With a shotgun in hand, Jannine Rickards is at one with the land, and her wines

Jannine Rickards is a winemaker with a deft touch and inquiring mind who clearly sees the beauty in this world and bottles it.

Huntress Wines are the creation of Jannine Rickards, a winemaker based in Wairarapa, New Zealand. Photo: Adrian Vercoe

The first time I met Jannine Rickards, she had a rifle slung over her shoulder and a box of Riedel wine glasses under her arm. We were in a ramshackle hunter’s hut on top of a mountain in New Zealand, and I had just confronted my own mortality when a kitchen hand from a Christchurch restaurant rolled the quadbike we’d been riding on the narrow track to the summit.

The several bottles of Pegasus Bay ‘Prima Donna’ pinot noir and venison stew Rickards had brought up the mountain went some way to settling rattled nerves. Our small group was participating in a festival that sent international media and local winemakers into the wild to source food for a feast. Some went fishing, others foraged. I stalked deer across precarious ridges and down brackish gullies with people far more comfortable with firearms than I. The antlered population remained intact, and I nearly died a second time after a misstep along a rocky ridge. Turns out a 6’4” man carrying wine-writer weight can pick up some serious speed sliding uncontrolled down the side of a mountain. Although we returned empty-handed, I did gain a greater appreciation of my own frailty and Jannine Rickards’ strength.

While the men on the trip took overnight shelter in the hut, Rickards slept outside in her swag, her guns at her side. “No way I’m spending the night in there with a bunch of farting blokes,” she explained. Anyone who can rough it like that, yet still packs pinot noir – and the appropriate glassware – is alright by me.

Rickards has made wine at the aforementioned Pegasus Bay, at Martinborough’s legendary Ata Rangi, and in the Adelaide Hills at Deviation Road. But it’s her own label, Huntress Wines, that best represents who she is. A proud Maori woman who understands innately that our relationship with the natural world is symbiotic, not transactional. A hunter who pursues her quarry not for bloodlust or trophy, but to feed her family and friends and to restore environmental balance. And a winemaker with a deft touch and inquiring mind who clearly sees the beauty in this world and bottles it.

Huntress wines

HUNTRESS WAIKOA WHITE BLEND 2023

$35

Waikoa means “happy waters” in Te Reo Maori, the indigenous language. A blend of sauvignon blanc and riesling, fermented wild on skins. It smells of waxed lemon, bruised apple, dried mango and a little post-coital sweat. Softy textural, with a taut acidity that brings a fine, chalky compression to the finish.

12.5% alcohol, 93 points

HUNTRESS KURATEA PINOT NOIR 2023

$45

Kuratea means “light red”, appropriate here for a pinot noir treading the fine line between rosé and red. Bright, alert, crunchy. Dried strawberry and rosehip, some curry leaf and charcuterie. The tang of an almost ripe apple crunched in a frosty orchard at dawn. Fine, softly sappy tannins. Both delicate and complex at once. 11.5% alcohol, 94 points

HUNTRESS PINOT NOIR 2023

$65

This is serious pinot, and illustrates Rickards’ profound understanding of the variety. Fine and filigreed. Quandong, cherry, blood orange and rye bread. Some rubbed herb and snapped twig. Beautifully framed, a gentle precision to the acidity and a microfine sandy feel to the tannins. 12% alcohol, 95 points

Limited quantaties available at deviationroad.com