When escaped schoolteacher Martin Gillion established WineNZ in 1996 a lot of wine journalism was restricted to a few pages in general magazines.
There was no publication with a dedicated interest in wine despite the obvious surge in public interest. Wine columns were often squashed into pretentious articles on how to cook dishes whose ingredients were unobtainable or were sandwiched between articles on race day fashion or how to turn a dilapidated high country woolshed into an elegant mountain retreat using only recyled timber and a large inheritance!
One or two magazines ran serious tastings and carried more in depth commentaries on the industry.
Martin saw a niche for a magazine that catered for an increasing interest in wine at a time when the bag in the box had almost died a death and an increasing number of people were not only interested in advice on their wine purchases but were also keen to find out a little more about the regions in which the grapes were grown and the people and issues that influenced the quality of the final product.
Martin appreciated that readers not only wanted good advice on what to buy, preferably in language that they could understand, but also wanted to feel part of an industry that had considerable appeal.
In the ensuing years the magazine has gone from strength to strength. With the initial 30 page set up expanding to today's full 64 page format and a circulation that has expanded to 10,000. And still only $5.90 for four issues.
As a result Martin finds less time to engage in his other passions - sailing and tramping - but still manages to take time to explore the wine regions of both New Zealand and the Old World.
Martin comments that while interviewing wine makers is not perhaps as chaotic as managing a room of thirty or more teenagers it can be equally challenging. Just as your recalcitrant teenager can think of fifty reasons for not doing homework winemakers are equally adept at giving you 50 reasons why their particular site has an exceptionally favourable microclimate!
