Waipara West is the trading and brand name of Tutton Sienko Hill, a family partnership consisting of Paul Tutton, Olga Sienko, Vic Tutton, and Lindsay Hill. In 1989, they acquired Waipara West, recognising its potential for quality grape production, despite its previous status as an unsuccessful sheep farm overrun with rabbits.
The location’s unique combination of factors—being further inland, higher in elevation, and protected from frost by natural air movement from the river and sloping terraces—proved ideal for viticulture. It wasn’t until later that they discovered the farm had once been owned by their family a century ago. Waipara West, named after their weather station, sits on sun-drenched, stony north-facing terraces along the Waipara River, about seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, nestled in the foothills of the Southern Alps.
