Collection: Kenzie

Whilst Arfion celebrates Dave Mackintosh's adopted home in the Yarra, his new project Kenzie takes him back home across the ditch to his birthplace in Hawkes Bay, or Te Matau-a-Māui (the fish-hook of Māui).

According to Māori mythology, the North Island of New Zealand was created when the demi-god/youngest brother Māui tricked his older brothers into taking him fishing. Seeking guidance first from his grandmother Murirangawhenua, she gifted him her own jawbone with special powers, as well as a fish-summoning incantation. From his grandmother’s magical jawbone, Māui crafted his double barbed fish-hook. Chanting his grandmother’s incantation, and following by her example of sacrifice by putting his own blood into it as bait, Māui pulled the great sting-ray up from the deep waters that would form the land of the North Island, with the shape of Māui’s fish-hook representing Hawkes Bay itself.

Dave recites this legend for us on his recent visit to our shop, then speaks of his great-grandmother Annabella Mackenzie, for whom he has named his new wine project. He describes her as a “fiercely independent and strong Scottish woman who taught us that amazing things happen when you take risks”.

And like his Arfion wines, Kenzie is about throwing caution to the wind, taking risks, whilst remaining true to your origin. Aotearoa (New Zealand) may have its soggy reputation as the “land of the long white cloud” which guided its Polynesian
ancestors to it in the first place, but the west coast of Hawkes Bay clocks the country’s most hours of sunshine making the climate ideal for winegrowing. Dave sources fruit from like-minded, sustainable growers working on fertile alluvial soils, and greywacke sandstone embedded with layers of pumice as well as topsoils of volcanic ash, these tephras violently scattered in the last eruption of the now Lake Taupō some 1800 years ago.

Whole bunch, wild yeasts, malolactic fermentations occurring naturally, unfined, unfiltered, minimal sulphur with the label art created by Dave himself, these wines are textural, aromatic, and speak of their whenua, their (mother)land.