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Mick (Mijo) first came to New Zealand in 1907 as a 19 year-old to work on the kauri gumfields in the far Northern part of New Zealand. He became a naturalised New Zealander in 1911, but in 1921 after nearly 15 years away he returned to Živogošce with some money in his pocket to reunite with his family after the war, and to start a new life.
He married Katé Lozina in 1925 and started a family. Mick and Katé Brajkovich had 6 children in total, but life in the village was hard, and medicines impossible to come by. Two of the children died in infancy, and Karmela succumbed to meningitis at the age of seven.
They ran a small store in the nearby hamlet of Strn, but the tough economic conditions during the depression of the 1930’s made it difficult to make ends meet. In order to survive they also farmed a few small plots of land around the village where they kept pigs, grew vegetables and tended a few vines from which they made their own wine, but it was still a struggle. In 1937 the family decided to emigrate to New Zealand for the chance of a better future. Mick took his family back to Northland to dig kauri gum for a few years before moving to Henderson, in West Auckland, in the early 1940’s. Mick, Katé and Maté worked on vineyards and orchards in the area and saved enough money to buy a property with a small existing vineyard at Kumeu in 1944.
Mick Brajkovich died in 1949, but Maté and Katé continued to tend the vines, make the wine and build the reputation of this fledgling wine company
that became known as “San Marino Vineyards”. In 1958 Maté
married Melba Sutich from Dargaville, whose antecedents also came from the
Dalmatian coast. Melba gave up a school-teaching career to become Maté’s
working partner. Their four children were born during the 1960’s. From a
very early age Michael, Marijana, Milan and Paul all became involved in
the family business, helping their parents with odd-jobs in the vineyard
and the winery, and also assisting to sell the wine at the winery cellar-door.
The 1980’s brought great changes and a move towards high quality table wines
made from varieties such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Merlot
which were produced from newly developed vineyards in Kumeu. In 1986, the
old “San Marino Vineyards” became “Kumeu River Wines” to reflect this dramatic
change.At Kumeu River Wines our winemaking philosophy is simple. We endeavour to grow grapes of the highest standard and then treat them with respect when we turn them into wine.
In this way the potential quality is maximised,
and we are able to produce wines that are truly representative of our land.
To this end our vineyards are trained on the “Lyre” trellis to optimise
their exposure to light and therefore the ripeness of the grapes. Yields
are kept low to improve the concentration of aromas and flavours in the
grapes, and we harvest all of our grapes by hand. This allows us to remove
faulty berries in the field so that our quality grapes may arrive at the
winery in pristine condition. The white grapes are all whole-bunch pressed,
which is time-consuming but gives us the best quality results. The reds
are destemmed and crushed gently before being transferred to fermentation
tanks. No yeasts are added, as we rely solely on the indigenous yeasts that
are present in the vineyard to conduct our fermentations.Oak barrels from France play a significant, but never dominant, role in our “Kumeu River” range of wines. The white wines such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon undergo fermentation in barrels, and the flavour nuances that are derived from this phase are crucial to these fine wine styles. The red wines such as Merlot and Pinot Noir are fermented for a prolonged period in stainless steel tanks, but they are also later matured in oak barrels to promote the development of bouquet and to soften the tannin structure of the palate. These are wines of great flavour intensity and complexity, but also with subtlety and elegance, and the potential to develop with further age. We promote the malo-lactic fermentation in both our red and white wines.
This bacterial transformation reduces and softens the acidity, and rounds
out and complexes the flavour. The result is a much better acid balance
and improved drinkability. It has been said many times that good winemaking
is as much an art as a science.At Kumeu River Wines we place great importance on both of these factors. Without sound scientific knowledge, winemaking becomes haphazard and risky. Without art, the wines may be technically sound, but often dull and boring to drink. The Brajkovich Family is committed to ensuring that all of our wines are not only properly and correctly produced, but also possessing characters of aroma and flavour that give our customers a great deal of drinking pleasure.
