Te Motu 1993

The inaugural vintage of the estate, Te Motu 1993 marked the beginning of the Dunleavy family’s long-term vision for Waiheke Island fine wine.

Produced in tiny quantities from young vines in the Onetangi Valley, the wine established the foundation for the Bordeaux-inspired style that would come to define Te Motu in the decades that followed: structure, restraint, longevity, and a strong sense of place.

Today, only a handful of bottles remain in the family cellar.

The 1993 vintage also occupies a small place in New Zealand wine folklore. Following the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Prime Minister Jim Bolger settled his famous wager with Nelson Mandela over a case of New Zealand wine assembled with the help of Terry Dunleavy — including the inaugural vintage of Te Motu.  

More than three decades on from harvest, the wine stands as a rare surviving document of Waiheke Island’s early fine wine history and the beginning of Te Motu itself.

Tasting Notes

Now fully mature and deeply tertiary in character, showing evolved notes of dried herbs, leather, forest floor, tobacco and dark fruit beneath softened tannins and long savoury persistence.

A wine of historical significance as much as sensory interest.