Welcome to Sanctuary

Flamboyant, charismatic, sophisticated and colourful – the Pukeko is the striking mascot for our Sanctuary range of wines.  This indigenous New Zealand wetland bird was selected to represent Sanctuary as its characteristics truly reflect the Sanctuary style of wine.

Pukekos are also a resident of our wetland situated beside our winery.  Pukekos are regularly spotted strutting around our surrounding vineyards in search of food.  Their unique behavior provides amusing entertainment for our visitors and staff.  In return we have provided a safe Sanctuary for Pukekos to live.

Our aim in producing Sanctuary wines is to reflect the unique flavours the Marlborough wine region is renowned for.  Sanctuary wines make a fantastic accompaniment to your favourite foods or simply to enjoy on their own.

Sanctuary wines are produced by parent company, The New Zealand Wine Company.  The New Zealand wine company is also responsible for producing Grove Mill and Frog Haven wines.

The New Look…

2007 marks a new era for Sanctuary wines.  The label was redesigned by a talented graphic designer, Michael Greenfield (former employee of Mission Hall).  Michael was given a fairly concise brief with 3 major objectives for him to achieve:

• Bring out the character and personality of the Pukeko
• Design a label that reflects our company’s environmental values, and
• Incorporate the carboNZero^{Cert TM} logo onto the packaging.

It is quite clear Michael not only succeeded in achieving our objects we set out for him, he surpassed all of our expectations.

The image of the Pukeko encapsulates the “personality” and character of this unique native bird.  The “pose” says it all really!

The flax leaves radiating out from behind the Pukeko reflects the wetland.  Along with bulrushes, flax plants are common feature of most wetlands found throughout New Zealand.

If you look closely you will notice the word Sanctuary reflected in the water.  Look even closer and you will see the Pukeko.  This is to resemble the Pukeko standing at the water’s edge of the wetland.

Black was selected as the background colour for a number of reasons:

• Black denotes sophistication
• Black makes the colours of the Pukeko standout, and
• Black is most widely used as the colour to represent New Zealand – the All Blacks being one of the most recognisable New Zealand identities.

Last year we became the world’s first carboNZero^{Cert TM} winery.  This was an extremely significant achievement for us and one we wanted the world to know about.  What better way than to have it incorporated into our packaging?  You will see the carboNZero^{Cert TM} logo on the front label, around the capsule and on the back label.  For further information about carboNZero^{Cert TM} please visit the carboNZero^{Cert TM} page on this website.