Jannine Rickards - Celebrating The Huntress

A week earlier, stalking fallow deer in dense native bush, the winemaker noted cabbage trees flowering out of season and mushrooms flourishing in the humid conditions viticulturists fear this time of year. She let the deer move on, harvested a mushrom, and drew in the pungent scent of the wet forest floor, an aroma that flows into some Pinot Noir, especialy from the Wairarapa, she says.

There's a reason Jannine's own tiny label - Huntress Wines - celebrates the connection of palate and place, because for her winemaking is tied up with her role in nature, her respect for hunting, her responsibility as kaitiakitanga, and the myriad sensory memories that influence her perception of wine - from the wet pungent forest floor to the guava trees on her parents' farm, to a hint of rabbit guts in a wine's aroma.

Jannine grew up in Franklin, on a high farm overlooking the Coromandel, where she could catch eel, gather watercress and net flounder and kahawai. Wine was not typically part of her life or culture, but her grandfather introduced her to iconic producers like Cloudy Bay and Te Mata once a year over Christmas lunches. "He would be proud I think now to see how I followed the path into winemaking," she says on the cusp of her 20th vintage. "I am still continually in awe of wine and still learning every season".

Jannine was 19 and working in hospitality where wine started to fascinate her. A certificate in viticulture and winemaking led her to train her sensory palate, "banking" flavours, textures and aromas. "My family thought I was completely nuts because I started smelling everything - they thought I had lost the plot."

Her wealth of senses expanded a decade later, when she learned to hunt with her partner Mick. "That started to open up my expanse of terms; my bank of sensations," she says of the necessary intuition and focus when hunting. "You need to be very observant and open minded to situations that arise. I think these skills can be carried through to other aspects of life, including winemaking."

Jannine's first harvest was in Hawke's Bay in 2003, followed by vintages in Wairarapa and California, before she joined Ata Rangi for cellardoor work and a harvest in 2006. She stayed for six years, soaking up the mentorship of Helen Masters and Clive Paton, while also doing vintages abroad and postgraduate studies. She then moved to France for six months, living in Burgundy and Beaujolais before returning to New Zealand in 2013 to work three years at Pegasus Bay, where she relished life amid a strong foraging community, learning more about the connection of palate and place.

In 2017 she returned to Wairarapa and soon joined Urlar, an organic and biodynamic operation abundant with "life and biodiversity". She established Huntress the same year, tiptoeing into a "tiny" endeavour that's caught a great deal of attention. "Huntress is my creative outlet and passion project," she says. "It is very small in production and I am grateful to have it on the side of my fulltime winemaking position at Urlar. Huntress is me in every essence: grounded, down to earth, driven, authentic and honest."

Meanwhile Urlar has new owners and fresh investment, which has seen the vineyard area grow from 30 hectares in 2017 to 55ha this season, including leased blocks. "But we're a pretty small team, so always on the tools," she says, grateful for the work invested by her team this year - the most challenging she's ever experienced. They're woven into Wairarapa's small wine community, which she cherishes as a family of sorts - "tight knit and supportive".

Jannine's philosophies are tied up with tikanga, as she grows her understanding of her place as tangata whenua. "I did not grow up 'feeling' Māori or connected in the way I do now," she says, in the early stages of a journey connecting to her whakapapa and learning te reo Māori. "I can have moments when I question my authenticity. However I think this is human nature and due to the disconnect due to many generations of suppression and denial in my whanau, but also as a nation," she says.

"I wasn't brought up with any religion or faith, but can certainly say I strongly feel connected to whenua, moana and ngahere in a very deep and spiritual way that grounds me and make me feel like I stand in true self and place."