Every vine begins the same way: fragile, uncertain, and full of potential. It bends with the wind, weathers the rain, and clings to the soil that anchors it. In time, its roots deepen, its branches strengthen, and its fruit ripens under the sun. Life, as we discovered, isn’t all that different.
For Judy and me, founders of Tiritiri Estate and authors of The Tiny Vineyard That Defied the Odds, that truth revealed itself one season at a time. What began as a rundown 9.2-hectare patch of Waimata Valley near Gisborne, New Zealand became both a vineyard and a classroom, one that specialised in lessons about resilience, patience, and an occasional humbling by Mother Nature herself.
Nature Has Its Own Pace
When we first arrived, the property was a wilderness of weeds, broken fences, and wishful thinking. The soil was poor, the paddocks overgrown, and the dream of a thriving vineyard never even entered our heads. But, as we soon learned, nature doesn’t rush, and it doesn’t respond well to being hurried.
When we eventually put in a vineyard, each vine demanded patience, and growth came slowly, almost imperceptibly at first. There were days when nothing seemed to happen, until one morning you’d notice a subtle green shoot or a swelling bud. It was a quiet reminder that meaningful change often occurs underground, out of sight, but not out of progress.
Whether you’re tending vines, nurturing a career, or rebuilding a life, the lesson is the same: trust the process. Roots form long before fruits appear.
Resilience Grows in Adversity
Vineyards, like people, reveal their strength when tested. And our little patch certainly tested us. We faced frosts that arrived like uninvited guests, beetles that stripped vines bare, like locusts, birds and wasps that treated the grapes as an open buffet. Some seasons delivered nothing but heartache.
But giving up was never an option. We replanted, adapted, and learned, sometimes the hard way, how to recover after disappointment. That, we discovered, is the essence of resilience: not avoiding failure, but rising after it.
Even in loss, there is renewal. The same frost that destroys one crop often nourishes the soil for the next. Life, too, has a habit of growing strength in the very places it once broke us.
The Power of Letting Go
Perhaps the hardest lesson was surrender. No matter how carefully we planned, Mother Nature always had the final word. Weather patterns changed without warning, pests arrived in battalions, and months of work could vanish overnight.
There came a point when we realised that control was largely an illusion. Peace, oddly enough, arrived the moment we accepted that truth. As I once wrote, “Winemaking is a kind of slow surrender, you can prepare, plan, and predict, but nature always gets the last say.”
The vineyard became a daily reminder that life unfolds in rhythms beyond our control. The key isn’t to resist them, but to move in harmony with them, to trust that what’s meant to bloom will, in its own time.
The Harvest of Perseverance
Years later, after countless seasons of trial and error, Tiritiri Estate blossomed into a thriving organic vineyard. Our wines gained recognition from critics, locals, and even a few members of the Royalty. But the real reward was never in the medals, it was in the mornings we rose before dawn, the hum of bees and birds singing among the vines, and the quiet joy of knowing we’d built something that mattered.
Resilience, we learned, isn’t cultivated in moments of ease. It grows through every setback, every frost, and every patient act of faith.
Grow Through What You Go Through
Like a vine clinging to the earth, “The Tiny Vineyard That Defied the Odds” reminds us that resilience takes root when we keep showing up, through the rain, the frosts, and the seasons of uncertainty.
Our story is, at its heart, a gentle invitation: to nurture what matters, to trust time, and to let life teach you how to endure.
Read our full story in “The Tiny Vineyard That Defied the Odds”. A memoir of hope, humour, and hard-won lessons from a small vineyard that refused to quit.
Available now in paperback, eBook, and hardcover.