Jane Hunter - growing a legacy

  
  
Jane Hunter, Growing a Legacy. The story of an inspirational woman and her place in the history of New World wines by Tessa Anderson. By Harper Collins Publishers. $49.99 Hardback.






The only Marlborough wine company established in the early 1980s still owned by its original family is Hunter’s Wines.

As Tessa Anderson explains, although Jane Hunter did not give birth to Hunter’s wines, she is the one responsible for growing the legacy.

A fourteen page appendix lists Hunter’s multiple awards and trophies. Mid-way twenty-two photos, give a face to the people involved.

The author shares a Marlborough wine background and tells Jane’s story closely interwoven with the area’s wine industry.

How, following the tragic death of her extrovert Irish husband Ernie, “the shy young (33 year old) viticulturist, who hated flying, meeting people and had never sold a bottle of wine in her life, would go on to become one of New Zealand’s iconic wine industry figures”.

Anderson describes the circumstances that led to an agricultural science degree encompassing viticulture and brought Jane from her homeland, Australia, to Marlborough, as a viticulturist for Montana Wines.

Here, she met Ernie, who had established a vineyard in Marlborough with limited funds, basing his business on the top end of the market using entrepreneurial marketing ploys.

One of these was introducing wines to the UK by getting Hunter’s wines included in the annual tasting at The Sunday Times Vintage Festival, in London and taking out gold and silver medals.

Chapter titles are wine terms with descriptions cleverly linking to content. Chapter three, ‘Harmonious – describes all the elements of the product coming together to form a balance’, covers Ernie and Jane meeting and getting married. Chapter seven, ‘Bottle Shock – a temporary condition of wine which often occurs after bottling or when wines are shaken in travel’, deals with Ernie’s death.

The biography’s strength lies in the clear way the reasons for Hunter’s success emerge.

Anderson tells us about Jane’s attitudes and strategies as Managing Director: - employing consultants when needed which Jane admits was the making of the business, embracing the selling of wine to supermarkets with tastings, sponsoring major events and instigating Maori names for her wines.

Looking to the future, Jane employed a corporate and strategic adviser to provide an overview of the company. “If we hadn’t done that, we probably wouldn’t be here today”.

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© 2009 L Donald
Appeared NZ Business February '09