The beautiful Waipara Valley in North Canterbury is home to Ataahua Wines. Nestled between traditional pastoral and cropping based farms, adjoining vineyards and the Waipara Domain lies Ataahua’s vineyards.

The Maori translation of Ataahua is ‘beautiful, picturesque, a place of beauty’ – so appropriate to the valley, the vineyard and the wines alike. A major part of Ataahua’s philosophy for growing grapes then carefully making that fruit into wine is to translate and express the beauty of the vineyard and area into wines that people can relate to and absolutely enjoy.

First planted in the early 1980’s, the vineyard was originally part of Waipara Springs and the Hutt Creek Vineyards – among some of the earliest vineyards planted in the valley. Sheltered from the cooling easterly sea breezes by a range of limestone hills, the Waipara Valley enjoys the long warm dry summers that are ideal for wine growing.

Purchased in 1995 by Andrew Grant and Stephanie Henderson-Grant, the now named Ataahua vineyard is home to the Grant family. Following many years of involvement in the wine industry – including winemaking, wine sales and marketing, and business management – Andrew and Stephanie decided to follow a dream and began producing handcrafted wine from their own vineyard.

2008 heralded the first vintage of Ataahua Wine and now they produce a range of delicious wines from the Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot varieties and also Ataahua Olive Oil. To find out more about Ataahua Wines visit their Website or like their Facebook page.