In the third episode of our View from the Vines series, we tidy up the vine canopy with winemaker John Douglas before heading into the barrel room with a hen party who've arrived for a tasting.
Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
In 1849, a baby girl was born at sea as her parents travelled to a new life in New Zealand. The ship's captain logged her arrival with the name Ocean Child.
Nearly two centuries later, her descendant John Douglas has honoured her memory with the Riesling label from his Te Hera Vineyard.
The romantic story is now part of John's soft sales pitch as he tries to set his wine apart from the tens of thousands of brands on supermarket shelves and restaurant wine lists.
Retelling it in his barrel room on a hot Wairarapa spring day, the tale attracts a chorus of "aahs" from a group of women on a hen party touring local vineyards.
The cool of the winery is a welcome respite from the sapping wind outside.
When Country Life last visited, John was anxiously battling frost in the early hours. There was very little damage this time, he says.
Today John takes his visitors through the wine-making process and invites them to taste from the precious wine ageing in the barrel - from the frost-devastated vines of last season.
"I love talking about my wine and getting people to try my wine," he says.
"The story I want to tell people is that everything we do here is from here."
"I've grown the grapes and I come in here and the grapes make the wine and the wine goes into barrel and I put it into bottles and then hopefully it sells itself because it's good stuff."
"I used to think we had to be all flashing lights and have the unique story but as I've got older I've got less concerned about that.
"Instead of trying to say I'm better than everybody else, I'm just saying "this is me".
Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
