Second
Act
20 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2017
JIM TANNOCK FOR FORBES
After building and then selling a top New Zealand
wine label, Kim and Erica Crawford started over.
This time it didn’t get any easier.
BY JENNIFER SCHULTZ WELLS
W
hile cleaning out their house in New Zealand to move two
years ago, Kim and Erica Crawford came across a desk
pad from the early days of their former wine label. On it
they had mapped out their future: Grow the brand, sell it
within nine years and then buy land.
They had done just that—building a bestselling sauvignon blanc label that
they sold for a small fortune, which allowed them to develop sizeable vine-
yards, land that they love. “We were very focused, between the two of us. We
knew exactly where we were going,” says Erica.
The Crawfords are now almost a decade into their second act, running
Loveblock Wines, their organics-driven estate amid the windswept hills of
Marlborough in the northeastern tip of the South Island. It’s
been challenging, even with their experience and capital.
Building a vineyard from scratch is expensive and time-con-
suming, farming is all about managing risk, and organics are
not generally known as a moneymaker. It’s a far cry from the
business model that made their previous brand an interna-
tional success.
Back in 199 6 , when Kim and Erica started Kim Craw-
ford Wines, they had plenty of vision but no money, so
they built a “virtual winery” out of the back room of their
Auckland home. It was an innovative approach at the
time, with Kim—a well-known local winemaker—buy-
ing grapes from contract growers and making wine in
leased facilities, allowing them to avoid huge outlays for
land, vines and equipment. The label under Erica’s man-
agement grew quickly and profitably. Sauvignon blanc,
unlike other varietals that need to be aged in barrels,
can be sold within a year of production. “It’s a high-val-
ue product,” says Kim, 5 7, with an almost “instanta-
neous return.”
Within seven years, Kim Crawford Wines was the
country’s tenth-largest winery in global sales. In 2003 ,
FORBES ASIA
LOVEBLOCK WINES
Veterans of the grape: “We now have
infrastructure and know what to plant,”
says Erica Crawford, with husband Kim
at their Marlborough estate.
