‘Ruru’ is the Central Otago wine brand name of Lucienne and Roland van der Wal of the Immigrant’s Vineyard. Coming from a hospitality and supermarket background, they purchased in 2012 a 20 ha vineyard established on Airport Road between Clyde and Alexandra over 2001-2004. The vineyard was planted to 14 ha of Pinot Noir, 4 ha of Pinot Gris and 2 ha of Gewurztraminer. The name ‘Ruru’ refers to owl in Maori, these birds seen on the vineyard.
Initially operating as contract growers, they established their own brand which saw its first vintage in 2014 from a portion of their fruit. This is how the van der Wals operate today. In fine-tuning their vineyard, they have reduced the Gewurztraminer to 0.5 ha, and replaced it with 1.5 ha of clone 667 and 777 Pinot Noir. The van der Wals tend to the viticulture personally and have engaged Antony Worch of Alexandra Vintners to make most of their wine. Gewurztraminer is made by Peter Bartle of VinPro in Cromwell.
To date, Riesling, Rosé, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir comprises the range. The wines are designed to offer high quality varietal and regional expression, and good value. The wines have begun to show well on the show circuit.
