Blank Canvas, Element Vineyard Gimblett Gravels Syrah

Founded in 2012, Blank Canvas is a collaboration between Master of Wine Sophie Parker-Thomson and award-winning winemaking consultant Matt Thomson. Over 45 years of collective experience in the global wine industry has enabled them to seek out exceptional single vineyards, and together they craft exciting, small-batch wines that are at the forefront of New Zealand’s fine wine scene.

Having worked with vineyards and growers across New Zealand, Blank Canvas purchased a remarkable nine-hectare property in Marlborough’s Omaka Valley in 2025. The amphitheatre-shaped hillside vineyard, planted at high density in 2003, is a striking site that offers breathtaking 360° views across the Wairau Valley. The low-vigour clay slopes provide a range of aspects, allowing Sophie and Matt to match variety and style to place: a founding ethos of Blank Canvas. This acquisition now forms the winery’s long-awaited home site and complements their existing portfolio of distinctive partner vineyards.

Sophie is the current Chair of Appellation Marlborough Wine™ (AMW), and Blank Canvas is a founding member of this first-of-its-kind New World organisation. Promoting and upholding quality standards for its members, and the wines certified each year, ensures consumers are guaranteed a wine of provenance, quality and authenticity. The Blank Canvas range of single-vineyard Marlborough wines highlight the nuances between Marlborough’s diverse subregions, which are delineated in the AMW Wine Map of Marlborough.

The ‘Holdaway’ Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc delivers powerful, precise fruit with an attractive salty character, distinctive of Marlborough’s coastal Dillons Point subregion. It is quickly becoming one of New Zealand’s top-rated Sauvignon Blancs. The ‘Abstract | Three Rows’ Sauvignon Blanc, handpicked from a dry-farmed parcel within the ‘Holdaway’ Vineyard, is fermented with indigenous yeast in seasoned French oak puncheons and bottled without fining or filtration. The texture and complexity draw parallels to Bordeaux Blanc from Graves.

The ‘Reed’ Vineyard is found at the confluence of the Wairau and Waihopai Rivers, planted on alluvial clay soils. Fermented with indigenous yeast in French oak puncheons with no lees stirring, this unfiltered Chardonnay is elegant and complex with a great capacity for ageing. The 2023 vintage saw the inaugural release of the ‘Tano’ Chardonnay, handpicked from the Anandale Farm vineyard in the wild, coastal subregion of Blind River. This cool, exposed site gives ‘Tano’ its signature acidity, creating a vivid and pristine cool climate Chardonnay. A love of German Prädikatswein and the high natural acidity of Blind River has inspired the Kabinett-style ‘Anandale Farm’ Riesling. In a slight departure from the single vineyard philosophy, the 2023 vintage of the much-loved Grüner Veltliner was sourced from two vineyards in the Rapaura and Brancott subregions. A combination of fermentation in puncheons and maturation on lees gives savoury complexity that will only deepen with further age.

Both single-vineyard Marlborough Pinot Noirs (the ‘Escaroth’ Vineyard from the 'Taylor Pass and the ‘Settlement’ Vineyard from the Omaka Valley) are made with deep respect to Pinot Noir’s perfume and ethereal nature, and varying degrees of whole bunch are used to lift aromatics and provide structural complexity. The ‘Element’ Vineyard Syrah, a true cool-climate expression, is a homage to the great wines of Northern Rhône. High whole bunch use provides a very aromatic and elegant Syrah, while co-fermenting a small percentage of Grüner Veltliner skins marries the black and white pepper of respective varieties together.