot Noir 30.

The vineyards were farmed with agrochemicals until 2010. Judy’s view, when the change came, was that organics just made sense for a family keeping three vegetable gardens. The winemaker, Todd Stevens, dates the full commitment to 2014 and certification across all the estate vineyards to 2016. The estate now prints its BioGro licence number, 5438, on the page for each single-vineyard wine.

Tim Finn died on 31 October 2025, aged 79. Judy has stepped back from the day-to-day running, Rosie has taken the reins with Todd, and the 2024 Home Block Moutere Chardonnay was The Real Review’s New Zealand White Wine of the Year for 2026. One boundary is worth knowing. The three Tiritiri wines, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Gris and a rosé, are a separate range, partly from fruit grown off the estate, and they are not on the organic certificate.