“quality is our highest priority”.

My passion for wine started to grow from 15 years of age while I worked in hospitality. Working with different wines from all over the world opened my eyes and I realized I needed more experience under my belt. I did lots of studies, courses, wine trips and joined wineries in France and South-Africa during harvest.

While I took my first steps in the vineyards of the Awatere Valley, I knew this was something we could call home. Since 2019 we lease a part of an extraordinary vineyard in the Awatere Valley, where I do all the extra work myself. We achieve the quality we want with vine-to-vine attention . This basically comes down to be there with the vines all the time, because they will tell you what’s good for them.

JACO VAN HENSBERGEN

-owner and winemaker

“our family is my mereka”

I started to appreciate wine more after I fell in love with Jaco in 2009 during a wine/study trip in France (where he was one of the teachers). I’ve learned so much about wine because of him. He wanted to work in several wineries during harvest and from there I knew The Netherlands wouldn’t be our forever home. We decided to travel to New Zealand in 2014 to gain knowledge for viticulture by working in the vineyard. Just for a year… but we never left! Our dream was to make our own wine, and New Zealand has given us the opportunity to do so.

Jaco keeps the quality top notch in the vineyard and makes sure the winemaking goes according to his wishes while I take social media, marketing and sales up my sleeve. That is what we call ‘team work’.

SANDRA VAN HENSBERGEN

-owner and manager