TOHU WHENUA SERIES

Whenua Awa vineyard in the Upper Awatere Valley, Marlborough

Photos: Kate MacPherson

In 2018, Tohu Wines celebrated a milestone: 20 years since it was launched as the world’s first Māori-owned wine company. Rachel Taulelei, Kono CEO, shares the background to Tohu’s latest offering, the Whenua series.

Our vision in founding a wine company was to have a platform to share our culture, story and values with the world. They were modest beginnings, but thanks to the mahi and vision of pioneers such as James Wheeler and Mugwi MacDonald, and the hard work and talent of our winery and vineyard teams, we now create award-winning wine that is enjoyed globally.

Our soil from Whenua Awa vineyard

We had a great year last year. We released a very special, limited edition Rewa Rosé, with its stunning label and gift box designed by New Zealand artist Flox. Bruce Taylor, our chief winemaker also marked his ten-year anniversary with us. In looking ahead for his next challenge, he started working on a concept of a range dedicated to our whenua, our land.

With Tohu, we are proud that we can take our own grapes from our vineyards, to our winery, to the people who buy and drink our wine.

Through Tohu Wines we get to take kaupapa Māori to the world every day. We strive to work in ways that are kind to people and the environment without compromising quality and integrity. We have a strong spiritual connection with the land and a responsibility to pass it on in good health to future generations.

This strong connection with the land, our tūrangawaewae here in Te Tauihu, is what is being celebrated and explored in our new Tohu Whenua series of wine.

In wine-making there is a concept called ‘terroir’ – this is the characteristic taste and flavour imparted to a wine in the environment in which it is raised or created – climate, soil and terrain. In Māori, we have a term, te wā. Te wā is about the convergence of time and place. It speaks of seasons and time, of areas and regions and space. When the human element is added to te wā, the relationship between people, land, the seasons and light result in a nexus of interconnecting elements. And it’s this magic convergence and our connection to the land where we grow our grapes that is celebrated in the Whenua series.

Each Whenua wine is an expression of the distinct contours and complexities of our tūrangawaewae, our standing place. All the wine in the Whenua series can be traced to the individual blocks from where the grapes are sourced. These blocks were chosen because they represent the true characteristics of the land. Our two vineyards, Whenua Awa in Upper Awatere Valley, Marlborough, and Whenua Matua in Upper Moutere, Tasman, have quite different characteristics and produce very distinct flavours in the wines.

Rongo at Whenua Awa. Rongo have an important role as kaitiaki on our productive land

Whenua Awa is perched high on the remote terraces of the Awatere Valley where the climate is cool, winds are strong, braided rivers powerful and the frosts are harsh. It’s here where Rore Stafford, Mugwi MacDonald, James Wheeler, Paul Morgan and others planted our first grapes – such a significant day for us.

Whenua Matua sits on the sunny slopes of Upper Moutere. It was given its name, which means ‘significant land’, to recognise its deep meaning for the whānau of Wakatū, as it was one of the orginal blocks of Tenths’ lands returned to us when Wakatū was incorporated in 1977. It had been leased out for a long time, and when we took it back, it was covered in gorse. We started planting grapes in 2005, and now Jonny Hiscox and his team not only produce stunning grapes but also have restored wetlands and planted thousands of native plants and trees, which has seen the return of native birds and fish to the area.

Vineyard manager Jonny Hiscox at Whenua Matua

Both our vines and our people are sustained and defined by roots entwined in this part of the land; whenua that bore the footprints of our ancestors, and which we tend now in anticipation of the steps of our grandchildren’s great-grandchildren. Our inherited values underpin our treatment of the land and the wine. We take care to tread lightly and minimise our impact, and recognise the characteristics that make it, and us, special.

With launching this series, we’re giving an insight into some of the beauty and complexity of our tūrangawaewae through wine, and how it is woven through time as a part of us and our legacy.

Tohu Whenua series