Erica Crawford, whose 2022 Loveblock Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc is anticipated to soon make its U.S. debut through Pennsylvania’s Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores, had no intention of pursuing celebrity status in the wine industry.
The South African was employed as a research scientist at the renowned Ischaemic Heart Research Unit (now the Hatter Institute) at the University of Cape Town in her early 20s.
According to a 2019 interview on the New Zealand Wine website, she visited vineyards and discovered new varietals in Cape Town and Stellenbosch when she had free time. Wine tourism has been well established for a long time; some of those wine estates are 300 years old.
She said, “I had the time of my life.”
However, that career path took a drastic change when she met Kim Crawford, a New Zealander, while traveling with a friend to a wine festival. She moved there three years later, had two kids, and, as she said in her profile, launched the Kim Crawford [wine] business with $20,000 in the spare room of our small house in central Auckland.
After becoming a global sensation, it was acquired in 2006 by Constellation, a global manufacturer and distributor of wine, beer, and spirits. Even though there were several manufacturers engaged, Kim Crawford quickly emerged as the acquisition’s largest growth brand.
In 2002, she launched her own wine line, Pansy! Rose, a wine for the LGBT community, since the brand bearing her husband’s name was becoming well-known throughout the world and the top-selling New Zealand wine in the United States and Canada. She stated in the interview that it was among the best things she had ever done. Many people advised against it, but what a party!
She told The Somm Journal that her first property, a 460-acre farm situated high above Marlborough and Cook Strait, helped strengthen a soft spot in an operation that was already succeeding at winemaking. She would buy it two years later.
After departing Constellation in 2008, the couple started searching for a project that would allow them to see their dedication to terroir-driven and sustainable wines come to fruition.
Over the following few years, they would achieve that aim, first by locating a 200-acre plot of property in the Awatere Valley of Marlborough, and then in 2013 they established Loveblock, focusing on sustainable and organic grape management and winemaking.
The work of love needed to care for a block of vines served as the inspiration for the name.
Erica told the Somm Journal, “We definitely wouldn’t be doing this if we were in it for the money.” The terrain is more difficult as it grows. Where no one had before grown grapes, we did. It has challenging soil and is windy. Because we didn’t know [better], we first handled [the winemaking] in the same way as we did [with fruit from] the valley level.
What are some essential facts regarding Loveblock wines, then? This is a brief list:
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As a leader in sustainability, Loveblock treads lightly and all wines are made per organic and sustainability standards, certified or not.
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Limited yeast and fining materials are available to use, meaning mistake-free winemaking is required.
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Loveblock limits the use of sulphur and additives.
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All Loveblock wines are vegan-friendly.
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Loveblock wines are 100% estate-grown and bottled in a lightweight bottle.
According to Erica Crawford, “We believe that ethical and organic winegrowing is the way of the future, and organics and sustainability are at the heart of our wine and brand.” What important with organic wine is what you DON’T put in: a lot of time, sweat, and love, as well as the absence of chemical pesticides and herbicides and fewer winery inputs.
She added that she thinks the market is more receptive to organic products now than it was five years ago, according to The Somm Journal. “I can finally see the demand for organics, even though it’s been a long road,” she remarked. It’s about what’s in the bottle, how a business acts, and how it handles its employees.
The Loveblock Farms Hillside block in Marlborough’s Awatere Valley, which is 500 feet above sea level, is the source of grapes for the Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. On a list of wines that also includes Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc, it is the only sparkling wine.
The first store in the US to carry it will be Fine Wine & Good Spirits.
In addition, Loveblock produces a single vineyard, certified organic, vegan-friendly, sulfur-free Sauvignon Blanc Tee.
Green tea tannin extract is utilized as a natural antioxidant to preserve the wine instead of sulfur, which is the conventional preservative used in winemaking. Green tea, or Camellia sinensis, is well-known for its antioxidant qualities and offers suitable defense against oxidation and spoiling in winemaking.
In Afrikaans, “tee” means “tea,” a reference to both the green tea tannin extract and Erica’s South African ancestry (and second language).
In a training video, she stated that although sulfites have been used for a very long time and are quite good at preserving wine, they are also a pretty blunt tool.The wine is actually able to display its true colors by employing a natural source and a gentle touch to safeguard it.
The Loveblock labels, which showcase the wild dandelion—the sole flower that symbolizes the sun, moon, and stars—are also distinctive. To show how deeply ingrained Loveblock is to the environment and protecting the land for coming generations, the cloud-like head and the bright yellow blossom are joined together at the base. The sun and moon together represent harmony and collaboration in the face of diversity, which is a fundamental biodynamics phenomenon that is unique to the ecosystem of nature.
In terms of Crawford’s orbit, she is not only a busy organic farmer and a sustainability specialist, but she has also honed her talents as a marketer and offers her knowledge and abilities by mentoring young women.
“There were certain expectations that were just put on women when I was young throughout my lifetime, which is a long one,” she told interviewer Laurie Forster in November 2024 on a podcast called The Sipping Point. Crawford is a member of the Global Women NZ Advisory Board and was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs in 2016.
Even though we put a lot of effort into changing some aspects, women are still occasionally expected to have certain traits and perform certain tasks. Most of the time, it’s unconscious signals, but occasionally it’s simply a look or an exclusion. I call it out, regardless of [what it is].
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