Matiti, te reo Māori for summer, is one of our favourite Pét-Nats at the moment. Made from Riesling, it captures the season in full flow. With a fresh, energetic and dry palate, it leans into juicy citrus notes balanced beautifully with soft, leesy texture. It's the first wine created by the Matiti Collective, a collaboration by wāhine Māori led by winemakers Jannine Rickards of Huntress and Richelle Tiney of Greywacke. Produced from organically grown Riesling sourced from the BioGro-certified Grava vineyard near Martinborough, it's also the first wine in Aotearoa to achieve Hua Parakore verification, the Māori organic certification. Crafted using the traditional ancestral method, the wine undergoes a wild fermentation before completing its secondary fermentation naturally in bottle.

We go on about ‘place’ a lot when talking about wine. With Jannine Rickards (the Huntress herself), you get a sense of how genuine and important that is. In collaboration with excellent growers, her wines come from the Wairarapa. Jannine forages, fishes and hunts. This connection, and the respect she has for her environment shapes these beautiful wines.

“We are intentionally looking to bring layers to the wines that will unfold with a delicious feast of wild foods and homegrown vegetables. We must have respect for living creatures and an understanding of the intricacies of life cycles, seasons, and our place amongst them. We are as much a part of the land as the land is part of us” - Jannine Rickards, Huntress