The matriarch of a wine dynasty
‘‘I feel so happy to see my family working hard and all together.’’ Vesna Milicich
Vesna Milicich
winemaker b May 15, 1919 g January 12, 2020
Vesna Milicich, who has died aged 100, was the matriarch of four generations of winemaking in Waikato at Ngahinapouri, now the Vilagrad Winery.
Well into her 90s, she was often to be seen at Vilagrad’s celebrated Sunday lunch, surrounded by family, friends, and grandchildren.
Established in 1922 by her father-inlaw and Croatian immigrant Ivan Milicich as Milicich Wines, Vilagrad Winery is now in its fifth generation as a family-owned and operated business.
And, for much of the last century, Vesna was the steadying hand in decades of development.
Born in Podgora, on the picturesque Dalmatian Coast, the daughter of Vice and Sime Milicich, she had a scant six years of formal schooling and a traditional future as a homemaker mapped out for her – that is until her childhood friend Nediljko Milicich stepped back into her life.
Nediljko, or Ned, had left Croatia with his parents, Ivan and Pera, who had settled in Waikato after landing a government contract to dig drainage ditches. In true Dalmatian style, they had wasted no time planting a small vineyard and orchard at the end of Rukuhia Rd, in the middle of dairy country.
In the late 1930s, with war looming in Europe, Pera Milicich returned to Croatia to escort Vesna to New Zealand as Ned could not make the journey for fear of being conscripted. It was a narrow escape, as her family were forced to flee to the El Shatt refugee camp in Egypt while fighting raged around their home.
Far from the anguish of war, Vesna and Ned married in St Mary’s Cathedral in Hamilton in 1940, and settled in with Ned’s parents in their small Ngahinapouri farmhouse.
From the start she was often to be found in the kitchen as the farmhouse was a gathering point for the country’s Croatian community nearly every weekend, with lambs, brushed with rosemary, roasted by hand on the spit over ti tree bark.
It was not unknown for Ned, at Pera’s firm instruction, to drive the dirt road to Auckland to fetch guests, returning them home that evening.
It was a tough, pioneering life and it would be 13 years before Vesna, now the mother of Ivan, Branislav (Brian), and Nelda, would have her own home. Even then, she had the responsibility of caring for a now ageing Ivan and Pera, as well as the stress of an increasingly ill Ned, who died in 1964.
After Ned’s death Vesna, with her teenage children, stepped up to manage the running of the vineyard, winery, and farm. She never remarried, and her family, friends, and business became her focus and drive.
In 1972 Vesna, with Branislav, purchased land on the corner or Rukuhia and Ohaupo roads, and together with her family opened in 1974 the cleverly named Gostiona restaurant (the term means ‘‘inn’’ in Croatian), as well as a wine shop for Milicich wines.
In 1980 she sold Milicich Wines to daughter Nelda and her husband Pieter Nooyen, and moved to Glenview where she lived for 25 years, all the time staying engaged with Vilagrad, while surrounded by a growing band of grandchildren.
It was in Glenview that she continued, through her kitchen, to help bond the family. Her descendants reminisce of a Nana always to be found in the kitchen, the daily sound of the old Kenwood mixer grinding away, of the pleasures of things such as melt-in-the-mouth slow-cooked meats, a traditional Dalmatian cheese, and of her homemade walnut liqueur.
‘‘Nana loved hosting all the family regularly,’’ grandson Adam Nooyen told the 500 people, many from the Croatian community throughout the country, who packed into St Columba’s Catholic Church in Hamilton for her funeral.
‘‘We were never allowed to bring any food with us as she insisted on cooking everything: roasts, stews, and traditional Croatian food. You could never eat enough, as she constantly pressured you to eat more. She looked after all seven grandchildren, often at once.’’
A keen gardener, her Dalmatian cabbages were taller than she was, her Dali tomatoes bigger than the average hand, her beans and silverbeet a staple she grew every year. A bottler, she would preserve peaches and pears, often producing these later at family gatherings topped with her favourite Tip Top vanilla icecream. Neighbours were frequent beneficiaries of her baking and flowers – especially the carnations, gladioli, and roses she loved.
Her Catholic faith was important to her and she carried holy water in her house to bless her grandchildren – and even, as they grew up, their cars.
While well into her 90s she would attend the annual Vilagrad grape harvest, in Croatian tradition a time of celebration and family gathering.
Interviewed by Waikato Times reporter Libby Wilson in 2014, Vesna, then just shy of 95, said she had never missed a harvest but never expected to be able to help her ‘‘gorgeous’’ greatgrandchildren pick grapes three generations on.
‘‘I feel so happy to see my family working hard and all together. I’m so happy when my family’s happy.’’
Inevitably she was asked the key to a long life. She would say she had lived from her garden, never smoked, never driven a car, and enjoyed a little carefully watered-down wine with every meal.
Vesna was the wife of Nediljko; mother and mother-in-law of Ivan (deceased) and Shirley, Branislav and Raewyn, and Nelda and Pieter (Nooyen); and nana of seven grandchildren and 15 greatgrandchildren. – By Charles Riddle