How Te Motu Began

Adapted from Te Motu Tidings (1994), written by Terry Dunleavy.

When people ask how Te Motu began, the answer starts not on Waiheke Island, but in Hawke's Bay.

After completing a law degree at the University of Auckland, Paul Dunleavy built a career in finance, helping fund a number of start-up ventures. Yet his fascination with wine dated back much further. As a student, he had worked holiday jobs for Montana and developed an appreciation for the emerging New Zealand wine industry.

A visit to Hawke's Bay in the mid-1980s proved decisive. Inspired by discussions about fine red wine, particularly with the legendary Tom McDonald, Paul returned to Auckland with a simple ambition: to establish a vineyard capable of producing world-class Cabernet-based wines.

In 1988, he registered the name Waiheke Vineyards Limited and formed a company with his brother John Dunleavy, who would become vineyard manager and co-winemaker. Suitable land was eventually found in Onetangi, on Waiheke Island's warm northern slopes.

The property purchased in 1989 was a 30-acre goat farm adjoining Stonyridge Vineyard. Planting began immediately. John moved onto the property full-time, overseeing vineyard development while Paul balanced the demands of building the business and securing investment.

The original shareholders included family and friends who shared both the vision and the risk of establishing a premium red wine vineyard on Waiheke Island. Among them were Terry Dunleavy, former Chief Executive of the Wine Institute of New Zealand, Alan Cameron, Len Ireland, Peter and Kay Buffalora, Jim Cowie, David Rees, Trisha and Derek Neal, and others who believed in the project from its earliest days.

The goal was straightforward but ambitious: to produce a New Zealand red wine capable of standing alongside the great Cabernet-based wines of the world.

The first vines went into the ground in 1989. Four years later, Te Motu produced its inaugural vintage.

The dream had become reality.