Wine and whenua: Meet the NZ winemakers blending Māoritanga with grapes

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Imogen Weir and Pici chef Matua Murupaenga (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) of Tawhiti wines. Photo / Portia Prince/Hone Hartnett
A small but growing group of wineries are blending some valuable Māoritanga into Aotearoa’s wines. Viva’s wine editor Jo Burzynska has a kōrero with Māori winemakers who have elected to embrace the vine.
Positioned between the Wairau River and the Pacific Ocean, Te Pā’s home vineyard holds profound significance for Haysley MacDonald (Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Rārua). With ancestors who landed here on the Wairau Bar 800 years ago and have worked these soils for generations, Haysley’s ties to the land run deep. Vines may be newcomers here, as elsewhere in Aotearoa, but he stands among a small but growing group of Māori connecting their culture through the land with wine.
“Sense of place and home is important to us,” says Haysley, a sentiment reflected in his winery’s name, te Pā, meaning ‘our home’. “We’ve been both unfortunate and fortunate. Māori in general were kicked off the best land in Marlborough and put on land considered the worst, which has actually turned out to be some of the best for growing grapes.”
When Haysley and his family began converting their dairy and crop farm into vineyards in 2003, the land’s proximity to water meant it wasn’t considered prime vineyard territory. However, the quality of the grapes it produced inspired Haysley to establish the Te Pā label in 2011. The critical success that followed has now led Te Pā to expand its initial 100ha planting to nearly 600ha of vineyards today.
This genuine connection to place has also helped the label thrive in the currently challenging wine market. “The world is changing,” says Haysley. “People want to know who’s behind the wines they drink, where they come from, and that it’s not made up. That’s been working for us.”
With vineyards in Nelson and Marlborough, Tohu is the country’s first Māori-owned wine company, established in 1998, through a partnership between three tribal groups: Wakatū Incorporation, Wi Pere Trust from the East Coast and the Ngāti Rārua Te Ātiawa Iwi Trust. Getting into wine was part of the group’s desire to use its land to participate in important regional industries.
“One of the fundamental aspects of winemaking is this concept of terroir, where climate, water and human endeavour come together,” says Rōpata Taylor (Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Koata), Wakatū owner and general manager Manatū at Wakatū Incorporation. In recent years, the Māori concept of tūrangawaewae, a “place to stand” and feel connected, has been increasingly adopted as Aotearoa’s version of terroir.
“While it’s a completely different cultural context, this combination of people and place underlies our understanding as a community of tūrangawaewae,” says Taylor. “It’s an interesting fit for us because we’re in the business of holding on to our land for generations to come for those who come after us.”
While many companies involved with wine come and go, as a Māori-owned business, Tohu is guided by a 500-year plan. Part of this intergenerational strategy, Te Pae Tāwhiti, is endeavouring “to leave the land and water in a better state than we inherited”, which has led to practices such as transitioning some vineyards to organic, fostering biodiversity and being part of Toitū Envirocare’s certified carbon reduction programme.
“At Tiki, much of our ethos, culture and principles came from my mother and the lessons she was taught by her parents and her Koro on the small mixed farmlet she grew up on,” explains Royce McKean (Ngāti Rānginui), who with wife Sue, planted their large vineyard in Waipara.
“We farm our land under the guiding principles of kaitiakitanga, with a focus on regenerative agriculture to improve our whenua for future generations to nourish and grow.”
Kaitiakitanga, the Māori concept of guardianship, is echoed in the recent shift in the New Zealand wine industry from Western extractivist approaches to more environmentally conscious sustainable wine growing.
For Māori, this is nothing new.
“The concepts of kaitiakitanga, regenerative agriculture and sustainability have been at the heart of indigenous cultures, Māori included, from a worldview that holds that our intergenerational and spiritual connection with whenua and our belief in working with, and in tune with, not against, nature,” says Royce.
He considers that Māori have a lot to offer the New Zealand wine industry, which would be richer and stronger from more involvement. “I believe the industry recognises this, and is welcoming to Māori and Māori concepts and principles,” he says.
Yet Māori ownership within Aotearoa’s wine industry remains small. Indeed, as noted by Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre in her recently published book, Imperial Wine: How the British Empire Made Wine’s New World the establishment of vineyards themselves in New Zealand could be regarded as a negative legacy of settler colonialism.
“It’s about having the resources to be involved,” says Haysley, who considers himself lucky to be on his own lands. “A lot of our own lost their lands through colonialism and don’t have the ability to be on those lands. I think more would if they could. I would love to see more Māori involved.”
Among the multitude of Māori names on wine labels, authentic Māori wines can also be hard to spot. It’s the cause of frustration for Māori wine companies when these labels are created by enterprises that don’t share Māori values or have meaningful connections to Aotearoa’s land and people. While the national wine body, New Zealand Winegrowers provides general guidance on the use of Māori names, and the IPONZ Maori Trade Marks Advisory Committee considers the appropriateness of trademarks, labels created by overseas distributors in export markets continue to proliferate.
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However, “when customers buy a wine with the Tuku Māori Winemakers Collective logo on the back they can have confidence it is from a genuine Māori-owned winery that meets the high standards of membership we have’, explains Hayden Johnston (Ngāi Tahu) of Tarras, who with Te Pā, Tiki, Jeff Synott and Steve Bird Wines, started the collective five years ago.
United in the values of tiaki (care), mana (respect) and hihiko (ingenuity), these are reflected in Tuku’s members’ approach to winemaking and winegrowing, which hold to quality standards. The group has also been successfully working together to promote their wineries and champion sustainable Māori values.
It was the call of tūrangawaewae that brought Hayden back to his roots. He founded Tarras in Bendigo, and the subsequent Kurukuru and Joss Bay labels, which reflect his Māori and Pākehā ancestry. Planting vineyards in Central Otago on land that had never grown grapes, or had been intensively farmed, called for sensitivity.
“With the excitement of being the first to plant grapes on this land came a deep sense of responsibility to think carefully about how we work with it respectfully with as little disruption and interventions as possible so that in 100 years time our people will respect our work on the land without regrets for our actions today,” he says.
For Hayden, this has meant working with the topography of his site, and farming it organically “to ensure the vineyard is a space that welcomes and interacts with the natural environment around it”.
This includes the native bees which says add to the vineyard’s terroir by transporting kānuka pollen. Less well received is the possibility of a major open-cast gold mine near his vineyard, a venture incongruent with tiaki in causing lasting harm to the land for short-term financial investor gain.
Recent years have seen the emergence of an exciting new generation of Māori winemakers, such as Jannine Rickards of Huntress, and Will Bowman with Vita, many of who make wine from the organic vineyards of others given the cost of land. Tawhiti is the latest of these, launched this year by Pici and Ooh-Fa chef Matua Murupaenga (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) with his partner, Imogen Weir, after a vintage at Domaine Thompson, and mentorship from Halcyon Days’ Amy and Olly Hopkinson-Styles.
Māori culture deeply influences Matua’s approach to his wines. “Being a kaitiaki for the whenua and caring for the land must always come first,” he says, reflected in Tawhiti making natural and biodynamic wine. “Thinking about manaakitanga and creating wines that reflect that respect for the land and community; fostering a sense of connection and appreciation with consumers is also really important.
“Traditional Māori knowledge and practices can inform aspects of everything, winemaking being one of those: from selecting grapes suited to the local environment, using the maramataka (lunar calendar) to guide planting, picking, and pruning, as well as traditional fermentation techniques,” he says. “The opportunities are endless when Te Ao Maori is the pou.”
So far Tawhiti has released three wines, and would eventually like to grow grapes on reclaimed Māori land to sell globally and tell the story of their culture. “It would be amazing to see, support, and lead some pathways for Māori in viticulture and organic farming,” concludes Matua, “and continue to inspire others with Māori principles and belief systems at the heart of what we do.”
Te Pā The Reserve Collection “Seaside” Sauvignon Blanc 2023, $25
From the Seaside Block of Te Pā’s Home Vineyard, you can taste the salinity in this elegant and edgy sauvignon. Full of fresh green herbs, with notes of basil and blackcurrant leaf, and zesty lime, it opens up wonderfully with time in the glass and food. Tepawines.com
Tohu Whenua Awa Single Vineyard Upper Awatere Marlborough Pinot Noir 2021, $38
A seriously good pinot noir from Tohu’s reserve Whenua single vineyard range that celebrates its land. The Awa is well structured with fresh and concentrated dark cherry fruit layered with notes of smoke, herb, leather and mineral. Tohuwines.co.nz
Tiki Single Vineyard North Canterbury Riesling 2023, $23
Master of Wine Alastair Maling came on board as winemaking consultant at Tiki this year. Even before his arrival, wines such as this example of Waipara’s signature white grape impress with its crisp citrussy palate of mandarin, lemon, lime and green apple fruit and a touch of slatey minerality. Tikiwine.com
Kuru Kuru Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019, $46
Tarras’ sublabel Kurru Kuru is named after Hayden Johnston’s fourth-great-grandmother. Its pinot noir is stylish and richly fruited, with ripe black cherry fruit and hints of cocoa and spice, wrapped in a velvety texture. Kurukuru.co.nz
Tawhiti Kurawaka Te-Matau-a-Māui Sangiovese Syrah 2023, $42
This deliciously drinkable certified organic red blend is just the third, and currently only wine available from Tawhiti’s tiny production. Light and lively, its crunchy red cherry and berry fruit is infused with an aromatic thread of fennel and spice, with hints of earth and rock. Available from By The Bottle.
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