There are highly effective distractions when sampling wine at The Canyon, the seductive wave-shaped black timber tasting room at Tarras Vineyards. Whereas savouring its award-winning pinot noir, admire how its curves echo the backdrop of the muscular Central Otago mountains, framing a large inexperienced canyon beneath. After which mirror on how the wine in your glass can be a liquid window into inspirational indigenous values.
Tarras is a founding member of TUKU, the world’s first Maori winemakers collective, whose ethos weaves an underlay of historic native values about land, household and hospitality into the method of constructing ravishing wine in ravishing landscapes.
“For me, what we name kaitiakitanga comes first – caring for land, individuals and tradition with a long-term, intergenerational mindset,” explains Tarras proprietor Hayden Johnston. A member of the Ngai Tahu iwi (tribe), Hayden additionally pays homage to his Nineteenth-century Maori great-grandmother Kuru Kuru – not solely in giving her title to his wine model, however emblazoning every bottle along with her ancestral moko kauae, the mark carved on her chin to sign her revered place in Maori society.
The TUKU collective was based in 2018, and brings collectively Maori-owned vineyards working with premium grape varietals in famend wine areas. Tarras can be near atmospheric previous Otago gold mining cities equivalent to Cromwell and Clyde, in addition to vacationer beacons like Queenstown.
Johnston remembers the second that set him on a brand new path with Tarras. “I arrange the winery in 2002 and adopted standard recommendation, which noticed me controlling the expansion of weeds utilizing glyphosate. It was solely in 2008 when strolling by the winery that I immediately felt the affect of this intervention on the whenua – this lovely, valuable land we’re taking good care of. It didn’t odor proper, it didn’t sound correct,” he says. “The following day we moved to natural farming practices. Life got here flooding again into the winery. It smelt like nature once more, the sound of hundreds of bugs doing their factor got here again.”
Hayden has taken these ideas of sustainability into the Canyon by constructing its bar from recycled pallets and making a pure wastewater system. Again amid the vines, the soil is nourished utilizing compost comprised of the vineyard’s natural waste.
Forging shut connections
In North Canterbury – 300km north of Tarras, simply east of Christchurch – Sue McKean is one other TUKU pioneer, working alongside her associate Royce at Tiki Vineyards. The TIKI title was impressed by Royce’s great-great-great grandfather: Ngatiuenuku chief Tikitere Mihi. Set between the forested and trail-laced foothills of the Southern Alps and the town choices of Christchurch, Tiki performs an energetic function within the thriving foods and drinks scene of this close-knit winemaking area. Although the winery doesn’t but have a tasting room, they maintain tastings throughout New Zealand and overseas (as far afield as London), in addition to showing at occasions just like the North Canterbury Wine and Meals Pageant.
“The Maori values the TUKU collective put collectively distinguish the group from their friends,” says McKean. Alongside the guardianship function of kaitiakitanga highlighted by Hayden Johnston, she confused whanaungatanga – shut connection between individuals – in addition to the Maori dedication to hospitality referred to as manaakitanga.
A shared heritage
To the north of Christchurch, Haysley MacDonald – whose tribal affiliations embody each Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Rārua – champions TUKU’s ideas at Te Pa Vineyards within the coronary heart of the famend Marlborough wine-growing area on the prime of the South Island. MacDonald highlights the advantages TUKU has introduced by making a Maori neighborhood (whanau) inside the New Zealand wine trade “to raise the profile and mana (status/authority) of indigenous producers”.
“We do that by storytelling, advocacy, supporting one another and sharing data, and by offering knowledgeable commentary on topical points that affect the wine trade, equivalent to using Māori logos, icons, names, and ideas within the wine world.
He affords up an instance of the latter. “It’s been heartening to see extra consciousness across the parallels and variations between the normal high quality wine idea of terroir, and the highly effective Maori idea of tūrangawaewae, which could be understood as ‘a spot to face’.” The French phrase terroir captures what some have known as ‘somewhereness’ – a singular sense of a spot conjured by tasting a wine. For TUKU’s wines, this may embody the resonances that come from the perfumed surprise of Otago pinot noir at Tarras, or the plush fruitiness of Chardonnay from Tiki.
“What makes TUKU distinctive is that we’re certain collectively by shared whakapapa (Māori heritage) and shared values.”
TUKU is seeking to prolong its ethos past New Zealand’s shores. “Sooner or later we hope to attach with different indigenous wine producers and collectives from around the globe, to create and share new data and practices in doing so,” he says. For now, TUKU wines are spreading their ethos at bars and eating places throughout New Zealand, taking in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, plus vacationer beacons like Queenstown, the whale watching hotspot of Kaikoura and inexperienced shell mussel “capital” Havelock. The wines are additionally exported in small – however rising – quantities to the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Australia.
MacDonald says, “There’s by no means been extra curiosity and demand for authenticity and provenance relating to wine, so we’re excited and enthused to advocate for and elevate the popularity and safety of indigenous producers and our cultural taonga (treasure).”
TUKU collective wines will function at Tohunga Tūmau, an annual celebration of Maori foods and drinks expertise happening this yr on 13 July in Christchurch.
3 Tuku wines to purchase
Tarras The Canyon Pinot Noir 2019
A thrillingly advanced wine that has garnered rave opinions. The tasting notes embody intriguing flavours equivalent to darkish cherry, tapenade, smoked recreation and truffle.
Tiki Winery Pinot Noir Rosé 2022
Mild with refreshing acidity. Savour crimson apple and apricot notes with lemon zest and candy strawberry aromas within the newest within the winery’s line of award-winning roses.
Te Pa 2020 Chardonnay
This expression of a basic New Zealand grape scooped the Champion White Wine award – and a 96 level rating – on the New World Wine Awards. It’s a vibrant and fragrant wine, with flavours of stone fruit, florals and toasted nuts.
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