‘I have family all around New Zealand and the world,” says Haysley MacDonald. “If they ring me, they say, what’s going on at the pā? So, when I named the wine, that came automatically.” Te Pā is based on Marlborough’s Wairau Bar, where the Wairau River runs into the ocean at Cloudy Bay. This is one of the country’s oldest archaeological sites: it has a network of pā sites and artefacts dating back to the 13th century.
In 2004, the MacDonald family began converting their dairy and crop farm on the shingly Wairau Bar to vineyards. The first te Pā wine flowed in 2011. Today, te Pā has about 500 hectares of vineyards on the Wairau Bar, in the Awatere Valley, and other parts of Marlborough.
The company’s wines, under the te Pā and lower-priced Pā Road brands, offer consistently rewarding quality and value.
te Pā Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023
★★★★
Priced right, this full-bodied wine has ripe tropical fruit flavours, gentle herbal notes and a dry finish. Fresh, crisp and lively, it offers good drinking during 2024. (13.5% alc/vol) $20
te Pā The Reserve Collection Hillside Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023
★★★★★
Instantly appealing, this vigorous wine was hand-picked in the Awatere Valley. It is highly aromatic, mouthfilling and sweet-fruited, with deep passionfruit, lime and green capsicum flavours, balanced acidity and a dry, lingering finish. (13% alc/vol) $26
Pā Road Marlborough Chardonnay 2023
★★★★
Offering top value, this lively wine is already drinking well. Mouthfilling, it has generous, ripe, peachy flavours showing a distinct touch of complexity, fresh acidity and a very harmonious finish. (14% alc/vol) $18
te Pā Marlborough Pinot Gris 2023
★★★★
This good, all-purpose wine is fresh and lively. Full of youthful vigour, it has vibrant pear, lychee and spice flavours showing very good depth, balanced acidity and a basically dry finish. (13.5% alc/vol) $20
te Pā Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé 2023
★★★★½
Bright, light pink, this fresh, medium-bodied wine is very lively, with appetising acidity and strong strawberry, watermelon and spice flavours, dry and persistent. (12.5% alc/vol) $20
Wine of the week
te Pā The Reserve Collection Seaside Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023
★★★★★
Estate-grown on the Wairau Bar, this is a classy, vibrant wine. Tank-fermented, it is freshly aromatic and full-bodied, with searching, ripely herbaceous flavours, a slightly salty streak and a dry, persistent finish. Benchmark stuff. (13.5% alc/vol) $26
