New Zealanders know the tiki as a hand-carved Maori treasure which, when gifted, bestows good fortune and love on others. What better brand name, then, for a wine crafted with the same spirit in mind? Appropriate too, that founders and owners Royce and Sue McKean, named their new wine venture Tiki to pay homage to the wisdom of Royce's Maori ancestors. Royce's great-great-grandfather, Tiki Tere Mihi, was a chieftain of Ngati Uenuku, who revered the land and its significance to his people.
The esteemed tiki is also a powerful good luck charm and the family-owned vineyards are all certified sustainable and organically farmed under the guiding Maori principles of Kaitiakitanga - guardianship, protection and preservation of the earth. It's all about farming naturally, biologically and organically, with no agrichemicals, herbicides, insecticides or pesticides.
As McKean observes, "It's the way we used to do it."
His journey from the high-powered world of international banking (he has a degree in economics) to that of grape-growing is not an unusual one - many corporate types have swapped their brogues for gumboots to embrace an industry that, as McKean has discovered, is a lot harder work than banking and probably carries even more risk.
But he, his whanau and hand-picked team are relishing the challenges.
