UNCORKING NEW RULES

Alice Rule has been defying expectations since she was a schoolgirl growing up in Northland. That determination shines through in her wines, but also makes her an inspiration to be around, as UNO wine columnist Jess Easton writes.

PHOTOS RYAN MCCAULEY PHOTOGRAPHY

Told she didn’t have the smarts to study wine, there’s no small irony that Alice Rule now owns her own international wine business.

‘Encouraged’ to leave school early by sceptical teachers, she now boasts a degree and a Masters’, the latter completed after a dyslexia diagnosis as an adult, just to show she could.

Now, having barely breached her 30s, the founder of boutique Marlborough-based wine label 3Sixty2 holds down a separate fulltime job, is the mother of ridiculously cute toddling twins, takes a mean photo and spends her spare time dreaming of biodiversity and nature-based solutions.

I first met Alice through mutual buddies in 2022 and we’ve since become firm friends — as our wine adventures on page 124 of this edition can attest.

She’s funny and grounded, smart and driven. She also makes delicious wine, using sustainably-sourced grapes and taking a deep, respectful bow to nature in everything she produces.

Her wines exude confidence — they know what they want to be. I really rate her Sauvignon Blanc, which stays true to the Marlborough region but brings in a balanced acidity and structure. Her Chardonnay has soul and her Pinot Noir is made with the passion and precision that only a small-scale producer can attain.

But like any great wine, it’s always the backstory which makes the vintage that much more spectacular.

That undiagnosed dyslexia, in hindsight, was like a giant brake on Alice’s schooling, and it took some time to find the tools to help her shine.

Leaving school at 17, she worked in a café before heading to Hawke’s Bay to study winemaking at CIT. Even then, those first few years were near impossible, but a supportive dean encouraged her to keep trying and she was eventually awarded Esk Valley top viticulture student.

Her first years in local vineyards were also a struggle, as a young female battling to be taken seriously. So, she figured she would go to work for the one person who truly believed in what she was doing — herself — and launched 3Sixty2 in 2016.

In the meantime, she completed the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, investigating glass recycling in New Zealand, and introduced a range of sustainable measures into her business, like becoming the first New Zealand producer to have a complete climatepositive wine portfolio, certified with CarbonClick.

I asked Alice, ‘where to next?’ and she laughed heartily. Doors which used to slam shut keep springing open, and her next phase is picking which one to venture through.

You get the feeling, as the song goes, she’s only just begun.

Jess Easton is a director and owner of Kitchen Takeover and Saint wine bar, complementing her career as a Tauranga-based lawyer.