Bucking New Zealand’s Wine Tradition to Make Stellar Vintages

Aug 24, 2023

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For Hiroyuki Kusuda, 56, the ultimate vindication of his vision for Kiwi wine came when a well-known wine bar in Kobe, Japan, initiated a ritual: Each time they sold a bottle from France's Romanée-Conti vineyard, one of the most expensive wines in the world, they also uncorked a complimentary bottle of Kusuda for the buyer, as if to say, "Sure, the thousands of dollars you just spent on a bottle of Romanée-Conti is worth it, but here's something as complex and elegant, retailing for a fraction of that, made in a little-known corner of rural New Zealand."

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