All rise for Marlborough royalty
If you’ve ever found yourself pouring a crisp, gooseberry-laden glass of our all-time bestselling white wine, you’ll be intimately acquainted with the handiwork of Bill and Claudia Small.
But behind the sensational wines and phenomenal popularity with Angels, our king and queen of Kiwi are just a wonderfully normal, hardworking couple making wine entirely on their own terms.
Theirs isn't a story of an aristocratic châteaux handed down through ten generations. It is a story of a bloke who wanted to be a vet, a woman who just wanted to work outdoors, and a colossal 17-year leap of faith that changed the New Zealand wine scene forever.
From ‘White Cloud’ to the wild outdoors
To grasp just how far Bill and Claudia have come, you have to rewind to a time before Marlborough was the global Sauvignon powerhouse it is today.
Growing up in New Zealand, the world of wine felt terribly fancy to Claudia. Back in her teenage years, the absolute pinnacle of sophistication was a glass of "White Cloud" – a bulk-produced staple of the era that is a far cry from the masterpieces she crafts today.
Claudia's father owned a packaging company that happened to make boxes for a winery. When he eventually sold the business, he invested in vineyards as a long-term project to provide grapes for surrounding estates. Still, wine wasn't Claudia's initial calling. Knowing she simply wanted a life outdoors and a chance to follow her passion for sailing, she packed her bags and moved from Auckland to Adelaide.
Bill, meanwhile, had his heart set on becoming a vet. But the allure of winemaking – a career that perfectly blended his love for rural life, hard science, and artistic expression – eventually pulled him in.
The pair met while studying in Adelaide, though romance didn't instantly blossom over the textbooks. It wasn't until after graduation, when they were simply meeting up as friends living in the same area, that sparks flew.
Their relationship is what officially brought Claudia into the wine industry in a rather cheeky way.
When Bill was working at an Australian winery, there were murmurings that the couple might pack up and move back to New Zealand. Desperate not to lose their star winemaker, the Australian estate literally offered Claudia a job purely to keep Bill on the payroll!
Writing the rules of a wine frontier
Eventually, the pull of home won out. But the New Zealand they returned to was a wine frontier.
As Bill points out: "Most of the world's wine regions have 'the rules' that are handed down from generation to generation, whereas we get to help write them."
They are part of New Zealand’s second generation of winemakers. In the grand scheme of global wine history, Marlborough is barely out of its infancy, having only really kicked into gear in the 1970s and 80s. For Bill and Claudia, being part of the generation that gets to define what Marlborough is – rather than just following centuries-old edicts – is a massive privilege.
However, before they became Naked legends, Bill and Claudia were well and truly stuck in the machine. They were making wine for 'Big Grape Inc™', dealing in endless spreadsheets and soul-crushing quotas, and watching brilliant grapes blended away into middle-of-the-road supermarket wines.
They had a young family. Bill was working in a contract winery, and Claudia was taking time off to have another child. The idea of striking out on their own was terrifying.
But then Bill saw an article Naked had put out in an Australian and New Zealand wine newsletter – explaining this crazy new crowdfunding concept.
Bill sent an email. Within three weeks, they were making wine for Angels.
A blind bet that paid off big time
It was an almighty leap of faith on both sides. Naked put its trust (and Angels' funding) into a couple whose wines they hadn’t even tasted yet. Bill and Claudia put their livelihood into the hands of a startup on the other side of the world.
Seventeen years later, that leap has paid off in spades.
Bill and Claudia are the masterminds behind our bestselling white wine ever – their flagship Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. They are universally known as our king and queen of Kiwi Sauvignon, and their wines never miss a beat.
A massive part of that success comes down to how perfectly they complement each other. While Bill is the master of the cellar – relying on his expert palate to shape the wines – Claudia is the viticultural powerhouse. She manages the vineyards, works intimately with their trusted local grape growers, and tackles the sharp end of the business.
She takes this hands-on approach literally. Take their Rawiri Pinot Noir vineyard, for example. Over the shortest, coldest days of winter, Claudia physically prunes all 22,000 vines herself. “This isn't an easy job!” Bill explains, “you need all-day stamina and an ability to think and move quickly.”
In Marlborough there's hundreds of trained pruners that could do the job – so why would Claudia choose to do all 22,000 vines herself?
Because she knows that making the right pruning choices is the only way to set a vine up for healthy growth and ward off disease. More than that, spending hours alone in the vineyard gives her a continual, observational connection to the land that textbook knowledge simply can't buy.
“And it's a pretty special site” Bill gleams “Vineyards like this are few and far-between and we almost feel like it's our duty to give it our best. The bonus is it's a great spot to work: the view is spectacular; the birds are always singing and after a day in the vines you leave in better spirits than when you started.”
It’s the uncompromising reality of life as a small, independent winemaker. They are managing the vines, crafting the wine and running the business themselves.
Bill and Claudia are the first to admit that, frankly, very few small producers get the opportunity to operate like this for nearly two decades. It can be exhausting physically, mentally and financially.
It’s Angel funding that has allowed them to do it for so long, and all on their terms.
They’ve been able to buy their own vineyard, raise a family and completely escape the deep pockets of corporate shareholders – to instead make wines for an audience of brilliant, thirsty Angels.
Family, flora and 100km runs
When they aren't orchestrating Marlborough's finest wines, Bill and Claudia pour their boundless energy into their community, their hobbies and their family.
They are the sort of people who make you wonder if they have access to a 25-hour day.
Claudia is a passionate gardener, a voracious bookworm, and the organiser of the Marlborough Book Festival. Bill? He casually runs 100km ultramarathons in one go. Because, apparently, navigating a stressful harvest season isn't quite exhausting enough.
As a family, they love to "tramp" (the Kiwi term for serious hiking) and are always looking for an excuse to get back out into the rugged New Zealand wilderness.
But the true heart of the Small household is the kitchen. They both love to cook for family and friends, and if you ever want the ultimate pairing for their legendary Sylvia Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, they recommend a massive pot of fresh clams cooked in a garlic and white wine sauce.
It is this bustling, loving family life that directly inspires their winemaking. In fact, their three children – Theodore, Sylvia, and Penelope – are the namesakes of their top-tier reserve wines.
“It’s all about finding Marlborough’s very best, mature vineyards," explains Bill. "For these reserves, we do most of the day-to-day vineyard work ourselves to ensure absolute attention to detail.”
Coming for the Chardonnay crown
They might be the undisputed masters of Kiwi Sauvignon, but Bill and Claudia aren't resting on their laurels.
When they were crowned Naked Winemakers of the Year in 2024 – an award voted for by thousands of Angels – their prize was the ultimate blank cheque: Make any wine you’ve always dreamed of making.
Good news for us: they dreamt of Chardonnay.
While Marlborough is globally obsessed with Sauvignon Blanc, its cool maritime climate is actually sheer heaven for Chardonnay. The catch? Because of the Sauvignon boom, only the oldest, most brilliant Chardonnay vines still survive in the region. Naturally, Bill and Claudia hunted them down.
Releasing this month, the Small & Small Chardonnay is a total showstopper. They threw the kitchen sink at it: hand-picked fruit, fermentation with wild, native yeasts, extended lees contact for creamy texture, and 10 months resting in premium oak.
The result is a wine with the kind of layered, toasty complexity you usually have to pay top-tier white Burgundy prices for. It hits the palate with mouth-watering lemon and grapefruit, melting into a rich, mineral finish.
This triumphant new creation lands fresh off the heels of their wildly successful new Rosé launched a couple of years ago. And is proof that nearly two decades in, they are still innovating, still having fun, and still writing the rules of what New Zealand wine can be.
Seventeen years on from that fateful leap of faith, Bill and Claudia Small are a testament to what happens when you take brilliant, passionate winemakers and just give them the backing to do what they do best.
Whether you’re pouring a thirst-quenching Rosé on a summer afternoon, cracking open a fruity Marlborough Sauvignon, or getting in early on their triumphant new Winemaker of the Year Chardonnay, you are tasting the absolute best of New Zealand.
So, the only question left is: Which of their legendary bottles are you opening first this weekend?
Quickfire with the Smalls
If you could only drink wine made from one grape for the rest of your life? Both: Chardonnay. (Hence the spectacular new release!)
Go-to drink when you aren't drinking wine? Claudia: A crisp G&T. Bill: Proper coffee.
If you could share a bottle with anyone, dead or alive? Claudia: Albert Einstein. Bill: Ourselves. (We respect the honesty, Bill).
First word that comes to mind when you think of Angels? Claudia: Grateful. Bill: Nice people. Simple as that.
If you had to pick just one of your wines to introduce an Angel to you – which one would it be? Both: Sylvia Reserve – no question.
What is the most important tool in your winery? Claudia: Pellenc electric secateurs (and electric socks for winter pruning!) Bill: My palate.
Who’s your favourite Naked winemaker – whose wines you enjoy the most, aside from your own? Claudia: Jen Pfeiffer for her incredible Rutherglen Muscat. Bill: Mario Negreiros and his phenomenal Portuguese wines.
If you weren’t a winemaker, what would you be doing? Claudia: A florist or a teacher. Bill: A farmer of livestock.
