Antonio Pasquale has an approach to life worth bottling.
Scion of an old Italian merchant family, he was born in a 700-year-old house in the Alps in northern Italy, studied classics and philosophy at the University of Padua and wrote a doctoral thesis on perception.
Now he lives near Russell in the Bay of Islands, owns several farms, a couple of vineyards and the newly opened Kurow Winery - the first winery and cellar door in the Waitaki region.
He doesn't want to talk about money, hectares of vines, numbers of bottles produced or even the quality of the wine.
He'd rather talk about people and relationships, his vision, and other aspects of his philosophy - "do no harm to people or nature, be willing to take risks, and look for the happiness of your families."
If you follow these simple precepts better management and economic benefits will follow, he believes.
He says he feels depressed when he sees the philosophy department at Auckland University occupies only a two-bedroom bungalow while the school of business takes up four blocks.
"You don't make economical success exclusively out of how to make 10% compound interest on shares. [Success] is a result of a society that cares.
"I want my employees to care about me, because I really care about them."
He is keen to attribute the success of his Kurow wine-making venture to his team, which includes general manager Murray Turner, his wife Diana and his brother Geoff.
A few years ago Murray and Diana sold their orchard, packing shed and farm shop to Pasquale, took over the management of Pasquale Viticultura and developed the Kurow Winery.
"In three years they did it all by themselves - the trust - they could have screwed me as I wasn't here," Dr Pasquale says, displaying his genial smile.
It's important to find the right people who have a similar vision to yours, who think like owners rather than employees, and leave them to it, he says.
But he has been swindled a few times.
"There are some cowboys in this country, but I don't regret it. I'm sure if I had been a mean, miserable master I would have made a lot more money.
"So what?" He shrugs.
"There is a percentage of luck in it, and the ability to take risks, and certainly pleasure."
Antonio Pasquale (44) and his wife Stefania Muraro, a historiographer, visited New Zealand in 1996 after meeting someone from Kerikeri.
The couple wanted to leave Italy, where they felt they were facing a future in a rut in public service academia.
Dr Pasquale's family expected him to be either a merchant in the family tradition or a lawyer, but his interests lay elsewhere, and included farming - not that he knew much about it.
His first job in New Zealand was looking after a farm in Kerikeri with 80 cows about to calve.
With little English in those days and no idea of what to do, he asked a neighbour he saw on a quad bike in the next paddock.
"In other places people would have said 'get lost'.
"Instead this man spent most of his day to teach me, and I thought 'this is a great community'.
"Since then, we learnt farming and we have been farmers ourselves, learning from our mistakes," he says.
The couple's business ventures began with the purchase of part of a farm for forestry, then a quarry, a sawmill that was in receivership, and a dairy farm in a depressed market.
Since then they have bought and sold about 25 farms, most of which were developed and sold at a great profit, Dr Pasquale says.
In 1999, he visited the Hakataramea to see Caberfeigh Station, which was for sale.
"Even if I didn't know much about the Waitaki and didn't know what a station was, I came down to have a look," he says.
His grandfather, Angelo, whom he considers his mentor, taught him the importance of curiosity and observation.
At Caberfeigh he observed the animals, the unused water, and the owners.
"I saw this family, all with a good education, open the paddock and move 3000 Perendales into 2000 acres, close the gate and go to Christchurch for the cricket.
"That might be very well in 1960, but in 2000 you have to sell the farm," he says.
He bought the station and five surrounding farms, developed, intensified and ran 25,000 stock units.
He has sold most of them now, but retains Riverside Farm east of the Hakataramea River where he finishes beef and has a vineyard.
Again, with careful observation, and following a gut feeling, he decided to plant a vineyard on a north-facing, limestone slope above the Hakataramea River.
The first vines went in in 2002, but spring frosts killed the shoots, and several varieties, such as merlot and the Italian nebbiolo and barbera, were replaced.
The first small vintage was 2006.
The following year the crop was destroyed by frosts, although the Hakataramea vineyard managed to set fruit, something the Waitaki vineyards, affected by the cold December - when icebergs came along the coast - did not.
Others might have been put off, but Dr Pasquale had the determination and deep pockets to continue.
The vineyard now has both wind machines and sprinklers for frost protection, and the new $3 million winery produced its first small vintage in 2008 and a larger one this year under new wine-maker Andy Nicole.
Michael Hooper, friend, neighbour and public relations consultant, describes Dr Pasquale as an "accidental millionaire".
People think he has family money, he says, but others report the Pasquales started with only $500,000 when they arrived in New Zealand.
Although he admits he's been living on adrenaline for the past decade, Dr Pasquale does not want to discuss money.
Instead he tells a war story concerning his grandfather, Angelo.
During World War 2, his grandfather moved the family from northern Italy to Palermo in Sicily to escape being sandwiched between the Nazis in the north and the Allies in the south.
In Palermo, which had been freed by the Allies, Angelo noticed ripe grapes hanging unpicked on the vines as there was no market for them during the war.
He also noticed the Royal Air Force, based in Palermo, brought supplies for the forces from London and flew back empty.
He persuaded one of the officers to take grapes back and they were sold in Covent Garden.
He went with the grapes on one trip and later told his grandson: "We thought we were the poorest people in the world.
"We'd lost the war, we were bombed, but I will never forget the pale faces of the sick kids in London at the time.
"They had nothing to eat.
"Mothers were crying because they could take home a big bunch of muscat grapes."
"It's an amazing story - how small are the meanings of love and business when everything turns to s***," he says "I think it is nice to express this desire to give love, because I certainly cannot do without it."
Dr Pasquale also has a concern for the environment.
He and Stefania and their three daughters, aged 4 to 11, live in a "green" house near Russell, producing their own solar and wind power.
The roof is planted with natives, which not only provide good insulation but also make the place unobtrusive in the landscape.
The family has also protected some of its land at Waitata Bay with QEII covenants in perpetuity to save regenerating coastal forest and shrubland, which provides habitat for North Island brown kiwi and weka.
This care for the environment accompanied Dr Pasquale on his foray into dairying.
He claims to have been the first to fence off 3m riparian strips beside creeks to keep cattle out of the waterways.
Now he is moving towards organic certification of his beef farms.
Refusing to use superphosphate, urea or nitrogen might fly in the face of conventional practice, but he believes it won't be long before the Government takes steps to prevent the runoff that is polluting rivers, as he says authorities already have in Europe.
Although there are about 110ha of vines in the Waitaki and Hakataramea valleys, all wine visitors could do was view vineyards from the road.
Grapes for the Waitaki labels, such as Craggy Range, Forrest, Valli, Waitaki Braids and Ostler, were shipped elsewhere for vinification.
Pasquale Viticultura's new Kurow winery, cellar door and cafe finally provides a wine destination and public face for the region.
Part of the rationale is to provide affordable wines as well as the fine wines, but all will be from the Hakataramea and Waitaki Valleys, according to Diana Turner, who manages the cellar door.
The Hakataramea vineyard, which is in South Canterbury, has a different climate from the Waitaki in North Otago, according to general manager Murray Turner.
Its prevailing wind is the warm nor'westerly and although it might suffer spring frosts, the autumn is long, warm and dry.
The prevailing wind in the Waitaki Valley is easterly which blows up from the coast most afternoons and keeps the valley cool - something that can be tasted in some of the wines from the vineyards at Otekaieke and Otiake.
The Kurow Village wines, pinot noir, riesling, pinot gris and two light hearted rosés, Penny Pink and Penny Blonde, are attractive and well priced.
The Pasquale wines, mostly from the Hakataramea vineyard, are structured and refined, even austere and intellectual, perhaps reflecting Dr Pasquale's own taste.
Their minimalist labels, designed by European artist Ecke Bonk, feature a Latin motto and a five-pointed star whose proportions conform to the golden ratio phi, which is said to carry the mathematical and mysterious significance of nature.
Particularly interesting are the lean, limey and linear Pasquale Riesling 2009, and the intense, dry and cleansing Arneis '09, an Italian white variety.
The Pasquale Hakataramea Pinot Noir 2008 is dense but elegant, and a barrel tasting of some of the 2009 pinots indicates this vintage will be similar.
Dr Pasquale believes that consumers of fine wine increasingly want to be assured where the wine comes from, so the Pasquale and Kurow Village wines carry an Oritain symbol and number as an independent verification of origin.
Oritain, a Dunedin company, takes soil samples from the vineyards, analyses the geochemical signature and the molecular variations from samples of wine as it goes through the bottling line.
Analysis of the two profiles establishes the link between the land and the bottled wine, offering an independent guarantee for consumers, who can verify it and view the vineyards by checking the certification number on Oritain's website.
The verification system is available for other agricultural products such as honey or olive oil.
However, despite the assurance of the wine's vineyard origins, Dr Pasquale prefers to see wine in terms of the people who make it and those who drink it.
"What I care about is the human part of it.
"If you don't put love into it and into the people you will never do well.
"I am interested in the person who made it."
He sees wine as a tool and a symbol of peace, of people meeting over dinner, sharing food and talking, he says.
"It's a very ancient practice, to meet and share food, that goes back to the early humans who were hunters, and it spans all religions," he says.
www.kurowvillage.co.nz
www.pasquale.co.nz
charmian.smith@odt.co.nz
