01/09/2026
Co-founder of Māori Point Vineyard, Dr John Harris, peacefully left us on 28 August 2026.
The dream of a family vineyard was first born in the late 1990s on a drive home from Marlborough. Following distinguished careers as scientists and professors across Otago, UCSF, Harvard, and universities in Britain, France, and Japan, John and his wife Dr Marilyn Duxson took a punt in 2001, buying a block of land near Tarras that a local farmer deemed “his worst paddock.” In 2002, they planted Māori Point Vineyard, an enormous labour of love completed with the help of friends and family. By 2007, John had built a wine lab around his microscope and pipettes, and left the lecture theatres for full-time vineyard life.
Huge energy went into building the sheds, installing irrigation, and running posts and wires. He designed the cottage where he and Marilyn lived and hosted the first tastings, and then the full house for family and grandchildren to gather. Fruit trees were planted for the family orchard, and native plantings drew the birdlife back to the land.
John could often be found in his wine lab or working on our Gold Digger sparkling wine... a special passion of his, which explains why our samples so frequently went missing! He was also a regular fixture in the barrel hall with winemaker Matt Evans, tasting the young Pinot Noir.
John will be remembered in so many ways: his love for our sparkling wines, his passion for endemic yeasts, his diligent lab work (he loved doing the wine assays), the rumble of his tractor, and the whine of his quad bike as he raced up and down the property.
He was brilliant and multi-talented (just ask anyone who ever tasted his quince cake). He often joked that a lifetime of teaching meant if you asked him a question, his answer would last exactly 45 minutes - the precise length of a university lecture. With us, he shared his passion, his place, and his time, and he will forever be an integral part of Māori Point, the extraordinary place he and Marilyn dreamed, laboured, and loved into existence.
We raise our glasses to John Harris.
A service to celebrate his life will be held at 2:00 pm on Saturday, 5 September at Tarras Community Church.
