Last month, over 100 professionals, dignitaries, media, and supporters gathered at the Air New Zealand CICC venue in Auckland City, to celebrate the official launch of TUKU: the world’s first Māori winemakers collective.
TUKU brings together awarded Māori wine companies based on their shared values of the land, family and hospitality, offering a wide range of premium varietals from the most famous wine growing regions of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Bound together by shared values of whakapapa, kaitiakitanga, whanaungatanga and manaakitanga; TUKU is passionate about working together to promote indigenous winemaking and to celebrate their unique heritage and cultural identity.
The TUKU collective is made up of Māori owned, NZ-owned wine companies: Te Pā Family Vineyards, Tiki Wine & Vineyards, Bird Wines, Kuru Kuru Wines, and Ostler Wine. These wine companies are complemented by diverse iwi origins, from Tauranga – Tākitimu Waka and Rotorua – Te Arawa Waka in the north to Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in the south.
You can learn more about TUKU over on the website, and make sure you keep an eye out for the current issues of Kia Ora Magazine and WinePress magazine, which both feature fantastic articles on the Collective.
If you love wine and want to support the TUKU collective producers, you can head over to Winoceros (which is a fantastic interactive wine game product) and purchase your very own TUKU mixed wine game pack, perfect for your next get together with colleagues or friends – Winoceros.
