Koura Bay Estate Wines

Each of the Koura Bay labels relate to the history of the then Kaikoura area, a region famous for its marine life.

Below are these stories for your reading enjoyment.


	Barney's Rock Riesling Rangi-inu-wai whaling station, on the coast south of Kaikoura, was first occupied by James Ames who spent two winters there, in 1848 and 49, before taking a temporary post as pilot of the Port of Wellington. The next comers were James Riley and his younger brother Bernard who were to later become the most notorious inhabitants of the Kaikoura district. They had been skippers of small trading craft in Cook Strait waters for a couple of years until they took over Ames’s station in the 1851 season. Whaling each winter, they continued seafaring work in the summer as commanders of such craft as the 10 tonners Gipsy and General Palmer. read more...
	Mt Fyffe Chardonnay Robert Fyffe was born in Perthshire in 1810. After a year’s service as a farm labourer he was apprenticed to a wheel wright but abandoned that unexciting vocation to run away to sea when he was nineteen years of age. He first sailed to Sydney before arriving at Cloudy Bay in New Zealand to set up a fishery. In 1843 Robert Fyffe set up a whaling station in Kaikoura. News of Fyffe’s success lured competitors to the area for the next winter. Before the end of the 1845 season Fyffe became owner of both whaling sites at Kaikoura Peninsula. read more...
	Sharkstooth Pinot Gris Te Rauparaha, chief of the Ngati-toa tribe had established a fortress at Kapiti Island. Here plans for the expansion of his empire began to take shape. He wanted to plunder the stocks of greenstone held by the Ngati-tahu in Kaikoura. Soon Te Rauparaha’s claim to exact utu (revenge) from the Ngati-tahu was reinforced when a Ngati-toa warrior captured by the Ngati-tahu eluded his guards and reached his friends with the tale that he had heard Chief Rerewaka of Ngati-tahu scornfully boast, “Let this Te Rauparaha come to Kaikoura, and I will rip his belly open with a sharks tooth”. read more...

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