When it comes to wine stories fitting the cultural zeitgeist, it doesn’t get more current than three, young Hawke’s Bay women stalking each other on social media before opting to leap into business together with the goal of creating personality-driven wines from resurrected vineyard sites, in minimal-interventionist fashion, during a pandemic.

What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, not much, because from the moment Holly Girven-Russell, Hester Nesbitt and Casey Motley met, their Three Fates wine venture has roared ahead.

Holly, (daughter of Hawke’s Bay wine legend Gordon Russell – or ‘Papa G’), hails from Bay View and she met Waipukurau-based Hester Nesbitt while working vintage together at Elephant Hill in 2019. Holly explains she became obsessed with Hester immediately because she could do everything in the winery. “She’d then go home to the farm after work to drive tractors, and would turn up on a Monday morning with a designer gown to soak in a bucket of percarb (oxygen bleach) after a messy weekend with the gals.

She was a terrible communicator and constantly had broken phones, but I wouldn’t let her wriggle out of my orbit,” she laughs. Hester is considered the brains of the operation (I’d look away now if you don’t want to feel like one of life’s losers), because not only does she have a Bachelor in Plant Biotechnology, and a Graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln, but she’s also a Master of Global Business.

Hastings-native Casey Motley is an EIT-trained winemaker who’s worked across New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Austria, and France. According to her website bio, she is a jack of all trades with a particular skill for eyeing up any vehicle and knowing exactly how many 225L barriques will fit inside. (Her Subaru Legacy takes two comfortably, apparently.)

“I knew Casey because she had a cool Instagram with photos of gorgeous vineyards and adventures in Europe,” adds Holly. “Kate Douglas (my bestie) had studied with Casey and I found out they were meeting for a catch-up beer sometime in the 2019- 2020 summer. I crashed their date just so I could meet her.” And how about Casey and Hester? Turns out they actually never met in person until their first Three Fates business meeting.

Curious to know more, I fired more questions across to Holly.

YL: What were the circumstances behind the three of you deciding to leap into business together? 

HGR: In late 2019 I went for a wine with an old school friend. She mentioned her parents were struggling with their vineyard and as such, hadn’t farmed it for years. This saddened me as I’d spent a lot of time there as a teenager and remembered it fondly.

In early 2020, both Hester and I were working harvest in different parts of Australia. We’d been emailing a bit (I told you, Hester was bad at comms) just filling each other in on harvest and trading cute clothing recommendations. So when Winston Peters told all overseas kiwis they had to come home, we both evacuated home so I knew she was in the country.

While in 14-day isolation, I emailed my school friend’s parents and offered my help with their vineyard. They asked if I wanted to manage it! In the early days of a pandemic with no job prospects on the horizon, managing a 1.2 hectare hillside vineyard planted with Arneis, Albariño, and Cabernet Franc sounded like a dream. Yet I didn’t have the experience to do it alone, AND was based in Auckland, so I roped Hester in (literally had to call the landline at her parents farm to talk to her*) and then awkwardly reached out to Casey via IG messenger to reintroduce myself and convince her that I wasn’t a scammer and that she should get involved too!

[*YL: As a GenXer, this line makes me feel very old.]

We all took a look at the vineyard individually and then met up at Casey’s tiny shack to drink wine, get to know each other, and decide if this thing was for real. We fell in love with each other and the vineyard and never looked back!

YL: What did you decide your mission was going to be? 

HGR: Initially this was a vineyard project. We were going to manage the vineyard and sell the grapes. But once pruning was done and we started seeing life in the vines, we knew we couldn’t give up the grapes – we’re winemakers after all! So we decided to throw our savings at it and try making a wine brand happen.

YL: Did you all agree on the styles of wines you’d create and the brand aesthetic going forward?

HGR: Yeah, while all having very different backgrounds, lives, and interests, we all share a similar taste when it comes to eating and drinking. There are countless occasions where we all individually order the same wine at a bar, or turn up to a meeting with the same cheese. So forming our ‘brand identity’ and winemaking direction really did flow quite naturally.

YL: Speaking of that, why Three Fates? Explain the name?

HGR: My partner’s mum actually suggested I read about the Moirai/Three Fates – thanks Sue! In Greek mythology the Three Fates are the incarnations of destiny. They control the mother thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They’re independent, at the helm of necessity, and direct fate. We’d just finished our winter pruning so this story felt pertinent; bringing the dormant vineyard to life in spring and weaving our way through the season until the thread is cut and our vinous bounty becomes wine.

YL: You came to winemaking late, at the age of 25, what was it that flicked that switch? What direction was your life going in before the bug hit?

HGR: Haha, that’s a bit of a joke calling 25 late! Because I just can’t imagine how a 17 year old Casey and 21 year old Hester knew they wanted to make winemaking their life – how sophisticated!

I initially went to uni to study Geography without any real clue what I’d do with it – it was just my favourite subject in high school and I loved field trips! After graduating I stayed in Wellington, and becoming sick of being the winemaker’s daughter who knew nothing about wine, I took myself to a wine tasting at Regional Wine. Lucky me, it was led by the inimitable Geoff Kelly who speaks with such passion and knowledge that I was immediately hooked; I couldn’t believe how interesting wine was!

I kept going to those tastings, read every wine book I could get my hands on, and finally started listening to Dad when he talked about wine. When I moved to London, I decided to only look for jobs in wine and was rewarded with an amazing experience in the beating heart of the wine trade. Returning to NZ a few years later, I took myself off to wine school and the rest is history!

YL: Tell me about the vineyards you source your fruit from, how did those relationships with those growers begin?

HGR: It all began with the Noetzli vineyard in Maraekakaho. We worked alongside Beni and Lucia Noetzli on this site for 4 years and without it, Three Fates wouldn’t exist. Sadly at the end of 2023, Beni passed away suddenly which meant a change in circumstances with the vineyard. The 2024 vintage is the last one with that special site and was a harvest to remember.

For the 2025 vintage we’re now sourcing fruit from the growers we’ve been lucky to meet over the last five years. Most of these growers have helped us along the way, sharing their knowledge of the varieties and generously lending time or gear when required!

Bridget Wilton of Greatvine Services has been with us since the very beginning. Although we didn’t buy fruit from her until 2022, she was always willing to offer an opinion and lend a bird scarer. She has been the supplier for our rosé fruit over the last 3 years and helped us find some gorgeous Arneis in 2024 to increase the volumes.

Ian and Linda Quinn who own and run the Two Terraces vineyard have been kind to us since the early days – I’d often let myself into their vineyard to look at the Albariño vines to reassure myself that theirs were doing the same things ours were. It’s a strange, risky and hairy variety! It’s very exciting to now be joining the elite club of producers working with their fruit.

YL: What wines do you, Hester and Casey make and where do you make them? 

HGR: Three aromatic whites – Arneis, Albariño, and Chenin Blanc. A Rosé and sometimes a sparkling Petillant Natural Rosé and a light and bright Cabernet Franc. And we make them at Linden Estate in Esk Valley (except for 2023 when we had to shoot off site because, umm, cyclone). We’ve had such a great time working with Alex Hendry, Toby, Phil, and the crew. It’s home!

YL: What was life like growing up with a famous winemaker-dad? 

HGR: As a kid it was pretty fun, my sister and I spent a lot of time at the winery annoying the cellar master by treating it like our playground.

YL: Did he take you to work with him? 

HGR: I think he tried to keep us away! But we’d always wind up there over harvest and sometimes a kindly lab tech would let us do sampling and temp rounds with them – that was great.

YL: You’ve just created a Chenin Blanc in collaboration with your dad – he even designed a playlist to go with the wine – was that a fun process?

HGR: It was so much fun!! I never got the opportunity to make wine with Dad, as the Esk Valley winery production moved to the Villa site in 2018 and I knew even then that I didn’t want to work in a big facility.

Dad’s always been a sounding board for Three Fates, but this time we made it official. His journey with Chenin Blanc began when he joined Esk Valley in 1989, a time when this variety was struggling to find its place in the New Zealand wine scene. He made all the decisions on picking, pressing, vessels, ferment, etc. We learned a lot from these decisions and just had a genuinely good time working with him.

It was great having him at the winery because Alex, the head winemaker at Linden and Saorsa, started his career working for Dad at Esk. It was very sweet one day during harvest when Dad turned up with this box from his cellar that contained a bottle of every project wine Alex had ever made! Alex had no idea Dad had been holding onto them all this time. Not only were there the first iterations of Saorsa, there were even Alex’s old student wines!

We also love the label Dad came up with. He referenced a Fane Flaws painting that was hung by Fane himself when he was our neighbour back in 2004. We cleared the idea with Fane’s family and had our designers (Morgan Evans & Kate Depree) interpret it into a label design.

YL: What are your hopes for 2025 and beyond?

HGR: We’re excited to be working on another collaboration wine in 2025 – this time with another of our heroes, Jenny Dobson!

For 2025 we want to keep our heads down and get to know the new vineyards we’re taking on board. See what difference these new sites bring to the wines. I’m sure we’ll find the time to throw a few parties along the way!

We’d also love to take Three Fates global, find some suitable distribution partners overseas and get the wine out to our network of pals abroad.

These days Holly lives in Auckland, Casey is based in Wellington training to become a nurse, and Hester works on a farm and lives between Waipukurau and Havelock North. Yet when the grapes begin to ripen and the harvest loometh, you’ll find these three wine-obsessed wāhine working long hours in the vineyard and cellar together again.

threefateswine.com

What is Chenin Blanc? 

Chenin Blanc is a white wine grape, originally from Vouvray in France’s Loire Valley. It’s high acidity means it can be used to make everything from dry, light whites, to sparkling styles or well-balanced dessert wine.

It’s also excellent when barrel-aged, producing a style similar to Chardonnay and it’s known by other names such as Steen, Pineau de la Loire, regional names: Vouvray, Quarts de Chaume, Bonnezeaux and Savennières. While still reasonably rare in New Zealand, it’s popular in France, and also South Africa, the USA and Argentina. Flavour-wise, expect to see pear, honeydew melon, apple, chamomile, peach, hay and persimmon notes.

Gordon Russell’s Three Fate’s Chenin Blanc Spotify playlist:

1. Roots and Culture, Mikey Dread

2. Babylon Too Rough, Gregory Isaacs

3. Poor Man Style, Barrington Levy

4. Ganja Smuggling, Eek-A-Mouse

5. No Burial – Twilight Circus, Mykal Rose