There’s nothing quite like the warm welcome visitors receive when arriving in New Zealand. From Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa on the North Island, to Marlborough, Nelson, North Canterbury, Central Otago and Waitaki Valley wine regions on the South Island, the connection to the land and Māori culture is palpable.
The welcome goes well beyond a hearty “Kia ora” greeting.
In the Wairarapa wine region, overseas visitors arriving to assist with grape harvest and winemaking are given a booklet to guide them through Māori language and traditions. It outlines the mihimihi (or pepeha), a brief personal speech typically used to introduce oneself.
The heartfelt introduction offers the opportunity to express a person’s heritage (whakapapa), links to the land, spiritual home, and sense of purpose.
That’s what happened in February when pinot noir growers, makers and enthusiasts from around the globe converged on Christchurch for the 2025 Pinot Noir Conference.
It wasn’t just a pinot fest, though plenty of stellar examples were consumed. The conference was a moving display of how to care for and relate to the land as a place and a living entity.
At the centre of this concept is Kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the land and people). When Jeff Sinnott, chair of New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology, took to the stage to speak about Kaitiakitanga, he spoke of his whakapapa links to Ngati Tūwharetoa and Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairoa.
Jeff's connection to place is widespread. He has been involved in the New Zealand wine industry since the 1980s and has made pinot noir in most of the country’s wine regions. He and his family were pioneers in viticulture in the Waitaki Valley of North Otago. “Sometimes the land chooses you and it was certainly the case for us in the Waitaki Valley,” he said during his presentation.
“The last view my father had was of the lake and his vineyard. It is very special to us.” Jeff is also member of the Tuku Māori Winemakers Collective. Tuku, formed in 2018 and named after the Māori tukutuku weavings, brings awarded Māori wine companies together based on shared values of land, family and hospitality. Among them are te Pā Family Vineyards, Tiki Wine & Vineyards, Steve Bird Wines and Kuru Kuru Wines.
“We talk a lot about Kaitiakitanga and these are the fundamental tenets of our Tuku collective,” Jeff said. “Whānaungatanga is the importance of family, both people that have come before us (our tipuna – ancestors) and people who come after us (our children and grandchildren).”
Manaakitanga (generosity) is also important.
“It means looking after visitors, being good guardians, being good family people, and being very generous with your spirit, your language and your time,” Jeff said. “Those three fundamental tenets are expressed strongly throughout the New Zealand wine industry.”
Tūrangawaewae is also a guiding concept for many New Zealand vignerons. Much like the French notion of terroir, it focuses on place, but with greater emphasis on ancestral genealogies and the deep kinship between humans and the natural world.
A few days after the conference, it all hits home. I’m standing on a precious windswept piece of land on the Wairau Bar at the mouth of the Wairau River in Marlborough. It is one of the oldest archaeological sites in New Zealand and for Haysley MacDonald, founder and owner of te Pā wines, it is home. Haysley traces his ancestry back to the early Māori settlers who landed on Wairau Bar 800 years ago. “It was a bit like a reservation where our indigenous Māori people were left to live after losing everything when the colonial era took over the country,” he says. “This area is known as The Pa. In our native language ‘te’ is ‘the’ and ‘pa’ is ‘home’. It’s an important place for us as a people.”
Haysley comes from strong farming stock. In 2003, he and his family converted their dairy pastures into vineyards and, in 2011, te Pā was born.
“We started with 5000 cases, and in year one won two quite prestigious wine shows,” Haysley says. “I thought, ‘this is easy’ but couldn’t even sell half of it. That was a real eye-opener and I realised it’s not easy, it’s a lot of hard work. Since then, we’ve grown as a business and we’re exporting to about 26 countries. We don’t supply other companies with fruit anymore but we do work with some special growers.”
Haysley, his parents Phillip and Christine, his partner Julie and their five tamariki (children) never lose sight of their past.
“This is the backbone of who we are, our brand, our story and where it all started,” he says. “A lot of my ancestors are buried near here. It used to be a thriving ‘pa’ or community. All those years ago there was seafood galore, eels, birdlife, they had it all.” Watching Marlborough’s main river meet the sea in a moody, churning collision is spectacular.
“On a clear day you can see Wellington across the water.”
No such luck today. The wind is ferocious.
“Marlborough’s best-kept secret is the wind,” Haysley says. “The wind and the river are unique to us and our wines.”
This is particularly evident in the te Pā Reserve Collection Seaside Sauvignon Blanc from the Home Vineyard’s Seaside Block at Lower Wairau Valley.
There’s also the family’s Home Estate and Riverside vineyards planted with sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and chardonnay. The Wairau Bar encompasses a rich variation of soil types, from rich, fertile loams overlaying alluvial deposits to the sandy, silty soils. Meanwhile, the Hillside Vineyard and Redwood Hill Vineyard on Awatere Valley’s voluptuous hills and terraces grow on clay and stony loam soils.
“Marlborough is often looked at as one big homogenous block,” Haysley says. “We want to explain the difference of terroir the region has. Don’t put it in a box.”
Winemaker Sam Bennett crafts sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, chardonnay, rosé, and pinot noir under the te Pā banner, alongside value ranges Pā Road and Koha. “Demand for our pinot noir rosé is rising,” Haysley says. “We were just at Wine Paris and people said our rosé was as good as Provence.” He grins. “A bit of a hard one to swallow for them in France. Here’s a great Kiwi rosé.”
Meanwhile, in Wairarapa’s wild landscape, The Huntress winemaker and owner Jannine Rickards embodies the Māori worldview of Papatūānuku.
“Earth mother, she is the source of all life,” Jannine says. As a skilled hunter, gardener, forager and winemaker Jannine reflects on her childhood on the land. She grew up on a sheep and cattle farm on the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula before life led her to the Wairarapa. She learnt the art of net fishing for flounder and trawling for Kahawai from her grandfather and has long been attuned to nature’s cycles.
“My grandfather always opened nice bottles of wine at Christmas,” Jannine says. “When I was 19, I worked at a small luxury hotel in Coromandel and the sommelier took me under his wing.”
Jannine’s first harvest experience was at Sileni Wines in Hawke’s Bay during 2003. “Back when they were small,” she says. “I loved it.”
Stints in Beaujolais, Burgundy, South Africa, California, Oregon and Champagne followed. That’s where she met sparkling winemaker Kate Laurie in 2013.
A friendship ensued and, to this day, Jannine travels to Australia annually to help Kate and her husband Hamish out during vintage at Deviation Road in the Adelaide Hills.
Back at home, Jannine works with growers across Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay who share her dedication to organic and biodynamic practices.
Under The Huntress brand, she currently makes stunning pinot noir with head-snapping character and energy (including the chilled Kuratea Pinot Noir), chardonnay from Hawke’s Bay, a Waihonga (amber) riesling and pinot gris blend, Waikoa (sauvignon blanc), and Waikura (rosé).
The labels feature evocative illustrations depicting the landscape that inspires her. “The bird on the pinot noir is the Kereuru, my spirit animal.”
The wines are small batch and authentic, much like their maker.
“Kaitiakitanga, Whānaungatanga and Manaakitanga are all connected and part of living within the principals of te ao Māori / Māori worldview, along with Mauri, mana, orange, Kotahitanga,
Rangatiratanga and Whakapapa,” Jannine says. “They are principles that I connect to and live by and they are innate to who I am.”
Here in Australia, we could learn much from our friends across the pond. Jeff summed it up beautifully as he closed his Pinot Noir Conference presentation.
“If I leave you with one concept, it’s tipuna pai,” Jeff said. “Be a good ancestor. We share a collective responsibility. ‘Whanaungatanga te tangata, toitu te whenua’ – while the people come and go, the land remains.”
