Studies
Sanderson Studies is a curated exploration of art and wine, pairing boutique New Zealand wines with the hero works from Sanderson Contemporary’s exhibitions.
You can follow along by subscribing to receive two wines monthly or a seasonal six-bottle collection below.
Each release is a study in how the energy of the wine amplifies the solid form of each artist’s hero piece.
Atipico x Julia Holderness
I’m exploring the dialogue between art and wine by pairing each artist’s hero piece with a wine that echoes its mood, energy, and emotion. The aim is to translate visual expression into taste, inviting viewers to experience the artwork through another sensory lens. Each match is intuitive and collaborative, celebrating both the artist’s vision and the craft of our boutique producers.
Each month, Boutique Connection supports Sanderson Contemporary Art’s exhibition openings.
This is a collaboration of wine and art pairing where we pair a handcrafted New Zealand wine with the artist’s hero piece. The project explores how taste and texture can echo a visual experience and perhaps even enhance it.
I’m exploring the non-verbal dialogue between art and wine and pairing each artist’s hero piece or a piece of their choosing with a wine that echoes its mood, energy, and emotion.
The aim is to translate visual expression into taste, inviting viewers to experience the artwork through another sensory lens. Each match is intuitive and collaborative, celebrating both the artist’s vision and the craft of our boutique producers.
Julia Holderness - Botanical Correspondents
It was lovely to collaborate with Julia Holderness again, having previously paired a wine with her work Aster.
This time, Julia returns with Botanical Correspondents, an exhibition inspired by Emily Cumming Harris (1837–1925), one of Aotearoa's first professional women artists. Emily spent much of her life documenting New Zealand's native flora, producing hundreds of beautiful botanical paintings from her studio in Nelson.
A century after Emily's death, Julia revisits her work, gathering, layering and reinterpreting her imagery through a contemporary lens. It's a conversation between two women artists, separated by time but connected through their fascination with the natural world.
Cameo
For our pairing, Julia chose Cameo, a delicate painting of Campbell Island plants and flowers, based on one of Emily Harris's botanical images.
Set against a deep navy background, the tiny oval painting borrows its shape from a Victorian cameo, giving it a beautiful sense of history and romance.
But behind this delicate appearance is a rather wild story. Campbell Island is one of Aotearoa's most remote and exposed environments, home to extraordinary subantarctic megaherbs that flourish despite the harsh conditions.
Julia described the work as "restrained elegance and beauty in hard times", which really stayed with me. These remarkable plants thrive in a rugged landscape, yet here they are, captured within such a delicate and elegant form.
Atipico Rapaura Syrah
To echo this contrast, I've chosen Atipico Rapaura Syrah, from El Grouso, a tiny one-acre certified organic vineyard in Marlborough.
The wine is beautifully floral and lifted, with lavender, violets and freshly cracked white pepper over darker notes of blueberry, liquorice and graphite. There's a lovely freshness to it, but also an edginess. Atipico describes it as "wild-yet-refined", which feels particularly fitting.
There's another botanical connection I love. The vineyard is dotted with large pepper trees, while the wine itself carries that distinctive peppery character. Handpicked by friends and family, the Syrah was fermented whole-cluster under a plum tree beside the vineyard, allowing the surrounding environment and season to play their part.
Knowing all this, there's a sense of wildness held within elegance... and it shows in the glass.
The wine has an edginess to it; it tastes wild, yet refined. It feels particularly fitting alongside Julia's work, where the megaherbs of Campbell Island flourish in a wild and exposed landscape before being brought into the beautiful, restrained form of her painting.
Enjoy!
- Renée Dale
—
Julia Holderness
Botanical Correspondents26 August - 14 September 2026
Julia Holderness presents her solo exhibition, Botanical Correspondents, developed for Rokowhiria Ashburton Art Gallery and exhibited earlier in 2026 as part of her Zonta Ashburton Women’s Art Awards Premier Award 2025.
In Botanical Correspondents, Holderness' research considers and responds to the work of Emily Harris, one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s first professional woman artists. Emily Cumming Harris (1837-1925) is best-known for painting the indigenous flora of Aotearoa, producing hundreds of artworks in her studio in Whakatū Nelson. One hundred years after her death, her remarkable paintings continue to captivate audiences and invite them to contemplate the beauty of the natural world. In this exhibition Holderness responds creatively to her life, work and artistic practices.
…
__
Read more here.