Named after the Huts that scatter the New Zealand landscape offering adventurers shelter and safety, Red Hut is a partnership between long term friends and wine professionals Corey Ryan and Mike Farrugia. An Australian winemaker, Corey Ryan has had a long-term love affair with New Zealand wine driven by his time as chief winemaker of Villa Maria. A native New Zealander, Mike has worked in the New Zealand wine industry for decades, spending a great deal of time travelling the world selling NZ wine to almost every country on the globe.
Red Hut was born out of a shared frustration that New Zealand wine in so many key global markets has been reduced to a limited range of low priced, mass produced Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. These generic entry level options do not reflect “The Real New Zealand” and whilst many of the excellent boutique and premium New Zealand wines are exported, the high price points and limited volumes do not allow for sufficiently wide distribution or relevance to most consumers to counter the flood of private labels.
Simply, the wines being sold globally do not reflect the excellence and diversity of the New Zealand wine industry or do justice to the strong emotional connection and unique positioning that New Zealand as a country has with so many people around the world.
Corey and Mike approached their many friends and connections throughout the New Zealand industry to source fruit from their preferred sub regions to create Red Hut – a collection of small parcel, contemporary wines demonstrating the excellence and diversity of New Zealand winemaking. Both keen bush walkers, Corey and Mike were drawn to the communal love of the outdoors and the willingness to help others that the Red Huts represented.