Montana Wines [SEP] inception
History of Montana Wines.
Montana was founded by Ivan and Amanda Yukich (Jukić), Croatian immigrants who planted their first vines in 1934, in Titirangi, situated in the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland. The first wine was sold in 1944, and by 1960 of vineyards were planted. Ivan's sons, Mate and Frank, had become involved, and they set up the company Montana Wines in 1961. By the end of the 1960s, the company had expanded further, planting vines on land south of Auckland
In 2010, Montana Wines was renamed Brancott Estate, where its wines had already been sold for over a decade with this label. Today only its "Winemaker Series" of wines carries the Montana brand name within New Zealand, since there is still strong "Montana" brand recognition and association with New Zealand wine. Ironically, some of the Montana labelled wines are made with grapes from Australia.
Montana has several levels of wines under the label Brancott Estate. The most prestigious 'estate' label is the Letter Series,