Redwood Pass Vineyards is a family business of Barry and Dianne Feickert and has resulted as a consequence of and a desire for a change of lifestyle. This is a dramatic change from city dwelling and vocations of Marine Engineering and Nursing.
The aim of the business is to produce high quality fruit with the ultimate aim of having it incorporated in our own label.
Our first vintage was 2001 and we sold our small amount of fruit.
Since then we have achieved the launch of the Blind River wine label with the first vintage, 2003, into UK followed in 2004 into Australia. Local market sales were small. Blind River is marketed by daughter Debbie Sutton who was in the wine marketing and PR business, based in London. Debbie and family have now returned to New Zealand. Debbie along with sister Suzie now run the Blind River Wines operation. Blind River has developed a strong following in these markets and the business is growing in a planned rate with the focus on quality. 2007 is saw growth in the UK and Australian markets for Blind River and the entry of our wine into the Netherlands. A productive year in 2008 with good flowering and large bunch weights saw a growth in available fruit. The 2009 vintage coming was another of growing fruit availability and steps were taken to limit cropping levels and to further increase quality of our fruit. A second label "The Sisters" was formed for 2008 vintage to allow us to utilise additional fruit. That operation run by Suzie has now been merged to be under the Blind River banner to give some supply and demand flexibility.
