The 35th Vintage - Heron’s Flight
In celebration of this significant milestone, we look back and reflect on the early years of one of Matakana’s original vineyards.
In 1985, spurred by their shared enjoyment of wine, Mary and David Hoskins decided to change their career path and start a vineyard. They spent two years exploring the wider Auckland region before finally settling on Matakana. The climate was ideal, and the village provided essential services for local farms, including a large timber yard, hardware store, tractor mechanic, an old pub, a small country store, and a primary school for their youngest son. That was all Matakana was in those days.
In 1987, they purchased 20 acres along Sharp Road, marking the beginning of their journey and Heron’s Flight. Lacking a background in grapes or winemaking, they sought out those who did to act as consultants and mentors. Their first was Dr. Richard Smart, the renowned ‘flying vine doctor,’ who recommended an unusual trellis system called lyre or ‘U’ and helped them establish a planting program. Initially, they planted Bordeaux varieties and chardonnay.
All their grapevines came from Joe Corban, who ran the largest nursery in New Zealand at the time. Through Joe, they met his brother, Alex Corban, who mentored them through their first two vintages. As David recalls, they didn’t really know what they were doing in those early days, yet their very first wine won a top gold medal at the prestigious Air New Zealand Wine Competition in 1993. In 1992, they opened Matakana’s first cellar door in the front room of their house, followed a year later by a small café in the back, all while living upstairs and raising two sons.
Despite their early success, David became increasingly interested in Italian wines. In 1993, he obtained two clones of Sangiovese from the University of Bologna and planted a trial block. One of these outperformed the French grapes, leading them - with the support of a bemused bank manager - to replant the entire vineyard with Italian varieties over the next three years. This decision solidified Heron’s Flight’s focus on Italian wines, with Sangiovese and Dolcetto grapes remaining key varieties to this day.
The small Heron’s Flight Café in their home remained open until 2006, when they subdivided a corner of their property to build a restaurant, which opened in 2007. After selling the restaurant in 2010, they returned to their original cellar door within their home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary and David reassessed their space and decided to create a new tasting room attached to the winery, offering visitors the chance to enjoy Heron’s Flight wine with a view of both the vineyard and winery.
Over the years, alongside their busy lives on the vineyard, Mary and David hosted Japanese TV programmes, two Chinese cooking shows, a BBC reality programme called Wanted Down Under, and featured in a New Zealand television series on small businesses. More recently, they were featured in the podcast A Bountiful Life.
Through all of this, Mary and David raised their two sons on the property until both left for university, declaring that winemaking involved too much work and too little financial reward. However, both eventually returned to live on the property. One now has a family and wants to raise his own sons there, while the other, a superyacht captain, helps in the tasting room and vineyard when home.
Mary passed away in 2022, but her spirit remains in the property and the vines. With her family now returned to Heron’s Flight, the vineyard has come full circle, bringing a sense of completeness to a journey that began decades ago.