[2] He graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Science in physics (1971) and Christchurch Teachers' College with a Diploma in Teaching (1971).
Woollaston was a junior Minister in the controversial Fourth Labour Governments of David Lange & Geoffrey Palmer but never sought at the time (through resignation or public opposition) to distance himself from the Rogernomics policies of that era.
The Montreal Protocol was the first global treaty to bring together a majority of nations over global environmental concerns, in this case being the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants and discovering that they were destroying the stratospheric ozone layer which prevents harmful ultraviolet light from entering the lower atmosphere.
[6] In 1991 he became Policy Advisor to the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya for two years.
Originally intended as a retirement hobby, the winery grew into a full-time business when the Woollastons entered into a partnership with American couple, Glenn and (his former wife) Renee Schaeffer, purchasing an apple orchard at Mahana near Nelson.
[9] Glenn Schaeffer made headlines in 2009 when the US company he co-founded and headed (Fontainebleau Resorts) filed for bankruptcy.
In December 2018 the High Court of New Zealand found that Schaeffer had made false representations to Las Vegas investors that they were purchasing a share in the winery and vineyard when in fact he had never transferred his interest in the business to the limited partnership and had continued to deal with the assets as if they were his own.