When Luke and Vanessa Reynolds walk through a block of cabernet franc at their vineyard Tūāpae, they walk on ancestral land. Tūāpae is on Waiheke Island, on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Vanessa (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Waiohua, Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Hine) and other Māori use their iwi (tribe) and hapū (sub-tribe) names to show pride in and connection with their ancestors. “My tūpuna (ancestors) have been connected to this specific area in Tāmaki (Auckland) since well before the great waka migrations,” Vanessa explains, referencing the mass migration in the 1300s when many Māori first began to inhabit the land after journeying from the Polynesian island of Hawaiki, guided by the navigator Kupe. Here, voyagers committed themselves to stewardship of the land.
Despite a rich spiritual relationship with the land for over 1,000 years, Māori have historically had little presence in one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest and most lucrative agricultural ventures: viticulture. Vines were first planted there in 1819 by missionary Samuel Marsden, and by 1840, when English officials and Māori chiefs met to sign the Treaty of Waitangi (a commitment to live peacefully and in equality for the development of Aotearoa New Zealand, together), European grapes had already firmly taken root on unceded Māori soil.
Through 200 years of winemaking, Aotearoa New Zealand has developed a strong global reputation and a demand for the country’s wine, from Central Otago’s berry-rich pinot noir to Marlborough’s uniquely grassy sauvignon blanc. In that time, the wine industry has been vastly dominated by people of European descent. Today, however, some of the most impactful wines from the region are made by a growing number of Māori winemakers, who are working to decolonize the industry by integrating Māori-influenced farming methods and ideologies. Many of these practices predate European biodynamic farming, which has largely been seen as the model for natural wine.
