Chief Winemaker, Trinity Hill, Hawkes Bay, NZ
Proprietor, Bilancia
New Zealand
Warren Gibson was educated at Massey University, New Zealand, and at Roseworthy College, South Australia. He began his winemaking career in New Zealand in 1987, subsequently travelling the world as a Flying Winemaker, including vintages in Australia, Italy, Hungary, France and California. This represents over 30 vintages across ten international wine regions.
In 2005, Warren was named “New Zealand Winemaker of the Year” by “Winestate” a specialist Australasian wine magazine, The following year, in 2006 he was declared “Winemaker of the Year“ at the Mercedes Benz Hawkes Bay Wine Show.
Trinity Hill is consistently voted one of NZ’s top ten wineries, producing wines over a range of international wine styles. Trinity Hill’s flagship “Homage” Syrah 2007 was judged “Champion Wine 2011 in Cuisine Magazine’s “Best of the Best”. Warren is approaching his 18th vintage as Chief Winemaker. He also heads the viticultural team and has control over their vineyards.
In 1997 with partner Lorraine Leheny, also a winemaker, they established their own brand, Bilancia. In Italian, Bilancia translates to balance and equilibrium. Their super star “La Collina” Syrah is now in its 10th vintage. The material for “La Collina”, Italian for “The Little Hill”, is grown on the steep slopes of Roy’s Hill, near Hastings.
In Winestate magazine, the 2009 Vintage was recently judged in the TOP 10 (7th) from 657 wines in their “World’s Greatest Syrah/Shiraz Challenge”. Their Bilancia Pinot Gris is also accorded star status. Both wines are produced only in very small quantities.
Since 1998, Warren has been a regular judge at all of his country’s major wine shows. He was an international guest judge of the National Wine Show of Australia (Canberra) in 2010 and International Judge at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show in 2014.
Besides being a long-time judge of the SIWC, Warren was the Chair of the Air New Zealand Wine Show in 2017 and will be Chair of the New Zealand Wine of the Year™ Awards in 2018. This is his first year in the role of SIWC Chair.