Wellington restaurateur Chris Gambitsis sees an abandoned vineyard near Renwick, Marlborough. Deemed too low yielding for grapes with stony, sandy-silt soils, the property is covered in gorse and broom and its irrigation lines and two thirds of the trellising must be replaced. Chris purchases the land.

Chris's windsurfing friend Phil Binnie joins the venture, taking on the viticultural and management role. Planting the vineyard continues with more Sauvignon Blanc, plus Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Chris works another vintage, this time at Villa Maria, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

Phil moves his family to Marlborough so he can study viticulture at the Nelson/Marlborough Polytechnic and work on the Falcon Vineyard. Its cellar door/office building is completed.
Chris and Phil both work vintage at Rapaura Vintners, a contract winemaking facility serving about 40 Marlborough-based wineries. It presses and ferments the newly named Falcon Vineyard's first Chardonnay grapes.
The name, Lake Chalice Wines, is chosen with a NZ falcon karearea emblem.

The Falcon Vineyard's first Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling grapes are harvested.
Chris works vintage as assistant winemaker at Highfield Wines, where Lake Chalice grapes are processed; Phil works vintage at Rapaura Vintners.
Lake Chalice releases its first wines: 1992 Chardonnay, 1993 Sauvignon Blanc and 1993 Riesling. They have their first public presentation at the Paraparaumu Wine Festival. (… you had to be there…!!!)
Glengarry Hancocks is appointed New Zealand distributor.

The first Merlot, Cabernet and Chardonnay harvest from the Falcon Vineyard.
Chris works at Highfield again.

The stony soils at the Falcon Vineyard show their free-draining qualities and
Lake Chalice Wines escapes lightly from this "Big Wet Vintage" year. Grapes
are processed at Whitehaven, where Chris works as assistant winemaker during
vintage.
Lake Chalice Wines launches its Goblet Gossip newsletter.

Chris oversees winemaking at Whitehaven, where Lake Chalice grapes are
again processed. The first Platinum wines are produced: Chardonnay,
Oaked Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet/Merlot blend.

Wine is processed at Highfield and Matt Thomson becomes Lake Chalice's consultant winemaker.

Big Drought Vintage (No. 1) brings fantastic quality reds and Chardonnay.
Lake Chalice Sauvignon Blanc and Rieslings do less well. Wines are
processed again at Highfield and Matt Thomson joins the company as a
director/shareholder.
Awards: 1996 Platinum Chardonnay -Gold medal and trophy at the 1998
Royal Easter Wine show.
1997 Sauvignon Blanc - gold medal at the National Wine Show
of Australia.
Via Pacific Imports is appointed USA distributor and Lake Chalice
exports its first wines to the USA.

Lake Chalice wines are processed at Marlborough Vintners and the Falcon Vineyard cellar door opens for the first summer of sales.
Awards: 1999 Botrytised Riesling - wins gold medal at the Air New Zealand
Wine Awards and sells out in two weeks.

First vintage in excess of 100 tonnes is processed at Marlborough Vintners.
Awards: 2000 Riesling - Gold Medal, Champion Riesling trophy and
Reserve trophy at the Show trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards.
1999 Sauvignon Blanc - Gold Medal/Top 100 at Sydney International
Wine Show.
Platinum Chardonnay 1999 - Gold Medal at Royal Easter Wine Show.
Lake Chalice is extended with the purchase of the Eyrie Vineyard in the Waihopai Valley.

Big Drought Vintage (No. 2) results in great vintage all round, thanks to lessons
learnt in 1998. Wine processed at Marlborough Vintners exceeds 125 tonnes.
First plantings of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc at Quarry Block and the first
Pinot Noir crop at the Falcon Vineyard is processed.
The Falcon Vineyard's first "Party at the Dell" is held during the Wine Festival
weekend, February 10- 11.
Awards: 1999 Platinum Chardonnay 1999 - Gold Medal at Royal Easter
Show.

Lake Chalice launches its sponsorship of Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust.
Enjoys a large 2002 vintage but a frost on November 18 decimates the 2003 vintage region-wide.
Planting begins on the Eyrie Vineyard, Waihopai Valley, and the first Raptor Sauvignon Blanc is produced.

The unique terroir of the Quarry Vineyard is celebrated with a Green Ribbon
Award from the Ministry for the Environment for the rehabilitation of an
exhausted quarry pit.
Wine processed at Marlborough Valley Cellars.
Awards: Sauvignon Blanc 2002 - Gold medal at Royal Easter Wine Show.

South Pacific Cellars, our joint venture winery opens. The state-of-the- art,
2500-tonne winery is at Riverlands Industrial estate near Blenheim.
Quarry Block has its first harvest of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.
Production for vintage is 500 tonnes or 35,000 cases.
Planting begins on Quarry Block Two (QBII) in November.

First crop harvested from Eyrie Vineyard. Second vintage at South Pacific Cellars. The grape growing season ends abruptly with a -5° frost during ANZAC weekend, all grapes still on the vines are harvested within the following 5 days.
Awards: Sauvignon Blanc 2004 - trophies in its class and for best dry white
wine at the Sydney International Wine Competition.

Purchase 30 acre (12 Hectare) Talon Vineyard in Grovetown to the east of Blenheim. Fully planted with Sauvignon Blanc vines, posted and irrigation installed.
Install two wine machines Eyrie Vineyard. They successfully protect the vines during four frost incidents in the spring.
Gold Medal 2007 Sauvignon Blanc - Top 100 International Wine Awards
Vineyard Manager Ged Boekholt successfully turns 26 tonnes of frozen seaweed into ‘liquid gold’ fertiliser. (Well, green smelly slimy gold anyway)
Falcon ‘42’ goes missing and presumed dead just prior to Christmas.
Lake Chalice Wines is very excited with the development their new Talon Vineyard in the Dillons Point area immediately to the west of Blenheim.
The 30 acres (12 hectare) of land is, by Marlborough standards, fertile soil with silty loam to a depth of at least 1.5 metres. The block is one of the last in the area to be planted in vines. Winemaker Matt Thompson and manager Phil Binnie identified this area as ideal Sauvignon Blanc country some time ago and spent 18 months searching before being able to secure this block in 2007.
The entire block has been planted in Sauvignon Blanc on S04 rootstock. First production is eagerly anticipated in April 2009.
We are positive that the fruit will add another dimension to the Lake Chalice blend and give our customers further reason to enjoy our Sauvignon Blanc range. It will mean we take Savvy from all the main sub-regions of Marlborough (Awatere Valley, Rapaura, Lower Waihopai, Renwick and now Dillons Point Road) and will further our ability to maintain a consistent style from vintage to vintage.
In full production it will provide an additional 180 tonnes of grapes or around 14,500 cases annually.

The Big One. Lake Chalice process over 900 tonnes of fruit from vintage 2008, 30% ahead of pre-harvest estimates. New Zealand Wine industry’s biggest harvest ever with 285,000 tonnes processed, 70% of that coming from the Marlborough Region. Lake Chalice represents 0.3% of the total .
Gold Medal Raptor 2007 Sauvignon Blanc - Royal Easter Show.
Gold Medal 2006 Pinot Noir - Sydney International Wine Show.
June ’08 Decanter Magazine rate the Lake Chalice 2007 Sauvignon Blanc as a 5 star wine in a New World Sauvignon Blanc tasting of 188 wines (one of only two wines awarded 5 stars).
The opening of the new 'staff tea room', including handicap-friendly ablutions block extension at the Falcon Vineyard.