Te Muna Valley ticks all boxes for Moy Hall

By Joelle Thomson

One of Martinborough’s newest wine brands has bought one of the village’s oldest wineries, 

Butterworth Vineyard (formerly known as Julicher) in Te Muna Valley. 

The purchase was made in May by Phil and Carolyn McArthur, owners of Moy Hall Vineyard, restaurant and cellar door.

“Buying this vineyard means we now have a home of our own in which to make our wines, as well as another vineyard in an amazing place to grow grapes. We’re pretty excited to have that access to lovely Te Muna style grapes from which to make wines to incorporate into our Moy Hall range,” says Phil McArthur. 

The McArthurs bought the established Moy Hall vineyard on Marts Road in 2015 and opened their cellar door restaurant on site in 2018. They have since taken over the lease of the Blue Earth Vineyard, owned by Mike and Margaret Hansen, situated at the end of Te Muna Valley.

The new acquisition provides another diverse string to their winemaking bow, albeit not always the easiest one. 

“Te Muna Valley can be a very hard place to grow Pinot Noir with higher risk of frost and wind as well as dryness and the heat. From all angles, it’s more challenging to grow grapes in Te Muna but I think the potential is to make some pretty amazing wines.”

The purchase of Butterworth Estate includes 19 hectares of vines, predominantly planted in Pinot Noir as well as some relatively new Chardonnay vines, which will mean Moy Hall will finally be able to add a Chardonnay to its brand. 

“Te Muna ticks all the boxes for us. It’s the perfect spot and ties in really nicely with where we want to take our Pinots. We will have three different sites from the beautiful Blue Earth Vineyard then along Te Muna Valley to our new site and down to the Moy Hall block in the village,” he said. “These three very different sites are home to different profiles of fruit flavour, which we’re looking forward to bringing through in our wines.”

Phil and Carolyn McArthur took over the Butterworth vineyard, the winery and the cottage on site on 31 May. 

Try this… Wine of the month

2020 Butterworth Tactician Pinot Noir RRP $150 – on special $65 

This is the top wine from Butterworth Estate. 3.5 barrels were made from two rows of vines on the edge of the vineyard site, overlooking the escarpment in Te Muna Valley. 

It is a blend of Pinot Noir clones: 60% clone 115 and 40% Abel. This wine is a big, bold Pinot Noir with a full body, spicy aromas and fleshy dark fruit flavours, expressing the power of the 2020 vintage. It drinks well now and is best when decanted. It will keep for five to six years, potentially longer.