Vintners Guild
This September Toby Buck hopes to drive a herd of sheep over the Thames, tapping into one of the entitlements of being a Freeman of London in the Vintners Company.
Lorenza Devcich from the Devcich Historic Farmstead in the Kauaeranga Valley says her father Ivan sold the press in the 1980s, after giving up his wine licence for S Devcich & Sons.
Ivan's father Simum arrived in New Zealand in 1903 to work as a gum digger.
In 1927 Simun and his brother got a license to produce wine on their farmstead, using grapes from their own vineyard and making wine in the basement of the homestead until 1931, when the wineshed was erected.
Ivan took over the wine business in the 1940s.
Over the past 14 years Lorenza has restored the old farmstead and surrounding buildings, including the wine shed, with the property now registered as Category One with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
"The wineshed is somewhat bare, as Dad when he gave up making wine sold off a lot of the old wooden barrels and the old press," she says. "I would love to find it again and bring it back to his its original home, with pride of place in the wine shed."
Anyone with information on the winepress, can contact Lorenza at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
