“Our family has grown up in the wine industry. Our daughters were born in three different winegrowing regions as Simon made wine in the Barossa Valley, Waikato and Gisborne. Having grown up alongside Astrolabe, my daughters Libby and Arabella have returned to Marlborough, and today two generations work together. We live in a 100-year-old house on our Farm Vineyard and practice living on the land gently. Being family owned and operated colours everything we do and gives us the freedom to produce wines of uncompromising quality with a dedication to our house style.”
Jane Forrest-Waghorn
Growers
All grapes are sourced from ten families who live on their land and farm sustainably. Many of the relationships we have with our growers are more than twenty years old. We work with dedicated growers who understand the rhythms of the land and know how to grow grapes that express the terroir. These sites are spread across the Marlborough sub-regions, giving a diversity of soil profile and mesoclimate. Each vineyard was chosen for the distinctive flavour it produces.
Winemaker
Simon Waghorn has been honing his craft over four decades and has established a benchmark style of sauvignon blanc that reflects an unparalleled diversity of vineyard sources. Careful site selection, expert picking decisions, delicate fruit handling and astute blending are the hallmarks of his Marlborough wines. Simon’s personal style defines an Astrolabe wine — focused, balanced and elegant. Simon crafts a range of beautiful wines that express the purity and intensity of fruit flavours afforded by the climate and soils of the Marlborough region.
Our Name
An astrolabe is an ancient astronomical instrument that was used to make a diverse range of calculations. Its name translates as ‘star-taker’. A mariner’s astrolabe, modified for use upon a ship, was used by early navigators to determine latitude by measuring the altitude of a celestial object. French explorer Dumont d’Urville charted the Marlborough coast in 1827 aboard a ship named L’Astrolabe. When career winemaker Simon Waghorn wanted to start his own label in 1996, he chose the name Astrolabe because of the historic ties with Marlborough, and he liked the connotations of exploration and discovery.
