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Cloudy Bay director takes on new role in Canada
Cloudy Bay’s estate director, Ian Morden, is leaving the New Zealand winery after eight years to take up the position of managing director of the Mission Hill Family Estate in British Columbia, Canada.
Morden has led Cloudy Bay, which is part of the LVMH Group, for the past eight years, with the winery widely credited for helping to build New Zealand’s reputation as a premium wine producer and boost its international profile.
Today, Mission Hill Family Estate owner Anthony von Mandl confirmed his appointment as managing director of the estate, effective from mid September.
Based in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, the Mission Hill Family Estate winery was founded in 1981, and is known, along with its wines, for its 12-storey bell tower and cellars blasted into volcanic rock.
Von Mandl said a fishing trip to New Zealand many years ago, and visit to Cloudy Bay, had first introduced him to the brand.
“I recall not only being impressed by the wines but by the way a newcomer like New Zealand was making its mark in the world of wine”, he said. “Having seen the progression of Cloudy Bay globally under Ian’s leadership, I felt like he was the right person to take Mission Hill to the next level with me.”
Moving from one Pinot producer to another, Morden said he had been inspired by the Okanagan’s distinctive wines in a “similarly primal way” to when he first arrived in Marlborough.
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“My first taste of a fine Canadian Pinot Noir was one of those ‘discovery moments’ of my wine career”, he said. “It was a Mission Hill wine at the Cloudy Bay 2012 international benchmark tasting. The Okanagan climate delivers the kind of fresh, vibrant wine styles that resonate with modern palates and cuisine. This is the New New World of wine – operating at the avant-garde, working with a great group of like-minded people, which is personally where I want to be. I’m delighted to be in Canada, and with some major US markets on our doorstep and the Pacific Northwest’s natural pivot towards Northern Asia, I sense enormous potential ahead.”
Morden takes on responsibility for the von Mandl Family’s Sebastian Farms vineyard estates, which grow up to 95% of Mission Hill’s grapes.