New Zealand’s Most Experienced Family Winery Proud To Back Made With Care

Pioneering winemaker Babich Wines welcomes the launch of the new Made with Care campaign from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE). The global campaign is designed to grow awareness, preference and demand for New Zealand Food and Beverage products in the key export markets of Australia, China, Japan, the USA and the UK.

A family business founded in 1916, Babich Wines have put over a century of care into making their sustainably crafted wines and, since the 1960s, have been pioneering contributors to the growth of the New Zealand wine industry. The winery can even lay claim to the first large-scale export of New Zealand wine to Europe, with a container load sent to Germany in 1980.

CEO David Babich, grandson of founder Josip Babich, says he is pleased to see NZTE working hard to promote New Zealand’s food and beverage producers internationally.

“Export success is vital for New Zealand wine. As an industry, we’ve always balanced competition with collaboration,” says Babich. “Campaigns like Made with Care are immensely valuable for lifting the profile of New Zealand, the wine industry, and the whole food and beverage sector, which benefits all of us.”

Babich is also pleased to see the central message of the campaign is focused on sustainability and quality, which are New Zealand's competitive advantage.

“For us, the Made with Care campaign is confirmation that we’ve been doing things right, ever since we planted our first vines over 100 years ago. We’ll never stop striving to delight wine drinkers and make the everyday extraordinary – you can taste the care that goes into our sustainably crafted wines. From grape, to glass. Every time.”

Read more about the Babich Wines and their commitment to sustainably crafted, export quality wine on our Made With Care page.

About Babich Wines:

Babich Wines is an internationally renowned family owned winery aiming to sustainably craft the most drinkable New Zealand wines.

The story began more than 100 years ago when Josip Babich (founder) left his Mum and Dad in Croatia at the young age of 14 (with no money, not a word of English) and journeyed to New Zealand with his older brother in the hope of a better life. He never saw his parents again. Josip joined his three older brothers who were earning a living digging and selling kauri gum in New Zealand’s far north. In 1911 the Babich Brothers put a deposit on their vineyard in Henderson Valley, Auckland, producing the first wine in 1916 in Northland. In the earliest days, when Josip (founder) was making wine in the gumfields, one of his first big sales was 12 bottles for a wedding. This was a huge milestone. Josip delivered it himself, riding 40 miles on horseback with six bottles slung over each side. Another milestone and a highlight of Josip’s winemaking career was the first export in 1980. At the age of 84 he watched a container of wine going back to the old world (where he had come from 70 years earlier) with a tear in his eye. He died 3 years later. Today, 90% of the wine is exported.

104 years on, our family business has three generations of winemaking experience behind it, vineyards in New Zealand’s finest wine regions, and a passion for winemaking as a way of life.

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