Alex Corban. Photo / Mary Shanahan
New Zealand wine pioneer Alexander Annis Corban has died in Havelock North at the age of 89.
Mr Corban died at Summerset in the Vines Retirement Village on Sunday, after a life spent forging the New Zealand wine industry.
A member of the Corban family that established one of the
country's first wineries, he was awarded an OBE in 1978 for services to the viticultural industry, and the New Zealand Medal in 1990.
He was the inaugural chairman of the Wine Institute of New Zealand.
In the early 1990s, Mr Corban and his late wife, Gwen, originally from Wairoa, moved from Auckland to Hawke's Bay.
