MAORI POINT

We are John Harris, Marilyn Duxson, Matt Evans, and Maggie Evans. We are also the friends and family who contribute so much to Maori Point. We are passionate about this land and the wines it can make.Located In the heart of Central Otago. Halfway between Cromwell and Wanaka, on the bank of the Clutha River at Tarras, Maori Point is surrounded by mountains, snow-covered in winter (and often through summer). The area is usually cloud-free and dry. The southern boundary of our vineyard is sheltered by pine trees but the nor-west wind can funnel between the mountain ranges and sweep across the vineyard. Our soil is wind-blown loess over deep deposits of large boulders dumped at the foot of the Hawea glacier, 10,000 years ago. Since then, little has grown in this arid environment. We are changing that, both through our grapevines (which unlike most crops can thrive in this free-draining, low-organic content soil) and through our plantings of native vegetation. We practice careful viticulture and management of the land. We believe that each grapevine has a story, and we laboriously hand-tend each vine to help it tell that story. Flowers and aromatic plants are grown between the vine rows and then mown and mulched under the vines, to create a beneficial ecosystem and nutrition for the vines. These practices have made an enormous difference: in just a few years our vines have found bal