Lot Eight

Lot Eight is a Martinborough olive-oil producer with the commercial brand founding in 2002 by Colin and Nalini Baruch. The couple bought a year-old grove in the Martinborough Olive Grove development in 1997. Their approximately 1.6-hectare property now has fewer than 400 olive trees and by 2022, production was also drawing on about 15 contract growers around Martinborough.

The venture began as a prospective retirement project. Colin worked in human resources in Wellington, while Nalini was a barrister. They expected to wait about eight years for a commercial crop, but harvested one after roughly five. With no local buyer for the fruit, they developed a vertically integrated business: arranging harvest and milling, creating blends, bottling and selling the oil themselves.

Nalini Baruch was born in Fiji, is of Indian heritage and moved to New Zealand in the early 1980s. She completed a BA (Honours) in political science and public administration and an LLB at Victoria University of Wellington, worked for the Bank of New Zealand, New Zealand Dairy Board and Telecom, and was admitted to the bar in 1999. She later served for two years on the Olives New Zealand executive and was named Pacific Woman in Business in 2016. Her culinary background informed Lot Eight's blending and product development.

Lot Eight uses mechanical harvesting where the grove and trees permit it, and sends fruit to nearby mills in Carterton and Featherston. In 2022 an interview recorded that cool fruit may be held overnight rather than always being milled on the day of harvest. Blending, bottling and dispatch take place at the Martinborough property, which also contains a commercial kitchen and hosts visits by appointment.