Co-founder of WineFriend, Yvonne Lorkin, says there is 'a real buzz in the wine community she has not felt for years'.
The Energizer bunny has nothing on Yvonne Lorkin when it comes to fitting in as much as you can in one day.
Chairperson of the women’s health charity, the Rose Gold Trust, member of the HB Emergency Response Team, board member of the Eastern Screen Alliance, drinks editor for Dish magazine, and co-founder and chief tasting officer of WineFriend, the subscription wine company Lorkin co-founded with Debbie Sutton nine years ago, she never stops.
Lorkin said there was a real buzz in the wine community she had not felt for years.
“It’s so cool seeing the amazing new Hawke’s Bay winemaking talent out there now, young wine folk doing great work and creating excellent wines. Plus, I’m super-energised by all the groovy new events happening around our region like the Te Awanga Wine Festival, Taste Hastings, and the Collins Street Festival to name a few.”
While she empathises with the farming community about how dry the countryside is becoming, she says when it comes to growing great wine, the heat and sunshine produce perfect wine-growing conditions.
“Our wine industry has had tough years recently, with Covid and cyclones and global economic upheaval. But Hawke’s Bay is full of resourceful people, and I reckon we’ll turn things around.
“The sunshine’s arrived, there are smiles out there amongst the grapes, we had a small but banging vintage in 2024, and 2025 is looking like it could be great too.
“I feel we’re set for something extraordinary like we’re on a trampoline and we’re about to get double-bounced,” she says with a laugh.
Her personalised wine subscription business has just passed its nine-year anniversary. “And yet when we first launched, I remember one older male wine retailer sidling up to me saying ‘I give you girls a year’.
“Debbie and I were wine industry mates and we’d both become really interested in this new, subscription economy and we thought businesses like My Food Bag were an awesome concept. So, we got to thinking maybe we could do that with wine but make it ultra-personalised.”
The goal was to match wines to people’s individual tastes.
“It took time and lots of experimenting to come up with exactly how we were going to do it, but we soon partnered with a brilliant software team who helped us build our never-been-done-before system and then in October 2015 we launched, and it was the most nerve-wracking thing ever.
“Then all of a sudden, our computers started going ‘ping’ with people all around New Zealand signing up to have great wine delivered to their door. And it hasn’t stopped.”
This one-of-a-kind company is not and has never been a business built on discounts. It has always focused on maintaining the brand integrity of the wineries they purchase from.
“Our whole mission is to introduce people to new and interesting wines that they might never be exposed to otherwise. Wines that you’re not going to find in your average supermarket, wines that are delicious and most importantly, tailored to your personal tastes. Then we’ll deliver them to your door complete with my own tasting notes and food matches around the neck of every bottle.”
Albarino has been a hugely successful style that Yvonne and her team deliberately began putting into customer boxes as one of their ‘wildcard’ varieties and it is now a style that customers really enjoy and constantly demand.
“The coolest thing is seeing customer feedback like ‘I had no idea I liked so many wines!’ after they’ve initially told us they only drink sauvignon and pinot gris or something.”
In 2017, three new investors joined the team, sisters and founders of Trilogy, Sarah Wickens and Cath de Groot, and previous Air New Zealand boss Rob Fyfe. This provided WineFriend not only with a cash injection to help expand the business, but they also brought mentorship and a wealth of ideas to the table.
WineFriend recently added boutique gins into their subscription range and this Christmas they introduced a refillable gin advent calendar as well as Christmas baubles complete with gin and a baby can of tonic.
“They’re such a cute gift. And tasty,” Yvonne laughs.
“Introducing gin has been really successful, Kiwis love great gin.”
With nine years under their belt, they aim to keep on doing what they do well, sourcing great wines, delivering them to their customer’s doors and constantly getting better at learning what people like.