Village Vineyards

About

Winemaker, Rhys Evans, grew up on an orchard and was always keen to get back into it. After high school he decided to give rugby a good crack and attended EIT through a Hawke’s Bay Rugby funded programme. The wine and viticulture course had a great reputation so he thought ‘why not’, and quickly fell in love with it. After graduating with a Bachelor in Wine Science and Viticulture Concurrent Degree in 2009, he travelled around assisting with harvests in Australia, USA, France, South Africa and Canada, where he worked as Assistant Winemaker in the Okanagan Valley of BC. He then came home to NZ, and dove head first into a new family venture – Village Vineyards. Their vines are around 15-20 years old and the vineyard is run organically (they are currently in the process of becoming BioGro certified).

“I love growing grapes. I spent the majority of my time in the winery prior to 2019 but I feel like out in the vines is where the magic truly happens. There’s something really special about the different stages of the season and the feelings they invoke. I’m fortunate enough to see the process from pruning to bottling so I’m always learning and tweaking things… I love the multitude of roles that get played out on a daily basis. You really need to have a degree of competency at everything. Physical labour, organization, being financially savvy, marketing, sales, branding, accounting you name it. It’s this diverse role playing I would call “challenging” and there’s always something to learn, it’s very humbling… I love the degree of accountability that comes with growing grapes. You get out what you put in so you have to turn up everyday. There are no shortcuts. Pardon the cliches. I love doing it with the fam. Everyday brings new struggles, arguments, laughter. We grew up on an orchard as kids and now out there again with mum and dad; that’s the most rewarding part.” Rhys, Winemaker.