{"id":26704,"date":"2025-09-16T23:24:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26704\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T23:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:24:06","slug":"maori-women-launch-matiti-an-organic-winemaking-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26704\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u0101ori women launch Matiti, an organic winemaking first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matiti officially launches this Saturday. It is sparkling wine with an origin story like no other.<\/p>\n

When its riesling vines were in flower, its makers met to \u201clisten\u201d to the leaves and soil \u2013 a process led by kaupapa M\u0101ori researcher and member of the six-strong Matiti collective, Mariana Te Rangi (Te Arawa, T\u016bhoe, Ngai Tamaterangi, T\u016bwharetoa and Ng\u0101ti Toa Rangatira). <\/p>\n

\u201cShe brought this beautiful tool, a recording device, that we plugged into the soil at Grava vineyard [Martinborough] to hear the sound of the soil, and then clipped on to the leaves to be able to hear their sound,\u201d says Hutchings (Ng\u0101i Tuhoe, Ng\u0101i Tahu, Ng\u0101ti Huirapa and Gujurati).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like an app \u2013 you say \u2018oh, can I have natural wind instruments\u2019 . . . and then the vascular sound comes out through that portal.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the first time the listening technology, previously used in research into the fungal disease, myrtle rust<\/a>, had been deployed in a New Zealand vineyard. Hutchings says the healthier the vine, the happier it sounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit bubbly \u2013 I\u2019d say sparkly \u2013 almost reflecting the wine. There were a couple of vines that weren\u2019t in great health and there was a real difference. The mauri and the energy was low . . . a little bit duller, a bit slower. Not so peppy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutchings, a researcher with a background in environmental science and indigenous studies, and her partner Jo Smith (Waitaha, K\u0101ti M\u0101moe and K\u0101i Tahu) are founding members of the Papawhakaritorito Trust. <\/p>\n

Its kaupapa centres on elevating indigenous seed, soil and food sovereignty, and their Kaitoke farm was just the third in the country to become hua parakore certified<\/a>, under the M\u0101ori organic verification system.<\/p>\n

The project started three years ago. Following a presentation at an organics conference, Hutchings fell into conversation with two winemakers – Canterbury-based Richelle Tyney (Ng\u0101ti Tama, Te Atiawa, Ng\u0101ti Porou and Ng\u0101ti Maniapoto) and Jannine Rickards (Ng\u0101i te Rangi, Ng\u0101ti Hau\u0101, Ng\u0101puhi and Te Roroa), founder of Wairarapa-based Huntress Wines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we just talked about the use of M\u0101ori words \u2013 kupu \u2013 and M\u0101ori storytelling by non-indigenous winemakers in NZ to reach for that provenance story … without actually having M\u0101ori in their winemaking teams, without having a commitment necessarily to te reo M\u0101ori or without, in some cases, even having a relationship with mana whenua.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, it\u2019s a misrepresentation. As a speaker of te reo M\u0101ori, I look at that wine and I think \u2018oh, it\u2019s got a M\u0101ori name, it must have a M\u0101ori story, it must have M\u0101ori winemakers\u2019 \u2013 and often they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"HutchingsHutchings says hua parakore is a pathway to decolonising food futures in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I met these two winemakers and they heard about hua parakore for the first time through my talk, they were like, \u2018how can we make a hua parakore wine?\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just started from there … all of a sudden we\u2019re in the flow of the mauri, or energy, we\u2019re in the flow of the atua pathways, the pathways of our deity – and then, before you know it, we\u2019re sipping this beautiful, bubbly, celebratory wine. Crazy, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n

The sixth member of the collective, Timmy Smith<\/a> (Whakat\u014dhea, Te \u016apokorehe and Ng\u0101ti Porou) is an organic tea blender, with experience in the beverage industry.<\/p>\n

The collective sourced grapes from BioGro New Zealand certified Grava vineyard, located south of Martinborough, on silty loam soils formed by the Ruamahanga awa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have korowai\u2019ed – put a cloak around the wine – using our hura parakore verification and our integrity as a M\u0101ori organic grower, to provide that assurance and that verification that the wine is hura parakore,\u201d says Hutchings.<\/p>\n

She describes hua parakore as a \u201cpathway to decolonising our food futures in Aotearoa and restoring collective indigenous foodways\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MatitiMatiti is the first M\u0101ori organic wine to be made in Aotearoa by a M\u0101ori women\u2019s winemaking collective.<\/p>\n

And while the viticulture industry might traditionally use the term \u201cterroir\u201d to refer to the influence of the natural environment (including climate, soil and topography) on a wine, Hutchings says \u201cwe would talk about that in te ao M\u0101ori as the energies of Hineahuone, our soil deity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a w\u0101hine M\u0101ori collective, we worked differently with every stage – from the vine to the wine. We listened to the unique rhythms of Papat\u016banuku and Hineahuone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did that through karakia, we did that through w\u0101nanga, we did that through mindfulness. So we really brought tikanga M\u0101ori, in all of its diverse aspects, to our process and our intention of making the wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In te reo M\u0101ori, Matiti denotes summer, a seven-phase season when the art of winemaking occurs.<\/p>\n

Hutchings says finally tasting the wine was a surreal experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important, because we have our own kaupapa M\u0101ori stories of terroir in Aotearoa, told through the collective voices of M\u0101ori women – as opposed to the individual P\u0101keh\u0101 winemaker from a corporate vineyard that is owned by overseas interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

And: \u201cIt\u2019s about collectivity. As our food systems crumble, as commodity food prices increase, no one person is going to come and save the system. Matiti is all about collaboration . . . mahi tahi, working together, and when we do that we can achieve so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winemaking process was led by The Huntress\u2019s Jannine Rickards<\/a> and resulted in 1277 bottles of the P\u00e9tillant naturel riesling.<\/p>\n

\"JannineJannine Rickards, founder of Huntress Wines, worked with five other women to create Matiti, a sparkling organic wine.<\/p>\n

Rickards says while a pet nat is normally cloudy, the group decided to disgorge the bottles (remove its yeast lees) to enhance its purity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of discussion about that,\u201d says Rickards. \u201cAnd it was good to be open to other perspectives instead of being the way, I guess, the P\u0101keh\u0101 world is, where you get on and do it and your way is the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of learning for me. I didn\u2019t grow up very connected to my M\u0101ori whakapapa and so I\u2019ve been loving that connection, and working with these women who are just phenomenal with their values and their drive to make change in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matiti will be available online via Huntress Wines from Saturday. Auckland\u2019s By The Bottle will also stock it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really interested when I start talking about it,\u201d says Rickards. \u201cThey kind of look at me cross-eyed and go \u2018who, what . . .?\u2019 It\u2019s going to hopefully spark some curiosity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matiti officially launches this Saturday. It is sparkling wine with an origin story like no other. When its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26653,8831,26652,138,9942,26657,1888,11775,26661,305,5838,302,26662,3331,1739,12018,1362,1446,26650,2720,111,139,69,26651,26658,26656,26660,26655,427,6211,145,26654,1961,1529,8238,26659,3551,686,1754,21685,102,2248,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-26704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-allfemale","9":"tag-an","10":"tag-aotearoas","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-collective","13":"tag-crafted","14":"tag-first","15":"tag-french","16":"tag-groundbreaking","17":"tag-have","18":"tag-help","19":"tag-its","20":"tag-itself","21":"tag-launch","22":"tag-launches","23":"tag-listen","24":"tag-made","25":"tag-making","26":"tag-matiti","27":"tag-mori","28":"tag-new-zealand","29":"tag-newzealand","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-organic","32":"tag-parakore","33":"tag-riesling","34":"tag-sound","35":"tag-sparkling","36":"tag-story","37":"tag-system","38":"tag-technology","39":"tag-terroir","40":"tag-this","41":"tag-three","42":"tag-under","43":"tag-verification","44":"tag-vines","45":"tag-week","46":"tag-wine","47":"tag-winemaking","48":"tag-with","49":"tag-women","50":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}