A lifetime love of wine

Winery owner Roger Fraser’s love of wine started at a young age. The owner of acclaimed winery Murdoch James Estate’s first significant contact with wine was when he was studying at university.

As a friend of fellow student Bruce Collard, Roger spent time hanging out at Collards Wines and learning about the various stages in the grape growing and winemaking process. “I was fascinated by the process, particularly seeing how subtle variances from nature each year could influence the resulting wine,” he says.

From there, Roger describes his interest in wine as being largely from a consumer’s point of view. He continued to read and learn more about wine and to develop a love of Burgundy.

It was while Roger was working in the pharmaceutical industry in Australia in the mid 1980’s, that he first read a newspaper article reporting that Martinborough was producing Pinot Noir to rival the best of Burgundy.

During a visit back to New Zealand for a family wedding, Roger visited Martinborough and tasted some of the wines that were starting to capture wine connoisseurs’ attention. “I suddenly experienced what the journalist had been writing about.”

A chance passing of a ‘for sale’ sign outside a block of land led to Roger and wife Jill’s first entry into the Martinborough wine scene. The Fraser’s first vintages of Pinot Noir and Syrah attracted early success, winning a number of awards and trophies.

In order to help keep up with ever increasing demand for their wines, the Frasers purchased Blue Rock Vineyard on Dry River Road in 1998. The new location enabled the Frasers to establish a restaurant on site and develop vineyard and winery tours.

“Buying Blue Rock enabled us to realise our dream of putting wine in its right context – with food and as part of the complete winery experience,” he says.

With production over the years growing from 400 cases a year to over 10,000 cases, Roger says the winery is at the point where they don’t want it to get much bigger. “There comes a point where growing further would mean compromising our ability to do some of the things that drive us, such as the single vineyard wines we produce.” 

Roger attributes much of Murdoch James Estate’s success to the commitment by everyone in the family business to “go out and front our wines”. Roger spends a considerable amount of each year travelling to meet distributors and train staff in overseas stores that stock the vineyard’s wines, as well as attend wine shows and other events.

Roger says the family has built the winery “day by day, tonne by tonne, kilometre by kilometre”. While he spends a lot of time travelling internationally, he still relishes the chance to work the cellar door and chat about the wines with visitors to the winery.

“I really enjoy bringing the product to life with somebody and helping them to learn more about our wine.”