Alexia’s Jane Cooper (left) and Lesley Reidy. Alexia Wines

Last week, we published an article discussing the changes seen in the Wairarapa and listed a dozen producers outside of the established great addresses who deserved your attention. The first six were detailed in that piece. Here, we continue our exploration of exciting Wairarapa wine names to seek out with the second half of the dozen.

Alexia

Established by winemaker Jane Cooper and Lesley Reidy, Alexia is an urban winery in Greytown. Named after Jane’s grandmother, the label celebrates matriarchal heritage and community connection. Alexia works with local growers and makes everything in-house, from crush to bottling.

Alexia’s range is thoughtful and modern, featuring a diverse selection of varieties including grüner veltliner, chenin blanc and gamay, excellent hand-made méthode traditionnelle, and several different interpretations of pinot noir (including white). These are wines that showcase varietal character while pushing the region into a New Wave yet traditionally-grounded style that will find broad appeal.

Their Blanc de Blancs Méthode Traditionnelle Vintage 2021 is a must-try and those who love aromatic, expressive chardonnay will also love the Goose Neck Chardonnay 2024.

The Good Way

A small family-run label in Martinborough on the Dry River Flats, The Good Way was formerly known as Stad_ko Wines, a very small label they’ve gradually built a name for through festivals and word of mouth. The 3 ha of vines are known as Arapai, which is te reo Māori for The Good Way.

Arapai exists on what was the first sheep station in New Zealand. Hayley Bartholomaeus and Anton Stadniczenko are the young couple who started Stad_ko Wines in 2019. Anton is a well-known viticulturist in the Wairarapa, looking after the Martinborough vineyards for Craggy Range, and acknowledges his father Robert for the two decade-old vineyard they now farm.

Hayley grew up on Château Yaldara Estate before moving to Aotearoa. Both The Good Way’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir 2024 are worth seeking out.

Grava

Founded in 2014 by Alistair Gardner and Karla Falloon, Grava takes its name from the gravelly alluvial soils of their Martinborough vineyard and nods to Alistair’s years of winemaking in Spain.

The fruit is certified organic by BioGro and Alistair still spends the northern hemisphere vintage in Spain making wine. They are a big part of the local community and have provided fruit for producers like Halite, Huntress and the new albariño project Rías. One of the fascinating things which they engage in is recording multi-sensory expressions of their wine. Head over to the Grava website to discover more.

If you encounter either the Pinot Noir 2024 or Sauvignon Blanc 2022, make a point to try them: they’re forward-looking wines with a sophisticated appeal.

Alastair Gardiner of Grava Wines and furry friend. Grava Wines

Oraterra

This is likely to be a new name for many readers but there is significant history to uncover. It was created after Dry River’s sale in 2022, when Wilco Lam and his team (six in total) moved to a new company formed by the purchase of On Giants Shoulders.

This site was initially planted by Jack McCreanor in 1986 and prior to On Giants Shoulders, it supplied the pinot noir fruit for Larry McKenna’s version of Escarpment Pahi (that name is now used for a different vineyard in Te Muna). Wilco has also added another vineyard since 2022, called La Belle Vie. Sam Rouse moved to Australia and young winemaker Tom de Hamel joined the team.

They farm organically with biodynamic treatments, bottling the wine in an unusually shaped bottle which catches the eye. They debuted with 2023 and managed to craft admirable wines from that challenging vintage, sympathetic to the lightness and delicacy of the season while also giving a glimpse into what the future holds. Both the Chardonnay 2023 and Pinot Noir 2023 are worth trying. This is definitely a winery to have on the radar.

Poppies

Poppies is probably not a new name for those who have visited Martinborough before. Poppy and Shayne Hammond are from an even earlier period of Dry River’s history than Wilco Lam, and set up Poppies in 2012 as a small cellar door tasting room with its now-famous vineyard platters.

Their wines are classic Martinborough in style, concentrated, structured and built to age. The small quantities were sold exclusively on site for most of the brand’s history, with small lots made available recently to other channels. They added a vineyard and winery in 2016, helping bolster their production to supply more customers. The couple have some fascinating ecological practices in their vineyards, including the use of wool ground cover.

Both Pinot Noir 2024 and Syrah 2024 are highly recommended young wines and as one would expect, both need time to unfurl, as does a rather excellent sauvignon blanc semillon blend.

Schubert

Kai Schubert and Marion Deimling have been in the region for decades, arriving to set up Schubert Wines in 1998 from their home country, Germany, via several other winegrowing countries.

They planted their vineyard in East Taratahi in 1999 and 2000, which supplies the majority of the fruit for their wines. There is also a small established vineyard in Martinborough township. The farming here is fully certified organic and the style is of power, density and intensity.

Pinot noir is the passion, and though in the past some of the wines have been more brutalist and wide-shouldered, the more recent releases—and in particular the 2024s—have really lifted another notch in elegance and finesse. They made no Block B or Marion’s in 2023 or 2022 due to the vintage conditions. The 2024 Chardonnay is also excellent: modern, restrained and flinty and they are one of the few producers of syrah in the region.

What unites these producers is their small-scale philosophy: making wines which are low in volume but high in creativity, originality and authenticity. Together, they highlight Wairarapa’s future as a region defined not by mass production, but by distinctive voices crafting wines that speak sensitively of care for land and community.