Te Muna Valley™ Wines

Te Muna Valley™ Wines are made at Redbank Estate Ltd, an 11.5 hectare vineyard on Te Muna Road (Maori for secret or special place), about seven kilometres out of Martinborough in southern Wairarapa. All grapes for our wines are grown on the property, and all wine is made on the property by winemaker Simon Groves, under the direction of owner Colin Carruthers. Predominantly, we grow Pinot Noir, and with 2016 are into our thirteenth labelled vintage. We also make three styles of Pinot Gris, Syrah, Viognier, Chardonnay, pink Methode Traditionelle, and Rose.

Autumn, Te Muna Road:

Vineyard, house & winery from above.

In 1996 Colin Carruthers, a Wellington QC, bought this unproven vineyard land from John Donald, longtime Wairarapa beef and sheep farmer. Colin’s second son James, who’d been diagnosed as bipolar, trained as a viticulturist and winemaker and together with Colin, they chose the site as ideal for pinot noir. However, shortly before the first vines were planted, James took his own life. For nearly two years the project was abandoned, until internationally renowned winemaker Larry McKenna, decided to establish a vineyard over the road from Redbank, at Escarpment, got together with John Porter of Porter’s Wines, renewed Colin’s interest in the vineyard and in 2000 the first Pinot Noir vines were planted.

Three years later the first grapes were picked, which were blended with Larry McKenna’s vintage. The following year John Porter bought some of the vintage and after ferment told Colin they should revisit the deal so John could make wine for Redbank, and in 2004 the first 900 bottles of James Pinot Noir were produced, named as a tribute to James’s memory and his aspiration for the vineyard, Redbank Estate.

In 2005 Colin married journalist Deborah Coddington, and they began planning a weekend house to build on the vineyard. However, increasingly captivated by the beauty and – as Maori noted in the 1800s – special loveliness of the Te Muna valley, the couple decided to live permanently on the property and take an active interest in managing the vines and helping make the wine. However, as anyone who’s been bitten by the grapegrowing/winemaking bug knows, investment is ongoing, so we haven’t given up law or journalism.

In 2008 Martinborough experienced a perfect vintage and Redbank produced near-capacity tonnage – 24 tonnes of Pinot Noir and six tonnes of Pinot Gris. Because  increased production had become too much for John Porter’s winery, he had recommended we use Jane Cooper, winemaker at Masterton’s Matahiwi Estate.

In 2012 we decided to build our own winery so removed a small section of Pinot Noir vines, commissioned Holmes Construction, the company who’d built the house,  and 2013 marked first vintage, made by Simon Groves, as the first to be entirely grown and made on the property.

With the new winery and new winemaker we also rebranded and changed the names and labels of our wines to Te Muna Valley™ Wines. We now produce three varieties of Pinot Noir, three varieties of Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Viognier, Rose, Syrah, Methode Traditionelle, and have just planted some Chenin Blanc.