Bill Spence, Co-founder & Brand Ambassador

You could say Bill was made to start a winery – it’s in his blood. His grandfather made wine in Auckland as early as 1918 and Bill grew up working on his father’s winery and vineyard in West Auckland before and after school.

Bill and his older brother Ross shared a vision to revolutionise the New Zealand wine industry, so after the brothers studied viticulture and winemaking, they were itching to put modern winemaking techniques into practice.

Come 1966, they struck out on their own and bought some land with help from their grandmother and mother. By 1974, they produced their first vintage of Sauvignon Blanc and Matua was born.

With his gift of the gab, Bill took the lead on viticulture, marketing and exports while Ross focused on the winemaking. Bill’s infectious personality and enthusiasm drove Matua’s early sales. In 1990 he became founding Chairman of the NZ Wine Export Guild where he stayed for three years, spreading the word about Kiwi wine and Matua.

Both Bill and Ross loved giving new things a go – and they were good at it too. They even made a traditional Portuguese style Port, which won gold medals year after year. Their drive to create wine that people would really enjoy combined with their experimental dabbling made sure awards for Matua kept on coming.