Will Hoare and Rachel Jackson are curious adventurers.

For Will, Marlborough runs deep. A second-generation grape grower, his journey has included vintages at Au Bon Climat in California and nearly two decades at Fromm, guided along the way by some of the region’s true pioneers.

Rachel brings a scientist’s mindset to the fold. Initially trained and working as a hydrologist, a life change saw her shift course to wine and she fell in love with chardonnay during time working with two of the variety's great names: Oregon’s Veronique Drouhin and Burgundy’s Dominique Lafon.

Novum was born in 2015 from an ongoing conversation between the pair, about three small vineyard parcels they believed could convey the region in a new, distinctive light. After securing these sites, their journey towards a new expression of Marlborough began. Their attention to detail in the vineyards is obsessive and all-encompassing, and carries through to the winery, where Will supervises every remaining step of the journey, right down to hand-waxing and packing each bottle.

The result is a suite of Burgundian-influenced wines of depth and finesse, each one indicative of site and season. “If we do our job well,” say Will and Rachel, “our wines should simply act as a mirror, reflecting the unique soils of Marlborough.”

With global acclaim growing, the Novum story is only just beginning.