Jules Matthews has long been a passionate consumer of wine.
But before the early 2000s, the Auckland businesswoman did not have any experience of growing grapes or making wine, let alone marketing the end product.
Enter another Jules, her former business colleague Jules Stephan, with whom she worked in investment banking.
Mr Stephan, who has pursued private business interests since 2000, was also an enthusiastic wine lover and collector.
In 2002, he bought a block of land near Otiake, in the Waitaki Valley, and promptly enlisted the help of Ms Matthews.
''He said, `I've got the land; I know you love wine as much as me; you make it happen','' she recalled.
The Waitaki Valley wine industry was only very much in its infancy and it was an opportunity to ''be a little bit pioneering and do something adventurous'', she said.
Soil tests had been done and showed the limestone-rich area was similar to the famous French pinot noir region of Burgundy.
''Jules, being a pinot noir lover, thought it was a really great opportunity to get hold of some land that was still affordable at the time, and take a punt and just create something from scratch,'' Ms Matthews said.
A lifelong lover of food and wine, she also jumped at the opportunity to run a wine company.
The vineyard lent itself to growing pinot gris, as well as pinot noir, and the two varieties were planted in 2005 after rootstocks and clones for the newly christened Q Wine were sourced.
After waiting for the vines to mature, the first grapes were harvested in 2010. A small parcel of chardonnay grapes has also been planted on the 5ha block.
The vines were densely planted, so each vine had to bear a small amount of fruit, with the intention of low yields producing wines with great concentration. Grapes were hand-harvested.
Ms Matthews' knowledge of wine might have previously been largely confined to drinking it but, since the venture began, she had embarked on research, going to conferences and talking to various winemakers and viticulturists.
''It's been a lot of research, a lot of reading and talking to people,'' she said.
When it came to the company's simple name, Ms Matthews said Mr Stephan had various business entities that all started with the letter Q and it felt like a natural progression.
It was also a little bit different and Q was ''one of those intriguing letters'' and what they were trying to produce was an intriguing boutique wine, she said.
Awareness of the label was growing, but it was a niche brand and it would not be seen on supermarket shelves.
But while a premium wine, it was still affordable enough for everyday drinking, she said.
Earlier this month, prominent American wine writer Robert Parker gave Q Wine's 2013 pinot noir 93 points out of 100.
The target audience was restaurants and that was where Ms Matthews' focus had been.
It was also available at some fine wine stores and through ordering direct.
In Otago, it was served at Bacchus Wine Bar and Restaurant in Dunedin, the Criterion Hotel in Oamaru, various Queenstown restaurants, and also some of Auckland's best-known dining establishments such as Clooney, Euro and The French Cafe.
French-born Antony Worch, now based in Alexandra, took over as chief winemaker for Q Wine in 2012.
The Waitaki Valley was an expensive place to make wine as it did not have much infrastructure and their grapes had to be transported to Alexandra, Ms Matthews said.
Ms Matthews, who lives in Auckland, heads down to the vineyard two or three times a year and she said that also gave her an opportunity to sell to restaurants in Queenstown.
It was nice to help educate diners that there was another wine region, aside from Central Otago, that was also ''part of Otago as a whole''.
Despite her being so far away, a team approach worked well, and involved the likes of viticulturists and the winemaker. She had found the wine industry to be very open and sharing with knowledge.
''I'm very busy because it literally is just me doing everything, aside from the people on the land,'' she said.
But her previous financial experience had proven very useful when it came to the ''boring side'' of the business, she said.
She hoped to get several niche export markets going and was working on that at the moment, Ms Matthews said.
She was also keen to tap into a few other areas in New Zealand.
It was an industry that was ''so reliant'' on the weather and the hot, dry conditions this season, while not ideal for livestock farmers, had proven good for grapes.
''Touch wood; I don't want to jinx it ... Fingers crossed; so far it's looking great,'' she said.
Waitaki Valley Wine Growers Association chairman Jim Jerram, from Ostler Wines, said the dry weather did not just affect pastoral farmers.
While it had been nice to have warm, dry weather over flowering ''for a change'' and the fruit set had definitely been above average, everyone needed water, he said.
''The flowering conditions were the best we've had, but it was a difficult spring,'' he said.
Drying southwesterly winds in November particularly kept temperatures down and dried everything out.
''The grapes didn't like that,'' he said.
He was hoping for a better season after three ''pretty average ones''.
