Summer fun

behaviour among the 30,000-strong crowd had been rampant. Police had declared a similar event would never be held again in New Zealand.

Strict conditions were set when the Marlborough Wine Festival received the official nod.

No wine was to be offered free; all wine had to be sold from small plastic glasses, and festival-goers had to purchase them using special ‘‘festival francs’’.

Half an hour after the 11am opening of the first Brancott festival, the francs had all been sold, forcing volunteers to hurriedly gather, sort, and re-issue the spent ones – again and again and again.

The Brancott event also saw new wineries joining the festival: Cloudy Bay, Almuth Lorenz, Holders Fruit Wines and Corbans all set up stalls in 1987.

‘‘It’s just grown from then on,’’ Malcolm says.

He stepped down from the committee in 1989 but he and Jan say the festival is a fantastic promotion for Marlborough. It has been satisfying watching other regions copy what was created here, he says. ‘‘And ours is still going.’’

Popular event: People come from all over New Zealand for the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival.