How New Zealand’s Māori Winemakers Are Shaping the Future of Wine

When you visit New Zealand, you’ll likely be greeted with “Kia ora,” a Māori-language welcome widely adopted by the country’s English-speaking population. The Māori were the first people to inhabit Aotearoa, the traditional Māori name for New Zealand, who arrived from Polynesia around 1300.

Though European explorers first charted the islands in the mid 1600s, significant European settlement and resulting colonization efforts didn't begin until the early 19th century. A watershed moment came in 1840, when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, known as the Treaty of Waitangi, declared British sovereignty over New Zealand. It was signed by the British Crown and most Māori tribal leaders, although the two cultures interpreted the terms differently. 

Over the years, the Māori were forced to cede land and leadership to the British. Relations improved with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 which called for reparations to be paid to the Māori people as well as the formation of the Waitangi Tribunal, a commission dedicated to investigating Māori claims and inquiries. 

Like other nations with a history of mistreatment of peoples, New Zealand grapples with its past, but the country’s wine industry is keen to honor its Indigenous culture. As an agricultural sector, wine makers feel a unique connection to the Māori people, who were hunters and fishers, and later farmers. Respect and reliance on the land are paramount to both groups and the wine industry identifies this common bond.

“There’s a term that loosely relates to terroir: tūrangawaewae, or ‘the place where you stand,’” says winemaker Jeff Sinnott. 

However, the New Zealand wine industry is relatively new, and concerns about “culture washing” abound. What’s the best way forward? 

Economic possibilities for Māori in the wine industry

There aren’t specific statistics on the number of Māori people in the wine industry. According to the Bureau of Economic Research in New Zealand, there are nearly 24,000 Māori-owned businesses in the country. From 2018 to 2023, Māori self-employment increased by 49%, and Māori employers grew by 31%. These statistics suggest opportunity for continued economic growth, and Sinnott thinks the wine industry is one possible avenue.

Sinnott started in the wine industry in the mid-1980s, and now works as a consultant. He’s one of the five founding members of the TUKU Collective, an organization of Māori winemakers officially launched in 2018 to support and promote Māori producers. 

Alcohol, in general, didn’t have a role in traditional Māori life. “We got our buzz from our gods,” says Sinnott. When settlers came, Sinnott says that inebriation became a tool for colonizers to control the Māori people. 

But after the beliefs of the Christian church became widely adopted, wine, the sacramental beverage, held a particular reverence. 

“Māori being involved in the wine industry is a modern adaptation,” says Sinnott. 

While connection to the land is a cornerstone for both winemakers and Māori, there’s also a pragmatic reason to enter the wine industry. 

“Producing wine is as much economic as it is cultural because we have a very, very tenuous cultural link to alcohol,” says Sinnott. “If you talk to other Māori winemakers, they’re in a business to make money. But they are also in the business of providing employment so that people can improve themselves. There’s an opportunity for communities.”

How education can help the wine industry embrace Māori culture

For the wine industry to fully embrace Māori culture, producers must be open to education.

“Generally, I think most people are engaging with Māori culture from an authentic interest and curiosity to understand values and principles of te ao Māori [the Māori worldview],” says Jannine Rickards, owner and winemaker of Huntress Wines in Wairarapa. “There are, of course, people who take the opportunity to use cultural aspects for commercial gain. The same thing as greenwashing, culture washing is something that the consumer needs to be wary of.”

Rickards, along with a small group of other winemakers in the region, created the Te Reo Māori Booklet for Wine Growers in Wairarapa. The goal was to engage with the local iwi (tribe) and further a connection to the region, history, and its people. 

The booklet provides a history of Aotearoa as conveyed by Māori storytelling. It contains a glossary of winemaking terms and explains both the growing cycle in the Māori language and how to introduce oneself in a mihimihi, a traditional personal introduction where a person shares their name, where their ancestors come from and where they live. Some wineries, such as Ata Rangi and Oraterra, share the booklet with international staff members and customers at the cellar door, or include it with new releases.

Rickards says the booklet is just a starting point. In partnership with the local Hau Ariki Marae, a sacred communal gathering space, the Wairarapa Winegrowers committee hosted a hākari (feast) and noho (sleepover) at the cultural center to educate people not originally from Wairapara.

“We have ambitions to grow and further this initial project to encompass more learning that can be shared within the region,” says Rickards.

The dangers of cultural greenwashing in New Zealand wine

This wave of international interests in New Zealand has again raised questions about respecting Māori culture.  

“There are a lot of foreign companies that want to be Māori,” says Haysley MacDonald, founder and owner of te Pā Winery in Marlborough, and a member of the TUKU Collective. “And so they get a wine brand with a Māori name, whack a label on a bottle, and sell it around the world. That's a tough one when you are Māori,” he says. “You have a heritage, and you see your names and places being ripped off by many global giants, large supermarkets, and those that don't give it the respect that it deserves.”

MacDonald believes Māori language and iconography should be trademarked and protected, much like how sparkling wine can only be labeled as Champagne if it was made in the famed French region. “Our Māori names are used in vain all over the world,” he says. 

Such authenticity can only help Māori producers, and perhaps the wine industry itself.

“I’m noticing that all around the globe, the younger generation, especially, are getting more interested in what they're drinking and who's behind it,” says MacDonald. “I think that's been very good for us as a business. People can relate to all our brand stories, all our iconography, and know that we’re real.”