nz winegrower feb/mar 2016

ISSUE

96FE

BR

U

ARY/MARCH

20

16

S T H KOR E A F TA @ A M IS F I E L D W E T L A N D @ PRO S E C C O C OM I NG @ W H AT ’ S OR A NG E W I N E?

TH

E O

FF

ICIA

L J

OU

RN

AL

OF

NE

W Z

EA

LA

ND

WIN

EG

RO

WE

RS

ISS

UE

96

FE

BR

UA

RY

/MA

RC

H 20

16N

EW

ZE

AL

AN

D W

INE

GR

OW

ER

O - I N E W Z E A L A N D TE L : 0800 263 390 , +64 9 976 7100 EMA I L : s a l e s . n z@ap .o - i . com

www.o - i . com www.g l a s s i s l i f e . com www. f acebook . com/G la s s I s L i f e

GLASS IS A UNIQUE PACKAGING MATERIAL AS IT IS 100% INFINITELY RECYCLABLE

O-I NEW ZEALAND MAKES SIGNIFICANT EFFORTS TO MAXIMISE AND

CONTINUOUSLY INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF RECYCLED GLASS USED IN ITS

PRODUCTION PROCESS. THIS CREATES A NUMBER OF ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS:

. IT REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF RAW MATERIALS THAT MUST BE

EXTRACTED AND TRANSPORTED;

. IT REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF WASTE SENT TO LANDFILL; AND

. CARBON EMISSIONS ARE REDUCED.

FEATURES

10 Early Season Conditions Variable The start of the 2016 vintage has had a little bit

of everything, when it comes to weather. Rob Agnew from Plant and Food Research, and the coordinator of VineFacts takes a look at what happened nationally between September and December.

12 South Korea – A New Frontier In the last 15 years the number of New Zealand

wineries exporting to South Korea has grown from one to more than 50 – and the growth potential is not easing off. We find out why.

24 SWNZ Vineyard Profile In the first of an on-going series we profile a

winery that is taking sustainability that little bit further. As Mark Orton found out, Amisfield in Central Otago have created a revolutionary wetland within their vineyard.

28 A Family Vine Despite New Zealand’s wine industry being so

young, multi generational forces are beginning to show through. In Family Vine we find out more about individuals following in their parents’ or sibling’s footsteps. This month meet father and daughter, John and Beth Forrest.

REGULARS

4 Editorial Tessa Nicholson

6 From The CEO Philip Gregan

8 In Brief News from around the country

35 Science of Wine Emma Sherman

58 Bob’s Blog Bob Campbell MW

66 Not On The Label Legal matters with Bell Gully

76 Calendar Wine happenings in New Zealand

78 Research Supplement The latest science and research

projects funded by NZ Winegrowers

28

54

I S S U E 9 6 CONTENTS

24

COVER SHOT: Palliser Estate Wines of Martinborough. Supplied by NZW

50

4 // NZ WINEGROWER FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016

FROM THE EDITOR TESSA NICHOLSON

EDITOR Tessa [email protected]

CORRESPONDENTSAuckland: Joelle Thomson [email protected]

Gisborne: Justine [email protected]

Hawkes Bay: Mary Shanahan [email protected]

Nelson: Neil Hodson [email protected]

Central Otago: Mark Orton [email protected]

ADVERTISINGSales Manager &Upper North Island:Stephen [email protected]: 09 913 9637Mobile: 021 963 166

Central North Island:Ted [email protected]: 07 854 6292Mobile: 021 832 505

Lower North Island:Ron MackayPh: 04 234 6239Mobile: 021 453 914

South Island:Kaye Sutherland [email protected]: 03 376 5552Mobile: 021 221 1994

CIRCULATION &SUBSCRIPTIONSLorraine Rudelj [email protected] Ph: 09 303 3527 Fax: 09 302 2969New Zealand Winegrowers PO Box 90 276, Auckland Mail Centre, New Zealand

PUBLISHING & PRE-PRESSRural News Group PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 Ph: 09 307 0399Location: Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622

Publisher: Brian HightManaging Editor: Adam FrickerProduction: Dave Ferguson, Rebecca Williams

Published by Rural News Group Ltd under authority of New Zealand Winegrowers (jointly representing Wine Institute of New Zealand Inc and New Zealand Grape Growers Council Inc). Unless directly attributed, opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of Rural News Group and/or its directors or management, New Zealand Winegrowers or its constituent organisations.

Published every second month. One free copy is mailed to every member of the Institute, the Council, the New Zealand Society of Viticulture & Oenology and the New Zealand Vine Improvement Group, and to such other persons or organisations as directed by the owners, with provision for additional copies and other recipients

to be on a subscription basis.

ISSN 1174-5223

WELCOME TO 2016

W ith the festive season now a dis-tant memory, the New Zealand wine industry is gearing itself up for the 2016 vintage.

From the frost prone spring that impacted on wine regions, through to the up and down temperatures experienced during flowering and the rain laden days over January, one thing is certain. El Nino is making itself felt this season. There is more to come obviously, but whether that be average temperatures, high or low, wet or dry, the next two months will set the scene for vintage.

Rob Agnew from Plant & Food who helps put together the subscription based news-letter VineFacts explains on page 10 that the first half of the season was as variable as it could be.

Whether that variability continues is anyone’s guess, but as the clouds of white netting cover the lush foliage of the vines, we will keep our fingers crossed for a stress free lead into the vintage.

Talking of busy, as NZ Winegrower goes to print, the final preparations for the Inter-national Sauvignon Blanc Celebration were occurring. This is the biggest wine event New Zealand has ever seen, with a sell out crowd of more than 300, in excess of 200 wines from nine countries and more than 20 guest speakers. It has taken over two years of planning for this Celebration to occur and given the importance of this variety to the entire New Zealand wine industry, it is appropriate that so much emphasis has been placed on it.

Hopefully by the time the two-and-a-half-day event ends, the gate keepers, crit-ics, writers and experts will comprehend what many in our industry have known for years. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is not a one trick pony. It is unique, diverse and

world-class. It launched this country onto the world wine scene and has been the back bone of the industry that is now New Zea-land’s sixth largest export earner, having surpassed the $1.5 billion mark.

What seemed like an almost unattain-able goal of reaching exports worth $2 bil-lion by 2020 now seems a realistic prospect.

With the North American market grow-ing strongly, followed by Asia, there is plenty of scope for further growth. South Korea is one of those markets that is expanding steadily. Fifteen years ago there was only one New Zealand winery exporting to Korea. These days there are over 50 – and room for plenty more as we discover in this month’s issue.

Also this month we introduce a new series that focuses on the multi-genera-tional growth of our wine industry. Being so young, there are only a handful of compa-nies that can boast of having more than two generations involved in their development. Villa Maria, Delegat, and Babich to name a few. In Family Vine we take a look at indi-viduals who are following in their parent’s or sibling’s footsteps, creating their own dynasties. First up is father and daughter winemaking duo, John and Beth Forrest. Each speaks of the other’s attributes and their individual goals for the future.

Those goals are similar to the rest of the industry – to establish a foundation that ensures a strong future for generations to come.

The future is also reliant on the sustain-ability of our land. We need to safeguard what we have, or better still improve it for the next generation. In our SWNZ profile (page 24) find out how one winery is doing just that.

Enjoy this first issue of 2016, and good luck for vintage.

When it comes to orchard and vineyard tractors, it pays to trust one of the worlds best selling international brands, particularly when that brand is handled by our network of New Zealands most trusted tractor dealerships.

SAME specialise in orchard and vineyard tractors with ultra-compact dimensions ensuring manoeuvrability in the tightest of spaces. With cab, rops and narrow options up to 100hp and with fl exible fi nance currently available, your local SAME dealer will be happy to discuss the SAME tractor perfect for you.

ULTRA-COMPACT WORKHORSEULTRA-FLEXIBLE FINANCE

108��

��

Contact your local SAME dealer or fi nd a dealer atwww.SAMEdeals.co.nz

Normal lending criteria applies. Flexible fi nance available for a limited time only. Contact your local SAME dealership to discuss options. *0% fi nance based on 30% deposit (plus total gst paid in month 3) and monthly payments for a 12 month term.

0% *

10%

5DEPOSIT

YEARS

% *FLEXI FINANCE*

INTEREST RATES

AS LOW AS

TERMS UP TO

PAY AS

LITTLE AS


FROM THE CEO PHILIP GREGAN

W hat a remarkable achievement … $1.5 billion of New Zealand wine

exported, making wine New Zealand’s 6th largest export good.

The steady growth in total export value of New Zealand wine over the past decade or so – through shortage and surplus, high dollars (mainly) and low dollars, recessions and booms – has been nothing short of stellar.

It is that growth which has been the number one driver of the industry through that time.

And at its very core that growth reflects the reputation New Zealand wine has in global markets.

Of course the growth in total export value (and the reputation underpinning it) does not guarantee success for any individual exporter but it does provide a platform for individual brands to succeed.

The $1.5 billion year end statistics are worth digging into a little as there are some very interesting trends buried in there …

The rise and rise of North America

With exports to USA now worth more than $400 million and shipments to Canada valued at over $100 million, this means wine exports to North America are now valued at over $0.5 billion (ie the same as exports to

all markets just a decade ago). Export value to the USA has been boosted in recent months by the fall in the New Zealand dollar, but with volume up 13% to Canada and 12% to USA in the past year it is clear the North American market is performing extremely well for our wines at the moment.

With the USA now the largest wine market in the world, success there is very important to the future of our industry. At the moment the signs are looking good indeed.

The UK is backA few years ago a number

of exporting wineries de-emphasised the UK markets given opportunities in other markets, and tough market and regulatory conditions (notably excise increases at 2% above the inflation rate) in the UK. As a result export value to the UK effectively went nowhere between 2009 and 2013. What a difference two years have made. In 2015 volume to the UK is up 4%, but much more impressively export value to the UK is up $100 million in the past two years and is now getting very close to the $400 million a year.

Development marketsOutside the big four markets

(USA, UK, Australia and Canada) export volume and value continue to grow steadily.

Value to those markets is now $250 million and volume is now 30 million litres – those are numbers which describe the total of all our exports a little over a decade ago. There are many opportunities out there and it is clear wineries are making the most of those whether in Sweden or China or Dubai or wherever.

It is not just Sauvignon!Sauvignon Blanc is, of

course, the major driver of New Zealand’s export growth accounting for over 180 million litres or 86% of total export volume.

This makes Sauvignon Blanc exports worth around $1.2 billion by themselves. The importance of Sauvignon Blanc to the industry should never be underestimated … but it is not just about the dollars. Sauvignon Blanc has said to the world ‘New Zealand produces world class wine, take notice!’ And the world has.

In 2015 exports of wines other than Sauvignon Blanc totalled around $300 million (for comparison, again, that was the total value of all New Zealand wine exports in 2004).

In 2015 volumes of Pinot Noir were up 11%, Pinot Gris was +12%, Merlot was +9% … these are impressive growth numbers and augur well for the future.

$2 billion is not far away!

With the landmark of $1.5 billion of exports under the industry’s belt the goal of $2.0 billion is now much closer. Quite when it will be achieved is a matter that only time will resolve but the goal of 2020 does not look far off the mark at this stage. Again it is worth stating that growth in total export value does not guarantee success for individual exporters, but the chances are much better than if total export value was declining.

Tourism is an export earner as well

These export numbers do not, of course, reflect the growing importance of inbound tourism for the industry.

Wine tourism is a growing revenue opportunity for wineries, particularly for small wineries who can find the costs of export market development daunting.

With tourist numbers continuing to surge and the reputation of New Zealand wine growing in international markets, it seems certain the inbound tourists will be an ever more important component of the wine landscape over the next decade.

Congratulations to all those who have made exports of $1.5 billion a reality! Best wishes for the upcoming Vintage 2016. Q

$1.5 BILLION OF EXPORTS!1999 … $0.1 billion of wine exports2006 … $0.5 billion of wine exports2010 … $1.0 billion of wine exports2015 … $1.5 billion of wine exports

Or call AGPRO today on

0508 535 530FOR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CONTACT MARK:

Mobile 021 566 550 Office 09 294 7570Email [email protected]

www.agpro.co.nz

HORTICULTURE

ONE CLICK AWAY

MORE PRODUCTSMORE EXPERTISE

MORE EXPERIENCE

ONE COMPANY


INBRIEF

NATIONAL

Japan’s most eminent wine and sake expert Ken Ohashi, MW, will be arriving on New Zealand shores as guest speaker at Pinot Noir NZ 2017.Having been awarded his MW in September, Mr Ohashi is the first Japanese MW, and the only individual in the world to hold both titles of Master of Sake and Master of Wine. With his passion and expertise, Mr Ohashi, one of 15 guest speakers at this event, will add yet another layer of appeal and diversity. Pinot Noir NZ 2017 is the biggest Pinot Noir event on the planet, commencing on 31st January 2017 on the

Wellington waterfront.Over three days, Pinot Noir NZ 2017 will explore and embrace New Zealand Pinot, its people and its underlying sense of place. Mr Ohashi strongly believes New Zealand is one of the most perfect places to make Pinot Noir.

HAWKE’S BAY

Viticulturist Wins AMP Scholarship Hawkes Bay young viticulturist, Alice Rule (24), is one step closer to developing an app to provide grape growers with simple, intuitive representations of data to help them become more sustainable, now she has become a recipient of a 2015 AMP Scholarship, worth $10,000. Rule is one of many who benefitted from the Scholarships, announced late last year. “Having worked in vineyards capturing data manually, I set out to find a way to use robotic platforms to enhance the accuracy of the datasets,” she says. “Teaming up with a technology developing company, we are confident this vision can become a reality.”Brought up in the country Rule says sustainability has always played a major part in how she thinks. She has just completed a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology, minoring in Business Management at Lincoln University and won the Esk Valley Top Viticulture Student award in 2010.“I want to help preserve precious resources for generations to come as current processes are inaccurate and costly. However, using a drone to provide real time imagery to a cloud based analytics system will allow growers to apply what they need when they need it.”

Congrats to Mills Reef Restaurant and Carrick Restaurant, for making it into the top 12 in the Silver Fern Farms Premier Selection Restaurant Awards. They are the only two winery restaurants included among the finalists who were chosen from 62 entrants around the country. The brief was to create

an original dish using one of the Silver Fern Farms cuts of lamb, beef, venison or SILERE alpine origin merino.In Mills Reef ’s case the dish created by Head Chef Attila Kovacs was; Silver Fern Farms lamb rump, dahl croquette, chilled cucumber & mint terrine, tamarind jus.

Carrick’s Head Chef Gwen Harvie (also a finalist last year) presented Silver Fern Farms oven roasted venison on a warm puy lentil, heirloom tomato, truffle & rocket salad, thyme jus.The winner of the award is to announced this month, (February 2016).

Winery Restaurants Make Top 12

Pinot 2017

Rebecca Gibb On The Move

Rebecca Gibb MW has moved back to the UK after six years in New Zealand, and is keen to let wineries know they should no longer send samples to her Auckland address, as she cannot guarantee they will be returned. Her UK contact details will be available on her website rebeccagibb.com and she will retain her New Zealand phone number, as she plans to return regularly. Gibb will continue her work as the wine editor of luxury lifestyle magazine LE PAN in the UK, and will maintain her New Zealand specialism. In addition, she hopes to play a part in promoting New Zealand wines on the other side of the world, organising and running events and masterclasses. You can contact her using the email [email protected]”

NZ WINEGROWER FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016 // 9

MARLBOROUGH

HAWKE’S BAY

Hawke’s Bay-based winery Sileni Estates has forged a deal with one of China’s leading retail chains, China Vanguard (CRC). The deal is the result of four years’ negotiations steered by Sileni’s chief

executive and president, Sir Graeme Avery. A state holding group under the control of central government, CRC operates across 31 provinces and in more than 100 key cities selling more than 70 percent

imported products.The nationwide distribution of Sileni wines will be through top-end supermarket chain Ole’ and blt. CRC’s flagship retail groups, they are among China’s largest chain

enterprises.Sir Graeme says developing a market in China requires patience and, with per capita wine consumption still low, he anticipates growth will be gradual.

Sileni’s Big Deal In China

Giesen Has New WinemakerNikolai St George, formerly of Matua, has taken up the role as chief winemaker for Giesen Wines in Marlborough. Originally from the King Country, St George has also worked at wineries in Central Otago and Waiheke Island along with roles in several international wine companies.Marcel Giesen, owner and director of viticulture and winemaking at Giesen Wines, said the company is delighted at Nikolai’s appointment.“It’s an exciting time here at Giesen Wines; Nikolai will bring a wealth of knowledge and a true understanding of the global wine market that he has amassed over the years. His track record is impeccable and we can’t wait for him to become part of the team and help lead our next phase of development in the wine industry.”

Wine and Food Festival After more than 30 years, the country’s longest running wine festival is about to take place, again. Thousands will descend on the Brancott Vineyard – the first in Marlborough to grow Sauvignon Blanc. With music from Ladi 6 and Tahuna Breaks, among others, the festival will feature wines from more than 45 wineries and 30 food providers. While wine used to be

the major impetus for festivals in decades gone, these days it is far more about the pairing of food and wine. Renowned chefs such as Annabelle White, Peta Mathias and Colin Fassnigdge will provide cooking demonstrations in the culinary pavilion, while a number of wine master classes will stretch the minds of wine aficionados attending.The festival is being held on February 13.


SEASONALUPDATE

T he monitoring of 28 vine-yard sites in five wine-growing regions of New Zealand, has provided

the first ever start of the season weather picture for the industry.

Rob Agnew from Plant & Food Research in Marlborough is one of two people collating the weather information from Gis-borne, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Waipara and Central Otago that feeds into VineFacts, a subscrip-tion newsletter.

While the newsletter has been in existence for 20 years, it is only this season that it has been extended outside of Marlborough, thanks to funding from NZW, Sus-tainable Farming Fund and Marl-borough Research Centre.

When Agnew collated the fig-ures from the first four months of the season (September through December), they showed how the season began as much cooler than the long-term average, with North Island regions affected by rain, far more so than the South. Below is a summary of the first four months of the 2015/16 vintage, region by region.

GisborneSeptember in Gisborne is

described as being cool and very wet, by Agnew.

“The total amount of rain was 183.2 mm where as the long-term average (LTA) is just 69 mm. So the region had almost two and a half times more rain in September

than they would normally get.”The mean temperature was

also lower – at 10.9°C, down from the LTA of 12.1°C.

October saw the temperatures begin to rise, and the rain ease off. In fact there was only 58 mm of rainfall in Gisborne during Octo-ber, below the LTA, and the mean temperature was 14.7°C, 0.7°C above average.

Agnew describes November as being average in terms of tem-peratures and growing degree days (GDD), although it was once again a wet month, with 94 mm of rainfall.

December was again cool and wet, with mean temperatures 1.5°C below the LTA and GDD more than 40 behind the average.

Agnew says the first half of the growing season in Gisborne, can be summed up as being cool and wet.

Hawke’s BaySeptember: Again the season

began very cool, with the mean temperature 1.5°C below the LTA. It was also very wet – just like Gisborne, with 198.7 mm of rain, nearly four times the LTA. GDD were 36 percent of the average, although as Agnew says, that is not as significant in a month like September, as it would be later in the season.

October: While the maximum temperature was up 1.2 deg, the minimum was down a degree, resulting in average mean

temperatures for the month. Rainfall dropped considerably, 35% of the LTA, making it a dry month. GDD were dead on the LTA.

November: A cool and wet month. Temperatures were down, as were GDD and rainfall was up.

December: There was no real let up in Hawke’s Bay once December hit. Temperatures remained below average, as did GDD. However the rainfall that has dominated a number of the previous months was half of the LTA.

In summary – Hawke’s Bay can be described as cool and wet.

Blenheim2015 goes down as the driest

year on record for Blenheim, so it is no surprise to see that each of the first four months of this growing season are characterised as being dry.

September: This was one of the only months of the year that Blenheim had an average monthly rainfall, with a total of 54.4 mm. Hopefully they made the most of it, because there wasn’t much more to come before the end of the year. Like all other regions, September was cool with an average mean temperature of 9.7°C, well below the 11.2°C LTA.

October: Things started to warm up this month, with Agnew describing the period as warm and very dry. With a total of only 6 mm of rainfall, you can

understand why. All other facets were up though, maximum and minimum daily temperature, mean temperature and GDD.

November: Another warm and very dry month – 2.8 mm of rainfall, with higher than average temperatures and GDD.

D e c e m b e r : C o o l e r te m-peratures this month saw the mean temperature drop back, along with GDD. Given this is the major month for Sauvignon Blanc flowering, the lower than average temperatures may impact on yields. Some Sauvignon Blanc that flowered early in December during a brief period of warm tem-peratures is likely to have above average yields, whereas blocks that flowered later during cooler temperatures are likely to produce lower yields

In summary – Blenheim is described as having average temperatures and very dry conditions between September and December.

WaiparaAnother region in the midst of a

severe drought, Waipara received very little in the way of moisture during the start of the season.

September: Cool and dry.October: Just like further north

in Blenheim, Waipara gained some traction this month, with warmer than average conditions.

The average mean was 1.3 higher than the LTA, GDD were well up and rainfall was 11.2 mm,

EARLY SEASON CONDITIONS VERY VARIABLET E S S A N I C H O L S O N


21 percent of the LTA.November: Another warm and

very dry month for the region. Rainfall was 21.2 mm, but only 41 percent of the LTA.

December: After two months of having higher than average temperatures, December was a cool month to end the year on. All temperature parameters were down, as were GDD, and only 55 percent of the LTA rainfall for the month fell.

Agnew summarises Waipara as

having had an average four months (temperatures and GDD) and it was also very dry.

Central OtagoProbably the warmest and

most stable of all the five grape growing regions monitored, Central only suffered one month where Agnew says temperatures and GDD were lower than average.

September: Just like every other region, Central’s Septem-ber was cool while also very dry.

October: The start of things to come in terms of average maxi-mums and mean temperatures. They were well up, as were GDD. This was a warm and dry month.

November: The frosts that hit the region during this month meant the average minimum tem-perature was lower than average – but everything else was above average, with the exception of rainfall.

December: Once again the average minimum temperature

for the month was lower than the LTA. But average maximum was up by 2.2°C. GDD were also up, rainfall was down. A month Agnew describes as warm and very dry.

In summary – Central Otago experienced a four-month period of warm temperatures and very dry conditions.

If you would like to find out more about VineFacts, visit http://www.nzwine.com/members/vine-facts/[email protected] Q

Waipara, Marlborough and Central Otago ended the first half of the season in very dry conditions. That will impact on the vines in the coming months.

KNOCK OUT DEALS• SIDE MOUNTED ORCHARD POST DRIVER

• ROCK SPIKE • RUGER KIT OPTIONS

• NZ MADE FOR OVER 35 YEARS

$ 14 , 3 0 0.0 0+ GSTFR

OM Ph 0800 476 868


MARKETNEWS

I n the last 15 years, the num-ber of New Zealand win-eries exporting to South Korea has grown from one

to more than 50 and that growth is expected to continue now a Free Trade Agreement is in place between the two countries.

The FTA came into effect in December meaning wineries exporting to that part of the world will now pay zero import duty.

The NZTE Trade Commis-sioner to Korea, Ryan Freer says that is a major drop, given prior to the FTA, the import duty was 15 percent.

“Significant scope now exists for New Zealand exporters to deliver greater value and increased choices for the Korean consumer, in addition to increasing their pro-file in the Korean market place,” Freer says.

Now rated as the eleventh international economic power, Korea is also rated by Forbes as 33 on the Best Countries for Business. It has low unemploy-ment, moderate inflation, an export surplus and fairly equal distribution of income. It is the third largest economic power in Asia behind China and Japan, (in terms of purchasing power parity). And like both of those countries, Korea is showing more interest in western traditions, including the consumption of wine.

With a population base of 50 million there are a lot of potential consumers.

There is already a considerable market for wine, with imports at the end of 2014 reaching a record

high of US$182.2 million, a six per-cent increase on the previous year.

New Zealand has slowly but surely been taking advantage of that growth, with our FOB value of exports standing at $1.9 million – equating to 172,132 litres.

NZWinegrowers Marketing Manager Asia, Natalie Potts, says the average FOB price per litre of New Zealand wine in Korea is $10.99. Currently it is this coun-try’s 22nd largest export market in terms of value and 24th in terms of volume.

“In terms of varietals, Sauvi-gnon Blanc is leading the pack,” Potts says, “with around 75 per-cent of exports. That is followed by Pinot Noir with around 15 percent.

Other whites such as Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are also gain-ing traction. Merlot is the second most imported red grape from New Zealand.”

Freer says there are two major factors that have impacted on the growth of wine consumers. One is the growing level of progressive-ness amongst Korean consumer leading to changing diets.

“An increasingly western-ized lifestyle is driving demand for healthier food and beverage options and this of course includes imported wine over the locally produced traditional liquor.”

And two, the practice of gift-ing during the Lunar New Year in January or February and the Har-

vest Festival held in September or October.

“These are the two big family holidays and a lot of people will gift wine and gift wrap the wine. If you look at the month by month total imports two or three months before these gifting seasons you will see massive spikes. They liter-ally double or even triple during those periods.”

While rice wine is still the mainstay accompanying tradi-tional restaurants, Freer says there are changes occurring.

“Unfortunately at the tradi-tional restaurants you are sitting on the floor and there are a lot of side dishes on the table. This is not really conducive to drinking wine.

SOUTH KOREA – A NEW FRONTIERT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Last year NZW presented a seminar based around Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir in Seoul. Hundreds turned up to the two events.


But we are seeing more and more traditional restaurants moving to tables, and they are becoming focussed on less people and more tables – so there is room for bot-tles of wine.

“It is slowly moving in that direction.”

Freer says the majority of wine is currently drunk in west-ern hotels or restaurants and at wine bars – although interestingly enough, the off premise wine market is far larger than the on premise.

This is backed up by the US GAIN (Global Agriculture Infor-mation Network) Report from 2015. It states that off-premise channels currently account for over 70 percent of total wine sales in the Korean market.

“In particular, large-scale hypermarket stores have become the leading retail channel for wine, particularly for products that tar-

get value-orientated segments of the market,” the report states.

In terms of wineries looking at taking advantage of the FTA between New Zealand and Korea, Freer has some advice. Get to know the culture of the country along with how and where wine is being consumed.

“It is less important for the New Zealand wine industry to be on the ground with satellite offices, as it is for other industries. But what is important is that our exporters who do have partners in Korea are visiting the market on a regular basis and demonstrating they are committed to the market.

“ T h e y c a n s h o w t h a t commitment by coming over here and observing how and where the consumer is drinking the wine. Being close to market, understanding the consumer and being ready and agile enough to support local partners with

packaging and concepts (for gifting) is important.”

While there are around 500 businesses registered in Korea as alcohol importers or distributors, Freer says a very small number make up 80 percent of the mar-ket, which can be a pitfall for a New Zealand exporter.

“It is important for wine exporters to understand their partner is likely to have a number of wineries they work with, both from the new and old world. Most of the sophisticated importers would like their wine offerings to read like a great wine menu – a bit of old and a bit of new. Occasionally our exporters can be frustrated by the level of attention they are getting, particularly if sales are not meeting expectations.

“On the flip side of that, another pitfall is the budding importer or distributor. If you

are partnering up with someone like that, you need to think about whether they can keep their prom-ises in terms of volumes. Can they access the variety of channels the winery is going to need to meet targets?”

(The NZTE offices here in New Zealand can assist wineries look-ing for a Korean partner.)

While the current wine drink-ing trend is for red wine, Freer says there is plenty of room for New Zealand whites such as Sauvignon Blanc. Especially given the typical wine consumer.

“They are typically female, late 20s or early 30s, with disposable incomes. This is the market where a lot of wine is targeted towards in Korea.”

And given the popularity of Sauvignon Blanc with females in other parts of the world – Korea could well be our new [email protected] Q


REGIONALNEWS

F irst there was Wellywood; now there is Wellington Wine Country.

The name is new but the Wairarapa region is one of New Zealand’s oldest when it comes to wine production. And since the Wairarapa is an hour and a quar-ter’s drive from Wellington city, the new name makes geographic and marketing sense.

“It can be quite tricky when we are travelling overseas to explain the difference between wines from Martinborough and Marlborough, let alone between the Wairarapa and other New Zealand place

names with ‘wai’ in their names,” says Pip Goodwin, chief executive officer of Palliser Estate in Mar-tinborough.

The new name Wellington Wine Country is the title that the wider region’s three wine market-ing organisations have agreed to as the marketing banner for the entire Wairarapa region. This will include Martinborough, Glad-stone, Masterton and beyond.

The name change decision was not taken lightly, says Paul Mason, Martinborough Vine-yards winemaker and chair of Wairarapa Winegrowers.

“We decided on the name change and collaboration of the three marketing groups at our meeting in October 2015 where we took a final vote after long discussions about the proposed change. The final vote was 93% in favour of a new structure, but we have yet to iron out the finer details of its operation, which will include a logo, an organisation and a strat-egy,” he says.

“The aim is to come up with a structure that keeps everyone happy, financially works and ena-bles wineries in each sub-region to retain their own established

regional identities.”Mason says the biggest chal-

lenge for the group is to highlight and retain the sub-regional identi-ties of Martinborough, Gladstone and Masterton.

“It has been challenging get-ting to this point because of the distance between the two market-ing bodies; Wines from Martinbor-ough and Wairarapa Wines, which are physically and geographically separate. There has also been a regional body administered by New Zealand Winegrowers. Now all three groups will come under the banner of Wellington Wine Country and all of the members in the region will become stakehold-ers in Wellington Wine Country.”

The region has approximately 3 per cent of the national vineyard area but produces a disproportion-ately low 1.5% of the country’s total wine production, despite a relatively high number of wine producers. Many of them are completely unknown outside of the Wairarapa, aside from to locals in the region and in Wellington, where a handful of restaurants stock their wines, due to the city’s close proximity.

“The new name of Welling-ton Wine Country gives us the opportunity to create a closer connection with the capital’s res-taurants and wine lists and to gain a stronger presence on them with our region’s wines,” says Mason.

Historic records indicate that vines were planted and wine was made in the Wairarapa in the

NEW IDENTITY FOR NEW ZEALAND’S SMALLEST WINE REGIONJ O E L L E T H O M S O N

Wellington Wine Country will be the new name for New Zealand’s smallest wine region. PHOTO TE KAIRANGA WINES

LTD, SUPPLIED BY NZW.


1800s by the early settler, Wil-liam Beetham, and his wife Marie Zelie, who grew Pinot Noir on land that is now thought to be the site of Lansdowne Vineyard.

Like many of the northern Wai-rarapa vineyards, Lansdowne is barely known outside of its own region. This may change as part of the region’s new identity.

Mason describes the Wai-rarapa as Wellington’s playground but says that the region remains quiet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week.

“Come Friday and the weekend and the population triples, due to the visitor numbers, tourists and Wellingtonians; particularly through the summer weekends.”

These numbers may pick up when the new marketing body agrees on and promotes a logo and marketing strategy.

“The Wairarapa has the lowest participation rate at wine shows of

any region in the country and this is something that we might also look at addressing,” says Mason.

First things first, however. The initial challenge for the

new marketing body will be to form a sub-committee in early 2106, which will formalise the pragmatic details relating to fund-ing, structure of the new organisa-tion, how often it will meet, where and how it is all going to work.

“The aim is to streamline things more for this region and we will run things along similar lines to how things happen in Marlbor-ough and Central Otago. It also gives us a lot more synergy to work more closely with the Wellington trade and will give us a closer rela-tionship with New Zealand Wine-growers as well.”

Mason says that he would like to see the new regional body work on spear heading up more wine tastings, bringing more wine writ-

ers to the region and being more proactive in championing the region’s wine and food festivals.

“Once the company is set up and given a mandate of the way forward, then we will have a better idea of what they are going to do.”

A proposal for significant change has been in the pipeline for over 12 months now and mem-bers from all three regional wine organisations have been working on finding the best way forward.

Organic wine production may be one of the key focuses of the new Wellington Wine Country organisation too; the region’s windy spring weather provides a natural advantage for organic wine production there.

“It’s hugely important and get-ting more so; which we are aware of and need to investigate,” says Mason.

He cites the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration as an

outstanding success for another region that was once not well known but is now enormously suc-cessful, due to strong marketing.

“We’re always going to hang our hats on Pinot Noir for this region too; it’s the most widely planted variety here and we do a really good job of it, so it’s always going to be number one, but it also makes sense to promote the Ries-ling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blancs of the Wairarapa as well because they are quite distinctive in style.”

The announcement of the new collaborative marketing body was made in early November 2015.

“It has taken a long time to bring the new name into being, but at least we have got it right. Slow and steady was certainly the motto for getting this up and running and making sure that we had the vast majority of people on board for it.”[email protected] Q

A FULL RANGEOF TESTINGTO SUPPORT NZWINE GROWERS

SEAL

6442

WG

3 FOR MORE INFO FREEPHONE

0508 HILL LAB

(44 555 22)

www.hill-laboratories.com

Our specialist wine testing laboratories offer you a suite of tests for every stage in wine production from soil and water testing, to planting, harvesting, bottling and exporting. Give our Oenologist a call to discuss your testing needs.

• Export Certification• Juice & Wine Chemistry• Methoxypyrazines & Thiols

• Label Alcohols• Metals & Soils• Leaf & Petiole

• Forensic Investigations• Pesticide Residues• Microbiological

YOUR LOCAL, INDEPENDENT WINE TESTING LABORATORY


NEWRESEARCH

A student research project has produced promising results for an indirect approach to reducing

mealybug infestations in vine-yards by controlling the ants that protect and milk the insects for their honeydew.

Catherine Hardiman, who undertook her study during the last growing season to fulfil a final-year research requirement for her Bachelor of Viticulture at EIT, believes the results provide “some significant, far-reaching possibilities for the New Zealand wine industry.”

Vectors for Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3, mealybugs transmit the infectious virus from plant to plant while feeding on the phloem of the vines. Mealybug-spread GLRaV-3 has wreaked havoc in New Zealand vineyards – as Hardiman points out, it is the most harmful of all the grapevine leafroll viruses.

Compared with healthy plants, grapevines of both red and white

varieties infected with GLRaV-3 suffer reduced yields, delayed maturity, higher acidity, lower fruit sugar levels and reduced fla-vour. Infected vines tend to pro-duce lower quality wine.

Mealybugs are the main vector for GLRaV-3 in vineyards world-wide.

Several ant species are known to disrupt the biological control of mealybugs by protecting them in the vine canopy from their natural enemies. They do this to protect their primary food source, honey-dew secreted by the mealybugs.

For her research project, Hardiman trialled bifenthrin, a synthetic methylpyrethroid ant toxin. The trial was based on six paired treatment/control replicate plots, randomly selected in Te Mania’s Pinot Noir clone 115 block in Nelson, where Hardiman lives and where she studied by distance.

About every five days, ant and mealybug activity was monitored before and after ant toxin treat-ment.

On March 3, X-it Ant was sprayed on vine trunks and posts of treatment bays at an effec-tive bifenthrin concentration of 240ppm.

Ants were counted over a five-minute period three times before and seven times after treatment with the ant toxin at two fixed points, mid-bay and at one of the posts, on the control and treat-ment bays and mealybugs twice before and seven times after.

The study found significantly fewer ants on average at posts of bays where the ant toxin had been applied compared with the control bays.

The mealybugs were counted by searching the vine canopies of each of the vines in control and treatment bays, again over a five minute period. The study found a significant reduction in average mealybug counts in bays treated with ant toxin compared to untreated bays.

EIT research scientist and viticulture lecturer Dr Petra King says the study focus was a good example of an ecological system and interdependent species.

“This is an exciting result which needs further study, which could suit a master’s student pro-ject.”

Enjoying a break after seven years of concurrent degree study, Catherine Hardiman sees the need for further research around the use of ant toxin as a strategy for the indirect control of mealy-bugs which vector leafroll virus in vineyards.

Graduating with EIT’s Bach-elor of Viticulture and Bachelor of

Wine Science, Hardiman appreci-ates the import of her final-year student research project and is now considering undertaking a thesis for a master’s degree.

“We had some very exciting results,” she says of the trial, which showed that mealybug popula-tions crashed in bays where vine trunks and vineyard posts were sprayed with the ant toxin.

The idea for her investigation was triggered by a discussion between EIT research scientist Dr Petra King and Key Industries technical manager Peter Visser about the interaction between ants and mealybugs.

While the conve ntional approach to controlling the spread of leafroll virus is to target mealy-bugs as the vector of the disease, they were interested in what might happen to mealybug numbers in the vineyard if the ant popula-tions were controlled using the ant toxin.

Ants protect mealybugs from predators and parasites, King says, farming them by tending them and placing them on parts of the vine that suit them.

Hardiman undertook a trial which demonstrated the critical role ants play in protecting mealy-bugs.

“I was just doing a student project and you don’t necessar-ily expect such serendipitous results,” she says of her findings. “Obviously there needs to be more research done around dif-ferent aspects it has thrown up as well. It certainly warrants having another look at.”

If she does decide to progress

CONTROL ANTS – REDUCE MEALY BUGSM A R Y S H A N A H A N


to a master’s, Hardiman would ideally like to do so while work-ing in the industry.

“My EIT learning journey has been rather like an Educating Rita experience,” says the mother of seven. “And yes, they’re all my own and by the same guy. I don’t tend to do things by halves.”

Before she and husband Chris started their family, Hardiman briefly worked as a laboratory technician for DSIR.

“But I didn’t quite finish my qualification before babies. I’m a Joanna-come-lately. I think there was at least four [children] living at home when I returned to study. I now have four grandchildren as well.”

Hardiman worked for a time as a science technician at a local college but what she really wanted was to be was a winemaker. It was husband Chris who found her the online study option at EIT.

Fitting in as much part-time study as she could manage, she also gained work experience with several vintages at Greenhough’s boutique winery near Nelson.

“I really enjoyed work in the vineyard during summer and I loved the physicality and buzz of vintage,” the 50-something-year-old says. “Climbing up tall ladders to tanks and standing at height doing plunge downs didn’t faze me at all.”

Based in Nelson, Visser men-tored and advised Hardiman and managed the applications of the ant toxin to selected vine trunks and posts for the trial.

“X-it Ant is designed for ant control in outdoor urban situa-tions and we hoped it would also have relevance in controlling mealybugs,” Visser says. “To get that level of effect achieved with the trial is actually astounding.”[email protected] Q

Catherine Hardiman at work over harvest.

LAST CALL FOR 2016 ENTRIES!

facebook.com/internationalwinechallenge twitter.com/winechallenge [email protected] www.internationalwinechallenge.com

The IWC is the world’s most respected and most

rigorously judged blind-tasted wine competition.

The IWC awards help producers all over the world sell more wine,

SUR˩WDEO\��DQG�SURYLGH�D�TXDOLW\�EHQFKPDUN�IRU�WKH�LQGXVWU\�

Online entry deadline: 3 March 2016

Save money when you enter online. Just £105 per entry.

Enter at www.internationalwinechallenge.com

666


NEWVARIETY

G isborne could be on the crest of a world-wide phenomenon in the next few years, with plans for

New Zealand’s first ever Prosecco grapes to be planted in the region.

It has taken five years for viticultural scientist Dr Susan Wheeler to get to the stage where she can start planning for the first Prosecco plantings. In that time period, she has not only gained permission from Italy to grow the grapes here and call the ensuing wine Prosecco, she has also seen the imported cuttings go through

a rigorous three year MPI quar-antine.

“I am going to be slow about releasing it as I want to get a really good handle on what this variety can do in various regions,’ Wheeler says. “We have so little data to go on from overseas about how to grow it, where to grow it and how to train it. I want to get a really good idea of all of those things before we release it in general.”

That is all good news for Gis-borne, as Wheeler has decided it is the perfect region for initial trials to be undertaken.

“I like i t s h i s -tory with sparkling wines,” she says. “And there are a lot of growers who are start-ing to take out older, less popular varieties, meaning there is probably a big scope for future plantings.”

With renowned

Gisborne based win-

emaker Steve Voysey as a busi-

ness partner, Wheeler is keen to undertake

controlled experimentation. “Sometimes when a new

variety comes into a country there is one person who cham-pions it, but it often isn’t in a very controlled manner. With a new variety, if it isn’t produced to its highest possible poten-tial, it reflects on its future suc-cess. It could do well in many

GISBORNE TO BENEFIT FROM PROSECCO T E S S A N I C H O L S O N

FAST, COST-EFFECTIVE SHELTER

For all of your weather protection requirements,

talk to us now:0508 743 583

www.simpleshelter.co.nz

YEAR WARRANTY10 HIGH WIND +

SNOW RATINGSPROUDLY NZ MADE


regions in New Zealand, but we want to do the trials in the right location, which should give us a great deal of information that can then be transferred to other areas. There is a lot of Prosecco coming out of Australia, which is our closest relevance, but what they do in Italy is so different to what we would do here. So we really need to get a handle on it.” Internationally Prosecco is the wine of the moment, with sales outstripping Champagne over and over again.

In the UK alone, sales of Pro-secco rose by 72 percent in the year ending July 2015. In contrast Champagne sales rose by just 1.2 percent (according to US research company IRL). It is a similar story in the US, with sales during 2014 rising by 32 percent.

And following a WTO ruling in 2013, no one other than Italy, Australia and now New Zealand

can use the name Prosecco when exporting to any country outside of Europe. (Australia and New Zealand must use the name Glera when exporting to the EU).

“I have been watching what is happening elsewhere and this is a variety that is growing and growing in popularity. That can only be good for us, because we are in a genuinely special position,” Wheeler says. “The Italians are not going to allow anyone else to use the name. But we have it and we have the best clone here, the one they release to their vineyards.”

She describes the clonal bunches as big, yet loose and not as subject to botrytis as some other Prosecco clones.

“We suspect we may have to manage crop (levels) a bit. But this is all part of the trialing we have to do.”

The interest from wine compa-nies has been very strong Wheeler

says, which confirms her initial idea of bringing the variety into New Zealand was right.

“There is genuine interest out there, which is very satisfying. I mean I thought it was a good idea, but then I think a lot of things are good ideas. To have it verified by people coming to us wanting to

lock it in, is great news.”She is hoping to have between

10 and 20 hectares of the variety planted in Gisborne within the next three years and grow it from there. For further information on the Prosecco vines, contact: [email protected]@me.com Q

For Expert Viticultural Property Advice

ALEXANDER

HAYWARD LTD

Registered Valuers,Property Consultants, Arbitrators

Specialising in all aspects of Vineyard and Winery Valuation, Including Specialist Plant

and Machinery

Contact:Dave Stark B Ag Com, FNZIV, FNZPI

Lex Hayward Dip VFM, FNZPI, AAMINZ

Experienced in all South Island Winegrowing Regions

Ph 03 5789776 Level 1, 20 Market St, BLENHEIM

Fax 03 5782806 email [email protected]

Advantages• Highly soluable• Retains colour in light reds• Removes haze and particles• Reduces filtration in some circumstances• Reduces astringent and bitter phenolic flavours• Retains Volatile flavours• Enhances fruit characteristics• Retains tannins for flavour structure

The Cfine™ differenceCfine™ is a marine collagen from a sustainably managed New Zealand cold water species. Cfine™ offers winemakers a collagen of remarkable solubility and consistent molecular profile making it a superior clarifying agent that enhances the flavour and colur characteristics of wine.

To discuss Cfine™ in more detail or request a sample contact: Ocean Essence Ltd. PO Box 11, Nelson, New Zealand.Kleat Nepe – Phone: 03 548 3069 email: [email protected]

HM

070

The Cfine™ differenceCfine™ is a marine collagen from a sustainably managed New Zealand cold water species.Cfine™ offers winemakers a collagen of remarkable solubility and consistent molecular profile making it a superior clarifying agent that enhances the flavour and colour characteristics of wine.

Advantages• Highly soluable• Retains colour in light reds• Removes haze and particles• Reduces filtration in some circumstances• Reduces astringent and bitter phenolic

flavours• Retains volatile flavours• Enhances fruit characteristics• Retains tannins for flavour structure

To discuss Cfine™ in more detail or request a sample contact:Ocean Essence Ltd. PO Box 11, Nelson, New Zealand.Kleat Nepe – Phone: 03 548 3069 email: [email protected]


VINEYARDNEWS

O ver the next few weeks, it is inevitable that in many wine growing regions of New Zealand, the real

impact of El Nino will kick in. High daily temperatures will coincide with a lack of rainfall, meaning anyone who has planted new vines in the past six months will be under pressure to keep them alive.

If you have gone to the trou-ble of investing in vines as either replants or to establish a new vine-yard block – then the last thing you want is for those vines to turn up their toes due to a lack of water. While you can’t bring the rain on, you can take a few simple meas-ures to protect the plants, as Nick Hoskins from Riversun Nurseries explained to me.

While all young vines are at risk at this time of the year, there are two very separate scenarios. Firstly for those that have removed diseased vines and replanted – be

aware that those young vines are having to compete with the more mature vines living alongside.

Hoskins says the biggest issue here is the differing needs between the two.

“Generally the water require-ments for young vines are higher than what is required for mature vines. The young vines require more frequent watering, whereas the mature vines which have a big-ger root system, tend to get infre-quent irrigation.”

If the irrigation system is left unchanged, the young vines will suffer he says. But there are ways around that.

“Depending on what type of dripper line you have, you can place extra drippers around the new vines so it gets more mois-ture.”

Mulch the replacement vines with any form of protection you can come across.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be organic mulch. I have seen people use filter pads, or plastic and weed matting. Any of those things are worth while. If it is thick enough it will stop the moisture evaporating away from the ground and retain it near the surface which is where the young vine’s roots are.”

One form of mulch you may not have considered, but one that Hoskins has trialled himself, is crushed sheep dags .

“They work really well. We used them in our nursery at Riv-ersun one year, just put them along the rows and it made a hell of a dif-ference.

Ensure there are no weeds competing with the replanted vines, but be very careful if spray-ing for weeds. Young tips are extremely vulnerable.

Take a leaf out of Gisborne’s books and consider hand watering

the replanted vines. If you are in the situation that water rights have been turned off (as is extremely likely in parts of Marlborough) this may be the only option you have left.

“They have been doing this in Gisborne for years, because vineyards are often established without irrigation and the young vines, are just hand watered. It used to be standard practice, two guys with hand guns and another driving a tanker.

“I am unsure what the cost of driving around hand watering is, but maybe it’s something you have to consider. To me, if you have gone to the trouble of investing say $5 for a new vine, and another $1.50 to plant and stake it, you might as well look after it.”

In terms of new vineyard blocks, there aren’t the issues of competition between the new and old vines. But many of the other issues remain the same Hoskins says.

Protect the vines against weeds. Mulch the vines wher-ever possible, with straw, bark, side thrown grass, or plastics, cardboard, wool or filter pads. Anything that will help prevent evapoporation .

If you have taken advantage of the weeks leading up to now, to get as much moisture onto the vines as possible, you may now be fac-ing another issue if irrigation is turned off.

“Because when you do shut the water off you have a pretty dependent and soft vine and they can shut down. I saw that last

SAVING THOSE YOUNG VINEST E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Another use from those sheep in vineyards could be crushed dags, which can help as a mulch for new vines.


year when someone had pushed his vines so quickly, that the root system couldn’t keep enough water up to the canopy and con-sequently parts of it were shutting down. The vine was out of balance, with a small root system not able to take up enough moisture to support a large vigorous canopy.” That balance is vital in all vines, but even more so in the young, Hoskins says.

“Moisture is evaporating through the leaves, so you need to have big roots to replace that. If it can’t keep up, some of that canopy will begin to die off.

If you do have a big canopy (and can’t irrigate) you could reduce the leaf area to help keep those vines alive. Or again you could take note of Gisborne and hand water. To me it would be certainly worth doing.”

He says even with a big dry, it is unlikely you will lose all the vines – remember they aren’t called a weed for nothing.

“They would be unlikely to die outright, but you might end up with some gaps, where a few die off.”

He advises that you need to assess those young vines at the end of the season.

Water as much as possible lead-

ing into winter to rebuild carbo-hydrate levels and make careful consideration about how you pro-ceed over winter.

“You have to assess those vines at the end of the season. The worst thing you can do for a vine that is not fully developed, is end up laying more cane to fruit it. You might have to readjust your think-ing about when you get that vine into production.” Q

There are numerous tracts of new vineyard in Marlborough – how will they cope with the next two months of a dry summer?

STUNNING!0800 113 747

VISIT OUR WEBSITE OR FREE CALL NOW

www.riversun.co.nz

We call it the “hidden valley”, a magical site with incredible soils and microclimate: deep volcanic ash over ancient river shingles set above the dynamic Waipaoa river – an ideal nursery for our babies.

RIVERSUNWHATATUTU NURSERYGISBORNE

1

4

01

2

01

6


SWNZUPDATE

J ustine Tate has come full circle in terms of her career path. From New Zealand, to Vietnam, Antigua to

London, Australia and now back to New Zealand.

Finally home she is the new face of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand.

In the role of SWNZ Business Manager Tate will be the interface between NZW and you as a member.

She brings with her years of experience, having worked in the fields of research with Nielsen and NZTE, financial services and more latterly, working on the UK Pension Quality Mark. Wine has played a role in her past, especially given she was on the ground with Nielsen when sales of wine in supermarkets became a reality back in 1991.

“A lot of my work was around

FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) research. At that time wine was just going into supermarkets and there was this big debate about how on earth we were going to find space for this new product category. There were a lot of decisions that people had to make about what they would stock and just where they would put it. So for me it’s fascinating to now see aisles of the stuff, it’s a huge range.”

The next step in Tate’s career path saw her heading to Vietnam, again with Nielsen. But this was a different kettle of fish to anything she had accomplished in New Zealand. While supermarket research was relatively easy back here, due to technology, in Vietnam there was no such luxury.

“There was no such thing as a supermarket in Vietnam, so that was really interesting. I went from

a highly segmented market in New Zealand, where we were used to a lot of test marketing amongst branding and advertising – areas where you could measure impacts – to a market that wasn’t even defined. For some of the biggest firms in the world, Vietnam is a big market, with 80 million people. So Nielsen was the one in there, getting that information and sending it back. But with no shops, no scanning data, we had to send people into stores and count stock – it was all manual.”

The initial project Tate was offered was supposed to take six months, but she loved the area so much she ended up staying five years.

“Then I went through a period of temporary insanity and bought a bar and restaurant in Antigua in the Caribbean.”

Tate and a couple of friends

thought there was a need for something that provided for the staff of cruise ships. While Antigua offered a lot for tourists, the cruise staff had nothing aimed specifically at them.

“Cruise ships have a very high staff to passenger ratio but everywhere you got off a cruise ship it was all geared towards the passengers. So we were looking for a location and a concept that really appealed to the staff. They weren’t allowed to socialise with the passengers on or off board, they were all paid in US dollars and in cash and we really wanted to relieve them of some of that.”

The bar actually ended up being more geared towards yachties within the area, rather than cruise liner staff. Tate and her partner helped redevelop the building, built up the business and then sold before moving back to

THE NEW FACE OF SWNZT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Sustainability is about doing the right thing in many different ways, says Justine Tate – the new face of SWNZ. PHOTO: BLACK QUAIL ESTATE, CENTRAL

OTAGO. SUPPLIED BY NZW


London. A short time later she moved to Sydney to work for NZTE.

“I looked after the tech and manufacturing companies, helping them to globalise and expand in the Australian market.”

After three years it was back to London, where the big subject on everyone’s mind was the meltdown of the world of financial services.

“I wanted to understand that area better,” she says, “so I worked in marketing strategy for an assert management company called Insight Investment, which are part of the Bank of New York Mellon group.”

That led to a growing interest in pensions, an area that had undergone unprecedented change in the UK.

“ T h e b u s i n e s s m o d e l s for pension providers, asset m a n a g e r s a n d i n s u r a n c e companies were all suddenly disrupted due to government a n d r e g u l a t o r y c h a n g e s . ” Prior to discovering the SWNZ job, Tate was the Managing Director of the Pension Quality Mark.

“This is a programme started by the pension industry body to raise the standard of workplace and employer pension provision in the UK. I ran a team that set and communicated the standards for achieving the quality mark, audited quality mark holders and assessed evidence based applications.”

The skills gained in this role made her an obvious choice for the SWNZ Business Manager role which her partner first noticed advertised on Twitter. It was the perfect job and the perfect time to come home she decided.

“There were two things that appealed about the job. One, it’s the wine industry and who doesn’t like that? Wherever we have been in the world, we have always looked for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It’s pretty much

all we have drunk. So that was a major plus.

“Then from my experience with NZTE, I understood how important this industry is to New Zealand. It is still so young, but it is pushing the boundaries on what can be done. No one is complacent and that to me is exciting.”

A f t e r c h a t t i n g w i t h a number of NZTE staff about the sustainability programme, Tate could see how it was a world leader, although maybe not that well understood in the international market.

“It’s a bit of a Kiwi thing, where we do something really well, but we don’t stand up and shout about it. Yet we need to. I think a lot of my role is going to be communicating that message, letting everyone know what we are doing and how we are doing it. I see my role as very much taking the message out to the world but also coordinating here with the members. It is both of those strands.” Tate strongly believes in ensuring all members of SWNZ are receiving the information they need to do their job better. Only then can the programme move forward in the way it needs to as a world leader.

When asked if getting the mes-sage out was hindered by the word Sustainability, given many people wonder just what it means, Tate said she had thought about that.

“But I haven’t come up with a better name. We could say what we are doing is ethical – but that one word doesn’t encompass everything we are doing. It is only part of it. It’s also environmental, but that again only encompasses a small part of it. So I keep coming back to sustainability, because that encompasses it all. It is all about doing the right thing – in many different ways. And I like that.”

Tate started in her new role on February 1. To contact her, email; [email protected]@me.com Q

p. 03 384 2903 e. [email protected] w. kiwilabels.co.nz

Keeping It LocalBased in Christchurch, we are perfectly positioned to work with wine growers who are ubiquitous in the South Island.

• Guaranteed lead times• 20 Brands trusting Kiwi Labels with their work

Specialists In:• True High Build • Embossing• Shaping and Die Cutting • Screen Printing • Matt/Gloss Spot Overprint • Hot Foiling• Sculptured Foiling


SWNZPROFILE

A s we approach that time when exte nsive net canopies dot the Central Otago landscape, it might

seem counter-intuitive for a vine-yard to even consider developing anything that might attract birds. But that is exactly what Amisfield did in 2006 when they created a revolutionary wetland within their vineyard.

With an estimated 30% of New Zealand birds being wetland spe-cies, what potential benefit could there possibly be for creating idyl-lic wetland conditions so close to grapes? Actually, the benefits far outweigh any negatives. As a water purification tool, a wetland provides an environmental mas-terstroke at handling the many thousands of litres of waste water generated in the winemaking pro-cess, so the bigger question really has to be, why haven’t more winer-ies got one?

“Well, it’s probably due to the cost” says Amisfield winemaker Stephanie Lambert.

“It was very expensive to set up and it costs a bit to use but it does make us feel better about what we are doing. Recently, we calculated that this winery uses 6 litres of water for every litre of wine we make, so that is a lot of water that would be disappear-ing off the property if we didn’t recycle it.”

The original vision for the wetland came from Jeff Sinnot who was the general manager at Amisfield in the early 2000s when plans for the winery were first drawn up. Having studied in Australia, Sinnot was seen as something of a maverick when he suggested to his professor that he was interest in organic viticulture.

“Well that won’t last long was what I was told,” says Sinnot. “Sus-tainability was very much a fringe

thing, the industry had the attitude that if it moves…kill it and I guess that just spurred me on.”

Today, Sinnot provides special-ist winemaking and viticultural advice to a select group of clients under the banner of his company Vinesense. A decade since he was involved at Amisfield, Jeff is only too happy to discuss what he calls a definite highpoint in his wine career.

“The Amisfield winery is still my alma mater when it comes to the pinnacle of designing and try-ing to construct and operate a fully sustainable winery. When we sat down to figure out what to do, I was told by the director to build a great winery that makes great Pinot.

“Essentially what we did was figure out what great Pinot Noir actually was, an achievable cost and value for the wine, and how to do this with the smallest impact on our environment? Quality, econ-omy and sustainability were the three tenets that we had to adhere to, kind of like the holy trinity.”

After engaging an engineer who specialised in sustainable wastewater management systems, the idea was hatched to recycle wastewater via an onsite wetland. As Amisfield are rural, hooking into a town waste system wasn’t that practical but at a consent hearing for the winery, Sinnot was astounded at the attitude of the Central Otago District Council.

“They were skeptical from the start and when they basically told us to dig a hole ‘like everybody else does’, I was outraged. They didn’t get it and thought we were weird.

They couldn’t believe that we wanted to spend money to process water to make it exactly the same as it went into the winery.”

To be fair to the council, while constructed wetlands are recognised internationally as being extremely efficient for processing wastewater, the concept has taken a while to catch on in New Zealand and no winery in Central Otago had ever suggested one. In fact, the Amisfield wetland wastewater plant is still the only one of its kind in the region, but the process is remarkably straightforward.

Wastewater from the winery firstly settles in an underground tank. Then it gets pumped through a stainless steel screen to sepa-rate out the solids, which go to the composting system, while the liquid continues into two set-tling tanks where further solids are removed. The water then flows down a cascading aerator designed to oxygenate the water. At this stage, the heavily oxygen-ated water that has had 90% of the solids removed, hits the first cell of the wetland where the real magic happens.

“That first cell contains sedges and they have adapted to a wide range of pH. So that they can han-dle relatively acidic water. When the water hits that first cell, it’s loaded with high levels of potas-sium which is probably the most soluble electrolyte that comes out of winery wastewater,” says Sinnot.

“As the water progresses from cell to cell via the constructed herringbone shape, the specially

AMISFIELD WETLAND

Amisfield winemaker Stephanie Lambert lifting the lid on one of the waste water cells.

M A R K O R T O N


selected wetland plants that are all endemic to the region, effectively eat components in the wastewater. This means nitrates, phosphates, potassium, sodium, magnesium and various other micronutrients in the water.”

Once the water graduates to the final stage, which is a 90-metre long gravel screen that Sinnot calls ‘The Polishing Cell’, it’s expected that the water will be completely clean. Though, after the first six months in operation, the local council was still pretty skeptical.

“When we took our first sam-ple of the water from the wetland after it has been processed and sent it to the council for test-ing, they honestly thought we were bullshiting them as there was nothing to be found in the water. So, they decided to come and have a look for themselves. When I opened the final cell for them and a frog jumped out, the

council inspector looked at me and said; ‘well that works doesn’t it.’”

Following a company motto to “work with nature and not against it” Amisfield are really very proud to be the owner of New Zealand’s first winery wetland wastewater plant. While the purified water from the wetland doesn’t go to the grapes, it does irrigate an integral shelterbelt of trees that in turn minimises soil degradation and erosion.

“A wetland is not only amaz-ing for the environment,” says Lambert, “it is also a great visual marketing tool. Our visitors can actually ‘see’ what effort we are putting into sustainability. For instance, our harvest interns see the tangible side of what happens to the water when they are hosing equipment down. When I think about having a wetland, its more a case of why wouldn’t you?”

Jeff Sinnot is as passionate now

about wetlands as he was when the idea for one at Amisfield first reared its head

“If we can do it in a 600 tonne winery in Central Otago, imagine what’s possible in a region like Marlborough? Because it is not a requirement (yet), councils are still backward thinking in terms

of directing the industry. So, the industry needs to take this by the horns themselves. We need to look for ways to close our production loop, so that our carbon footprint is as low as possible and we are not a burden on the other ecological systems in this valley.”[email protected] Q

REALISE YOUR POTENTIAL WITH GYPSUM100% NATURAL GYPSUM IS PERFECT FOR VINTNERS & HORTICULTURE

Key features & benefits of 100% natural Gypsum

• Increased yields & improved profitability• pH of almost 7 (negligible effect on soil pH)• Helps control soil borne diseases caused by

anaerobic conditions• Improves soil condition, structure, aeration

& drainage• Important role in managing sodic & saline soils• Source of readily available sulphur & calcium

Talk to your fertiliser nutrient advisor to learn more about the benefits of Gypsum.

www.gypsum.co.nz


NEWTECHNOLOGY

T he word ozone instantly conjures up images of big holes in the atmosphere, stronger UV light, the risk

of severe sunburn and CFC’s, at least in this part of the world. However if you are a vineyard owner, then maybe you want to think again about this particular compound, as it could be a saving grace out there among the vines.

Ozone or O3, is an unstable bluish gas, that has long been recognised as a sterilising agent in wineries and dairy units.

Now it is being touted as a sustainable way of killing pests and fungus among vines, with machinery soon to be available

here in New Zealand.What is Ozone?A quick search on google, and

this is the explanation of how ozone is formed.

“O3 is formed in the atmos-phere when energetic ultraviolet (UV) radiation dissociates mol-ecules of oxygen, O2 , into sepa-rate oxygen atoms. Free oxygen atoms can recombine to form oxy-gen molecules but if a free oxygen atom collides with an oxygen mol-ecule, it joins up, forming ozone.”

However it doesn’t remain as O3 for very long, quickly convert-ing back to O2 within 10 to 20 minutes.

Until now the New Zealand

wine industry has had to settle for using ozone in wineries only, because there hasn’t been the equipment available to transport the unstable compound out into the field. That has now changed with developments in the US that has seen a portable ozone genera-tor created. It takes oxygen out of the air, passes it through an electri-cal current, transfers it into water which can then be sprayed onto vines or fruit.

The ozone charged water sterilises everything it comes into contact with – which means any bacteria, mites or fungus sitting on the vine and/or fruit is killed within seconds.

Andy Symonds, a spokesman for the recently formed New Zea-land Company AgO3 who are the sole agent for the machines, says the technology has been trialed extensively in the States with out-standing results. Because O3 con-verts back to O2 in a short space of time, it is not only the perfect sterilization method, it also leaves no residue.

“It is in no way harmful to the plant or humans,” he says, “so it is a very sustainable method of controlling pests and fungus. We capture the O3 and put it into water, spray it onto the vines and it breaks down the outer membrane of the fungus almost instantly, and then within 20 minutes it reverts back to its natural state. So there is nothing harmful left on the vine or in the air.”

Once the gas is integrated into water it is so safe that protective clothing is not necessary, although it is still recommended he says. It does however have a rather strong smell, which is best described as unpleasant and may require a bit of mouth rather than nose breath-ing. But the smell too dissipates within minutes.

Obviously there is the added bonus of not having to use as many chemicals within the vine-yard, Symonds says, especially as the season progresses towards harvest.

“Coming from a horticultural background (apples) I know how quickly disease can threaten liveli-hoods. Yet there aren’t that many options available other than chem-icals. We think this system offers a lot of opportunities. We are pretty

OZONE IN THE VINEYARDT E S S A N I C H O L S O N


excited about it.”The machinery which Symonds

says is quite small (less than a metre high, by 50 cm wide and 15 cm deep) can be attached to nor-mal spray units used within the vineyard.

“It’s like a slab type box that has an air conditioner, an electri-cal current that draws O2 in and makes the conversion and pumps out the gas. When placed onto the back of a nozzle sprayer, it circu-lates the O3 with the water, allow-ing it to be sprayed onto the vines.”

Trials in the US have shown ozone generators to be effective on mites, fungus and powdery mildew. That could be the big-gest advantage here in New Zea-land, given the increase is severe powdery outbreaks in the past two years since the sexual stage was discovered here. As the disease becomes more resistant to tradi-

tional forms of control – O3 may be the best bet for the future.

“We are currently doing our own research on powdery in Hawke’s Bay via Peracto Research,” Symonds says, “with results due out in late January or early February.”

A description of how ozone charged water worked within vine-yards was reported in an article in the US Vineyard & Winery Manage-ment magazine, earlier this year.

“As an unstable gas, ozone readily reacts with both inorganic and organic matter. It sanitizes by charging or “lighting up” cell walls and denaturing metabolic enzymes. Once its oxidizing potential has been released, ozone reverts back to oxygen, leaving no chemical residue.”

For further information; visit [email protected]

An Ag03 machine which fits onto a sprayer.

The lush green foliage of vine leaves after ozone treatment – note no residue.

Our quality commitment runs very deep. We mentor

our people and we monitor our procedures, and the

result is a host of awards that testify to the very high

standards we attain – with equipment positioning;

on-time arrivals; documentations speed and accuracy;

workplace safety; environmental responsibility,

and more.

Quality – we get it. And that means you will, too.

For hands-on help from our local experts:

Outbound: (0508) 222 444 Inbound: (0508) 333 666

A focus on quality.

www.hamburgsud-line.com


The New Zealand wine scene is so young, that multi generational companies are somewhat of an oddity, rather than the norm. In this new NZWinegrower series, we take a look at some of the families, where more than one member has entered the world of wine. Whether they be siblings or children following in their parent’s footsteps, they are creating their own Family Vine.

FAMILY VINES

On the outskirts of Renwick, in

Marlborough, Forrest Estate is one of

those that are in the process of creating a

dynasty. John Forrest is a fifth generation

Marlburian, and initially made his name

in biomedical research science, while his

wife Brigid was a GP. Both had a passion

for wine and despite living outside of

Marlborough for many years, they were

keen to to return to their roots and unleash

that passion.

So in 1988 they bought an 8-hectare block

on SH6, a few kilometres from the Renwick

township. They have three children, Reid,

Beth and Sam. All three are involved in

some way with the business. Reid who

is a marine biologist, is a member of the

Board. Sam, who is marketing manager

for Heineken is keen to bring his skill set

back into Forrest Estate. And Beth is a

winemaker, alongside her father.

This is John and Beth’s story as told

separately to Tessa Nicholson.

I was in biomedical research in Adelaide and Brigid had just bought into a general practice when Beth was

born – so she is an Australian. I remember her birth very well, as I had to give up my first senior rugby refereeing appointment to be at her birth – which was a real bugger. The obstetrician had forgotten about Brigid and he was about to go on two weeks holiday. He could only fit her in on the Saturday to induce her, which wasn’t what I wanted at all. I wanted it to be on the Friday – but it wasn’t to be.

Beth has always been the laid back type. She is determined and as stubborn as – that is probably a trait she got from her mother and father if the truth be told. She was delightful as a child, chatty with that stubborn streak. But she always wanted to do things with you, was happy to be around doing whatever you were doing.

She was three and a half when we came to Marlborough, so her childhood is basically this place. When we came here we had a sky-line garage with two bedrooms,

some bare land which we planted in vines and an apple orchard.

This was the late 80s when apples were actually profitable, so I kept them for a while.

She was always a bit of a tom-boyish land girl, and she modelled herself on her older brother.

She always used to come down to the apple orchard with me, with her cloth books and her toys. There was this one time when I was thinning apples, and came back up to the house for morn-ing tea. I had a cup of coffee and then realised that I didn’t have Beth. I raced back to the orchard and there she was sitting under the same tree, quite happy. There was a damn creek just 100 metres away – it gave me a bit of a shock.

Beth was probably the one that was most interested in getting out with me. Not to say the others weren’t, they have all been pretty good at tolerating me working all the time.

One plus about living on site with your shop and your office 10 metres one way and the winery 20 metres the other way, was I could

John Forrest, 60

Brought to you by

Soil Health, Plant Health, YOUR HealthRoots, Shoots & Fruits


in the absence of Brigid, bring up the family. (Brigid being a doctor and obstetrician, was working long hours at the time).

I know one of Beth’s memo-ries of me is forgetting to pick them up from school. I would get so engrossed in a meeting or in the vineyard that I would literally forget about them. The staff got so good, that if the kids hadn’t turned up within an hour of school finishing, they would dispatch someone to go and col-lect them for me. It would be about five o’clock and suddenly I would realise that I hadn’t picked the kids up. That didn’t happen just once, it happened regularly. So I wasn’t the perfect domestic dad by any means.

I had come from a multi gen-erational farming background and what I saw was the oldest son being given the farm and yet they couldn’t farm to save them-

selves. So when we came into this business, while I was hopeful that we were setting up a multi generational wine business here in Marlborough, I never asked them or insisted they even think about coming into the industry. The end result now is that I have two of them that desperately want to be involved in the business and the oldest, even though he doesn’t drink, is passionate about the company. So they are all involved of their own volition.

Beth did a four-year degree in geography and the summer after she graduated, she just decided that she wold take herself off to Adelaide to do a masters in wine. She just announced to me, “Dad I want to be in the business and I want to be a winemaker, so I’m going to Adelaide”. I was very happy about that. I mean you want your children to be pas-sionate about the business and

Beth was never far away from her father as a youngster, involved in all aspects of the winery.

Roots, Shoots & Fruits

�

��

�12�6RGLXP��&KORULGH�RU�6XOSKDWHV��

��

12�QHJDWLYH�LPSDFW�RQ�S+��7$��3RO\SKHQROV�

��

=(52�1,752*(1�� )(57,*$7(�LI�QHWV�DUH�RQ�

�

)RU�,QIRUPDWLRQ�FRQWDFW�5RRWV�6KRRWV��)UXLWV�/WG��3K��(PDLO�UVI#UG��FR�Q]��ZZZ�UG��FR�Q]�

(DUO\�5LSHQLQJ�

)ODYRXU�

3529(1�

%UL[�


O ne of my earliest memo-ries of Dad relates to a dog called Sledgehammer that we picked up from the

SPCA across the road. When we bought the property here, Dad decided we all needed a dog. So we went over and picked one out. It was this ridgeback cross who was huge. On the walk back home, he managed to wrap his chain around my feet and knock me over, then he grabbed Reid’s arm and dragged him to the ground. He lasted all of about half a day until Dad took him back to the SPCA. We did get another dog after that, an Alsatian cross, Kara. She was awesome.

I spent most of my childhood in the apple orchard with Dad. I was very much a Daddy’s girl. Reid was older than me when we came here, so he was at school during the day and Sam hadn’t been born then. So I spent a lot of my time with Dad. It was on the tractor in the morning, down to the apple orchard and I would usually sit under a tree, reading my books and hanging out with the dog. And then I would be forgotten by Dad - quite often. I remember Mum coming down the orchard one night in a mad panic in her tiny Honda City. It was about seven o’clock and she had come home from the hospi-

tal to find I wasn’t at home. I had probably been there on my own for over an hour. She found me liter-ally sitting under a tree with my books and the dog was still with me, so I wasn’t that concerned. I suppose he often disappeared off picking and doing things, so I never thought anything about it.

How would I describe Dad? Probably as a big, cuddly bear. But outside of that, he is the mad professor. He has a million ideas a minute, some of them far fan-gled and some quite practical. He is absolutely convinced that every idea he has got is going to be the next big thing. Then he talks

himself out of it halfway through the day. He is also so passionate about what he does – I love that about him.

He was hugely involved when we were growing up, apart from when it came to picking us up from school. In the end we decided we would walk or bike to school – because it was a much better way of ensuring we got home. He would just get so involved with things, that’s where his passion comes through. And everything had to be completed, not left in a half hearted mess. I don’t think he ever worried that we were in any trouble or weren’t capable of look-ing after ourselves. And as soon as we got home, we’d find Dad, have some afternoon tea and play games of touch or cricket on the front lawn.

As a kid I always wanted to do what my father did. But then I hit the teenage years and quite frankly I was a little bitch. It must have been when I was 16 and all of a sudden I decided that I wanted nothing to do with what my par-ents did. Winemaking – who would want to do that? So I went to Otago uni and followed geog-raphy which had been a passion at high school. I did well and came out with a double major and got

be involved.She came back to Forrest at

the end of 2014. I was overseas when she finally got back and it was two weeks before I got home. When I got here the whole place was different. Everyone was walk-ing faster and smiling. She had whipped them into shape in two weeks.

I never had a days formal train-ing in winemaking, while Beth did, plus she had done multiple vintages around the world. She brought a great set of skills, and

for her age great knowledge which I really appreciate. And she has brought energy. You forget you are getting older and slower, until you see someone younger like her doing what you used to do.

She is a driven, dynamic per-son, with a lot of my traits and some of her mother’s better traits as well. I guess Beth is closer in style to me though.

She still calls me Dad in the winery, rather than John. Although if she wants to make me stop or tell me off she will call me John. I

know I have annoyed her, or she is about to tut tut me if I get a John rather than Dad.

While we would have liked it, we didn’t start in the wine indus-try with the view to having a multi generational dynasty.

I am an academic and an observer of history and what I find exciting, is that Marlborough in such a short time has become one of the great wine regions of the world. When Oz Clarke reviewed the 20th Century of wine, he said the only new thing to emerge had

been Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Marlborough like Bor-deaux or Burgundy will not lose that status, once you get it, it tends to stay. So if you think about that in a logical, dispassionate sense, in 100 or 200 years there will be the Rothschild equivalent here in Marlborough – multi generational successful wine families.

If we at Forrest Estate can do it right and set up a strong founda-tion, we will hopefully be a part of that for many generations to come.

Beth Forrest, 30

John and Beth with the dog that got to stay.

Family Vines – brought to you by Roots, Shoots & Fruits


offered a position to come back and do a Master then hopefully a PhD in the geography department at Otago. But by then I had come round and decided that after being in the cold of Otago the only thing I really wanted to do was actually follow in my father’s footsteps and make wine. It took a few years to realise that I was just running away from it I think. I did the two-year degree in Adelaide and spent almost five years away travelling. I would do a New Zealand vintage and then head overseas for other vintages. But last year I was ready to come back here.

Working with Dad is interest-ing. I haven’t met anyone that has as much passion everyday as he does. I don’t know anyone who has as many ideas and such conviction in each of those ideas, even if that conviction is very short lived. Just the energy that comes out of him at 60 is absolutely ridiculous.

We are extremely similar, so we butt heads. But the one thing that comes out of that, and maybe it’s part of being family, is that you are forced to listen to each other. If you can put an idea to him and justify it, then you are right. And I am like that too. If it’s a far fangled

idea that has no backing, you won’t get my support.

We do argue, but he will admit that I have it right sometimes. And I have to step down and admit that he is right. I think we keep each other in line

It’s hard some days for sure. I

walk into the other office and have to bitch about my dad, which is a bit hard to take I guess. And some-times I want to smash him – but that is the same with many people. But at the end of the day, he is still my big, cuddly bear of a [email protected]

John and Beth Forrest – the beginning of a family dynasty.

There when you need us so you’ll never run out.

HC ALD0429

When it comes to fuel we’ve got everything the farming sector needs. We’ll offer advice around safe fuel storage, and can deliver machinery oils and greases right to your gate. We understand the importance of farm productivity and take personal responsibility for all deliveries - employing our own team of experienced drivers to ensure your fuel always arrives.

Learn more at alliedpetroleum.co.nz For fuel and lubricants call 0800 383 566


WINEAWARDS

AIR NZ WINE AWARDS

WHERE: NELSON

WHEN: NOVEMBER 28, 2015.

PHOTOS: ANDY@SWEET PHOTOGRAPHY

Air New Zealand Wine Awards Dinner


AIR NZ WINE AWARDS


Air New Zealand Champion Wine Of The ShowChurch Road McDonald Series Syrah 2013

O-I New Zealand Reserve Wine Of The ShowLake Chalice The Raptor Chardonnay Marlborough 2014

JF Hillebrand New Zealand Champion Pinot NoirBrightwater Vineyards Pinot Noir 2014

Label and Litho Ltd Champion Sauvignon BlancDelta Hatters Hill Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2014

Rabobank New Zealand Champion ChardonnayLake Chalice The Raptor Chardonnay Marlborough 2014

Bite Magazine Champion Sweet WineSeifried Winemakers Collection Sweet Agnes Riesling Nelson 2015

Coast FM Champion Merlot, Cabernet and BlendsSaint Clair Pioneer Block 17 Plateau Merlot Hawke’s Bay 2014

Fruitfed Supplies Champion SyrahChurch Road McDonald Series Syrah 2013

Guala Closures New Zealand Ltd Champion Pinot GrisYealands Estate Single Vineyard Pinot Gris Awatere Valley, Marlborough 2015

Liquorland Champion Open Red WineSpy Valley Pinot Noir Marlborough 2013

New World Champion Open White WineRapaura Springs Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015

New Zealand Winegrowers Champion GewürztraminerJohanneshof Cellars Gewürztraminer Marlborough 2014

Plant & Food Research Champion RieslingPeter Yealands Riesling Marlborough 2015

Port Nelson Limited Champion Other White StylesWaimea Family Estate Albariño Nelson 2015

Toast by Liquorland Champion RoséAspiring Flats Rosé Central Otago 2015

WineWorks Limited Champion Sparkling WineNautilus Cuvée Marlborough Brut NV

Rangitikei Chicken Champion Exhibition White or Sparkling WineMission Estate Jewelstone Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2014

Nelson Airport Limited & Nelson Tasman Tourism Champion Exhibition Red WineBeach House Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2014

AIR NZ WINE AWARD TROPHY WINNERS


SCIENCEPROFILE

P lant and Food’s Emma Sherman doesn’t exactly look like someone who wants to blow things up

– but then again - looks can be deceiving.

The recipient of a Fulbright Science and Innovation scholar-ship admits her lifetime goal was to gain a chemistry degree so she could get into pyrotechnics.

“I like action movies,” she says with a laugh, “so I really liked the idea of setting up the explosions and being a part of it.”

Thankfully for the world of wine science, Sherman realised early on in her Science and Tech-nology Degree (majoring in Chem-istry) that maybe there weren’t too many job opportunities available.

“I realised that being a pyro-technician probably wasn’t the most reasonable career path for me, especially given explosions on movies were generally done by CGI (computer graphics), so there weren’t that many jobs going.”

So from blowing things up, Sherman decided to go down a completely different route – studying tea,

Yes, that’s right. From explo-sions to the calming influence of tea. As part of her degree at University of Waikato she had to spend her fourth year in full time employment. Wanting to travel, she decided to look for a job in London, and the only two places on offer were with either a power station or Tetley Tea.

“I went straight for tea, even though I wasn’t much of a tea drinker back then.”

The job description was quality control and testing factory sam-ples, she says. As a side project Sherman was also considering the health aspects of new products,

which involved highlighting which regions in the world produced tea with the highest phenolic content. (In case you are wondering, it was a region in Kenya).

Whilst she loved the job and the company was keen to retain her services, Visa issues meant she came back to New Zealand with no plans for the immediate future.

“I was applying for jobs and one of those was as lab manager here (Marlborough) with what is now Plant & Food Research. This was 2007.”

Despite being in Marlborough, the job was pitched more towards fruit analysis and Sherman didn’t even consider she would end up working with grapes.

“It didn’t really register with me that it would be with wine grapes. Mind you, I wasn’t a big fan of wine at that stage.”

A lot of her time was spent out in the vineyards, picking fruit for the myriad of trials being undertaken for the research pro-grammes of the day. Maturity testing, regional trials and testing for brix, pH and TA for the Sau-vignon Blanc research kept her busy. When another staff member moved on, Sherman took up the reins of a Pinot Noir sub project.

“I did the analysis and wrote up the stats, then wrote the report. I really enjoyed that, but I could see that I wasn’t going to be able to do more. I needed to get a Post Graduate Degree, which I didn’t have, so I started making noise about wanting to undertake fur-ther study.”

With approval and financial support from Plant & Food, she undertook her Masters and then PhD at the University of Auckland.

“My project was about press fractions of Sauvignon Blanc. The

goal was to try and clean them up by using different materials to remove compounds detrimental to quality from the heavier press fractions.”

The study bug had taken hold and when it came for her choice she looked to red wine for a thesis subject.

“I knew I wanted to use metab-olomics to look at wine composi-tion. Pinot Noir was not very well characterised in terms of sensory impact compounds, so I wanted to use metabolomics, which is an untargeted way of doing analyti-cal chemistry looking for sensory impact.”

You like me, may have had a glazing over of the eyes at that word – metabolomics. Sherman had to explain exactly what that is.

“The origin of metabolomics is in medical research. An example is Type One diabetes – they don’t know what goes on in the body or how to predict who is going to get diabetes. By looking at the compo-sition of bio fluids, you can start to

look for bio markers that indicate disease states.

“The same can be undertaken with sensory research, looking f o r g r o u p s o f c o m p o u n d s that contribute to particular attributes.”

So her first year of her PhD was spent looking for sensory active compounds. Her second year, the one she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for, was to look at wine viscosity and body, again using metabolomics. She considers her-self unbelievably fortunate that she ended up at UC Davis, with two of the world’s experts in her thesis topic. Firstly Hildegarde Heymann, who is a prolific pub-lisher in sensory literature. And secondly Oliver Fiehn who is a forefather of metabolomics.

“It was so good knowing that these two were both at UC Davis, otherwise I would have had to choose whether I went to the sen-sory expert or the metabolomics expert.”

She says there has been very

THE SCIENCE OF WINE T E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Emma Sherman


little research undertaken into what creates body and viscosity in red wine, which is why she was so keen to follow that line of

questioning. “Most people concentrate on

bitterness or astringency because they know what those compounds

are. But I wanted to look at body because it hasn’t received a lot of attention. It has been looked at, but it’s not an easy subject. And

yet it is so important to the wine quality. The Pinot Noir sensory study that I did in the first year of my PhD showed body and quality are highly correlated – so it’s really important.”

Now back from her year in Cali-fornia, Sherman is back at the Uni-versity of Auckland where she will finish her PhD. She is aware that it could yield some much needed information for winemakers of the future.

“Sometimes it is hard to pre-dict what the value is going to be for the industry. I do this stuff because I am interested in it. But then I need to sit down and figure out how my work can benefit the industry. It is a consideration I have to think about.”

And who knows, she could achieve her very first career goal – by blowing old theories out of the water, with her new [email protected] Q

Emma Sherman at work during winemaking trials.


AMONG THE VINES

G rape bunches become pro-gressively more suscepti-ble to Botrytis infection as harvest approaches,

making it vital to maintain a tight fungicide cover from veraison to pre-harvest.

Leaf plucking will enhance air movement and light penetra-tion within the canopy, and helps decrease bunch drying time and reduces the potential for disease development.

Continue monitoring for downy mildew into February. If infections are found, apply an appropriate fungicide in antici-pation of conditions conducive for infection.

Magnesium is an important constituent of chlorophyll, a compound used by the vine in photosynthesis and activates many enzymes used for both car-bohydrate and protein synthesis. Regular magnesium sprays (e.g. Hydromag) leading into harvest will aid the maintenance of good leaf condition.

Calcium is another nutrient of value to grapevines in the veraison to preharvest window. Calcium

sprays (e.g. Stopit) during this time may help improve the cell wall integrity of berries, reducing the likelihood of berry splitting.

As sugar levels rise in berries, bunches become increasingly

susceptible to Botrytis. Maintain a tight fungicide cover through until harvest, applying appropriate products, such as Serenade® Max, in anticipation of wet weather events. If bird damage is a peren-

nial problem on your block, exclu-sion netting is the staple defence method. Care must be taken to seal the nets at the bottom and ends as starlings, in particular, readily exploit any gaps. Q

fine corks, hand-selected by Alberico Miranda for the Artisan Winemaker

a winning influencesuppliers of fine corks, barrels, screw caps & capsules

www.awiclosures.co.nz

tel +64 (0) 6 879 6074fax +64 (0) 6 879 6974

mob +64 (0) 274 200 002email [email protected]

WineWorks Complex7 James Rochfort Place, RD 5Hastings 4175, New Zealand


INDUSTRYNEWS

“IT’S A sadness, but many things in life are sad,” said Bill Spence on the news that the original Matua Valley winery is to be closed after vintage 2016. It is now owned by Treasury Wine Estates, based in Australia.

Bill and his brother Ross founded Matua Valley (now re-branded as Matua) in the 1970s, and went on to build the current winery north of Kumeu-Huapai. Of course in those days things were smaller. “If we ever crush more than 80 tonnes shoot us,” said Ross at the time!

The on-site original homestead was converted into a high class restaurant known as the Hunting Lodge. The conversion by Treas-ury of the Hunting Lodge into a Matua cellar door sales and tasting facility in 2011 was a big move. But three years later, this also will be closed. The Matua brands bottling will then move largely overseas where Treasury owns several win-eries and bottling facilities.

Initially the Matua Valley win-ery was built to handle the adja-cent 20 hectare vineyard which had many varieties Ross had found in his overseas winemak-

ing education and travels. One of these varieties, Sauvignon Blanc, has gone on to become a leader in Marlborough and New Zealand, something of great pride for the Spence brothers.

The first Montana (now Pernod Ricard) plantings of Sauvignon Blanc came from this site from vines propagated by Ross. But to some extent, this success with Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough has ultimately led to the impending closure of the Auckland winery. The volume for Matua and its brother brand Shingle Peak now requires thousands of tonnes of grapes each vintage, and a high percentage of these are sourced in Marlborough.

So owners Treasury Wine Estates are going to stop Auckland operations. They are closing both the Great Western (Seppelt) win-ery in Victoria, Australia and the Matua Auckland winery in New Zealand by mid-year 2016.

The brands will not be lost. Treasury has invested heavily in the Matua Marlborough winery over the past two years and this is now state-of-the-art, the company says. This was built originally as

the Corbans Stoneleigh winery and was taken over by Rapaura Vintners (previously VinTech) and in turn Treasury has bought the equity of the other winemaker shareholders in the facility. The Shingle Peak brand is almost entirely made there.

The Auckland Matua win-ery closure is both cost-cutting and practical the company says. Marlborough is a highly reputed wine production area and Matua draws the majority of its grapes from there whereas there are no significant plantings to justify a winery in Auckland. Third party wineries will be used in the future for North Island grapes.

“It makes sense in business or corporate logic,” says Ross. “So much of Matua’s production, and in fact it’s future, lies in Marlborough. What good is an Auckland winery? We may feel sentimental about losing a site we put blood, sweat and tears into. But from Treasury’s sights, Auckland is not viable for the brand today.”

Bill agrees. “We have to carry on. I fully understand the finan-cial reason for the Matua Auckland

closure.” He remains an international

brand ambassador liaison with Treasury.

In Auckland, closing the Matua winery is also seen as a loss of busi-ness and wine heritage in West Auckland where so much of New Zealand’s wine industry began.

Ross is more cosmopolitan, talking of a corporate job that perhaps had to be done and think-ing with warm memories of the Matua past.

“It is big business making decisions beyond what some of us might see as sentimental,” he says. “Corporate business doing corporate decisions for their bal-ance sheet.”

The closure of the winery may see a new boutique or craft brew-ery on a site which once produced Chardonnay and Merlot. Both Bill and Ross are philosophical. “Of course it is out of our hands. Just as the people of Great Western look back on their heritage.”

Heritage lost? Perhaps a lit-tle, but warm memories remain. Meanwhile the brands go from strength to international [email protected] Q

MATUA VALLEY WINERY CLOSES IN AUCKLANDP E T E R S A U N D E R S

The former Hunting Lodge was refurbished to become Matua’s Auckland Cellar Door in 2011. It too will close in the coming months.

Welcome aboard

� <S[PTH[L�PU�]PUL`HYK�JVTMVY[� (IZVS\[L�KYP]PUN�WSLHZ\YL� 5L^�KLZPNU��TT�^PKL� +LS\_L��KLNYLL�=PZPVU=PL^�

JHI� -SH[�ÅVVY�� 8\PL[� *SPTH[L�JVU[YVS� ��OW�TVKLSZ

Interested in T4 vineyard

comfort? We have a

demonstrator model ready

for you to try!

-VY�TVYL�PUMVYTH[PVU�JVU[HJ[�`V\Y�SVJHS��5L^�/VSSHUK�KLHSLY�[VKH`��VY�]PZP[�^^ �̂UL^OVSSHUK�JV�Ua

��5/

��0TWV

Y[LK�I`�*�)�5VY^V

VK�+PZ[YPI

\[VYZ�3

[KRUNNING IN MARLBOROUGH��

6WLYH[VYZ�HUK�[LJOU

PJPHUZ�MYVT�)YH\K�^PS

S�IL�H]HPSHISL��

[V�ZOV^JHZL�V\Y�OHY

]LZ[LY�PU�HJ[PVU�

DEMO PROGRAMTALK TO US TODAY ABOUT OUR

2016 HARVESTING

The era of intelligent

harvesting

Braud SDC shaking system

� .LU[S`�ZOHRLZ�[OL�]PULZ�V]LY�[OL�^OVSL�THJOPUL�SLUN[O

� 0UKLWLUKLU[�ZOHRPUN�YVKZ�HYL�HJ[P]H[LK�HJJVYKPUN�[V�MY\P[�ILHYPUN�aVUL

Braud Noria collection system

� 7VS`\YL[OHUL�IHZRL[Z�OVSK�MY\P[�VUJL�WPJRLK�HUK�PTWYV]LZ�ZHTWSL�X\HSP[`

� 5V�NYV\UK�SVZLZ�

High capacity conveyors

� 6]LY��TVYL�46.�YLK\J[PVU�[OHU�V[OLY�OHY]LZ[LYZ


HR AND THE WINE INDUSTRY PADDY BATTERSBY

M ost of us take for granted the processes and procedures around employ-

ing people, and what is the beginning of an employment relationship – which is of course a legal relationship - between an employer and an employee. Under the Employment Rela-tions and Holidays Acts, employ-ers and employees each have obligations to each other, and often it’s all too easy to overlook some of the fundamentals.

As another vintage is not far away, it is a busy time with the lead up to the onslaught and it is a timely reminder as to some of the basics. For some of you the last of your vintage staff are being recruited and for all wine industry employers, the plans and processes for receiving 2016 crews are being dusted off in readiness.

How do you fare at your place?

When receiving applications, are they all acknowledged and in a timely fashion? The biggest complaint we hear from jobseek-ers is that they don’t hear from wineries once they have sent their applications.

Are unsuccessful applicants advised promptly so they can keep applying for other jobs and know one way or the other how they have got on with you?

All employees must have a written employment agree-ment no matter what their type of work (yes, even causals). Have all successful candidates received the appropriate employment agreements in advance of their starting with

you? eg fixed term for the likes of the overseas staff or seasonal casual for those who work off and on during the growing season.

If a trial period clause is included in an employment agreement, the agreement must be signed before the worker starts work, otherwise the trial period clause will be invalid.

If employment goes on beyond the fixed term, ensure an employment agreement is in place to cover the extra period of employment.

Employee records must be kept for all workers and made available to employees, their Unions (if applicable) and the Ministry’s Labour Inspectors if they ask for them. They can be kept in electronic or paper files and must be kept for six years. Records kept must include (among other things) contact details, type of employment, wage, time, holiday and leave records. A handy checklist of just what employers must record for all their employees is available at http://employment.govt.nz/er/pay/recordkeeping/

A vintage/harvest worker’s visa must be valid to work for you. A copy of their visa must be kept on file. It is illegal to employ them if their visa expires – employers must be sure they are not employing people on

expired or incorrect visas. There are penalties for breaches.

The Privacy Act establishes a set of 12 principles to protect a person’s personal privacy. Prin-ciple 10 requires that any agency that holds personal information should not keep that informa-tion for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be

used. Therefore unsuccess-ful applicants’ CV’s should be destroyed within a reasonable time after the recruitment pro-cess has been completed.

Public Holidays - are you paying your vintage workers correctly? Easter falls within the harvest period for most wineries in 2016. Any person who works on a public holiday is entitled to be paid time and a half for the hours they work and, if the public holiday would otherwise have been a working day for the person, they will also be entitled to an additional paid day off.

The Holidays Act 2003 addresses the public holiday entitlements for employees in a number of work patterns where entitlements are unclear, including employees working shifts, employees on call, and whether a day would “otherwise be a working day”. Most modern payroll systems will assist in these calculations.

Where international vintage

workers drive forklifts, do they have a NZ Fork Lift Licence and have they received sufficient training?

Health and Safety The all important health

and safety briefing - Is there an induction process in place for all workers?

Ensure there is an Orienta-tion plan including site plan, site hazards and emergency plan as part of your workplace health and safety management. The new Health and Safety at Work Act takes effect 4 April – right in the middle of vintage for most wineries. Do be sure you know what your obligations are. Are the Standard Operating Procedures in place and training records available to be signed by each vintage worker for each piece of equipment or task - particularly for all machinery (vineyard or winery), working at heights, confined spaces? Don’t forget about your permanent staff as a refresher is vital for them as well. And, do be aware of the danger of the hazard of fatigue – it needs to be man-aged so that no accidents occur because of tired workers who haven’t been given the opportu-nity to take breaks. Sounds daunting? These are basic requirements for employers and should not be overlooked. The time of your pre-vintage checks and proce-dures offers a great opportunity to be sure everything is in order for a safe and successful vintage at your place.PJ Battersby. www.battersbyhr.com, 09 838 6338, [email protected] Q

EMPLOYMENT 101

The time of your pre-vintage checks and procedures offers a great opportunity to be sure everything is in order for a safe and successful vintage at your place.

Battlefield Tactics:

Take No Prisoners Show No Mercywith HML32 armour plate for grapes

Late season powdery mildew in the canopy can produce chasmothecia and hasten leaf drop.

Grape berries are now resistant but immature growth in the canopy is always susceptible.

Spray the canopy with HML32 and additives to:

Kill mycelium - the source of chasmothecia

Kill and disrupt maturing chasmothecia - powdery mildew’s overwintering fruiting body

Help vines build next season’s nutritional reserves

For more information, check out Farmlands 2015 multi-product machine sprayed screening trial on our website.

Just one word of caution: Like many other products, do not use HML32 + additives when vines are under water stress.

Powdery mildew: Kick it hard in the canopy!

For additives and spray programme details, talk to your Farmlands advisor. Or visit us online at: www. henrymanufacturing.co.nz

Protectorhml and HML32: armour plate for grapes

non-residual pesticidesHenry Manufacturing

How effective is it?In their 2014 hand-sprayed study* Farmlands rated it 10 out of 10:

*www.henrymanufacturing.co.nz/latestnews/farmlandspresentation

HML32 + Pot Bicarb + Nordox

Leaf

Sco

re E

ffect

Phosgard1

10


N elson geologist Alan Egg-ers has spent the vast majority of his working life searching for and

extracting minerals from the ground and ensuring the environ-ment is returned to a better state than when the mining companies arrived.

His travels around the world also introduced him to the intrigue and delights of wine. His love of rich Australian reds and his desire to return to his home country encouraged him to find the perfect site to create a small vineyard where he could grow full-flavoured Syrah, rich Pinot Noir, zesty Sauvignon Blanc.

As a fifth generation local whose great grandfather Hans

arrived from northern Germany in the 1850’s, Eggers believes Nel-son provides perfect conditions for winegrowing.

“With the Nelson climate, the right soils and sub soils, good viti-cultural management on free flow-ing elevated sites (as in Europe and California) and hand tend-ing the vines, I see no reason why Nelson cannot produce premium wines that compete with North Island reds, Central Otago Pinots and Marlborough Sauvignons.”

Using his understanding of soil science and international experience, he set about finding a piece of land that had elevated and valley floor contours, where he could use his skills to improve the ecology. Nine resource con-

sents later and almost three years of re-contouring a hill and valley, creating lakes, wetlands and a site suitable for an elevated vineyard, his dream is coming to fruition.

Located in Spring Grove - Nel-son, Falcon Ridge Estate vineyards were carefully designed, engi-neered and shaped via extensive earthworks, deep ripping and top soil replacement. The vines have been close planted on elevated, sunny, north facing, well drained Moutere Gravel sites. The Sauvi-gnon Blanc was planted in Wai-iti Valley river silts and gravels on the flat in 2012.

However the vineyard is only part of the Falcon Ridge story. The extraordinary amount of time and money that has been poured into

creating a stunning site and estab-lishing something very special is astonishing.

Five diggers, two earthmoving scrapers and four articulated Cat trucks were used full-time to move soil and re-contour the land over more than two years. The estate is also a major native planting resto-ration project.

“We have planted over 400,000 native trees and plants over the first five years and then under-taken maintenance spraying and weed control until the plants get established.”

The property also includes a 12 hectare mature native totara for-est remnant in a QEII Covenant.

“We built several dams, a lake, have undertaken feral flora and fauna pest control, rehabilitated the totara forest and constructed around 14km of walking tracks through the forest, the vineyards and around the lakes and wet-lands.

“We have another lake to exca-vate and intend building a restau-rant and winery in a superb sunny location beside the mature totara forest and lake overlooking the lower Sauvignon Blanc vineyard so the public can also enjoy both the wines and the natural setting.”

Of course none of this has come easily or cheaply, because of the scale of earthworks proposed a number of locals were strongly opposed to many of his resource consents. Alan says; “They simply

REGIONSNELSON

FALCON RIDGE ESTATEN E I L H O D G S O N


didn’t understand the science and engineering behind the propos-als and were concerned about things like the dams bursting and flooding them out of their homes. When it comes to the dams we have actually solved their regular flooding problems by controlling the high storm event flows in the dams, discharging the flood waters over days instead of a few hours and ensuring the small rivers and creeks are properly contoured and riparian planted to manage flood waters. So their properties and land are now in better shape (and improved value) than before we started because they no longer flood regularly.

“I guess that has been the really frustrating thing, people, includ-ing council staff, just didn’t trust us to do the right thing because they simply didn’t understand the vision, the geology and science as much as we do. We understand the need for caution with new devel-opments, but when we are trying to use my knowledge and skills to create something special for future generations the opposition I came up against was disheart-ening at times. But we persevered and got there in the end.”

The lakes and ponds at Falcon Ridge Estate are now home to native ducks, dotterels and fresh water crayfish, native falcons patrol the ridges and vineyards, native birds are populating the

forest, lakes, wetlands and native plantings. The streams (once dry most of the year) now are perma-nently trickling, the land has been cleared of gorse, broom, black-berry, barberry and every other pest plant including old man pine, nettle and feral weeds.

Falcon Ridge Estate is only the second place in New Zealand known to have a colony of the very rare coprosma Melicytus ‘Waipapa’ growing in the wild that is being protected and encouraged.

A elevated site has been pre-pared for a future lodge and when the resource consent is granted a new pond will be developed on the flats by the Sauvignon Blanc plantings and another building site created for the restaurant and winery facility. With one of the Nelson region’s main cycleway routes running along the front of the property, the main south highway just across the flats, the restaurant and winery, along with the native bush walks, will become a key recreational destination.

And the neighbours? Well one is still unhappy with the develop-ment but others now appreciate what has been achieved. They reg-ularly seek permission to walk the meandering bush tracks to take in, and enjoy, the beauty and natural environment on this stunning 42 hectare environment Eggers has [email protected] Q

ARE THE ANGELS ENJOYING YOUR PROFITS TOO?

"ÕÀ��iÜ�>iÀ�>��v�}}��}��Õ��`�wV>Ì��>�`�i�Û�À��i�Ì>��ÌiV��}Þ�«À�Û�`iÃ\�

The GAAW ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Incorporatesč�Õ��µÕi]��iÜ]��>ÌÕÀ>��E�«À�Ûi��À��º>««À�Ûi`»��À}>��V�>�Ì��«>Ì��}i��V�Ã��ÕÌ��Ì��V��L>Ì��Õ�`�

}À�ÜÌ�]�`�ÃÃ��Ûi�L��w��>�`�`�Ã��viVÌ�«À�`ÕVÌ��iÃ°U� " �/"8��/"��1�č -]�č ��č�-]�*�č /-�č ��/� � 6�," � /

U� " �/č� /� ��č ��"7�, -��1č�U� "�/"8�� č�-U�, �č��9"1,��"-/�*,"��/-U�*č9��",�/� �-"�1/�" �č �� , č- �9"1,�č ��č�č �� /� ��,-/�9 č,

U�č��/"��-1--�"1,��, ]�-1-/č� č� �-"�1/�" ��",�9"1,�" �"� �� , č- ��*,"�1/�6�/9�E�*,"��/č��/9

For further information and to discuss this opportunity for your business please contact

Ph: Kerry 021 [email protected]

www.nzaaw.com

U�/�Ì>��>ÀÀi��>��i�Û�À��i�Ì>��>�>}i�i�ÌU�,i`ÕViÃ�iÛ>«�À>Ì�Ûi��ÃÃ�č�}i�Ã�Ã�>Ài®U�*À�`ÕViÃ�>�Ài>��Ã>Û��}��v��>L�ÕÀ�V�ÃÌÃU�-ÕLÃÌ>�Ì�>��Þ��VÀi>ÃiÃ�L�ÌÌ��i�«À�wÌÃ


T iming is everything when 2000 hectares of prime vineyard land are up for grabs, the world is emerg-

ing from a global financial crisis and your Marlborough wine brand is reaching sales targets ahead of time.

Marlborough winemaker Brent Marris was as surprised as anybody that he hit five year growth targets in just two years, particularly since this took place through the global financial crisis that began in 2008. The question that arose as a result of this suc-cess was: should the company continue to expand?

“We looked at how well the Ned brand and the Kings Series was going when we took the deci-sion to buy the Leefield Station,” Marris recalls.

The Station came up for sale in

October 2012. He remembered the land from his childhood in Marl-borough and the fact that it was within a four kilometre radius of his own winery meant that it was ideally situated for planned vine-yard expansion. Not only that; the Station is a north facing, rolling hill country site.

These two factors were signifi-cant drawcards to Marris because the land’s aspect means that it maximises sunshine for vines in Marlborough. Its rolling hillside sites enables the exploration of grape varieties such as Syrah, which Marris is considering plant-ing on an experimental basis on warmer sites at the Station.

Not withstanding all of these drawcards, the purchase of 2000 hectares remained a risky proposi-tion, not least due to the sheer size of the property.

“I knew our brands were grow-ing and as the site is so close to our winery, Rosemary and I felt that it was clearly the piece of land that we needed to own,” Marris recalls.

Conviction is one thing. The management team of Marisco Wines is another.

“When I asked my manage-ment team what they would like to do, the consensus was to con-tinue growing and to control our own destiny. This means that we need to own our vineyards, pro-cess our own fruit and continue to work with markets on a face to face basis. This meant that Rosemary and I had to buy more land.”

So, in went a (completely confidential) tender for Leefield Station.

“I couldn’t let anybody know what I was considering because the land price would have risen

immediately,” Marris says.The purchase went through

and the rest is a story that has yet to fully unfold.

Part of its unfolding will be into a park that will see wine and food intrinsically linked, says Marris.

Skip forward three years from the 2012 purchase and 300 hec-tares of the Leefield have now been planted. The first 80 hec-tares of vines were planted in 2013; another 100 were planted in 2014 and 115 were planted in 2015.

All up, 600 of the 2000 hectare site are destined for vines, which will be spread across 800 hec-tares, due to rivers, streams and headlands on the property. Then there is the concept of a vineyard park which, as its name implies, is wider than mere grapevines. The concept is to create a synchro-nistic business expansion, which facilitates two other lynchpins in the Leefield story: a wine and food journey for visitors to the site and a legacy for the Marris family.

Creating a journeyThe word Marlborough evokes

transparent turquoise images of balmy summer days cruising on the Sounds; an experience that Marris has shared with visitors in the region. Now he plans to add another string to that outdoor bow, by introducing foraging and hunting to the Leefield Station.

The land already has a signifi-cant stand of 70 to 100-year-old walnut trees and he plans to add bees to the property to make honey. The vineyard park plans also include hunting as a key focus of the site because of its plentiful

REGIONSMARLBOROUGH

BUILDING A VINEYARD PARKForaging, hunting and food will have as much resonance as wine when Brent Marris has completed his new project at Leefield Station in Marlborough as Joelle Thomson discovered.

Once a working farm, Leefield Station will continue to produce cattle and sheep for the market.


supply of wild boar, wild goats and wild venison as well as dairy cat-tle and sheep; both of which are farmed there.

To this rolling hill country, Marris says he will add both an Angus stud and a Romney stud.

“This year alone we have had 4,300 lambs, so we are running 7,500. There is a key connection between food and wine, which this property allows us to explore. We are not going crazy trying to cre-ate all these different experiences immediately but we plan to ease ourselves into this connection to allow all of these different experi-ences to happen.”

Building a strong brandThere will be a colour coding

system at Leefield Station, which will pay homage to the traditional colours of farming sheds in the region and also differentiate the site’s non-farming buildings. The

colour code will take place across the entire property.

To date, Marris has harvested 150 tonnes of fruit from Leefield Station; all Sauvignon Blanc. He plans to harvest 1000 tonnes of fruit in 2016, which will include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Char-donnay and Pinot Noir.

A new 300 million litre dam

was completed in December. If it all seems to have happened

swiftly, Marris is keen to provide the perspective to observers that this project has been under con-sideration for several years now.

“I’m lucky that Rosemary (his wife) is extremely supportive so that I can have my cell phone turned off while driving around

the site, looking at it, getting to know the lie of the land – literally – and seeing what is happening in order to discover new enclaves of land up here. I’m also thankful to have Siobhan and Anton (his viti-culturists) who are an integral part of this journey.”[email protected] Q

The first vines go into the ground at Leefield Statio.

39 Newcastle Road – Hamilton – New ZealandPh: 07 847 6734 – AH: 0274 968 495 – [email protected]

THE ULTIMATE VINEYARD

TRACTOR4 WD reversiblearticulated quadtrack87HP, 40KPH,Cab Option

Other vineyard models available

Tractor People


REGIONSCENTRAL OTAGO

A GRAND VISIONM A R K O R T O N

F rom the moment you enter the gravel driveway into Burn Cottage vineyard, it’s as if a Zen-like vibe envel-

ops you. Such calmness and sense of being is something that extends to the team here; if viticulturist Shane Livingstone and general manager-associate wine maker Claire Mulholland are anything to go by.

Situated in the foothills of the Pisa Range, the 24-hectares was purchased in 2002 by the Sauvage family who also own the Koehler Ruprecht Estate in the Pfalz region of Germany. Picked up at auction, after a visit that included tasting some of Central’s finest Pinots, the grand vision for Burn Cottage is anything but accidental.

From owner Marquis Sauvage,

to head winemaker Ted Lemon who was the first American ever hired to manage an estate in Bur-gundy, Burn Cottage is founded on a mix of eclectic energy, serious wine lineage and great dirt. In fact it’s that dirt that Mulholland and Livingstone say exemplifies what Burn Cottage is all about.

“Marquis said when he first stood here, that this has just got what it takes. He’d seen enough great vineyards around the world to realize that this was something special,” says Mulholland.

Starting at Burn Cottage in 2010, after experience gained working at Martinborough Vine-yards and Amisfield, Mulholland had been keeping tabs on the site for some time.

“I was really drawn to this place

when I first heard about it in the early 2000’s; they were really putting themselves out there. I just thought, great site, great people and really committed to making a really healthy vineyard for the future. From the bare land the first thing they started doing was making compost and using different preps on the land and it has developed from there.”

It was Ted Lemon who first sowed the seed for biodynamic farming at Burn Cottage, some-thing Livingston as vineyard man-ager is keen to carry on.

“My first introduction to bio-dynamics was with James Milton 16-years-ago and I have been involved ever since. Utilising bio-dynamics and similar methods is just what we do, it’s the way we

farm. There is no recipe, each property has its own individuality and things that you do at one site won’t necessarily work at another. It’s about finding the property’s personality and working with the natural rhythms.”

Some viticulturists will likely look at biodynamics as a fashion-able form of witchcraft, akin to farming with one hand while the other stirs cosmic preparations. But for Livingstone, he looks at it a little differently.

“Actually I have found with organics-biodynamics that there are actually more tools in the toolbox. The whole resilience of the system and the way the plants adapt to the environment and con-ditions is far greater and sturdier than a conventional vineyard in

Burn Cottage – Central Otago.


my books. “Because the property had

already had 10 plus years of bio-dynamic preparations applied when I arrived, you could feel the life and energy in the soil as soon as you walked on it”.

The themes of time, patience and not needing to hurry are refrains that Mulholland and Liv-ingstone mention numerous times during the conversation.

“We haven’t dragged the vines into production, we’ve given them a chance to get connected to the earth so we haven’t pushed pro-duction and I guess that’s a luxury that we have had,” says Living-stone.

The same planning and future vision also means that when the vineyard was planted it was on grafted rootstock thereby mean-ing phylloxera doesn’t even get a mention around these parts.

“We aren’t looking to rip things out, it’s all about taking time and getting it right at the start. We are after vine age and longevity. We constantly tell the pruners that our grandkids will have to prune these same vines.”

“The type of fruit balance that we are getting and the way things are maturing, has really blown me away,” says Mulholland

“ T h e n u t r i t i o n t h a t w e are getting in the juice here is very good, which is great as we really don’t want to be adding anything to our ferments. No acid, no yeast, just a little bit of sulphur. I definitely get lots of feedback about the wines having a real earthy quality. I think the complexity in the aromatics is also something they pick up on as well. I mean we pick when everything is very lively and some of the alcohols are quite low because of that, but this site really captures that vibrancy too. We don’t get the late afternoon or the late evening sun, it’s a different development spectrum to some other vineyards.”

Some of the descriptions used to describe farming at Burn Cot-tage might raise the heckles of any pseudo-science skeptic, but maybe based on the strength of the wines thus far, there might just a little bit of magic taking place.

“Growing utilizing biodynamic techniques, I can see the differ-ence it’s making to that final wine so that gives me a lot of satisfac-tion,” says Livingstone. “For me, tasting the final glass of wine and trying to make that better is the only thing that matters.”[email protected] Q

Claire Mulholland and Shane Livingstone; at one with the land and the wine of Burn Cottage.

The Quality ManagerTel: 03 577 8166 or 06 879 7879

www.wineworks.co.nz

We are delighted to announce that WineWorks, New Zealand’s premier contract bottler, has partnered with AsureQuality to provide its customers with an integrated range of services, from the time the wine is ready to be bottled, through to final distribution.

As global experts in food safety and quality, AsureQuality offers WineWorks access to its dedicated wine laboratory and audit and certification business. Together we can provide New Zealand’s wine industry with a unique one-stop-shop for quality assurance, bottling and warehousing needs.

Now that’s service.

Give us a call to discuss:

• Export wine testing

• Residue and chemical analyses

• Microbiology and allergen testing

• Forensic investigations

• Certification services (WSMP, BRC, GLOBALG.A.P., ISO standards and True to Label assurance)

AsureQuality and WineWorks working together

Customer ServicesFreephone: 0508 00 11 22 www.asurequality.com

Trusted to bottle New Zealand for the world

For more information:


NEWTECHNOLOGY

W i t h s t r i n g e n t n e w Health and Safety laws coming, a software company has come up

with the tablet that could take away all management headaches.

Well actually it’s not so much a tablet, but a programme that uti-lizes tablets for managing staff, workload, and hazards within the vineyard. The software pro-gramme is called Vinea and was developed by Infopower.

For Mark Naismith, vineyard manager at Akarua, it is the best thing since sliced bread, cutting

the time he spends on admin and management by between 40 and 60 percent.

He discovered the software after spending months searching for something that would allow him to get out of the office and back into the vineyard.

“We were in a situation where paper work, management and administration were taking me out of the vineyard or I was doing silly hours and it was becoming difficult. I was also doing payroll for permanent and seasonal staff across all departments ranging

from 18 to 70 people dependent on seasonal demands, which was taking a lot of time. So we were looking for a system that would cover a single point of entry for HR, payroll, vineyard costings, management and health and safety.”

Systems coming out of Aus-tralia and North America didn’t work for them, and there didn’t appear to be anything that matched Akarua’s specific require-ments. That was until he discov-ered Vinea. He says it provides a one-stop programme for all vine-

yard needs.There are two components to

the software – mobile and office. Vinea office is the hub, where all information is stored. This includes vineyard work records, job requirements, timesheets, worker immigration details, quotes, wages which are able to be exported into payroll, costings and health and safety details.

Vinea mobile is on a tablet which supervisors have out in the field. From his office or in the field following vineyard walks with supervisors Naismith can enter

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDEREDT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

HEARD ON THE GRAPEVINEVITICULTURE SPECIALISTS

colliers.co.nz/viticulture

John Dunckley, Valuation+64 21 326 189

Mike Laven, Agency+64 21 681 272

�'+��'Ɏ-0", Valuation+64 27 460 0371

From valuation to advisory and sales, we have the expertise to help you accelerate your business success.

GREAT VINES BEGIN WITH NURTURING CARE

PLANTCERTIFIED VINESWITH CONFIDENCE

CALL US ON 0800 444 614

View our catalogue online www.mistyvalley.co.nz

Rex on 027 49 80 [email protected]

Donna on 021 84 98 [email protected]


the details of any job, where in the vineyard it is to take place, who is to work there and what machinery will be required (as examples).

“So if the supervisor walks onto a block and the job says leaf pluck Clutha Clone 5, when she pushes that job on the tablet, it has the row number and the num-ber of vines in it that need to be plucked. All the data is there. It is hugely versatile and a massive time saver.”

The supervisor can then allocate the jobs, record hours worked, log travel, record weather conditions, manage allowances and deductions directly in the field and send complete records back to the office.

But for Naismith “the really neat thing” is the Health and Safety component now available on Vinea mobile.

“When I put a job or contract out to my supervisor, any health and safety issue associated with that job or that part of the vine-yard pops up with a warning on the tablet. The supervisor taps on that and it might say, safety glasses to be worn, watch out for rabbit holes, or don’t go in until 12 hours after spraying.”

The programme reminds the supervisor to ensure all the workers have been briefed, and they then sign off electronically to confirm. That is recorded and saved for any future audit.

It also allows a supervisor to record any incidents that may hap-

pen, on the spot. While the immediacy is a major

advantage, Naismith says remov-ing the reams of paperwork that used to end up on his desk, is even more so.

“My desk used to be the road-block, where all the paper work associated with the job ended up. I just never seemed to get to the bottom of it.”

Everything is saved electroni-cally back on Vinea office, provid-ing easy access when required.

“Then later on I can do a query or report and I can ask anything from the programme, whether that be about a person, vineyard or a piece of machinery. If there has been an incident or a brief-ing, the programme will pull it up associated with any one of those queries.”

Cost wise it is also advanta-geous, Naismith says, cutting out hours of work that previously had to be done manually. For him per-sonally it has removed between 20 and 25 hours a week of dealing with administration.

“My average working week used to consist of about 60 hours – so you can see what a huge time saver this is for me. And the exciting thing is, it can be used not only in the vineyard, but the winery and cellar door. Anywhere where staff are involved. Plus this is only going to get better as time goes on as it is being constantly updated.”[email protected] Q

Mark Naismith

Some may speak of range.Others of quality.All speak of

Internationally respected producers of bottles

for the wine and spirit industries.

Lightweight. Heavyweight. Proprietary. Decorated.

SAVERGLASS AUSTRALIA Pty Ltd289 Flinders Street, Adelaide SA 5000PO Box 6537 (Halifax Street), Adelaide SA 5000Tel.: (08) 8232.0770 / Fax: (08) 8232.0880www.saverglass.com / [email protected] Paleologos: [email protected] Arnold: [email protected]

SAVERGLASS NZ LtdPO Box 8020 Symonds St AucklandTel.: (09) 522 2990 / 021 580 104 Fax: 09 522 2994www.saverglass.com / [email protected]


REGIONSGISBORNE

A HEAD FULL OF STEAMJ U S T I N E T Y E R M A N

S team train enthusiasts in Gisborne over the sum-mer now have the oppor-tunity to visit an organic

winery as part of a vintage rail excursion.

Thanks to a partnership between the Gisborne City Vin-tage Rail Society, a dedicated group who spent many years restoring Wa165 steam locomo-tive, and Geoff and Nicola Wright, owners of Wrights Organic Win-ery, passengers have the option of spending an hour or so at the vineyard and winery near Manu-tuke on the outskirts of Gisborne.

Those interested disembark at Browns Beach Road and are taken by coach to the winery while the remaining passengers carry on to Muriwai where the train turns around and comes back.

“We provide wine tasting, a winery tour, live music and lunch in the hour and 15 minutes that it takes the train to complete the outbound trip and return to the Browns Beach stop,” says Geoff who owns and runs the 100 per-cent organic winery with his wife Nicola.

The excursions recommenced in November 2015 after the Gis-borne City Vintage Rail Society obtained a licence from KiwiRail to occupy the line between Muri-wai and Gisborne, part of the Gis-borne to Napier line mothballed by KiwiRail after major storm damage in 2012.

Local community and charita-ble trusts provided funds totalling $250,000 to bring the rail track

and bridges, which had fallen into a state of disrepair, back up to operational standard.

“The concept is gaining in popularity with up to 70 people visiting us at a time,” says Geoff.

“Our guests are mainly Aus-sies, Kiwis, locals and people on holiday. We tell them all about our techniques and how we make our own fertiliser using silica and cow dung from our organically-raised cows.

“And we show them the win-ery, and explain that additives are kept to a minimum, to showcase the vintage, wines and terroir of the vineyard,” he says.

The Wrights have three vine-yards totalling 18 hectares, and produce two wine styles at the winery.

“The Natural Wine Co range

represents new-world wines including Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the Wrights range comprises old-world styles, sourcing grapes from the oldest Gewürztraminer, Syrah and Chardonnay vines in Gisborne — over 30 years old, and in some of the varieties, the oldest in New Zealand.”

Geoff is a third generation win-emaker of Croatian descent with winemaking in the family dating back to Kumeu in the 1920s.

“In fact, my great-grandfather Stanko Jurakovich obtained one of the first winemakers’ licences in the Auckland region, back in 1931,” he says.

“Combining the winery visit with the steam train excursion really seems to appeal to peo-

ple. It’s such an iconic Gisborne attraction, the only place in the Southern Hemisphere where a steam train crosses an airport runway and the only steam train trip in New Zealand that includes a winery tour.

“Given that the track runs along our vineyard boundary and the Brown’s Beach stop is only a kilometre away, it was too good an opportunity to miss.”

Geoff and Nicola have had great feedback from visitors and enjoy a 5/5 rating on Trip Advisor.

Geoff Joyce, president of the Gisborne City Vintage Rail Society is delighted with the arrangement.

“It’s a win-win situation for both parties — our society and the winery,” he says.

Wa165, a much-cherished part of the Gisborne tourism scene, has a colourful history. It was built in 1897, the first locomotive to be constructed in Dunedin’s Hillside workshops, and spent most of its working life on the heavily-graded railway line between Gisborne and Moutohora.

Retired in 1959, the engine languished and rusted away until October 1985 when a group of dedicated rail enthusiasts formed a society with the aim of rebuilding it to its former glory.

By then, it was the only Wa-class locomotive left in existence.

The restoration process was completed in 2000 and the ven-erable engine now comes out on a regular basis for special events and excursions.

[email protected] Q

Steam train passengers are served a selection of organically-grown wines and homemade tapas using local ingredients. PICTURE BY JUSTINE TYERMAN

BERTOLINIPUMPS & SPRAYERS

CALL 0800 833 538 FOR YOURNEAREST DEALER.

“RAPTOR” . . . The ONLY Defoliator

❒ Easily removes dead flower caps– decreases botrytis risk

❒ Collard pneumatic system alsoremoves leaves from the interiorof the vine – allows better aerationof the fruit zone and spraypenentration

❒ Use before harvest – cleans thefruit zone and can save up to 40%of hand harvesting time

The twin rotor works with lower airpressure. The presence of two rotorsincreases the particle size being removedand makes it less volatile, henceminimising crop damage.

“TWIN ROTORS”

BEFORE AFTER

VINE TRIMMERS

MOWERS & CULTIVATORS• Can be front, mid or rear mounted• Hydraulically operated cultivators• Choose from a range of 5 different cultivating tools that are easily

interchangeable• Cultivators can be used in stony, heavily weeded or heavily

compacted soils• Mechanical or hydraulically operated mowers• Choose from a range of 3 different models• Can be used in conjunction with a rear mounted inter-vine mower• Mow your complete vineyard in one pass

• Stainless steel blades give exceptional cut quality at high groundspeeds in vigorous growth

• Aero industry grade drive belts transmit power without slippageor constant adjusting

• Full function joystick for ease of use• Lifetime warranty on cutting elements• Aluminium extrusion

From the falling of the flowerheads to the harvest.


REGIONSHAWKE’S BAY

BUBBLING UNDER THE RADARO ver the last few years more

Hawke’s Bay wineries have been adding bub-bles to their range and

their reasons for doing so may be as varied as the wine region itself.

Sparkling wine producers now include locally-based companies such as Alpha Domus, Black Barn, C J Pask, de la Terre, Mission, Osawa, Sileni Estates, Squawk-ing Magpie, Te Mata Estate and Vidal Estate as well as big play-ers like Delegat’s, which grows Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at Crownthorpe for the company’s Oyster Bay label.

A dominant force in New Zealand’s bubbles production, Lindauer draws its grapes from Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

But what does the growing global interest in sparkling wines like Italy’s Prosecco and Spain’s Cava mean for a region that is already producing a wide variety of wine styles?

And how do Hawke’s Bay’s recent efforts stack up against a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report urging the industry to consider radical steps to “restart” sparkling wine production targeted at premium export markets, particularly China and Southeast Asia?

Squawking Magpie branched out into bubbles because it consid-ers it important to be able to offer customers a range that includes a sparkling wine, particularly for festive events.

“It completes the large range produced by Squawking Magpie,”

owner Gavin Yortt says. “We felt there was a gap and we were doing quite a few business functions and weddings.

“We are now a one-stop shop with supply.”

While Hawke’s Bay’s many subregions -- offering an array of micro-climates and diverse soils -- might encourage winemakers to experiment, Yortt says his compa-ny’s decision to make bubbles was very much commercially based.

“We certainly didn’t do it because we were endeavouring to play with different wine styles.”

Now produced as a methode traditionelle wine, Squawking

Magpie’s fledgling SQM bubbly was made by WineWorks using the charmat method. It was the first produced using plant installed at the company’s bottling site in Hastings five years ago.

WineWorks provides six 25,000 litre “scuba bottles”, owner Tim Nowell-Usticke says of the thick-walled fermentation tanks. And having a pressure bottling line in close proximity, he believes is key to the successful production of the sparkling wine.

Having invested “hugely” in the charmat infrastructure, Nowell-Usticke is a little disappointed with the uptake.

“The potential is there for Hawke’s Bay sparkling white wine. Anyone wanting to can have a go. I figured if I put in the technol-ogy for an advanced production system, no-one has to invest any-thing.”

Nowell-Usticke sees huge export potential for sparkling wine. He says that while Sauvi-gnon Blanc was the first style to alert the world to the excellence of New Zealand winemaking, the industry now needs another string to its bow.

“Pinot Noir was going to be the next bright light but it’s been an unreliable and unpredictable

Having a bubbles makes Squawking Magpie a one-stop shop says owner Gavin Yortt.

M A R Y S H A N A H A N


Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment consultants Coriolis see great potential for New Zealand sparkling wine exports, particularly in Southeast Asia and China.

In a report entitled What Does Asia Want for Dinner? A Drink, produced as part of the ministry’s Food and Beverage Information Project, the consultancy points to the strong import volumes and value growth of sparkling wine into Asia and says the product has a strong fit with New Zealand’s capa-bilities.

Rising incomes, conspicuous consumption, branded luxury and gifting are noted as key Asian megatrends in a beverage marketing currently dominated by France - “a strong competitor with clear strengths, but one that New Zealand has demonstrated the

capability to match”.The New Zealand industry now

needs to take the next step and “lift its game” in sparkling wine, the consultants say.

Currently competing seriously only in still white wine, it needs wider geographic diversity with products that support regional economic development.

While proposing a “defend and grow” strategy for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, the report said the French model suggests New Zealand should also have five to six other wine regions of similar size, each specialising more clearly, and that radical steps are needed to “restart” sparkling wine.

In 2013, sparkling wine com-prised 1.5 percent of New Zealand’s wine export volumes. Globally in 2014, sparkling wine represented

seven percent of wine production by volume.

Adopting a “cheap and cheer-ful” position with their sparkling wine production, Italy and Spain are driving volume growth while New Zealand’s global market per-formance remains poor.

Sparkling wine also offers strong opportunities for import substitu-tion on the New Zealand domestic market where it struggles to com-pete with French Champagne at the premium end of the market.

The industry needs to identify regions that are similar to Cham-pagne for climate, soils, rainfall etc, the consultants conclude, deter-mine what grapes are best suited to a New Zealand sparkling wine style and establish the method of production attuned to New Zealand conditions.Q

NEED TO ‘RESTART’ SPARKLING WINE

performer.”The world’s expectation of

New Zealand white wines is that they should be bright, clean and crisp, he says -- “Sauvignon Blanc fits that bill, and so does New Zea-land bubbly.”

As a relatively cool climate winegrowing country, Nowell-Usticke believes New Zealand has the varieties and terroir to produce great sparkling wine.

WineWorks considered where the appropriate varieties were growing and chose Hawke’s Bay rather than a South Island site for the company’s charmat produc-tion plant.

Nowell-Usticke says the prob-lem for New Zealand producers over the last 10-15 years has been the dominance of a single brand selling at around the $12 price point.

However, the New Zealand industry excels at growing grapes for $1 a litre and creating value in

making wine that sells for $30 a litre.

“With the secondary fermen-tation in tank, charmat uses the one bottle once and is therefore more cost effective than methode traditionelle. If you’re looking at commercial production, charmat is the way to go.”

One of Hawke’s Bay’s smallest operators, Corozo Estate is phas-ing out of production.

At last year’s Hawke’s Bay wine auction, the boutique Crownthorpe-based wine com-pany offered a mixed lot of meth-ode traditionelle wine from the 2007 vintage – three dozen Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier and two dozen Blanc de Blanc.

Potential buyers were invited to blend the wines to suit their individual palate – a unique oppor-tunity for the successful bidder who paid $2500 for the lot.

For a region renowned for its large number of varieties, Pinot

Meunier - which, together with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, is one of the three varieties used in the production of French Cham-pagne - is thin on the Hawke’s Bay ground.

Yortt, meanwhile, says he has found a local supplier for Pinot Meunier and may add that variety to the SQM blend.

Mission Estate pioneered methode traditionelle winemak-ing in New Zealand in 1963, when Brother John Cuttance returned from a trip to France to make his ground-breaking Fontanella. Production was small – custom-ers were limited to a single bottle, paying £1.1s.6d for either a white or pink sparkling wine.

The first New Zealand wines made in commercial volumes didn’t become available until the 1980s, and these drew on early harvested fruit grown in the Bay.

The Mission launched its more recent take on a sparkling wine

three years ago, taking Pinot Gris and Chardonnay grapes grown on the Greenmeadows site to make Fete.

“We felt the need to have it in our portfolio,” says winemaker Paul Mooney.

WineWorks is involved in mak-ing the wine using the charmat method.

Black Barn took up the Marl-borough option for its methode traditionelle, sending the wine to Number 1 Family Estate for bottle fermentation. The blanc de blanc was awarded best in class in the 2012 and 2015 Hawke’s Bay A & P Wine Awards.

While enough remains of this cooler 2010 vintage bubbly to dis-gorge another 50 dozen bottles, winemaker Dave McKee says that if conditions were suitable, Black Barn would make a bigger parcel of wine and let it out slowly over the years. [email protected] Q


REGIONSWAIPARA

WAIPARA’S NEW LANDMARKT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

T he Waipara landscape is special in its own way. Large areas of flat valley land, rolling hills to the

east, dozens of generational sheep farms, larges tracts of vines and now a massive sculpture that will help define the area.

While Rakaia has its giant trout, Paeroa has a massive L&P bottle, Waipara now has an eight and a half metre windswept grapevine.

It has been six years since the idea of creating a regional landmark was first mooted by

Julian Ball and Daryl Harris of the Waipara Promotions Association. It’s a long time between the original idea and the unveiling, which finally took place in November last year.

For Ball, seeing the final product was a very sweet moment.

“It is magnificent and we are thrilled with it. It was back in the winter of 2009 that Daryl and I discussed creating an icon for the valley. It seemed to us that too many people were just driving along the main highway, through

Waipara without stopping. So we wanted something to give the area an identity.”

The sculpture certainly does that, and it is an appropriate nod to the growing reputation of the region as a wine producer of some repute.

Ball says initially they didn’t have any concrete ideas of just what the landmark should represent. They left that to local sculptor Raymond Herber.

“ We g a v e h i m a f a i r l y broad brief. We wanted it to

be prominent and represent something in the area. He chose the grapevine and we were happy with his one and only design, so we took it from there.

Raymond initially wanted some Riesling grape leaves to base his sculpture on, which were duly delivered. Those initial forgings were used by Harris and Ball to raise awareness of the project locally and to help raise funds. However Ball says they were a little “naieve” about just what would have to be undertaken to

Integrated GPS technology delivering improved productivity, visibility and data collection

CONTACT LANCE NUTTALL +64 21 434 904

• EASY TO USE APP TECHNOLOGY

• NO EXPENSIVE HARDWARE REQUIRED

Tracking

Schedule

Capture

Re

po

rt

nupoint.com


allow such a large sculpture to adorn the main highway.

“We didn’t realise there was going to be such a significant amount of engineering and the cost that would involve before the project could be completed,” he says. “But we are very happy that it’s over designed and built. And believe me, it has had a good test in the last couple of weeks.”

He says the windswept theme is extremely appropriate, given how strong the gusts buffeting the Waipara Valley can be. Even on the day of the unveiling, it was more a zephyr than a breeze and everyone was thrilled to see the vine gently swaying despite the gale conditions.

As for achieving what they set out to, Ball says it has been an amazing addition to the landscape.

“The reaction to it has been tremendous. Just about every time I go past it, there is someone taking photographs. And I think it has got people starting to think about the wider area, which is a good thing. Plus it’s a focal point for the area. Mainpower have offered to provide lighting so it can be seen at night and it doesn’t matter whether you are in a car driving along the highway or in the train passing through, you still get to see it. It really is pretty amazing.”

The sculpture has been placed on the corner of SH1 and SH7, at the turnoff to Hanmer Springs.

There’s no need for me to say keep an eye out for it if you are travelling that way – because it’s pretty hard to [email protected] Q

“We wanted something to give the area an identity.”

Windswept and beautiful. The New Waipara sculpture. From left: Julian Ball, Daryl Harris and Sculptor Raymond Herber. Photo Nathn Trethowen.

TripleX is Biostart’s new bio-fungicide With a unique dual mode of action and a nil withholding periodTripleX is serious botrytis controlAVAILABLE FROM LEADING HORTICULTURAL SUPPLIERS for more information call 0800 116 229 www.biostart.co.nz

KLGH�:GLJQLAK��AF�ALK�LJ9;CK

BioStart TripleX bio-fungacide


MARKETINGNEWS

TELLING A GOOD STORY

S tories are what sell your wine.

Creating an effective wine story is an easy feat

for large wine brands with skilled public relations and marketing departments. But for small and medium-sized wineries, it’s often a challenge to convey how your $20 bottle of Chardonnay is dif-ferent from the $20 bottle sitting next to it.

Your wine story is more than your tasting notes, and it’s more than your region. It’s who you are as a brand and why you exist. It’s

your logo, your label, and your packaging. It’s your website. It’s what you tell people at the cellar door and what you tell distribu-tors.

Why do some people fail at tell-ing their wine story, when others succeed?

Many wine brands try to be everything to everybody. This lack of focus often hurts your storytell-ing ability and it muddles a con-sumer’s decision-making process when deciding to try (and re-buy) your product.

For example, when you tell

consumers your wines are both “acidic and fruity” or “have a sub-tle start and lead to a boisterous finish”, you confuse them. Also, the use of the word “complex” is somewhat of a backpedal if you don’t specifically explain how your wine is complex. In these instances, rather than thinking your wine is “everything”, con-sumers will think it is “nothing in particular”.

Region and terrior are impor-tant, but not as much as you think. Too often wine brands rest on win-ery location to convey their story

to consumers. It is vital that peo-ple know where a wine is from, but this is only to pique initial interest.

Awards, stars, and ratings are often over-promoted. While a 90+ rating or four and a half stars is a major feat for the winery itself, consumers see nothing but high ratings and multiple stars when they look at wine shelves. There’s so much more to your wine story than what a panel of judges think.

A lack of authenticity in a wine story is the key factor in a wine story that falls short. Contrived stories about the history of the

L E E S U C K L I N G

ARMOUR-Zen is a natural product based on the active ingredient, soluble Chitosan.ARMOUR-Zen, applied regularly through periods of disease pressure, presents elicitation and anti-microbial properties and when applied to ripening grapes inhibits the germination of Bortrytis spores. Apply from pre-bunch closure through to harvest as required (no withholding period). The Biological

Solution for Botrytis and Sclerotinia

For more informationphone 03-477 6447 or email: [email protected]

Agrimaster KA Vineyard Mulchers

kk Opening rear hoodkk New type hammer

flails suitable for grass trimming or prunings

kk Overrun clutch in gearbox

kk Branch rake for pruning time

Phone Murray on 0274 857 378 for details

CUTTING WIDTH OPTIONS 1500mm OR 1750mm

High quality Italian mulchers distributed by Paul Wilkins Tractors Ltd

FEBRUARY SPECIAL$1000 discount

for all orders received during February


product and the winemaker that exaggerated the facts, sound twee or overly sentimental, or don’t match up to visual branding lead to a disinterested audience.

Remember, the purpose of tell-ing your wine story is not to per-suade with overemphasis, but to persuade with nuanced fact.

In telling a good wine story, you need to be able to articu-late who you are. Why does your brand exist? Why are you still in operation today? Where does your passion come from? Who are the people behind the cellar door? These aspects will give your wine story a clear narrative vision.

You also need to be able to convey why you’re different to your neighbours. Where are your grapes from? Why are your vari-etals worth interest? What unique viticultural techniques are you using? How small or large are your vintages?

Who you are and why you’re different are the essential things every single person in your busi-ness should know. These parts of your story can be told on your web-site, to media, at the cellar door, and whenever you meet anybody and need to talk about your wine. Think of it as your “elevator pitch”: the succinct and persuasive story you can tell in under two minutes, or 300 words.

Your wine story needs to con-tinue with every bottle. You don’t have space for much of the above on a label; remember that the real estate for words on a bottle is extremely limited. Instead, you need to convey your wine story all in your imagery. Your logo, label colours and designs, and fonts used should all be cohesive with the story you can tell verbally or in writing.

In the text that does feature on your labelling, focus on your story,

not just your wine region. If you include abbreviated tasting notes on your labelling, ensure they fit within your wine story’s overall narrative.

Whether it’s on your bottle, on your website, or when you’re actually talking about your wine in an elevator, the most important part of your wine story is emotion. How does your wine make the consumer feel about both buy-ing and drinking it? Is it a status wine? What kind of people enjoy it? What feelings does it conjure up? How does all of this relate to the people behind the wine? Leave your consumers with an emotional message about what you represent.

The purpose of this is to engage with consumers. You need to con-nect with them and demonstrate how and why your brand is rel-evant and worth their time. The wine itself, of course, is the physi-

cal manifestation of that engage-ment.

To foster and continue such engagement, your wine story can be brought into the 21st century with social media tools. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram all have value for wine brands, as they give the opportunity to continu-ally, yet subtly, tell your story over and over again.

Use social media for posting “peripheral” information to con-vey your wine story, and keep the direct promotion to a minimum.

For example, for every one post about a new vintage being released, balance this with four other posts that aren’t specifically about your product.

Keep your social media profiles fresh and interesting, and, natu-rally, in line with your wine story. In doing so, it’s a story that will never get old and tired. [email protected] Q


BOB’S BLOG BOB CAMPBELL MW

Driving in Hawke’s Bay a couple of weeks ago I came across a very large and attractive structure. Could it be a winery? Yes, it’s winemaking on a grand scale by Delegats. Planned for completion in time for the

2016 vintage the winery will “… enable us to meet strong growth in global demand for our Hawke’s Bay Sparkling, Pinot Gris and Merlot”, says winemaker Michael Ivicevich. Additional areas, including offices,

landscaping and vineyard will be completed after harvest. An article in the NZ Herald claims that the $40 million winery is one of Hawke’s Bay’s largest construction projects.

DELEGATS BUILD LARGE WINERY IN HAWKE’S BAY

IS THIS A NEW RECORD? According to my database Babich’s special edition 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon has set a new record RRP for a current vintage 750ml bottle of New Zealand wine at $399. (If anyone debate’s that claim I’d love to hear from you on [email protected]).The previous record holder is Destiny Bay 2010 Magna Praemia with a reassuringly expensive price of $355 although “club members” can buy it at a lower price.The wine celebrates Babich’s upcoming 100-year anniversary. It comes in a highly designed box with a certificate personally signed by Managing Director, Joe Babich adding to its authenticity and uniqueness. Each bottle has an ultra-high end cork and is hand waxed. Aussie winemakers, particularly Penfolds, have bolder price policies than their Kiwi cousins. I applaud Babich’s bravery particularly because they seem to have satisfied the four criteria that I use to decide whether high-flying wines are worthy of the price: Quality (tick), Scarcity (only 330 bottles – tick), longevity (tick) and Hype (great packaging – tick).


I’m always fascinated to learn about adverse reactions that some people get from certain wines. When I ask a class of 20 students if anyone suffers adverse reactions I typically find three - four candidates – that’s a scarily high percentage and may be the tip of the iceberg because some people don’t want to go public about unpleasant side effects. Most think that sulfur dioxide is the villain. While it is true that sulfur dioxide can trigger off an adverse reaction (technically an intolerance, according to

The Oxford Companion to Wine [OCW) other factors may deserve the blame.The OCW defines an allergy as a reaction with an immunological basis. Examples of common allergens that can be found in wine are dead yeast cells from fermentation, and traces of proteins from fining agents. Everything else, it seems, is an intolerance. These include histamine and tyramine produced during malolactic fermentation, which can trigger headaches and red wine intolerance. I recall

reading about a malady called “Red wine drinker’s headache syndrome” which can cause severe migraines in susceptible red wine drinkers. The cure, according to the report, was to take half an aspirin one hour before drinking red wine. I tested it on five sufferers. It worked on four of them. It might be worth trying.Some people, particularly members of certain ethnic groups, can experience flushing after drinking alcohol of any sort due to the lack of an enzyme which metabolises

alcohol. There is no instant cure although if sufferers persevere, despite the unpleasant symptoms, they apparently adapt and the symptoms gradually abate. It may be cynical of me but I suspect that the consumption of too much alcohol may often be the cause of some discomfort and that sulfur dioxide is a convenient scapegoat which, if nothing else, helps boost the self-esteem of hangover sufferers as in, “I didn’t drink too much it was an additive that did the damage”.

It Must Have Been Something I Drank

ROCK-STAR WINEMAKER RESIGNS Nikolai St George, Matua Valley’s talented chief winemaker has resigned and left the company in January 2016, according to a spokesman from Treasury Wines. At the time of writing (December 2015) I was told that a replacement would be announced in early January.Nikolai has been making wine at Matua for seven years and is largely credited (by me at least) for a renaissance at the premium end of their range with a string of outstanding single vineyard wines that picked up an armful of trophies and top medal awards. He was voted winemaker of the year at the Royal Easter Wine Show 2013, New Zealand International Wine Show 2014 & Royal Easter Wine Show 2015.Nikolai leaves a big gap at a tricky time in the weeks leading up to vintage although Treasury Wines undoubtedly has a large pool of winemaking talent.

Low maintenance grass seed.

www.specseed.co.nz0 8 0 0 P A S T U R E

7 2 7 8 8 7 3

For the best advice call

Sowing the correct grass seed will save you time and money with reduced maintenance. Our quality vineyard grass seed mix requires less mowing than general pasture seed mixes. We understand that you have better things to do than mow grass. For expert individual advice, call us.

Great looking grass. Excellent working platform. Designed especially for vineyards.


BRANDNEWS

PROTECTING YOUR BRAND OVERSEASE L E N A S Z E N T I VA N Y I , D I R E C T O R , A N D DAV I D M O O R E , S E N I O R A S S O C I AT E , H E N R Y H U G H E S I N T E L L E C T U A L P R O P E R T Y

T he export market is worth over $1.5 billion to New Zealand winegrowers. The US, Australia and the UK

remain significant destinations for our wine but Canada, the Nether-lands and China are experiencing growth.

Any winegrower looking to export should not neglect to ensure that brands are safe to use, and are protected, overseas.

Trade mark rights are territo-rial. This means that a trade mark

which you have launched and pro-tected in New Zealand may not necessarily be safe to use overseas.

Before committing to launch a brand overseas you should conduct searches to determine whether it could conflict with trade mark rights already estab-lished by another company. You must search country by country. Your searches should cover both:

The trade marks register(s) relevant to each country of inter-est; and

The general marketplace, by using internet search engines, trade directories and wine whole-sale and retail websites.

The risk is that you invest (both in terms of time and money) in preparing for and marketing the launch, plus you may be commit-ted to contracts with third parties, only to receive a letter of demand from a trade mark owner in the overseas country which asserts that your wine brand infringes its rights. Potentially, you may have

to recall stock and pay damages.Thorough searching should

alert you to potential conflicts before they arise.

TimingAllow plenty of time for

clearance searches, particularly if multiple countries are being investigated.

Assuming that the searches are clear, you should proceed with trade mark applications promptly after the searching is

Supplier of vines certified and tested to the NZ Grafted Grapevine Standard.

Small quantities of vines available for 2015 planting, but be in quick! Order your vines

now for 2016 planting and beyond.Talk to us about our Health Plus Vines designed specifically for replants in virus affected blocks.

Contact Emma Taylor, Nursery Viticulturist

06 845 3186 or 021 412 953

[email protected]

Ask about our

H E A LT H PL U S

Vines

XB1509-1253_vineyard_plants_ad.indd 1 15/09/15 4:17 PM

Small quantities of vines available for 2016 planting, but be quick! Order your vines now for

2017 planting and beyond.Talk to us about our Health Plus Vines designed VSHFLÀFDOO\�IRU�UHSODQWV�LQ�YLUXV�DIIHFWHG�EORFNV�


completed. The longer the time period between searching and fil-ing to protect the trade mark, the greater the risk that someone else could establish conflicting rights in the intervening period.

In most countries, you will not be able to secure a trade mark registration in under six months; frequently it takes much longer. It is therefore good practice to include trade marks early on in your list of tasks when planning for export overseas.

We recommend commencing the trade mark searching and filing process at least one to two years prior to the anticipated launch overseas.

Paris ConventionNew Zealand is a party to the

Paris Convention. This means that you can file a trade mark applica-tion in New Zealand first and then file applications for the same trade

mark in most overseas countries up to six months later while still receiving the benefit of the origi-nal New Zealand filing date.

In practice, this means that you can file a trade mark application in New Zealand and then use the next six months to determine whether the trade mark is both viable and safe to use overseas. If a third party were to attempt to establish rights overseas in the trade mark during the six month period after filing in New Zealand, you would be able to “trump” the third party by fil-ing overseas and claiming rights dating back to the date of filing in New Zealand.

Madrid ProtocolNew Zealand is a contract-

ing party to the Madrid Protocol which is an agreement that ena-bles trade mark owners to create an “International Registration” (“IR”) based on a home applica-

tion / registration.The term “International Reg-

istration” is slightly misleading in that it is not possible to obtain one registration which covers all coun-tries. The Madrid Protocol pro-vides a single filing portal where you can designate several coun-tries in a single application. This will result in individual trade mark applications being created in each of the designated countries. The resulting applications will then be examined in the usual manner and may proceed to registration on a country by country basis.

The benefit of the Madrid system is that it enables you to manage your overseas trade mark applications and registra-tions from New Zealand, without incurring the cost of engaging overseas attorney firms. How-ever, if any of the applications in countries which you have desig-nated encounter problems, you

will still have to appoint a local agent in that country. The Madrid Protocol can be combined with the Paris Convention to claim a prior-ity date from your original New Zealand application for each des-ignated country provided that des-ignation occurs within six months.

Dealing with distributers

When engaging distributers overseas, you should ensure that a suitable contract is put in place which, amongst other things, makes it clear that you retain the intellectual property rights in the brands and labels being distrib-uted.

Sometimes, distributers may register your trade marks overseas in their own names (ostensibly to be “helpful”). It may be difficult to recover the trade mark from them if the relationship sours or a dis-pute arises with a third party.Q

DON’T LET YOUR WASTEWATER RUN AMOK100% NATURAL GYPSUM FOR WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT

Winery waste water raises sodium and potassium to damaging levels. Gypsum reverses the effects.

• Important role in managing water effluent• Reduces the risk of erosion• Improves long term ability to continue

wastewater disposal• Improves soil quality and drainage• Remedy for exhausted effluent fields and

related environmental issues

Talk to your fertiliser nutrient advisor to learn more about the benefits of Gypsum.

www.gypsum.co.nz


REGIONSCENTRAL OTAGO

POPPING UP IN CENTRALM A R K O R T O N

W hat do you get when you cross a tranquil walnut grove on one of Central Otago’s most

prized wine-roads, with a glisten-ing spaceship-like caravan? Well, for Two Paddocks owner Sam Neill that equates to a pop-up cellar door.

With four vineyards spread over Gibbston, Bannockburn and Earnscleugh, having a cen-tral focus point for the Two Pad-dock’s cellar door is geographically challenging, so Neill figured they would try something a little differ-ent this summer.

Looking suitably relaxed mix-ing with visitors to the pop-up cellar door, Neill is happy to chat about wine but even happier to chat about his Airstream. The über shiny aluminium behemoth is something of beauty.

With a shape that dates back to the 1930s, and polished to within an inch of its life, why did Neill get a 1982 Airstream?

“I’ve just always had a thing about them, when one drives past I stop the car. I always thought it would be so cool to have one in New Zealand, as there are only a handful here, he says.

Likening the iconic caravan to a piece of sculpture sitting in a paddock, Neill gets to stay in the mobile home from time-to-time, and even puts up certain wine writ-ers when they are passing through the area, through he won’t say who has stayed in it.

“Well you have got to be the right sort of person to stay in it and I’m not allowed to say who has met the brief as they may have had company when using it, and I should be discreet…it’s actually quite romantic inside”.

All humour aside, Neill always sensed the potential for his Air-stream to be used in a multitude of ways, but he is still a little taken aback by the popularity of the pop up cellar door which was his brain-wave. “To be honest, I don’t know

Two Paddocks GM Jacqui Murphy and Sam Neill toast the pop-up cellar door.

Kate Gibbs (B.Hort.Sci)

STANMORE FARM LTDRD1 Te Horo, OtakiPh 027 440 9814Email: [email protected]: www.stanmorefarm.co.nz

Stanmore farm certified vinesTalk to us about our new drought tolerant rootsticks


if they are here for the wine or the airstream. If they are airstream lovers that learn to drink wine, then our job here is done.”

Just trying to steer the con-versation back to wine is tricky, especially when Neill starts to wax lyrical about the 70’s styling in the interior of the Airstream. But, with a constant stream of peo-ple still lining up to have a tasting, and food flying out of the mobile caterers kitchen, he gives credit for the logistics to general manager Jacqui Murphy.

“I can take no credit for that at all, I didn’t have a clue. I thought we would just park up on the road somewhere, but this is Duncan Forsyth’s (Mount Edward) pad-dock and he very generously let us park here next to our Fusilier vineyard. Based on the success of this, next year we should probably do a joint pop-up cellar door with Mount Edward…or he might just

chuck me out and go it alone.”Certainly the easy access and

rustic nature of the pop-up cellar door is something that is proving very appealing to the multitudes of summer visitors to Central Otago. Being able to grab a table under a tree with some tasty food and try some wines is something a little removed from many conventional cellar door experiences.

“I just think, loosening up the ‘wine’ thing is great. You don’t just have to drink wine at somewhere that you need to book… if that makes sense.

“There is obviously a case to be made for exclusivity, but I always think back to many years ago when

I first got interested in art. It was maybe 15 years after I first got into art that I actually had enough money to buy a decent painting. Fortunately, the art dealer Peter McLeavey cultivated young people like myself, because he knew we were the collectors of the future.

“Hopefully it’s not all old grey people like me, you want to expand the wine business a wee bit. I’m not impressed by big ostentatious wineries, something humble like this is more my speed.”

Showcasing all the Two Pad-docks Pinot Noirs and Rieslings along with some selected older vintage Pinots, Neill’s cunning take on the pop-up phenomenon

is certainly a hit but what does he want visitors to take away from the experience?

“It’s nice to make our presence felt here on Felton Road, even if it is only for a couple of weeks. Just fly the flag a bit.

“I also hope it is an extremely meaningful revelation and they have an enhanced appreciation of Airstream caravans.”

Though, just in case anyone reading this has aspirations to get an Airstream of their own, Neill is not only coy about how much his cost (he won’t say), but men-tions that there is a bit more to the purchase than simply raising the necessary readies.

“Well I got this one off my friend Stu in Queenstown and the first thing you have to do is prove to him that you are worthy…and only then, he might think about selling one to you.” [email protected]

DESIGNED FOR LONGEVITY & RELIABILITY SIMPLE AND EASY TO USE

RAPID WORK RATE QUALITY FINISH

GERMAN ENGINEERING TOGETHER WITH INNOVATIVE CUSTOMISATION TO SUIT YOUR VINEYARD.

VITICULTURE. IT’S ALL WE DO. CALL 0800 367 583 OR VISIT WWW.FMRGROUP.CO.NZ


NEWTECHNOLOGY

SANITISING SUSTAINABLYK eeping a cellar moist

enough to prevent wine losses from barrels is a major ongoing problem

for wineries. Especially as the moisture levels required can lead directly to other less savoury issues such as mould growth.

A new form of plant technol-ogy Path-Away™ Anti Pathogenic Solution, in combination with the GAAW Environmental Manage-ment Technology looks to provide the answer. It is a broad spectrum anti pathogenic solution derived from natural sources, with no added chemicals or alcohol. It is

also approved by Bio Gro for use in organic environments.

Percentage wise the loss of wine from barrels, known simply as ‘angels breath’, can easily reach double figures if the environment is too dry.

Depending on the winemaker’s practices, cellars and barrel halls require a high humidity level, somewhere between 75 and 90 percent to cut those losses to a more equitable percentage. But that leads directly to mould, mean-ing winemakers have to be able to protect the barrels and the ensuing wine in a way that doesn’t impact

on quality or residue restrictions. Path-Away which was developed in the US is already achieving a solution internationally in many agricultural and horticultural environments.

Kerry Grimshaw, the CEO of the Australasian agent, New Zealand Air and Water Limited says the product is a plant based solution designed to eliminate air borne and surface pathogens and also act as a natural deodorizer.

Scientific testing and trials show it is non-toxic to humans, animals, plants and aquatic life, as well as being biodegradable. It

Keeping a cellar moist without creating mould issues can be a problem for wineries.


has recently been approved as the first organic pesticide in the US.

Grimshaw says the company’s Environmental Management Control System (GEM) provides a controlled humidity level as programmed via a dry mist. While that keeps the evaporation levels down, Path-Away working in con-junction takes care of the disinfec-tion issues. This technology also controls air conditioning, moni-tors CO2 and CO levels along with early warning systems.

Path-Away™ could also be use-ful out in the vineyard controlling/killing mealy bug, viral and fungal diseases.

Trials are currently underway with New Zealand Air & Water working alongside Plant & Food Research on Leafroll disease.

Grimshaw says there have already been some startling results from using the product in other horticultural fields, including

coconut and pineapple planta-tions in the Philippines and Aus-tralia.

“Mealy bugs were the main problem (in the Philippines) and Path-Away was completely suc-cessful in eliminating them,” he says.

The trials were conducted by the Philippine Government’s Agri-culture College.

“Path-Away is now going to replace all the neo nicotinoid sprays that are currently being used on all these plantations as these particular pesticides have now been proven to be responsi-ble for killing off all the bees, and affecting birds and the environ-ment”.”

The product is also currently being trialled to confirm its effi-cacy on Botrytis, Phytophthora and Penicillium by Australia’s largest pineapple producer. These pathogens have also previously

been successfully tested against by Plant and Food Research and Auckland University.

Back here though, Grimshaw says they are keen to see exactly how effective Path-Away is on destroying mealy bugs, given their role in spreading GLRaV-3-Virus.

“We’re confident that Path-Away can resolve this, and if the mealy bugs are eliminated, the virus can’t spread.

“There are tests also being done on the virus as well, but as it’s systemic, that requires fur-ther consideration and testing. Due to its unique mode of action, Path Away has not failed any broad spectrum pathogen tests. This now offers a major step forward with eliminating the toxic chemi-cal products currently used in the horticultural and agricultural environment by replacing them with a natural organic alternative”[email protected] Q

NZ_ViniQuip 180x120mm_FINAL.FH11 Thu Nov 20 07:05:05 2014 Page 1

Composite

C M Y CM MY CY CMY K


NOT ON THE LABELLEGAL MATTERS WITH MARIJA BATISTICH

SENIOR ASSOCIATE – BELL GULLY

T he Resource Legislation Amendment Bill 2005 is now open for public sub-missions, following its

announcement in late Novem-ber and passing the first reading comfortably in early December. Overall, the proposed changes are positive and should particu-larly help to improve and expe-dite the plan-making process. They will not be a complete answer to the frustrations aris-ing for many participants in the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) processes and, while politi-cally expedient, they are undoubt-edly less far-reaching than the Government would like to see.

A n u m b e r o f i n f o r m e d commentators are calling for better integration of urban planning and infrastructure delivery, as well as separation of the environmental protection and urban planning functions of the RMA.

The Bill is a diluted version of previously proposed amendments, with a focus on the time frames for resource consenting and reducing the excessive time and money spent on the development of district plans. It seems more far reaching reforms will have to wait at least until the Productivity Commission completes its review of Urban Planning.

What has changed?T h e m o s t s i g n i f i c a n t

difference, when compared to earlier proposed amendments, is the removal of controversial changes to sections 6 and 7 (Part 2) of the RMA that did not gain cross party support. The only change to Part 2 that is now proposed should not be contentious – inclusion of the “management of significant

risks from national hazards” as a matter of national importance (section 6).

The introduction of national planning templates will require councils to follow standardised provisions. This will provide consistency throughout the c o u n t r y a n d i m p r o v e t h e usability of planning instruments. This change should assist in streamlining the process by requiring less time and resources for submitters. While the template will deal with matters of detail, it is unlikely to make much difference for high impact or contentious planning matters. It is, however, a n i m p o r t a n t o p p o r t u n i t y for those with winegrowing interests across the country to seek consistent provision for matters such as noise limits or setbacks.

Alternative processes for plan makingThe ‘Collaborative Planning Process’

The Bill introduces alternative processes for plan making. The first of these, referred to as the “Collaborative Planning Process” involves the formation of a collaborative group including members of the community and affected parties to report to the local authority on issues and recommendations before a plan is prepared. After proceeding through the usual notification and submission process, a review panel will hear submissions and provide a recommendation to the local authority. The local authority will then decide whether to accept or reject the recommendations of the panel. The “Streamlined Planning Process”

The second option is a new “Streamlined Planning Process” where the plan will implement a national direction, if preparation or change of the plan is urgent or if the plan is required to meet a significant community need. A local authority must apply to the Minister – supplying both the proposed plan and reasons for using the streamlined process. If approved, alternative timeframes may be set to expedite the process. There is provision for consultation with affected parties, public notification and an opportunity to make written submissions. The local authority will then prepare a modified plan and resubmit it back to the Minister who can either approve it or recommend further changes.

Fast track consentsIn the consenting context,

a fast-track application process is proposed for simple activities (other than the subdivision of land). These amendments halve some of the existing timeframes including the time for the council to decide whether to publicly notify the application, and the time frame for a decision if the application is not notified. In addition, activities which are approved by neighbours on affected boundaries are considered to be permitted activities and marginal non-compliances can be waived to avoid the need to go through the consenting process.

Other key changesT h e o t h e r ke y c h a n g e s

introduced by the Bill are improved alignment between RMA and Conservation Act processes, removing management

of hazardous substances from the RMA (these are also regulated by the Hazardous Substances a n d Ne w O r g a n i s m s A c t ) and amendment to the land acquisition process in the Public Works Act 1981 (PWA). PWA changes include an increase in the additional compensation a v a i l a b l e f o r l a n d o w n e r s whose home is acquired under the PWA (from NZ$2,000 to NZ$50,000). A new ground of additional compensation (of up to NZ$25,000) will be added for landowners whose land, but not home, is acquired. These changes aim to provide an incentive for landowners to enter into agreements more readily and provide easier and fairer compensation for affected landowners.

What does it mean?These changes will smooth the

way for small scale matters. The red tape and delays associated with these can be frustrating and attract criticism, but in reality these projects are already more likely than not to proceed through the process without notification or undue delay. The changes will have little or no beneficial effect for larger proposals, the processes for which can be time consuming, expensive and introduce significant uncertainty.

Submissions are open until 14 March 2016 and the select committee is due to report in early June. This is the opportunity for you to have a say on the reforms, and let the Government know whether you think they go far enough. We will certainly be watching this process closely and will keep you updated on developments. Q

RMA REFORM BACK ON THE AGENDA

savour regionalitysavour stylesavour diversity

sauvignon2016.com @sauvignon2016 #SauvignonNZ facebook.com/sauvignon2016

PRINCIPAL SPONSORS ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

PRODUCT SPONSORS

GALA DINNER SPONSOR

REGIONAL/NATIONAL PARTNERS


INDUSTRYNEWS

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURET E S S A N I C H O L S O N

P roviding a story about your brand that resonates with consumers is vitally important these days. No

one appreciates that more than the new CEO of Kono, Rachel Taulelei.

The former NZTE Commis-sioner to the US and the founder of Yellow Brick Road took over the role in November last year. In her first public speech as CEO, Taule-lei told a chartered accountants conference in Nelson, that where the company has come from is just, if not more important than where it is going.

Kono which produces the wine brands Tohu, Rewa and Aronui, is the food and beverage arm of Wakatu Incorporation based in the top of the South Island. The company’s 4000 shareholders are all descendants of the original 254 Maori landowners in the Nelson, Marlborough, Golden Bay and Tas-man Bay region.

While the company is unique in its own right, the fact that Taulelei

is now Kono’s CEO is even more so, given she is the first direct descendant to hold that position.

“In our head office we have the 254 names on the wall and these names are all representative of the families that settled into this area,” Taulelei says. “It’s a pretty powerful message to walk past each day for all of us. My great, great grandfather is on that list and it’s the first time one of the ‘own-ers’ has sat in the CEO seat. So it has been an interesting journey to get to this point.”

Kono which means food bas-ket, is not just about wine. The company also has other business units including horticulture, sea-food and food manufacturing. All the units have their own unique story to tell that comes from the lineage of the company and the goal of being a guardian of the land, Taulelei says.

“We consider ourselves to be kaitiaki or guardians of the resources. The value of kaitiaki-

tanga is that it recognises that we are responsible for the health and vitality of our land, waters and resources. Not only now, but also into the future. We manage what we consider to be our ancestral treas-ures in a sustainable way that creates opportunities for growth and prosperity. We take (all our products) from the land or sea and take it right through to the mar-ket. Our goal is to be the best indigenous branded food and beverage com-pany in the world.”

It is just that sort of story, link-ing the past to the present and preparing for the future that reso-nates in wine markets throughout the world.

“Our story is rich, col-ourful – an e nviable tap -

estry of history that is as broad as it is deep. It resonates with dif-ferent groups in different ways, but in China especially we find it resonates very, very well. There are a lot of similarities culturally between Maori and Chinese. And there is a huge emphasis on long-standing and deep relationships.”

The development of the wine

Rachel Taulelei

226 Stanley Road, Gisborne.Ph 06-869 0153 : Fax 06-868 8127www.unieng.co.nz

PRODUCTS:

Universal Engineering provide engineering fabrication services in both stainless steel and carbon steel to the wine industry

ii Stainless steel and carbon steel walkways and staircasesii Whole bunch tin tippersii Marc conveyorsii Stainless steel augersii Chutesii Hoppersii Sheet metal and stainless fabrication


brands has been fast, with Tohu launched only in 1998. Since then the company has gone on to purchase more vineyard land and their own winery in Marlbor-ough. Expansion may be on the cards, Taulelei says, but it will be measured.

“As a company we have expan-sion plans both in volume, and growth in value. To support that there needs to be more fruit, but whether that is on our land or others, is up for discussion. At the end of the day that is a fairly finite resource, and while acquisi-tion would be fantastic, we like all companies are subject to limita-tions. So we have to think smartly how we do approach that.”

That measured approach is obvious in the company’s 500-year plan that protects not only the current shareholders, but their descendants of the future.

“What that does, is allow us to

plan for the wellness and prosper-ity of our grandchildren’s grand-children. So we are working to a relatively long term plan – 500 years, which is somewhere in the distance. We take that 500-year plan, that horizon back to our activities today. It is a very delib-erate strategy.”

Like many in the wine industry, the new Kono CEO believes that New Zealand needs to be focusing on the niche, quality market. It is here where we can make the great-est impact Taulelei says.

“We should be the world lead-ers in the luxury goods space. We are working with limited resources, some would say dimin-ishing resources and the story that accompanies them needs to be treated with kid gloves. The space we need to operate in is that of limited supply, high demand and consequently extraordinary high value.”Q

FAST FACTS

• Kono currently owns 140 hectares of viticulture

land in both Nelson and Marlborough, spread

over four vineyards.

• On those 140 hectares the company is growing a

wide range of varieties; Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot

Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Grüner

Veltliner and Albariño.

• The wine brands are Aronui (Nelson based),

Tohu and Rewa (Marlborough), along with Kono,

Buller and Coalpit.

• All the wine is made at the former Crossing’s

winery in the Awatere Valley, which Kono pur-

chased a few years ago.

• Other beverages within the Kono stable are Tutu,

a cider and an Oyster Stout beer.

• With 4000 owners descended from original

Maori landowners in the Nelson region, has

assets worth $250 million. Its 10 million shares

can only be traded among the descendants.

Grow your career

nmit.ac.nz/viticulture

With full time and study-while-you-work options you can study to suit your needs.

> Bachelor of Viticulture and Winemaking�� $FSUJÝDBUF�JO�7JOFZBSE�1SBDUJDF

4UVEZ�WJUJDVMUVSF�BOE�XJOFNBLJOH�in Marlborough, the heart of /FX�;FBMBOE�T�XJOF�JOEVTUSZ��


WINENEWS

JUST WHAT IS ORANGE WINE?C A M E R O N D O U G L A S M S

‘WHAT WINE should we drink with dinner tonight – red, white, rosé or orange?’

Consumers tend to be crea-tures of habit when buying wine and many typically shop for some-thing they already know and are comfortable with - varieties and styles that tick the boxes of reli-ability, value and safety. ‘Mod-ern’ wines are clean and shiny in appearance and present aromas, flavours and textures that meet expectations and perceptions of quality. These wines are consid-ered ‘normal’, and drive wine sales globally.

Orange wine does not fit neatly into these criteria and it is unlikely it ever will because it doesn’t align with what is perceived as desirable in modern, classic wines. It looks different as well - apart from the orange, salmon or peach hues it can be a little cloudy in appear-ance (compared to modern bot-tled examples), it may smell a little odd, and it has a particular texture.

The flavour profile of orange wine is quite wide ranging and will depend (as with modern wine) upon the variety used and wine-making intervention. Some of the local examples I have tasted show acute stone fruit flavours laced with old flowers, some slightly ‘grubby’ herb notes, and even marzipan and spice. Because of the skin contact involved there will be plenty of texture and skin tannins to factor in which will add quite a bite (grip) for some varieties and less so for others. Compare dis-covering an orange wine that suits

your palate to finding a version of Chardonnay that suits – it has to have the right balance, textures, complexity and finish.

If orange wine is something you haven’t considered you’re not alone. It may have appeared on the shelves at your favourite wine store, or somewhere on the list at a restaurant or bar you visit, but unless the staff or sommelier is happy to discuss or even provide you with a taste, you may not have been interested in trying.

So what exactly is it, and how is it made?

Orange wine is essen-tially a form of natural wine, which develops the orange colour due to being made without preservatives. It can be made from any white variety and incorporates a deliberate fermenta-tion on skins followed by extended post ferment maceration – typically two weeks to several months. Pinot Gris is a favoured variety locally (2013 Sato Pinot Gris Central Otago) and seems to be suited to the method. With the berries hav-ing a pink colour already the col-our will develop readily through an unavoidable oxidation phase, and the varieties own set of phenolic attributes will add to the texture in the finished wine. Pinot Gris also has an abundance of sugar (for RS and potential alcohol) to bring bal-

ance and longevity.Varieties indigenous to par-

ticular countries are typically used in any Orange wines pro-duced (for example Rkatsileli in Georgia). Here the use of seeds and stalks in the ferment is also a factor in the finished wine, and

along with the fermentation vessel used. In Georgia the use of egg-shaped clay vessels (Amphora), lined with wax and buried in the ground to keep the ferment cool is part of the traditional process and still carried out. The ration-ale is that the combination of skin, seed and stalk tannins housed in the ferment and ageing vessel creates its own preservative com-

ponents, along with high natural acidity from the grapes and any alcohol produced. The type of clay used is specific to the country and micro-oxidation occurs through the clay and lid - when racking of the wine is completed at various clarification points further oxida-

tion events occur, contribut-ing to the final flavour and colour. Tannin and acid lev-els are particularly high - this is ‘old school’ wine making and particular to Georgia, and continues to be in prac-tice after many hundreds of years.

Twenty first century wine making incorporates the historical practices with additional knowledge and technology developed over the years. Many sci-entific and non-scientific approaches are now used including organic and bio-dynamically managed fruit, concrete egg fermenters, temperature controls, understanding the thresh-olds of flavour and texture release, yeast families, vari-ous oak products and the

use of sulphur. Orange wine will always be dramatically different from modern wine - it is a specific style using a particular technique that has not changed and is what defines it.

Orange wine, of course, has its critics - the focus will be on dislike of the phenolics, volatile acidity, excessive oxidation, heavy unbal-anced examples, too much tannin.

Orange wine may be one of the newest styles on the street, but it’s heritage goes back thousands of years.


All of these criticisms have merit if the comparison is with what is now accepted as modern and/or commercial winemaking - but it is, of course, comparing apples to pears. The context in which Orange Wine should be judged is alongside other Orange wines, and the aim should be identifying the best examples.

It has a role to play in the mar-ket and there is definitely enthusi-asm for the category. Professional sommeliers carry much of the credit for introducing Orange wine into restaurants, showing their open mindedness to new styles and expressions in wine as well as investigating the versatility with food. While it is important to ensure the customers don’t become the guinea pigs in the sommeliers’ food and wine pair-ing experiments, Orange wine can add diversity to a wine and food programme. Commonly, it is one

of the first topics I am questioned about when the subject of alterna-tive wine styles is raised. Then fol-lows - what does it taste like, is it any good, who makes it and where can I buy some? It raises a mes-sage about the consumer that I am continually reminded of – people remain curious about wine, like to explore new versions of wine and will generally be direct and honest if they do or don’t like what you are trying to sell them

There is a notable downside to Orange wine in a restaurant - by the glass sales, volume sales and adding to the bottom line won’t make a lot of money for the busi-ness. Particularly regarding by the glass sales, once opened it must be sold and drunk in that sales period as it will lose integ-rity quickly through rapid oxida-tion. I have yet to try an example that has maintained good quality overnight - even with argon gas or

another preserver system in play.When it comes to food and

wine harmony using Orange wine - go bold on the food, to align with the boldness of the wine. Tradi-tional rustic country fare such as wild game bird (pheasant, goose), stews, Shepherd’s pie and perhaps a lamb leg roast with mash make for ideal pairings. At restaurants it will depend entirely on the style of food you are engaging in – try to avoid deep fried food, heat spices or delicate spices and anything with monosodium or food enhanc-ers with any Orange wine. Options such as pan-seared salmon or an oily fish can work well. Umami ingredients in food such as miso and soy sauce are also good part-ners.

The internet has created a greater awareness of Orange, Natural and other alternatives to commercial wine options. For access to producers - both local

and imported examples - start with a net search, or ask your local trusted Sommelier or retailer.

Supporters for Orange wine are likely outnumbered by the critics, and I suspect there are many readers of this article who have not yet engaged in the style. It is difficult for some to embrace the re-emergence of a wine style that has been made for centuries elsewhere in the world and with which they have no relationship.

For some it’s simply outside their frame of reference for wine because it doesn’t look, smell or taste like what they are used to, so they reject it out of hand. Of the many challenges for producers of Orange wine - one key question remains - how will they reach con-sumers to generate enthusiasm for the style, and how will they con-vince them it is worth the purchase dollars?

[email protected]

• Employment Relations• Performance Management• Workforce Planning• Employment Agreements• Health And Safety

Intepeople assist many wineries with employment and staffing issues.

Call Blenheim 03 579 4794 Or Nelson 03 546 8649 www.intepeople.co.nz


WEATHERUPDATE

CLIMATE WARNING AND FROSTY COOLING

W hen we think global warming, we tend to think of warmer tem-peratures and more

extreme weather events. We prob-ably do not consider that another result is more spring and autumn frosts.

In a recent seminar held in Marlborough, the impact of chang-ing weather patterns and their relationship to frost events high-lighted some interesting changes.

It appears that Marlborough’s mean temperature between the 1940s and the late 2000s did not change in any dramatic way, despite global warming.

However, the mean daily maxi-mum temperatures have risen while the minimum temperatures have dropped. In other words, the region is experiencing higher tem-peratures than it used to, but the occurrence of colder temperatures

is also increasing.Professor Andy Sturman

from University of Canterbury’s Department of Geography noted that the pattern of change in Mar-lborough, or to be exact Blenheim, is similar to what has occurred in

Christchurch. Other wine grow-ing regions such as Napier, Nelson and Central Otago are showing an increase in their mean tem-peratures in line with the national trend. Of the main centres, only Blenheim and Christchurch are

bucking the trend, show-

i n g s t a t i c m e a n t e m -

peratures but an increase in the daily

temperature range.Marlborough in particular

appears to be at risk of frosts occurring later in the year under El Niño conditions, as we have experienced this growing season.

There were four frost events in November 2015 that impacted on vines throughout Marlborough, overnight on the 4th and 5th, 5th/6th, 12th/13th and 22nd/23rd.

Dr Mike Trought from Plant & Food Research Ltd. said that these later frosts are tending to coincide with an advancement in flowering within the region.

Since 1992, he said the dates of flowering in Marlborough have moved forward by nearly eight

T E S S A N I C H O L S O N

El Nino may be the reason for later frosts being experienced in Marlborough.

Later frosts are coinciding with an

advancement in flowering,

which means vines are more at risk.

seppi m®_ mulchers are proven to do a better job and last longer than any other model on the market.

Dealer inquiry welcome

®

Now with24 MONTH

warrantyPH: 0800 656 525


days, getting closer to regions such as Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay.

Consequently, fruit set, vérai-son and a brix level of 20 are also being achieved at an earlier stage in the season than in the past.

“What this suggests is that by 2040, the whole country will be harvested in the same week,” Trought said.

“In fact in Australia, they are coming to grips with a number of varieties all coming on stream together. Where they used to have a six week spread of harvest, it is now coming down to a three week spread.”

The major problem with the advancing flowering dates, is that the vines are more likely to be sub-jected to a late spring frost – which is what happened in November 2015. That is something all grow-ers in the Marlborough region are concerned about.

While every season is different,

Andy Sturman and Climate Con-sulting’s Dr Stu Powell, both said there are some situations that are becoming common, depending on whether the country is experienc-ing an El Niño like currently, or a La Niña. El Niño tends to bring more westerly or south-westerly winds, cooler temperatures and extremely dry periods especially along the east coast. In contrast,

La Niña tends to bring less west-erlies, more rain (to the upper North Island) with dry conditions over the bottom half of the South Island.

The last La Niña this country experienced was in 2011/12. The current El Niño pattern we are experiencing, is described as one of the strongest in the past 50 years.

How do these weather patterns impact on frosts? Stu Powell says that having monitored one site in Marlborough for the past 11 years, there is some correlation between the number of November frost events and El Niño, as the table shows.

While in most years the Marl-borough site has experienced sin-gle figure frosts with 2013 being the best year with none, 2014 was a particularly tough year with 11 events. That had a major impact on the yields for 2015, with varieties like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay heavily affected.

The changing frost patterns and how they are impacting on the grape growers in Marlbor-ough is on-going, with research being undertaken by Canterbury University, Climate Consulting and Marlborough Plant & Food Research [email protected] Q

YearSouthern Oscillation

Index (SOI)

Number of Spring Frosts Events at

Fairhall

2005 La Nina 3

2006 El Nino 5

2007 Neither 5

2008 La Nina 1

2009 El Nino 4

2010 La Nina 1

2011 La Nina 6

2012 La Nina 4

2013 Neither 0

2014 El Nino 11

2015 El Nino 6

POST FLOWERING NUTRITION...

FINISH-ITNPK FOLIAR FERTILISER WITH TRACE ELEMENTS ! Respond to leaf or petiole

analysis. ! Restore leaf potassium. ! Compatible with other inputs.

www.grochem.co.nz

ENHANCEBRIX

LEVELSAMINO ALCOHOL FREE • AMINO ALCO

HOL

FREE

•

CERTIFIED


VINEYARDNEWS

PROTECTING GRAPES FROM UV’ST E S S A N I C H O L S O N A N D D R DA M I A N M A R T I N –

P L A N T & F O O D R E S E A R C H , M A R L B O R O U G H

W e humans have to take measures to protect our skin, hence the campaign of slip, slop

slap. But when those long days, clear skies and rising temperatures appear, how do you protect your fruit from the dangers of UV rays? Do they even need protection?

The answer is quite simply – yes, especially if the variety you are growing is Sauvignon Blanc.

Dr Damian Martin from Plant & Food Research in Marlborough says UV rays can be as damaging to berries as they are to human skin. Too much exposure can also result in a change in wine style, that may not be wanted.

For example, take 1998 – the last major El Nino cycle experi-enced in New Zealand. In Marlbor-ough in particular the summer was long, cloudless and very hot. The ensuing wines, which many win-emakers had been excited about, didn’t receive the rave reviews most were expecting. Martin says that had a lot to do with the dry conditions and intense sun between January and April, but it was also a reflection of viticultural practices at the time.

“In 1998 we were extremely excited because Sauvignon Blanc got to 23 or 24 brix which it had never done before. I was at Cor-ban’s and we were looking after the Stoneleigh vineyard. We were really excited about the wines. But we harvested too late at the end of the day. That was the les-son learned. In hot dry years you

have to pick early so you can get more freshness, more acidity and a bit more herbaceousness in the wines to make a classic Marlbor-ough style.”

Martin says the effects of UVs on grapes are very specific to

the formation of phenolic com-pounds.

“A grape berry exposed to UV will produce phenolic compounds to absorb that UV and protect it from damage. Too much UV and those phenolics will then come out in the juice and into the wine.”

The end result tends towards a style that doesn’t match a typical Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

With El Nino currently in full force and some of the hottest days of the year still to come, he says

growers will need to take precau-tions to protect their fruit from over exposure. Which can be dif-ficult if the ensuing drought con-tinues. With irrigation likely to be turned off in some parts of the country, vines will be under stress.

“One of the effects of water stress is a much greater chance of basal leaf drop, which leads to more UV exposure and warmer bunches.”

Martin says it is a double edged sword, given one of the ways to assist a water stressed vine is to remove some of the canopy to encourage fruit development. If the vine is too stressed, some of that canopy will automatically die off – again exposing the fruit to sunlight.

If you need to reduce leaf area, he suggests removing top canopy only, leaving the basal leaves for as long as possible.

In terms of red varieties, the issues with UV damage are not quite as high. Mainly because red fruit requires UVs to help with col-our development and to ensure that colour remains stable during the wine making process.

“But even so,” Martin says, “you can still over do it in terms of exposure. It’s just they are much more forgiving and you get more gains from exposing the fruit than you get with Sauvignon Blanc.”

Whereas in Australia sun-screen products such as Kaolin are often used to protect the fruit from UV damage, Martin says it isn’t a practice usually employed in New Zealand. We can possibly thank our specific climatic condi-tions for that he says.

“One of the unique things about New Zealand is that we have very high energy from the sun but with a cool ambient temperature. Most places in the world where they experienced the equivalent energy that we get, would be 45 degrees outside. Your vines wouldn’t produce quality in that.

“However that cooler ambient temperature is almost certainly a contributor to the type of New Zealandness of our wines. We have the cool ambient tempera-ture combined with the high UV energy – so we are getting the best of both worlds.”[email protected] Q

UV light is essential for fruit development – but too much can be detrimental to the ensuing wine.


MARKET EVENT EVENT DATE

Australia Taste of Sydney March TBC

USA New Zealand Wine Fair (San Francisco) March 7

USA New Zealand Wine Fair (New York) March 10

Germany ProWein (Dusseldorf) March 13-15

China National Food, Wine and Spirits Fair, (Chengdu) March 2016

Canada LCBO Vintages Release and In-Store Promotion (Ontario) April-May

USA New Zealand Wine Tasting (LA) April TBC

Canada BCLB - New Zealand Mini Thematic May TBC

USA Wine Spectator Tasting May TBC

Canada New Zealand In A Glass (Vancouver) May 5

The New Zealand Winegrowers Global Marketing and Events Programme was released at the beginning of July. It outlines the levy-funded global marketing activities and user-pays global events planned for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 in two handy booklets.To view digital versions of these booklets, please visit the Members section of nzwine.com and click through to the Marketing section. Alternatively, if you would like hard copy versions, or wish to speak to one of the team, please contact:Global Marketing ProgrammeFelicity Johnston | Global Marketing Executive | P: +64 9 306 5645 | E: [email protected] Events ProgrammeAngela Willis | Manager – Global Events | P: +64 9 306 5642 | E: [email protected]

1-3: International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration 2016 – Marlborough

4-5: Chardonnay and Sparkling Symposium– Gisborne

13: Marlborough Wine and Food Festival 2016 – Brancott Vineyard - Marlborough

16: Champagne Bollinger Trade Tennis Tournament – Wellington

19-20: Wellington Wine & Food Festival – Waitangi Park – Wellington

21: Brightwater Wine and Food Festival – Grey’s Vineyard – Nelson

23: Champagne Bollinger Trade Tennis Tournament – Auckland

27: The Dog Point/Logan Brown Classic Kiwi Picnic – Dog Point Vineyard – Marlborough

27: Mission Estate Concert – Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals– Hawke’s Bay

28:Mission Estate Concert – Simply Red, The Big Love Tour– Hawke’s Bay

CALENDAR


FEBRUARY

MARCH4: Decanter World Wine Awards 2016 - last date for entries

12: Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival – The Cliffs – Wairarapa

13-15: ProWein – Dusseldorf – Germany

19: Gibbston Wine and Food Festival – Queenstown Gardens – Queenstown

27: Clyde Wine and Food Festival - Clyde

APRIL8-10: The Food Show Christchurch 2016 – Horncastle Arena

30 – 1 MayThe Great NZ Food Show Hamilton 2016 – Mystery Creek Event Centre

MAY: 14: Saint Clair half marathon - Blenheim

NZ WINEGROWER OCTOBER/NOVEMBER // 77

STATISTICS

PRINCIPAL EXPORT MARKETS

MAJOR VARIETIES IN MAJOR AREAS

MAJOR NZ VINEYARD AREAS PRODUCING HECTARES

Exports for the year to date to the end of November 2015

(Moving Annual Total)Region 2014 2017

forecast% of Total in 2017

forecast

Marlborough 22,907.0 23,684.3 67.1

Hawkes Bay 4774.3 4886.6 13.9

Otago 1931.8 1953.2 5.5

Gisborne 1914.6 1961.2 5.6

Waipara 1254.6 1257.2 3.6

Nelson 1122.7 1159.7 3.3

Wairarapa / Wellington 995.1 1017.7 2.9

Auckland / Northland 392.3 407.1 1.2

Waikato / Bay of Plenty 24.6 23.28 0.01

National Total 35,510.1 36,547.3

Variety 2014 % producing area 2017 forecast

Sauvignon Blanc 20,029.4 56.4 20,697.2

Pinot Noir 5509.2 15.5 5995.5

Chardonnay 3345.5 9.4 3441.1

Pinot Gris 2451.2 6.9 1395.3

Merlot 1290.0 3.6 1395.3

Riesling 783.7 2.2 781.1

Syrah 433.1 1.2 446.7

Gewurztraminer 375.5 1.1 363.8

Cabernet Sauv 289.4 0.8 306

Viognier 187.4 0.5 182.2

Malbec 126.8 0.4 134.8

Cabernet Franc 112.7 0.3 112

All other varieties 576.3 1.6 594.8

Total 35,510.1 36,547.3

AVERAGE VINEYARD SIZERegion Number of

Vineyards

Regional area

Planted ha

Average of

area ha

Auckland/Northland 111 392.4 3.5

Waikato/Bay of Plenty 12 24.6 2.1

Gisborne 100 1914.6 19.1

Hawke’s Bay 260 4774.3 18.4

Nelson 118 1122.3 9.5

Marlborough 1014 22,907.0 22.6

Waipara 64 1254.5 19.6

Canterbury 35 193.0 8.4

Wellington/Wairarapa 119 995.1 9.1

Otago 213 1931.8 17.4

National 2046 35,510.1 17.4

CountryLitres(m)

$ FOB

Growth - Decline Litres

%

Growth - Decline

FOB%

UK 60,820 381,069 13% 15%

USA 58,193 414,834 11% 19%

Australia 55,104 358,328 6% -1%

Canada 10,059 100,935 20% 21%

Netherlands 6,906 43,560 27% 23%

Denmark 1,016 7,180 3% 3%

Ireland 2,677 18,848 34% 31%

Japan 1,102 13,729 -7% 7%

Germany 2,488 12,571 10% 1%

China 1,842 27,205 -1% 2%

Hong Kong 1,342 17,856 -1% 9%

Singapore 1,544 20,572 -5% -7%

Finland 0.327 2,719 28% 20%

Norway 0.265 2,069 -29% -31%

Sweden 1.687 13,510 2% 1%

Others 7,758 69,087 20% 18%

TOTAL 213,139,394 1,504,082,123 11% 11%



A regular feature at the back of each issue of WineGrower to inform industry people about research projects being undertaken for their benefit. Newly approved projects (when available) are briefly summarised in the first section ‘Introducing New Projects’. Longer reports in the section headed ‘Progress Reports’, will describe what has been achieved so far. Scientists in charge of each project have been asked to make these reports reader-friendly rather than to follow the usual format of scientific papers. When completed, each project will be reported in full detail, with references, on the website: www.nzwine.com/members/research

LIST OF PROJECTS

RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT

Information and Updates on NZ Winegrowers Research Programmes.Editor Dr Simon Hooker, General Manager Research and Innovation

RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT

Quality Wine Styles for Existing and Developing MarketsThe pathway of volatile sulphur compounds in wine yeastThe Bragato Trust and NZW ScholarshipUniversity of Auckland(Dr Bruno Fedrizzi - student Matias Kinzurk)

Lifestyle Wine (PGP)University of Auckland and Plant and Food Research (Various) Jointly funded by NZW and MPI Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) fund.

Literature review of calcium tartrate stability of winesLincoln University(Bin Tian)

Pests and DiseaseGrapevine Trunk Disease; young vine ecology, diagnostics and preventative treatmentsNew Zealand Viticulture Nursery Association Incorporated (VINA)(Nick Hoskins)

Leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough, 2015 to 2017Plant and Food Research (Vaughn Bell)Virus diversity in New Zealand grapevines: sequence, ecology and impactThe Rod Bonfiglioli ScholarshipPlant and Food Research (Robin MacDiarmid - student Arnaud Blouin)

Sustaining vineyards through practical management of grapevine trunk diseasesSouth Australian Research & Development Institute (Mark Sosnowski) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund

Sector weather data licence & toolsHortPlus (NZ) Ltd.

Developing Powdery Mildew Best Practise (Year Two)Lewis Wright Valuation & Consultancy Ltd (Trevor Lupton)

Grape botrytis resistance to AP and SDHI fungicidesPlant and Food Research (Rob Beresford)

Sustainability/OrganicsEffects of undervine vegetation management on grape quality, vine performance, grape composition, and soil propertiesEastern Institute of Technology (EIT) (Mark Krasnow)

Pinot noir wine composition and sensory characteristics as affected by soil type and irrigation in the Waipara regionLincoln University (Glen Creasy)

Vineyard Ecosystems ProgrammeUniversity of Auckland and Plant and Food Research (Various) Jointly funded by NZW and MBIE

Cost Reduction/Increased ProfitabilityGrapevine growth stage monitoring for prediction of key phenological eventsPlant and Food Research (Rob Agnew) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund


PROGRESSREPORTS

Highlights:Grape juice contains sulphur

hugely in excess of what yeast requires to grow. The production of unfavour-able volatile sulphur compounds in wine results from yeast taking up too much sulphur as a result of “misin-terpreting” its needs or from an imbalance between sulphur uptake and nitrogen supply.

A New Zealand Winegrowers and Bragato Trust PhD project at the University of Auckland is aiming to determine the yeast pathways for vol-atile sulphur compound production. This information, combined with improved understanding of the regu-lation of both sulphur uptake and the degradation of sulphur-containing amino acids, will lead to improved yeast strains and better winemaking practices that reduce production of volatile sulphur compounds.

When yeast (or any microor-ganism) finds itself in a new envi-ronment, it immediately assesses whether it is able to grow there or not. It measures the concen-trations of macronutrients and micronutrients available in the immediate area and, if they are sufficient, it initiates cell division and growth. As they grow, the cells constantly assess their environ-ment; if one or more of the nutri-ents is about to become limiting, each cell then shuts down cell divi-sion in a very controlled fashion and goes into a resting state until such time as conditions become favourable again.

Grape juice is generally an excellent nutritional environ-ment for yeast growth. Yeast has

evolved as a specialist in high-car-bon (high sugar) environments like fruit; it rapidly converts the sugars to ethanol, which serves as a fast method of inhibiting the growth of its bacterial and fungal competitors. Once it establishes itself as the dominant species of the niche, it can then utilize this alcohol as an energy source. Grape juice also has sufficient of most of the other nutrients yeast needs (Nitrogen, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Copper, Zinc, etc). Nitrogen and some of these minor nutri-

ents, however, are usually in limit-ing quantities, and are most likely to limit yeast growth in grape juice. Hence the critical importance of YAN for fermentation.

Grape juice has a very high concentration of sulphur, typi-cally more than 100-fold excess over what yeast needs to grow.

Sulphate (SO2-4 ) is the major

form of sulphur (S) in juice. It is typically present at around 5 mM. In contrast, yeast requires only 0.15 mM of a sulphur source to

grow to normal densities. Because yeast uses so little, finished wine usually retains a high content of sulphate, 0.5-1 g/L (5-10 mM) on average; in some wines the sul-phate content can approach the US legal limit of 2 g/L (21 mM).

In addition to the inorganic sulphate, grape juice also contains several “organic” sulphur com-pounds like glutathione (GSH), cysteine (Cys), methionine (Met) and S-methyl methionine (SMM). All are either amino acids or deriv-atives, and all contain nitrogen (N) and S (Figure 1). They are

How yeast handles excess sulphur

13-102

Matias I. Kinzurik; Richard C. Gardner; Bruno FedrizziWine Science Programme, University of Auckland

Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Figure 1. The sulphur pathways in yeast. Volatile Sulphur Compounds (VSCs) that are problematic in wine appear to result from misregulation of the pathways resulting in excess production of hydrogen sulphide, cysteine or methionine (yellow boxes).


found in juice because they are either normal components of grape cells, or are broken down from grape proteins during crush-ing, or represent an intermediate form of amino acids. On average, a good juice will have sufficient of these compounds alone to allow yeast growth. However, the con-centrations of these compounds in juice varies widely; the basis for the variation is not totally clear, but it is likely to depend strongly on the N status of the grapes at harvest.

Winemakers also add extra sulphur to juice in the form of sulphite. The amount added is usually less than the sulphate that is already present in juice: for example, an addition of 100 ppm sulphite (SO2-

3 ) adds only 1.2

mM of sulphur, around ¼ of the amount of the total sulphate that is already present in an average juice. However, in contrast to (SO2-

4 ), (SO2-

3 ) freely diffuses into

the yeast cells, so its uptake is not subject to regulation by the yeast cell (see figure 1). (SO2-

3 ) Added

can therefore contribute to flow down the sulphur assimilation pathway. One way that yeast copes with the sulphite influx is to secrete directly back into the wine. To avoid (SO2-

3 ) simply

re-diffusing back into the yeast cells, it is typically complexed with formaldehyde (also secreted by yeast) and thus contributes to ‘bound sulphite’.

Interestingly, it has been found that the sulphur content of cells grown in media with a huge excess of sulphur, is similar to the concentration that would be predicted if they take up the minimum required for growth (0.15 mM). We therefore believe that sulphur storage inside the yeast cell is minimal. Rather yeast cells appear to regulate sulphur uptake and reduction very tightly over time, and they also regulate interconversion between the various forms of organic sulphur

molecules in the cell in order to optimise growth and survival.

Figure 1 shows the sulphur assimilation pathway and S uti-lization by yeast. Sulphate is actively taken up by yeast cells and reduced to hydrogen sulphide (H2S – rotten eggs) in four enzyme steps (blue part of pathway, rep-resenting “inorganic sulphur”). This H2S is then incorporated into an amino acid called homo-cysteine, using a nitrogen and carbon skeleton formed from the amino acid aspartic acid (red part of the diagram, representing the nitrogen input). Homocysteine and the four other major nitro-gen-containing ‘organic’ sulphur compounds are shown in purple – each can be interconverted to all the other molecules within yeast cells, as shown. Homocysteine is directly converted into the two sulphur-containing amino acids, Met and Cys, which are incor-porated into yeast proteins (the major ‘end-goal’ for sulphur within yeast cells). In addition, cysteine

is used directly as a sulphur donor for essential S-containing mole-cules in yeast cells (Figure 1, black box). Cys is also used to make glu-tathione (GSH), used by yeast cells to detoxify some toxic compounds and also for redox control in the cell. The sulphur component of GSH can be recycled into Cys. Finally methionine is converted to SAM (S-adenosyl methionine), the major methyl donor in cells; this sulphur can also be retained by recycling SAM to homocysteine or Met.

In addition to all of these metabolites, yeast has evolved a remarkable capacity to grow using a wide variety of organic and inorganic sulphur sources, including SMM, a range of sulfonates, and even SDS (sodium dodecyl sulphate, also called SLS or sodium lauryl sulphate, a major component of laundry detergents). The evolutionary basis for this versatility is unclear – presumably the natural niche of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

can have very different sulphur sources. It certainly seems safe to presume that grape juice, with its abundance of (SO2-

4 ), is not

the natural niche for this yeast, however much we might like to think so!

Yeast cells have preferred sources of nutrients and use pre-existing organic sulphur compounds in preference to sulphate.

Yeast has evolved regulatory elegant mechanisms that allow it to use the best nutritional sources. When given a choice of multiple sulphur-containing compounds, yeast will use pre-existing ‘organic’ compounds like Met/Cys/GSH, in preference to inorganic sulphate. The rationale for this choice is two-fold. First, it is very costly for yeast to convert sulphate to H2S. These four steps in the pathway of sulphate assimilation require both energy (2 molecules of ATP are used per molecule of sulphur) and

Figure 2. Yeast cultures being grown in the Wine Science Group at University of Auckland, used to discover the inner workings of the sulphur metabolic pathway and VSC formation during grape juice fermentation.


reductive power (two molecules of NADH are used per molecule of sulphur reduced). Secondly, the yeast must then also supply a nitrogen-containing amino acid backbone (homoserine). This is particularly costly when yeast is in an environment like grape juice when N is likely to be limiting. Because of these costs, yeast has evolved a regulatory system that allows it preferentially to utilize “organic” forms of sulphur that are already reduced and already have their amino acid backbones.

VSCs in wine arises when yeast cells “overdo” sulphur uptake.

Yeast cells must not only get their S, uptake correct, but must also balance it carefully against N flows into the pathway (Figure 1 - red part of diagram). There are inevitably occasional excesses of sulphur uptake, which the

yeast compensates for in various ways. If yeast cells take up excess (SO2-

4 ) (blue part of the pathway),

they cope with the excess by expel-ling it back into the medium as (SO2-

3 ) or as H2S. If there is excess

supply in the lower part of the pathway (purple), yeast cells can recycle GSH to Cys and SAM to Met respectively, and then yeast also have pathways to degrade both Cys and Met. It is because of these overshoots in S supply that unfavourable VSCs are formed.

Experiments that we have performed so far in yeast suggest that VSCs appear to arise from three major sources. The first is a result of the production of H2S, which is itself the smallest and most volatile VSC, infamous for its strong rotten egg aroma. Free H2S in wine solution is then converted by yeast cells to other VSCs, including ethanethiol and S-ethyl thioacetate. The other two major sources are the breakdown

within yeast cells of excess Met and Cys, the two S-containing amino acids. The yeast pathway for VSC production from these compounds is thus far poorly understood, but in other fungi and bacteria the breakdown of Met gives rise to a number of foul smelling compounds, including methanethiol (cooked cabbage), methionol (cooked cabbage) and methyl thioacetate (rotten vegetables), among others, while Cys breakdown can result in the formation of H2S and mercaptoethanol (poultry).

To mitigate the effect of VSCs, yeast researchers need to make progress in understanding the pathways of VSCs production, the regulation of S uptake and how it interacts with N supply within yeast cells, and the control of degradation of the two S-containing amino acids. The PhD programme of Matias Kinzurik at the University of

Auckland is focused on the first of these goals. If we can identify the key yeast genes involved in these processes, then it should be possible to develop improved yeast strains. Understanding the regulation of S and N supply may also permit the refinement of winemaking practices to reduce VSC production in wine.

The authorsMatias Kinzurik is a PhD student in the University of Auckland Wine Science Group funded by New Zealand Winegrowers and Bragato Trust. His project is to identify the pathways of VSC formation in yeast. His supervisors are Dr Bruno Fedrizzi, a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Sciences specialising in sulphur chemistry, and Emeritus Professor Richard Gardner (formerly of Biological Sciences) with a background in yeast genetics.

Key questions to be answered by this study are:

• Do increased rates of sulphur improve control of powdery mil-dew?

• Does the addition of a spreader to sulphur improve con-trol of powdery mildew?

• Are higher sulphur rates safe for the crop?

• What does a ‘best practice’ sulphur-based programme look like?

The results of this study may be used to revise sulphur label claims in New Zealand.

The treatments are as follows:

Untreated for powdery mildewKumulus DF at 3.0kg/HaKumulus DF at 4.0kg/HaKumulus DF at 5.0kg/HaKumulus DF at 6.0kg/haKumulus DF at 10.0kg/Ha

(check for plant safety)

Kumulus DF at 3.0kg/Ha + Actiwett



Organic powdery mildew pro-gramme

Conventional powdery mildew

The efficacy of sulphur for powdery mildew controlDeveloping powdery mildew best practice in New Zealand vineyards

15-100

Trevor LuptonLewis Wright Valuation & Consultancy Ltd, GisborneCraig HowardMarlboroughPeter MelvilleEurofins Agroscience Services NZ Ltd, Havelock North

New Zealand Winegrowers has funded a study that is currently under way in commercial vineyards in Gisborne and Marlborough for the 2015/16 growing season. The objective is to provide the wine industry with improved knowledge on the efficacy of sulphur for powdery mildew control.


programme

Sulphur is the main powdery mildew fungicide used in New Zealand, accounting for approxi-mately 60% of powdery mildew fungicide applications. Label rates in New Zealand are 150g and 300g per 100 litres of water. This label was developed when the indus-try was based on 3-metre rows and water rates of 1,000 litres per hectare, giving sulphur rates of 1.5kg to 3.0kg/Ha. In recent years, sulphur rates in the NZ industry have increased to 4-5 kg/Ha per application due to concerns about powdery mildew control. Interest-ingly, the Australian label refers to rates of 200g to 600g per 100 litres (2kg to 6kg/Ha). Sulphur is an inexpensive product with prices ranging from $2/kg to $4/kg. It is

also a generic product, with 10 products listed in the NZ Wine-growers Vineyard Spray Schedule 2015/16.

The current s t u d y b u i l d s o n p r e v i o u s research funded by NZ Wine-growers, ‘Devel-oping Powdery M i l d e w B e s t Practice 2014/15’ (NZW 14-101). This research provided independent testing of powdery mildew fungicide options through field trials in Gisborne and Marlborough during the 2014-15 season. A Research Report is

available on the members’ website of nzwine.com.

Additional guidance is avail-able on the members’ website, including a fact sheet (Managing Powdery Mildew) and Grape Days

presentations from 2013, 2014 and 2015.

For more information on this study, please contact Dr Mark Eltom ([email protected], +64 9 306 556).

fendt.co.nzFendt 200 Vario V/F/P Series 70 –110 hp

Fendt says you’re serious.

You’re a farmer that’s serious about your work – that’s why you go for a tractor that’s precise and dedicated.With CVT Vario and specialised variants for vineyards and orchards, Fendt 200 Vario (V/F/P) specialty tractors have only the best technology for getting the most out of what you put in. Because you deserve a machine that’s as serious about agriculture as you are.Contact your local dealer today for more information.

Fendt 200 Vario V/F/P Series

www.masseyferguson.co.nz | Freecall: 0800 825 872 MASSEY FERGUSON®, MF®, the triple-triangle logo® is a worldwide brand of AGCO. © 2015

AGILITY FOR ANEW GENERATION

SEE YOUR NEAREST MASSEY FERGUSON DEALER FOR HUGE VALUE TODAY

Spacious cab 24 x 12 Power Shuttle Transmission 3000kg 3 point linkage lift capacity Comfort control – STANDARD High flow hydraulics at 62 litres/minute V & S versions available

MF3600SERIES | 84 – 102 HP

www.fendt.co.nz | Freecall 0800 825 872 Fendt is a worldwide brand of AGCO Corporation. Fendt says you’re serious.

Helping grow the countryFreephone 0800 10 22 76 www.fruitfed.co.nz

Fruitfed Supplies has been providing technical support and advice to the New Zealand viticulture industry for 100 years. Our technical team use their knowledge and experience to off er an unbeatable combination of value and service to help growers succeed here and internationally.

Nothing pleases us more than supporting the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc Celebration – it’s just one way to celebrate the excellent work our wine growers and makers are doing.

Looking for technical tips & know-how?We’re open for business.

nz winegrower feb/mar 2016

Documents