Four pioneers in the Marlborough wine industry have been honoured with Wine Marlborough's Lifetime Achievement Awards at a dinner in Blenheim.

James Healy, Dave Pearce, Tessa Anderson and Murray Gibbons were recognised at The Marlborough Wine Celebration Evening, which also celebrated 50 years of the region's modern wine industry.

"The Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award aims to recognise nominees who have longevity of service to Marlborough wine, unselfishly given their time to the industry, made a lasting impact and demonstrated a lifetime of multiple quality achievements," says Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens.

"This is the first year we have marked four people's achievements. Nominees are put forward to the board and it was too difficult to pick just one of them," says Pickens.

James Healy has been in the wine industry for over 40 years, starting at Corbans Wines in Auckland, before moving to Marlborough in 1991 to become a winemaker at Cloudy Bay. He then joined viticulturist Ivan Sutherland to create Dog Point Vineyard.

Dave Pearce also began his career at Corbans Wines, and was part of a group of enthusiasts who started Grove Mill at the historic Malt House in Grovetown in 1988. He is regarded as a trailblazer in sustainability in the wine industry. 

Tessa Anderson has written about Marlborough wine since 1996, editing, WinePress Magazine for 11 years before editing New Zealand Winegrower magazine. She subsequently became the editor of Cuisine Wine Country and Wine NZ Magazine. She has also written Jane Hunter, Growing a Legacy (2008), provided research for Allan Scott’s biography,Marlborough Man (2016) and published 50 years, 50 Stories, Marlborough the region that turned the wine world upside down, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Marlborough’s first modern vineyard plantings. 

Murray Gibbons is the owner of Bulk Wine Distribution and is regarded in the region as an industry treasure.