Jane Hunter

Tessa Anderson is a Marlborough-based journalist who has watched the growth of Hunter's, and the Marlborough and New Zealand wine industries, both professionally and personally, for the past 25 years.

---

From Marlborough to Manhattan, from Rapaura Road to the Ritz - the inspiring story of a quiet, unassuming woman who took her wines to the world. Jane Hunter had no romantic illusions about life among the vines. Growing up in South Australia, she always knew it was a business. When she met Ernie Hunter, a passionate, larger-than-life Irishman with a fledgling vineyard, they were the perfect team. Their complementary talents - his for dreaming large and her knowledge and experience - clearly belonged together. Ernie's genius for promotion saw their wines win international acclaim and their future seemed clear. It would be hard, but they had the right terroir and their wines were world class. When Ernie died tragically in a road accident, Jane's world was thrown into confusion. How she survived the personal trauma is a testament to the quiet strength and determination of this remarkable woman, who worked her way through an emotional and legal minefield, nurturing the vines and the business alike, fulfilling and exceeding their original dream.
One of the pioneering marketers who introduced the world to Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs, her wines successfully challenged the established wine world. Now an internationally respected vintner, and recipient of the prestigious Women in Wine Award and an OBE, Jane shares both her own extraordinary story and its part in the history of the modern New Zealand wine industry.