Kono wines

Marlborough New Zealand

Kono Wines

We belong to the Māori-owned family business Wakatū Incorporation. A company that includes approximately 250 families descended from customary Māori landowners in the Nelson, Motueka and Golden Bay regions. A company formed to protect, preserve and improve the land of its original owners.

Inspired by our ancestors, the original providores, who traded the fruits of their labor from the gardens and forests of Te Tau Ihu, and with the growing popularity of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, we planted vines on the land, and the rest is history.

Our first bottle of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was produced in 2006. Today we produce over 1.5 million bottles of award-winning Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Our Kono Sauvignon Blanc has been rated Best Value Wine eight times in Wine Spectator and is a true expression of the beautiful Marlborough region.

Our wine is produced at our home, the Tohu Winery, located in Marlborough, New Zealand.

Everything we do today, we do with a better tomorrow in mind.

Kaitiakitanga, guardianship, arises from the responsibility people feel for the places, objects and legacies that are of utmost importance to them. At the heart of this is a holistic understanding of our place in the world: how we shape the landscapes around us and how those landscapes shape us. This provides information about how we interact with the natural environment, including all the other species we share the Earth with.

Kaitiakitanga is also about social or human heritage and our obligations to the collectives of which we are members. This is our family, community, city, region, nationality and culture. It is our duty to uphold the values, traditions, customs and heritage of the people we belong to. This could be maintaining intergenerational knowledge, practicing family recipes, caring for heirlooms or protecting important data and knowledge.

Practicing kaitiakitanga is about awareness. Considering the consequences of our behavior and the impact it will have on people, place and planet. It is an individual and ethical way of thinking about our actions and duties.

It is cyclical: reciprocity that intermingles with all aspects of the human experience.

Being aware of balance and accepting that it is not someone else's problem, but ours – that is kaitiakitanga.

Konowines