22/09/2026
Thirty years ago today, the red harvest began at Château Margaux. Among the 220-person vintage crew was a Waiheke w**egrower named John Dunleavy.
The connection between Margaux and Te Motu had begun the previous year.
In late 1995, Terry Dunleavy visited the château with bottles of Te Motu 1993 and a preview sample of the 1994. The w**es were tasted alongside the corresponding Margaux vintages by Paul Pontallier and members of his team.
The 1993 was warmly received, but the quality of the 1994 took them by surprise. Margaux’s maître de chai, Jean Grangerou, responded with raised eyebrows and an involuntary: “Ça, c’est bon!” (Now that is good!).
A few months later, Pontallier visited Te Motu. His message: that the purpose of w**egrowing was to reveal the potential of the terroir, and the w**emaker must adapt their work to suit it.
Later that year, John travelled to Bordeaux to experience the 1996 vintage at Margaux.
What he found challenged some of the prevailing thinking around ripeness. At Margaux, the greatest fear was over-ripe fruit. Cabernet was picked to preserve freshness and balance, even if that meant adding sugar during fermentation. Selection was ruthless, with anything short of perfect rejected.
By then, Te Motu’s own 1996 vintage was resting in barrel on Waiheke. John returned while important decisions about its maturation, blending and finishing still lay ahead, bringing home a deeper appreciation for restraint, patience and precision.
Not a recipe for reproducing Bordeaux, but a way of helping Te Motu better express its own place.
In time, the two 1996 vintages would cross paths again. Te Motu 1996 later received 19/20 in a French blind tasting, appearing alongside Château Margaux 1996, Château Latour 1996, Joseph Phelps Insignia and Ridge Monte Bello among what the judges described as “w**es of absolute harmony.”
