OUR HISTORY

The country’s modern wine industry owes its beginnings to Jules Stephan’s ancestors. Charles and William Levet, his Great and Great Great Grandfather erected a crude manuka trellis planting vines on 2.8 hectares of Wellsford clay and proved the commercial possibilities for winegrowing in New Zealand.

From 1863 to 1907 they earned a living making and selling wine - scandalising their devoutly teetotal neighbours - and wetting the whistles of several Auckland governors.

The Levet’s rowed their barrels eight miles along a tidal creek before making the final destination, a wine bar in Karangahape Road, the country’s first licensed wine shop.