Small Is Beautiful
Tim and Margaret Coney founded Coney Wines on a 16-acre bare paddock in Martinborough more than 25 years ago. Not without much encouragement, the old barren sheep paddock quickly turned into a thriving 24/7 bustle of business of vine-tending, winemaking, marketing and restaurateuring. With each operation undertaken in the hallowed, self-flagellating Martinborough tradition - by manual labour!
Be it leaf-plucking or bunch-thinning by hand in the vineyard to ensure unblemished or perfectly ripe fruit, our aim is to pay keen attention to detail. And so the old-fashioned notion that small is beautiful, that honest sweat produces happiness has always been the guiding principle.
The aim and guiding principles continue today with the ownership mantle of Coney Wines passed to long-time wine-maker and daughter Lisa, and son-in-law Rusty in 2022. The Coney legacy of a small family-owned winery producing a range of beautiful wines that go perfectly with food, family and friends remains in place!
a hidden gem
As a way of sharing our love for music and the arts you will find an extra treat on the back of each Coney Wine bottle.
Founder Tim Coney is our in-house wordsmith and has added a dash of iambic pentameter to replace the usual trite hyperbolic humbug!
Get a taste of of his work below..
Cane pruning just finished, new buds waiting nascent
A quickening Jack Frost, beware those complacent
Then tucking and trimming, now plucking and thinning
A red tractor mowing, a Coney seen grinning
Ripening fruit, hasty netting, starlings’ hunger unseated
Let the pickers start snipping, Ragtime vintage completed.
Pinot Noir from older vines is soft and silky
Such things discerning people sometimes say
Reminding me of linen on our bed at the beginnin’
In the days when all our wives came out to play
But now alas, such frolicking is over
A different satisfaction now I seek
Things more mellow, less exciting
More alluring and inviting
Pizzicato is the balm of which I speak.
The Italians say it’s Grigio
The Frenchmen call it Gris
Should we reach for a thesaurus
Or Webster’s dictionary
It’s all the same variety and just a case of style
The grigio’s usually leaner
While the gris is fat with guile
Coney’s Piccolo is refreshing
With much fruit to quench your thirst
Try it now, or if you’re PC, ask your partner first.
