Vinpro winemaker Carol Bunn was just a kid when Central Otago wine pioneer Alan Brady planted grapes on what is now Gibbston Valley vineyard, close to her parent's farm near Arrowtown. This sparked her interest in viticulture which has led to her now being in charge of the purpose built Vinpro Winery.

Carol completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography and worked in resource management before making a career change in 1995 and completing a Post Graduate diploma in Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University.
She worked in Martinborough for 18 months getting her first taste of winemaking at Dry River and then moving on to Martinborough Vineyard where she worked in viticulture, canopy management and also at the cellar door. Time spent there working with Nick Hoskins and Larry McKenna fuelled an interest in working with pinot noir.

Her overseas experience followed: working first at Amity Vineyard in Oregon - "...it was lots of fun...we were living in caravans amongst the trees, and making quirky wines for Myron Redford."

Carol moved back to New Zealand and became winemaker at Langdale Wine Estate in Canterbury for 3 vintages - a 10 acre block where production was just 45 tonne, but 9 different wine varietals were produced, a good opportunity for her first sole winemaker position.

Carol then went back for another stint in Oregon - this time working for ADEA Winery, a small family-owned winery, also specializing in Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. "I've always enjoyed making wine in Oregon, plus it is a lot of fun…"
Carol has also visited Burgundy and Bordeaux in France, where she took up the challenge to help her friend Lionel Touchais at Chateau Balac, Medoc to do harvest in 2005. Lionel has also worked extensively with Pinot Noir in Oregon, and was an integral part of VinPro's winemaking team for both the 2005 and 2006 harvests.

In 2001 found Carol back in Central Otago working at Black Ridge. Just two days before she was heading off to Australia for vintage, she was approached by Akarua Winery, to be their winemaker, where she worked for four vintages, producing consistently great results and culminating in her being dubbed by workmates last year as "Queen of the Pinot" - after Akarua Pinot Noir 2002 and Akarua "The Gullies" Pinot Noir 2002 were ranked no.1 and no.2 in Cuisine Magazine, New Zealand Reds tasting (October 2003). This was closely followed by the "big brother" winning Champion Pinot Noir and Champion Wine of the Show at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards in 2003.

With wine accolades and superior wines as her testimony, Carol was head-hunted by Vinpro to set up, build and take the reins of the new winery division, currently the largest Pinot Noir facility in Central Otago at around 900/1000 tonne capacity. Vinpro is contracted by around 20 clients under Carol's supervision, the thrust of which is for longer term relationships. 60% of our clients produced their first vintage in 2005, but VinPro is also working with some established labels as well. Around 90% of production at VinPro winery is pinot noir.

Carol's philosophy at Vinpro is "to work in closely with the clients to consistently produce great wines". She prefers to take a minimalist approach to winemaking, seeing her role as a caretaker of the wines, rather than a manipulator of the wines character and style. She would prefer to work closely with her clients and liaise with them on vineyard management techniques to achieve the special unique characters and flavours of their vineyard site, so this will come through into the bottle for them.

Each clients wine is fermented separately in small open top fermentation vats, which helps preserve the unique identity of the vineyard and its individual pinot noir clones. Each vat is then put to barrel with its own code or lot number, where the wine undergoes it malo-lactic fermentation and aging process for 10 to 12 months. At the end of this aging process the barrels/lots are individually tasted and judged according to their wine style/terroir characteristics and quality. The wine will be blended according to its style and then bottled in house at VinPro's bottling division.