Wrights Wines

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History

Family

Winemaking has been in the family ever since the 1930's. My great-grandfather Stanko Jurakovich came from Yugoslavia when he was a child. He registered as a winemaker in the 1930's and was one of the first winemakers in Kumeu (West Auckland). He started up the San Marino Vineyards, which is now successfully known as Kumeu River.

My parents continued with horticulture growing tomatoes, cucumbers, carnations, strawberries, beans, etc...

Presently

We are currently developing our organic vineyard/orchard in Ormond Valley Road, Gisborne. At present we are growing grapes, olives, cherries and a small fruit orchard.

We are very excited with our first vintage of grapes from our vineyard in 2009. We have been busy setting up a winery on the vineyard and sourcing winery equipment. .

This is all very exciting, we refer to it as 'living the dream'. Sure it is hard work but it is also very rewarding and exciting.

During the vintage of 2009 we purchased another vineyard in Ormond Valley Road, known as the Revington Vineyard. This vineyard is referred to in Gisborne as the Grand Cru of vineyards, we look forward to bringing you these wines. We were lucky enough to harvest Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer from this vineyard.

2007 Vintage

Wow, what a season, one of the best wine making seasons in Gisborne for a while. We weren't planning to make any wines until we harvest our own organic grapes. But with selling out of wines and with customers wanting to purchase we decided to make an unoaked chardonnay.

In 2007 we were still actively setting up our vineyard and orchard, which also contains olives and cherries.

2005 Vintage

Wow! What a year, we purchased 15 acres of bare land, previously used for cattle farming. The block is situated on Ormond Valley Road, Gisborne.

The block is north facing, sloped and contains a hill which we have manually terraced out with a spade and planted out with four red varieties. We have also planted out the bottom north facing block out with four white grape varieties.

We have also planted a small block of olives, lavender and sunflowers to add diversity to the block.

During 2005 we released two wines the renowned Gewurztraminer and a new lively addition Late Harvest Semillon, two lovely wines.

2004 Vintage

This vintage I am working towards owning my own land, therefore I am consolidating on the wine producing side. My GW Chardonnay 2003 has sold out and I still have 2003 stocks of other wines. Therefore I decided only to produce chardonnay for the 2004 vintage. During vintage I worked at a local winery in the evenings and as an accountant during the day, while managing my wine business.

2003 Vintage

This vintage I produced GW Chardonnay, GW Sauvignon Blanc, GW Merlot and released my delicious Entity Methode Traditionnelle from the 2002 vintage.

This vintage I worked hard in the vineyards, managing the canopy, monitoring the fruit development and picking the fruit at its optimal levels, thus rewarding the final product immensely.

2002 Vintage

My desire is to produce wines that resemble the terroir of the land, that are produced by the most natural means available. A vineyard that has not been sprayed with herbicides, pesticides or fungicides.

For the 2002 vintage I sourced organic grapes for my GW label; Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay. These wines were produced and crafted in a vegan friendly manner which enhances the qualities of the grapes as naturally as possible.

I also produced my Entity Methode Traditionnelle. This wine is very special to me. It has the enigma-ability to bring people together during special occasions or get-togethers. This wine is a must.

2001 Vintage

Once I finished the course I went straight into producing my own wines while working at a local winery in Gisborne. In my first year of production I produced New Zealand's first certified vegan wines, certified through the New Zealand Vegetarian Society.

I leased equipment at the Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne, where I produced several different wine styles. Through contracting to growers to purchase their grapes I was able to produce these wines.

With the help of a friend in Hamilton (Dale Sattler) we developed the GW label. Under this label I released;

GW Chardonnay 2001
GW Gewurztraminer 2001

I also developed a sparkling wine range under my Entity label, releasing the Entity - Sparkling Merlot in 2001 and my Methode Traditionnelle in September 2002.