A kiwi guy and a girl from Michigan. We met as ski instructors in Tahoe. After the ski season ended we made the move to New Zealand, and landed on Waiheke Island. Primarily because we managed to line up jobs for both of us to work together, that was our biggest priority. The job was making pizzas and serving them in a vineyard cafe. In addition, we found ourselves working in the vineyard. It was being out in the vines together that we really found our love of wine and the romance that makes wine so special for us. Although Matt is seriously good at making pizza, he decided to focus on wine. After living on the island for seven years we decided to move to Napa Valley California to continue our journey and start a family. Wine has taught us so much about our love for people and places. All of the wonderful people we have met on our journey and the beautiful places we have been together. For us Te Mama contains all of those things, and we very excited to get to share it with you.

 

Our name, Te Mama  translates (to us) as ‘a container of treasures’. A fuller interpretation is ‘our container of treasured things and people that spring from mother earth.

2021 Pinot Noir

Vineyard: located just 2 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

 

Vintage: the 2021 long, warm summer saw very few extreme heat events, with foggy mornings setting the stage for vibrant and expressive wines. The long, relatively mild finish to the season, not without its moments of unpredictability, helped to preserve freshness and finesse in the fruit with abundant hang time teasing out great color, structure and soft tannins.

 

Winemaking: picked on the 8th of September, 100% whole cluster. wild yeast fermentation in neutral puncheons. aged for 12 months in neutral French barrels

 

2020 Syrah

Vineyard: located just 5 miles from the San Pablo bay, the Alley Family vineyard is on the cool Sonoma side of the Los Carneros AVA. sourcing from this site was enticing as there are 7 Syrah clones interplanted.
 

Vintage: the 2020 conditions saw near-ideal spring bud break, steady flowering, even fruit set, and a lengthy stretch of warm days and cool and often foggy nights during the long summer months.

 

Winemaking: picked on the 25th of September, 15% whole cluster. wild yeast fermentation in neutral puncheons. aged for 19 months in 20% new French barrels