Diana Katardzhieva is a winemaker whose instinctive touch with the grape comes from her family heritage.
A Bulgarian winemaker in New Zealand, Diana Katardzhieva, has generations of grape growers and winemakers before her in her homeland, said by some historians to be the birthplace of wine.
But Katardzhieva also holds a Master qualification specialising in technology for microbiological and fermentation products from the University of Food Technologies in Plovdiv.
When family vineyards were restored at the end of the Communist regime in Bulgaria in the late 1980s, Katardzhieva left her medical career to study winemaking, choosing to spend the six years required for these formal science qualifications rather than simply follow the traditional methods employed in the Bulgarian countryside.
After 15 years working in Bulgaria’s wine industry, Katardzhieva arrived in New Zealand. Experienced with old world vines, her first vintage in Marlborough in 2004 was a huge shift away from all she’d been accustomed to, in size and scale and the approach to wine making.
But with her background, Katardzhieva was able to rely on her instinct and expertise to make exceptional and award-winning wines vintage to vintage.
“Even after all these years, I can express myself better in my wines than I can with my English language,” she laughed.
In 2025, Katardzhieva was recognised as the Best Winemaker in the still white wines category for Whitehaven’s 2023 Chardonnay at the 2025 Sakura Japan Women’s Wine Awards in Japan.
Katardzhieva, who has been at Whitehaven for over 20 years, said the recognition was a shock, but proof that years of tasting, tweaking, and the occasional barrel pep talk can pay off.
“The award was a wonderful reminder of the amazing things women are accomplishing in the wine industry. Great wine is a team effort, and I see the award as recognition not only of myself, but of the fruit quality from our vineyards and growers, and the effort of the Whitehaven team. The fact this wine is judged by a talented group of women, makes this even more special, especially since we all know women are usually the ones choosing the wine anyway.”
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