Playing in the Dirt

Cleighten Cornelius, senior winemaker at Mud House, New Zealand, believes the best wines let the vineyards speak for themselves. His single vineyard wines are a ballad to the soil and scenery that inspire his creations.

Mud House crafts beautiful wines sourced from three distinct wine regions in New Zealand’s picturesque South Island, Marlborough, Central Otago and the Waipara Valley. The sites, surrounded by stunning mountain wilderness, were all carefully selected for their natural advantages. Cornelius, together with winemaker Krystal Palmer, aim to interfere as little as possible with the grapes and embrace restraint in their winemaking.

“It’s important to know when not to do things,” Cornelius says. “As winemakers, it’s not necessarily what we as humans input, it’s also about letting the wines express themselves, like the silent notes in music that are just as important as the sounds. Most of the time, the fruit from the vines is so good that it just takes us not to muck it up or transform it into something it isn’t.”

Mud House was founded by a courageous couple who came ashore at the start of a sailing tour around the globe. They were awestruck by New Zealand’s landscape and abandoned their ocean faring dream to setup in this amazing corner of the world. Mud House got its name from the home they dug from the ground, and the winery carries their pioneering spirit through every vintage.

“There is a sense of adventure all around us, we’re surrounded by mountains, so it makes it easy to portray that in our wines.”

Cornelius and Palmer are always trialling new things and testing the boundaries. “We’re not scared to try something new—within reason,” Cornelius reveals.

As an example of the duo’s daring approach to their craft, grapes for the Mud House Single Vineyard Woolshed Sauvignon Blanc are handpicked and barrel fermented with skin contact.

Experimentation with restraint is a hallmark of Mud House wines. Cornelius has learned the fine art of how and when to take measured risks during in his decadelong career. He understands it’s important to know when to hold back, and not push things too far. His approach hasn’t always been that controlled:

“I was a bit gung-ho when I was younger. It was good to have mentors there to say, ‘Well hold on a minute! It’s good to push the boundaries, but the wine’s got to be drinkable!’”

NATURAL CHOICE

Winemaking was an obvious career choice for the Marlborough boy, who grew up surrounded by grapevines. “I wasn’t always into wine, but when it came time to decide what to do, winemaking struck me as a good combination of science, which I’ve always been into, and creativity.” he said. “The creative side of winemaking just resonates with me—every year the grapes are different, you need to adjust and evolve.”

Cornelius holds a bachelor’s degree in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University.