Te Motu - Waiheke Valley

The Dunleavy family have a long association with the wine industry. Terry Dunleavy was awarded an MBE in 1990 and made a fellow of the New Zealand Wine Institute in 1996 for his services to wine. His son Paul’s desire to establish a family vineyard with a focus on Cabernet driven, Claret style wines, was realised in 1987, when he identified a small farm on Waiheke Island ideally suited to growing Bordeaux varieties which he and his brother John have developed into the Te Motu Vineyard.

Waiheke’s geology and climate make it one of the world’s best locations for growing Bordeaux varieties. Clay soils have evolved from ancient Jurassic strata, rich in iron and manganese oxides which contribute toward its red colour.

Te Motu is located within Waiheke’s most ideal grape growing area, the Onetangi Valley, which traps summer heat. Te Motu vines slope down to the north, maximising exposure to the sun. Dense planting and sustainable winegrowing were adopted from the beginning and the vineyard was one of New Zealand’s first to be audited “Sustainable” by NZ Winegrowers in 2000. With meticulous canopy management and traditional winemaking techniques, Te Motu has produced outstanding wines demonstrating a fusion of old and new world styles.

The wines are intensely fragrant, richly opulent, pure in flavours of berry and plum with delicate spice, smokey oak and chocolate tones.

The wines have proved themselves to be long lived with the early vintages still developing and improving.

When “La Bottin Gourmand” compared the best of the world’s new releases, of the world’s great Bordeaux style wines, for its millennium issue, Te Motu was one of only four non French wines and the only New Zealand or Australian wine, to make the list, rated as the 13th best in the world.

When Wine Spectator rated 300 of New Zealand’s best wines, in its comprehensive 8 page article “Rising Stars”, Te Motu was rated New Zealand’s top red wine, 2 points clear of over 100 other reds.

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