ABOUT US
The Novum Story
Our Motivation
At Novum we are singularly focused on one thing: making fine wine.
For us, a fine wine is one that stays with you – memorable for its transparency of quality and craft, for its individuality, and above all for its ability to transport you to another place.
Over our winemaking careers we’ve been fortunate to taste wines like this, and it is the desire to create wines of that pedigree, from our place in Marlborough, that motivates us every day at Novum.
Following Our Own Path
After ten years on this journey, we can tell you it takes grit and determination. These wines aren’t made in a single season, or even in ten. There is no simple recipe or well‑trodden path to follow; it’s not as straightforward as being organic or not organic. What we do know is that it comes down to a thousand small decisions in the vineyard and the winery that inch you closer to the goal.
We are constantly experimenting and pushing new boundaries – from using tressage in our New World vineyards to fermenting juice together with stones.
We use a “toolbox” approach to winegrowing, drawing on our skills, on technology, and on practices that are sometimes very old, if they help us reach our goal. Every season is different, and our use of this toolbox has become almost intuitive.
We don’t follow rules, except one: fine wines can only be made with the greatest care for the earth and for the people who work it.
Staying Small
We deliberately choose to stay small so that attention remains personal and standards uncompromised. Scarcity is not about exclusivity for its own sake, but about safeguarding the care each parcel demands
– the handwork, the timing, the patience.
Our wines are the result of that restraint and devotion: distilled expressions of place, made with curiosity and discipline.
Our aim is clear: to stand among New Zealand’s leaders by pushing boundaries, not for spectacle but in pursuit of beauty and clarity.
Novum is our promise – to the land, to the work, and to those who open our bottles. We invite you to taste what focused care and quiet experimentation can become.
Welcome to our Novum World
William & Rachel
William & Rachel
We often say that Novum is the sum of everything we have both learned, tasted, and experienced. We are William and Rachel, a Marlborough winemaking couple, and this is our attempt to make something genuinely fine from this place we call home.
William lived and breathed wine from a very early age. He grew up in a vineyard just across the road from Cloudy Bay, making his first wine – a very dubious rosé – in the winery fridge at nine under the watchful eye of Kevin Judd. What followed were formative years at Au Bon Climat in California, working alongside the two Jims (Clendenon and Adelman). Those years brought a deep understanding of, and love for, Burgundian‑style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay winemaking. Eventually Will returned to Fromm Winery, where he stayed for 19 years, starting as assistant winemaker and finishing as General Manager.
My journey into wine was almost accidental. While completing my final paper in a geology degree, a chance assignment that showed how soils could change a wine's flavour left me in awe. From that moment I was singularly focused on becoming a winemaker (while also developing a fixation for Chardonnay). That led to postgraduate study in Oenology at the University of Adelaide and to my first vintages with two Chardonnay greats – Oregon's Veronique Drouhin and Burgundy's Dominique Lafon. I was inspired by winemakers who had a deep understanding of wine.
Freedom to be
The idea of Novum arrived suddenly.
We knew we needed independence – and the freedom that comes with it. As winemakers, there is so much to be creative with, if you allow yourself. We had reached a point where the energy to experiment and grow was there, but the space to do it freely wasn't. We wanted to make new styles, test new theories, follow the conversations that started with "What if we did this?" We had a foundation of knowledge as our launching pad. All we needed was the room to use it. Novum means new in Latin – and for us it represented exactly that: a new way of thinking about wine.
Novum is constantly evolving. We give each other the room to experiment, to follow an idea wherever it leads, and to keep asking "what if?" That restlessness is deliberate – it's what keeps the wines moving forward.
