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10 The Impact Of A Name Are alternative wine varieties at risk of

not succeeding in New Zealand, simply because we can’t manage to pronounce them? Two men in the know, believe so. Geoff Thorpe and Simon Nunns say the consumer reluctance to try foreign sounding wines is stymieing the ability for the industry to broaden its horizons.

26 Top Vintage Stacks Up The first of the 2013 red wines are due to hit

the shelves soon, and as Joelle Thomson discovers, the hype surrounding them is well justified. She investigates why and how 2013 was such a special vintage for full-bodied reds.

34 Babich Wines New Winery For 98 years the Babich family have been

making wine in New Zealand. But in all that time they have never had a custom built winery. That changed this year, when the company unveiled their new state of the art facility in Marlborough.

52 Pruning Robots - The Reality Draws Closer

Three years into a five-year research project, scientists at Canterbury University are about to unleash robotic pruners into the vineyard. Believed to be the first system in the world that is focused on cane pruning, the ramifications of the research will be life changing for the New Zealand wine industry.

REGULARS

4 Editorial Tessa Nicholson

8 In Brief News From Around the Country

30 Young Guns From Central Otago

90 Bob’s Blog Bob Campbell MW

94 Not On The Label Legal Matters with Marija Batistich

Bell Gully

127 Calendar Wine happenings in New Zealand

130 Research Supplement The latest science and research projects

funded by NZWinegrowers

Cover Shot: Misha’s Vineyard Wine Ltd, Central Otago. Supplied by Winegrowers

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CONTENTS

78

I S S U E 8 7

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4 // NZ WINEGROWER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014

EDITOR Tessa [email protected]

CORRESPONDENTS

Auckland: Joelle Thomson [email protected]

Gisborne: Justine [email protected]

Hawkes Bay: Mary Shanahan [email protected]

Nelson: Neil Hodson [email protected]

Canterbury: Jo Burzynska [email protected]

ADVERTISING

Sales Manager:Ted [email protected]: 07 854 6292Mobile: 021 832 505

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

Lower North Island:Mark MacfarlanePh: 04 234 6239Mobile: 021 453 914

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

CIRCULATION &

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Lorraine Rudelj [email protected] Ph: 09 303 3527 Fax: 09 302 2969

New Zealand Winegrowers PO Box 90 276, Auckland Mail Centre, New Zealand

PUBLISHING &

PRE-PRESS

Rural News Group PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 Ph: 09 307 0399

Location: Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622

Publisher: Brian Hight

Managing Editor: Adam Fricker

Production: 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

FROM THE EDITOR TESSA NICHOLSON

R omeo Bragato – it’s a name that slides off the tongue easily and is as well known in New Zealand as say - Sauvignon Blanc.

Why he is so linked to our wine industry though is something that at times gets forgotten.

Born in Austria-Hungary, Bragato studied viticulture and oenology in Italy, and arrived in the Southern Hemisphere at the age of 31 as the Government viticulturist in Victoria, Australia.

In 1895 the Australians allowed him to travel to New Zealand, where the newly formed Department of Agriculture was interested in putting his skills to the test. They wanted to know if there were areas within New Zealand that would be suitable for winegrowing, where they were and how any potential industry should be formed.

Ironically his first port of call was probably the least likely place in the country for wine – Bluff. Oysters yes – but grape growing – unlikely.

However Bragato quickly moved north, was impressed by the Central Otago region and also Nelson. Interestingly he had nothing to say about Marlborough.

Within seven months he had produced a report – Prospects of Viticulture in New Zealand and after presenting it to the premier, he headed back to Australia.

That report, penned nearly 125 years ago provided an astute blueprint of how this country should go about developing a wine industry. It highlighted areas where viticulture could flourish and provided details of how the Department of Agriculture should go about it. Regional associations should be formed so “each district would determine the most suitable varieties for planting, collect and spread local data and this in great measure secure the industry against failure. Each district would subsequently gain notoriety for the wine produced as in the famous districts of the Continent.”

While there was initially great

excitement, much of Bragato’s report, including suggestions that phylloxera resistant rootstock should be imported, was not acted on. When the Auckland vineyards began to be decimated by the very thing he had warned about, Bragato was asked to come back to New Zealand, this time as the head of a viticultural research base that had been established at Te Kauwhata. He quickly began establishing a vineyard at the station, where all the vines were grafted onto resistant rootstock. He held field days for those interested in learning more about grape growing. He even wrote a guide to viticulture booklet. Way ahead of its time, it defined which varieties would do well in which region, how to graft European varieties onto the resistant root stock, the best way to plant a vineyard, how to prune effectively and how to deal with potential diseases.

Utilising the fruit from the experimental vineyard, he also made wine that was beyond anything else produced in New Zealand at that stage. Five of those wines went on to win medals at the Franco-British wine exhibition, proving beyond doubt that New Zealand could produce a world-class product.

Initially the enthusiasm of Bragato was matched by that of the Government – until the temperance movement began to grow. As it grew, support for a wine industry in New Zealand waned. By 1909 Bragato had had enough and left for Canada.

That may have been the last we heard of him, if it hadn’t been for the resurfacing of his viticulture handbook 40 years ago. Much of what he had written in 1895 and 1906 was still relevant decades later. Following the advice from so many years ago has allowed the New Zealand wine industry to establish itself on the world stage.

Hence the reason we celebrate Romeo Bragato, the father of New Zealand wine, with the annual wine industry conference. ■

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BREAKINGNEWS

N ew Zealand Winegrowers’ c o m m i t m e n t t o sustainability has been e n f o r c e d w i t h t h e

news that a new management led hub will be established in Marlborough.

From October, Philip Manson, GM of Sustainable Winegrowing, will be based in the country’s largest wine region, instead of in the head office in Auckland.

“It makes perfect sense for me to be on the ground, in the centre of the wine industry, dealing face to face with members,” Manson said.

Sustainable Winegrowing already has a base in Marlborough, but Manson said there is now a need to expand that.

“Sustainability is not just about scorecards and spray diaries. They are vital components but there are other areas that dovetail into the

whole sustainability portfolio. Labour and bio security are two that we are very aware of.”

T h e t h r e a t o f a p e s t o r disease incursion damaging to the wine industry, has become a fear of many members, one that NZW is well aware of. In the next few m o n t h s a b i o security manager will be appointed and they will be part of the hub in Blenheim.

“This will provide us with a great opportunity to engage with the members who are most at risk in a bio security emergency. If there was an incursion in M a r l b o r o u g h , i t w o u l d b e

devastating to the wine industry overall, given the region produces more than three quarters of New

Zealand’s wine. So it makes sense to have someone on the ground there working alongside g r o w e r s a n d winemakers.”

Retaining a reliable and skilled workforce h a s b e e n a n on-going battle f o r t h e w i n e industry. While RSE has provided

some solutions, the importance of having labour, when it is needed is something NZW have been aware of. Manson says the labour issue falls squarely into the sustainability portfolio.

“We need skilled workers throughout the entire year, not just at pruning,” he said. “And we need to know that they are available and ready to work. But we are also very aware of how important it is that our labour force is meeting all the sustainability requirements. That is something our markets demand. So developing a national labour management strategy will be a priority. It is also likely that a part time resource will be added to the hub, concentrating on all issues surrounding labour.”

The new hub is expected to be up and running by October, and for Manson the move south is a little bit like a home coming, given he was born in Marlborough. Admittedly he left when he was four, this time he plans on staying put a lot longer. ■[email protected]

CREATING A SUSTAINABILITY HUBT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Philip Manson

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor,I read with much interest

the article from CEO Philip Gregan ‘Proud and Wise’ in issue 86.

The article covers in some detail the setting up and history of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ). However there are two significant omissions.

Originally known as Integrated Winegrape

Production (IWP), it really gained traction following the 2nd Romeo Bragato Conference, held in Napier in August 1996.

That year the New Zealand Grape Growers Council invited Carmo Vasconcelos to deliver the Bragato Address. Carmo was at that time a Professor at Oregon State University, but had been closely involved with the development of

IWP, particularly the scheme developed in Waedenswil, Switzerland.

The delegates were enthused by the address, and following the conference the Winegrowers of New Zeaand Research Committee set up an Integrated Winegrape Production committee. This committee was chaired by Past President Ross Goodin ONZM. Over its formative years and

under Ross’s guidence the SWNZ as we now know it developed.

Ross is now retired and living in Auckland and Carmo is a Professor at the Eastern Institute of Technology, Hawke’s Bay.Regards Kevyn Moore• NZWinegrower welcomes letters to the Editor. Please feel free to email to [email protected]

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INBRIEF

NATIONAL

Air New Zealand Wine Award DatesAug 11: Entries openSep 19: Entries close

Nov 3-5: Judging at Mt Smart StadiumNov 11: Individual results to entrants

Nov 12: Results announced to public / media / VIP / Media Gold Medal Tasting

Nov 22: Hawke’s Bay Regional Tasting, Awards Dinner at Pettigrew Green Arena

Nov 24: Auckland Regional TastingNov 25: Marlborough Regional Tasting

Be part of New Zealand's premier wine competition

Entries open from 11 August - 19 September 2014airnzwineawards.co.nz

Wine Master ClassSeven New Zealand Masters of Wine will take part in an open day event in Auckland this August, providing information on the ins and outs of studying to become an MW. The MW Master Class will

be held at the Villa Maria Winery in Mangere, and will cover the background of the institute and what it takes to gain MW status. A tasting to demonstrate the MW approach will allow potential students an insight into what skills are required to undertake the programme, while a theory workshop will look closely at the syllabus. The next MW programme begins in November and applications need to be submitted by September 1. If you would like more information on the open day, visit; www.amiando.com/mwmasterclassnewzealand2014

Wine Wall Fundraiser Agrisea New Zealand is inviting wineries

throughout the country to donate two bot-tles of wine, to a “wall” that will be auctioned

off later this year. All funds raised from the event will go to charities throughout New

Zealand. Fifty auctions of 50 bottles as well as 50 signed celebrity bottles will go under

the hammer, or should that be mouse, when the auction kicks off on Trade Me on Friday

September 12.The money raised will be spread between the

following charities; CanTeen, Sustainable Coastlines, SPCA and Starship.

If you are interested in donating or finding out more details, check out www.agrisea.

co.nz/wallofwine

NZ WINEGROWER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 // 9

HAWKE’S BAY

National WinnerHawke’s Bay’s Elephant Hill has been named New Zealand’s Best Winery Restaurant in the Cuisine Good Food Awards. Assessing 80 wineries throughout the country, the magazine’s judging panel scored the Te Awanga winery 15.5 out of a possible 20 points for a combination of food, service and ambience. The panel made particular mention of Elephant Hill’s smart surrounds, sea views and good food.

New Partnership With ChinaNelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) is partnering

with two Chinese universities to deliver joint education programmes

in viticulture and wine.

NMIT Chief Executive Tony Gray recently travelled to China

where he signed a cooperation agreement with China Agriculture

University, Yantai Campus, a top agricultural university in China.

The major areas of focus for cooperation are in viticulture and

wine and commerce. NMIT has also signed a Memorandum of

Understanding with the Beijing Agricultural University (BAU) to

cooperate in viticulture and wine education.

Under both initiatives, students will initially study in China utilising

the NMIT curriculum, and also studying English as part of their

programme. Students will later have the opportunity to complete

part of their education in New Zealand through NMIT. Cooperation

in activities such as student and staff exchanges and joint research

projects is also being explored.

MARLBOROUGH

Organic Course Closure UpsetsThe cutting of organic courses at Lincoln University is short-sighted and a move in the wrong direction, according to the Soil & Health Association. As part of a number of course and staff cuts at Lincoln University, three organic courses are to be dropped, and one full-time senior lecturer position will be disestablished. In its submission to Lincoln University in May, Soil & Health strongly supported retaining the courses, and encouraged the university to show leadership for the future of sustainable, organic production in New Zealand, and to market these courses as a point of difference. “We appreciate the tough economic realities that tertiary education providers are facing,” Marion Thomson, co-chair of Soil & Health said. “Soil & Health would like to see significant investment by the government in sustainable, organic farming, and also in education to support it. It makes no sense to keep backing intensive, industralised farming and genetic engineering when people want safe organic food and a clean environment.” Student feedback about the courses has been overwhelmingly positive, and enrolment numbers have increased in recent years.

CANTERBURY

GISBORNE

New Writer Justine Tyerman is NZ Winegrow-er’s new Gisborne correspond-ent, and has lived and worked in Gisborne for 35 years. An Otago and Canterbury University Eng-lish graduate, she has worked as a journalist and sub-editor for The Gisborne Herald for the past 17 years. She currently edits and writes for The Gisborne Herald Weekender.She is also a travel writer with arti-cles published in a wide range of national and international maga-zines.She and her husband Chris, a banker, had a small vineyard for 25 years and grew Chardonnay for a variety of companies. Many

of their friends are growers and winemakers so she is familiar with the industry.Before becoming a journalist, Jus-tine was a social worker, a stay-at-home mum raising two daughters and a polytechnic tutor, teaching English as a foreign language. To contact Justine email; [email protected]

New Home For FestivalGisborne’s Labour Weekend Wine and Food Festival will be held at a single venue adjacent to Midway Beach this year. Festival steering committee chairwoman Kerry Taggart said Awapuni Stadium would be the new home for the “refreshed and refocused” event, now in its 18th year. “Location was a big consideration in our community and stakeholder consultation. It became clear that people have enjoyed both the single and multi-site festivals, but transport has always been an issue. So the closer we bring it to town, the easier the access will be,” she said.The festival will focus on local entertainment with multiple informal zones accommodating musical acts and other activities.“We really want to get away from the headline act model, where the day is completely dominated by what happens on the stage,” said Gisborne Winegrowers’ president Doug Bell. “We’re going for a day that feels more like a garden party than a rock concert and that’s an important distinction for attracting the more mature market back to this event,” he said.Tickets for the October 26 event went on sale on August 1st.


ALTERNATIVEVARIETIES

I s New Zealand’s mono lin-guistic heritage stymieing the ability of the wine indus-try to broaden its horizons

in terms of new varieties? The answer to that is a resounding yes, according to two men who have been at the forefront of alternative varieties.

Geoff Thorpe, Riversun’s Man-aging Director and Simon Nunns, Coopers Creek winemaker, both believe the ability to pronounce a wine variety is one of the most important aspects of a wine’s abil-ity to sell.

As Nunns points out, there are thousands of different wine cul-tivars throughout the world, but most people will only ever drink around half a dozen of those in their lifetime.

“That’s not to say they are not interested in expanding their horizons, but most people will simply not want to make a fool of themselves in a public situation. So they will see something they think might be interesting, but will

go ‘oh I can’t say it’, so will order a glass of something else – some-thing they can say.”

That consumer reaction is not unusual and it’s also not new. As Thorpe says, New Zealand has been making fantastic Gewur-ztraminers for years now – but when it comes to establishing a consumer following, there has been no traction.

“If consumers can’t get their tongues around it easily, they hesitate to order or buy it. That is probably the biggest single resist-ance. If you put a different name on some of those wines and con-sumers tasted them, they would love it.”

Coopers Creek have been a leader in terms of alternative vari-eties in New Zealand. They have been the first producers of Arneis, Gruner Veltliner, Marsanne, Alba-rino and this year are producing the country’s first Vermintino. But they are carefully considering if they will continue on that alterna-tive path.

“We are putting more and more thought into whether or not a cer-tain variety is worth it, because a certain name might be so hard to say, no matter how good it might be, you are damned from day one in our English speaking home market.”

Nunns puts that hard to sell issue down to New Zealander’s mono linguistic heritage. We are comfortable with words that are born of the English language, but those that aren’t tend to scare us off.

“If the name is so hard that people are never in a million years going to come to grips with it, are you just banging your head against a brick wall? We now know peo-ple are scared of wine they can’t pronounce, so is it even worth it? In some cases it is but the path to success is a very hands on one. You can’t just make the wine and hope it will sell. It will only sell if you tell people about it. You have to explain to on-premise staff and wine store staff – increase their

knowledge and give them the skills to increase the knowledge of the people they serve.”

The issues Nunns raises are well known to Thorpe who says consumer reaction to the new varieties already in the market is filtering back down the chain.

“I have clients looking at what we have imported and a lot of their decisions about whether they buy are based on whether they can sell it, and that is now based a lot on the name of the variety. They look at say Fiano and it looks interest-ing and sounds like what it looks like on the label. Whereas some-thing like Saperavi, Primitivo and many other varieties which are hard to pronounce, they are not keen on.”

The fact we even have any of these new varieties is thanks to Riversun, who back in 2003 estab-lished an importation programme that saw close to 150 grape varie-ties come into New Zealand. Many of those are new clones of classics such as Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and

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Chardonnay. But in amongst those 150 are 20 new varieties never seen in New Zealand prior to 2003. The importation programme is not for the faint hearted, given it takes up to five years from woe to go.

“Firstly you have to source it, you have to make sure there is quar-antine space available and then once you get it into the country it has to spend two years in quarantine,”

Thorpe says. “Then it takes at least another year bulking it up

so you have enough material so you can actually graft. We

only take three plants out of quarantine, so to go from

three plants to have 10,000 plus available, takes you between 10 and 15 months of rapid multiplication.”

That is just the initial phase he says.

“People who are really keen (on a new variety) will plant say half a hectare. They have to learn how to grow it, learn how to make the wine and then see if there is a market. All that takes another five years and then if they start to get some traction, they might start planting more. I have always said to start getting some real commercial demand, it is at least 10 years.”

Given all that, Thorpe says he isn’t sure there is the

market demand for increasing the portfolio of new varieties in the immediate future. Adver-tisements placed last year asked for wineries and growers to let them know if there was any particular new variety they were interested in.

“The message was, we are looking to bring in another round of imports, so if there is something you think should be in there, give us a call. We didn’t get a single phone call.”

Does that mean the appetite for trying something different is not there? He says probably not, given there are still a large number of varieties within the collection that haven’t yet been picked up by the industry.

“When we started this programme we said if one in 10 of what we import gets commercial, we are probably doing pretty well.

“Sauvignon Blanc is a great example of that. It sat in the national collection in Te Kauwhata for years. Nobody wanted it. They planted it in Auckland and that didn’t work. It was seen as a useless variety until it landed in Marlborough. So the key message here is that it sat around in the industry for 30 years before it found its place. The same could be the case for some of the new varieties in our collection. Which is why the industry needs people like the Bells in Gisborne who have planted a whole lot of new imports. Some they will probably pull out, others they might plant more. But there is only one way to find out. You have to try it.”

And if the name is hard to pronounce then you have to ensure the marketing is followed up by education. Otherwise New Zealanders will continue to drink their way through five or six varieties during their lifetime, rather than experimenting with the many hun-dredsw of others that are out there. ■[email protected]

Sauvignon Blanc languished in the wilderness for 30 years before it arrived in Marlborough. Now it is New Zealand’s greatest export.

Will the names of these new varieties continue to put consumers off in the future?


VINEYARDNEWS

I t has taken about 144 years since the introduction of powdery mil-dew to New Zealand for the sexual stage to arrive. Now growers have

a tougher battle on their hands.At the NZW Grape Days Peter Wood

from Plant and Food described powdery mildew as “arguably the most important fungal pathogen” in grape vines. Why? Because it reduces grape yields and qual-ity and can go on to reduce vine vigour and productivity. Anyone who suffered from this year, will agree. Once it affects the berries and reaches epidemic pro-portions, it is fatal to fruit quality.

Now that the sexual phase of this pathogen has been confirmed by Wood as being present in New Zealand, man-agement techniques will have to be carefully controlled. Especially when it comes down to use of fungicides.What is powdery mildew?

It is a biotrophic pathogen, which means it doesn’t kill the host, unlike botrytis which will kill the berries it is growing on, Wood said. It lives on the outside of the berry and only penetrates one cell deep.

Genetically speaking there are two types of powdery mildew. Group A is an asexual type, which over winters in a dormant bud and emerges from flag shoots, spreading infection steadily.

Group B is the sexual stage, which has been discovered in Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Kapiti and Marlborough during the past season. This group can over winter in the bark of the vine as chasmothecia (cleisotothecia), and doesn’t require a bud to survive during these months. Wood said this type is active during the entire epidemic and is a more genetically diverse population of powdery mildew.

Both groups thrive in low UV light, in other words as the canopy becomes

POWDERY MILDEW – THE SEXUAL STAGET E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Powdery Mildew sexual stage – close up.PHOTO: PETER WOOD.

Using a scanning electron microscope shows the sexual stage.PHOTO: PETER WOOD.


dense, the pathogen can build up more rapidly. It is damaged by rain or cold conditions, but loves humidity. The disease cycle continues to go round and round, building up. It affects all green parts of the vine, including shoots, leaves and berries. If measures are taken in the early part of the sea-son, it can be controlled. But this requires regular spraying at timely intervals.

The crop is very susceptible preflowering to five weeks after capfall, a period when the canopy has covered the fruit zone. As it is vital to ensure your spray is hitting the target and protecting the crop, use spray papers to ensure good coverage.

The spray programme should begin when shoots hit the 5cm mark and the interval between sprays should be every 10 – 14 days, with emphasis on shorter intervals when the crop is susceptible.

Fungicide resistanceThis is the greatest issue fac-

ing growers now that the sexual stage of powdery mildew is pre-sent. The reason why is explained in the following extract from a paper released by Margaret Tut-tle McGrath of Cornell University, Riverhead, NY.

“Systemic and translaminar fungicides are generally more at risk for resistance development than contact fungicides because they typically have specific, single-site modes of action, which means they are active against only one point in one metabolic pathway in a pathogen. When resistance results from modification of a single major gene, pathogens are either resistant or sensitive to the pesticide and disruptive selection occurs. Resistance in this case is seen as complete loss of disease control that cannot be regained by using higher rates or more fre-

quent fungicide applications.” What you use, when you use it,

how often and how well applied, will become the most important decisions for growers trying to control powdery mildew in the future. If resistance occurs, they will lose one of the most important weapons in their arsenal.

NZW have released a Powdery Mildew fact sheet, which provides in-depth information on how to manage this pathogen. One of the key points, is the description of the two broad groups of fungicides which can be used for control, and how best to use them.Multi-site fungicides (including sulphur, oils, bicarbonates and fatty acids):

These feature multiple modes of action and are not at risk of resistance development. They form the basis of protectant/eradicant programmes. Apart

from oils, these fungicides may be recommended for use alone or in mixtures or for alternating with fungicides at risk of developing resistance.Single-site fungicides (including DMIs, strobilurins and azonaphthalenes):

These are useful for protecting the foliage and bunches at any time but may have more strategic value when spray coverage is harder to achieve – that is, from the onset of flowering to pre-bunch closure. Note: It is important that appli-cations are managed to reduce resistance. Meaning you should restrict the number of applica-tions of these products per sea-son. Use in mixtures or alternate with other produces and do not use when attempting to control high levels of disease. ■For a full copy of this fact sheet, visit the NZW members website.

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RESEARCHNEWS

A fter a season where pow-dery mildew ran rampant in certain areas, growers are wondering if some-

thing has changed in terms of resistance to certain protective controls.

Trevor Lupton, from Lewis Wright Valuation and Consultancy in Gisborne, says his first thought when he heard of bad cases of pow-dery, was growers weren’t getting good spray coverage.

“Because powdery mildew is a great indicator of poor

spray coverage.”But on further investigation,

he realised that maybe there was something else going on. At the recent NZW Grape Days, Lupton explained how he had researched the spray diaries of a number of Gisborne growers to discover just what controls were being used and how often.

“I took two examples, one that had a good outcome and one that had a bad outcome. Both used the same spray unit, they had the same variety, same training system and

were in a similar location. I wanted to break down the spray diaries to three parts. I wanted to know what went on from bud burst to pre flowering, but in particular I wanted to know what went on from flowering to bunch closure.”

Lupton said when he looked at the spray diary of the grower who had a bad outcome, he couldn’t understand the reason why. But as he started to look at more spray diaries a trend began to emerge.

“The blocks with good out-comes tended to use none or just one DMI in that crucial pre flower-ing to pre bunch closure period. Blocks that had a poor outcome, tended to use one or two DMIs in the same period.”

While Lupton was investigat-ing in Gisborne a research trial was being undertaken in Hawke’s Bay. This Grochem trial began their spray programme after pre flowering. Treatments included an untreated control, three differ-ent DMIs and a further treatment

using Quinoxyfen. The results showed dramatic differences in the level of powdery infection in the bunches at harvest.

“The untreated sat at 20 percent,” Lupton said. “The three different DMIs ranged from about five through to seven and up to 10 percent. The Quinoxyfen was sitting at 1.8 percent. Historically I would have expected the DMIs to have been at least as good as the Quinoxyfen, but they weren’t.”

He believes that may be due to the way it has been used, or at least how often it has been used in a particular season.

“If you read the label it says you should only apply a maximum of two DMIs on their own, a maxi-mum of four with two in the mix and not to use as an eradicant. But what has been the standard practice in this industry when we have powdery mildew outbreaks is we apply two DMIs back to back, seven to 10 days apart.

POWDERY MILDEW RESISTANCET E S S A N I C H O L S O N

The forward facing bunch of grapes after spraying show no sign of powdery mildew.


“So it’s not the DMIs them-selves, it’s the way we have been using them.”

Within his Gisborne survey of growers, he discovered a small group who had a tough time with powdery in 2013, but this year had a good outcome. The common denominator among these three was they moved from using three to four DMIs during the season in 2013, to using only one or none at all this year.

Given Powdery mildew is con-sidered a two-year disease, with the inoculum being carried over from one year to the next, the positive outcome of three grow-ers, who limited their use of DMIs was significant, Lupton said.

His advice to growers for the future, is to limit the use of DMIs on their own to two per season, and no more than four when mixed with a multi fungicide. They should only be applied when dis-ease levels are low, and not once an outbreak has occurred.

Ensure that the spray unit is targeting the areas of concern, double check with spray papers, and ensure you don’t leave too long an interval between sprays – no more than 14 days. Spray from alternate direction to ensure you fill in all gaps. And open the canopy up as much as is possible, given powdery mildew does not like UV light. ■[email protected]

Whereas the back of the bunch shows signs of powdery, where the sprays haven’t reached.

Quiet , Rel iab le , Ef f ic ient

Phone: 06 879 8312Fax: 06 879 7312

Email: [email protected]

www.nzfrostfans.com

Let Battle Commence: Protectorhml and HML 32: Fungal Spray Programme 2014/15

Protectorhml and HML 32Armour plate for grapes

0

20

40

60

80

100

83% 83%

16%

60%

4%

50%

4%

18%

0%

6%

0.1%3%

0.1%

Percentactive

powdery mildew

HML 32Powdery MildewEradication StudyJanuary 2014Reinfection 14 and21 days after spraying

X 1 – one applicationX 2 – two applicationsHML – HML32 at 1.25 litres per 100 litres300, 600, 900 – grams of potassium bicarbonate per 100 litresCu – 45 grams of metallic copper per 100 litres

Results proven in the fi eldLast season we undertook a screening trial to examine the capacity of HML32 (with and without additives) to eradicate live powdery mildew. The results (shown below) prove HML32 with particular additives produces high performance for the control and eradication of powdery mildew. The full report and a video of the trial is published on our website.

Farmlands Horticulture independently conducted a trial with a wide variety of chemistry including HML32 with additives. It was also one of their best performing treatments. Their report is also published on our website.

Used with additives, this is a proven treatmentfor the control of powdery mildew, botrytis,downy mildew, phomopsis and black spot.

Entirely suitable to meet the challenge raised by the recent discovery of the sexual phase of powdery

mildew, whether it is earlier sporulationor treatment resistance.

Woolly bud First leaf unfoldedto infl orescences opening

Infl orescences opento 80% capfall

80% capfallto pre-bunch closure

Pre-bunch closureto veraison

SIGNIFICANT

Powdery mildewinfection last season:

7% lime sulphur HML32 + sulphur + copperat 10 -14 day intervals

If desired other products can be used at this growth stage for enhanced botrytis control

HML32 + sulphur + copperat 10 -14 day intervals

HML32 + sulphur + copper*at 10 -14 day intervals

LOW or NO

Powdery mildewinfection last season:

Spray with 0.5% Protectorhml

+ sulphur at 10 -14 day intervals. Add copper if required for thecontrol of other diseases

Final spray with HML32+ sulphur before infl orescences opening. Copper is optional but recommended as it provides a higher level of powdery mildew control

First application HML32 + sulphur + copper

Follow up with 0.5% Protec-torhml + sulphur at 10 -14 day inter-vals.Add copper if required for thecontrol of other diseases

First application HML32 + sulphur + copper*

If season presents high risk, continue with HML32 + sulphur + copper* at 10-14 day intervals

Otherwise, follow-up with 0.5% Protectorhml + sulphur at 10-14 day intervals. Add copper* if required for control of other diseases.

Powdery mildew Is one of the main reasons wineries reject a crop; it can cause a musty off fl avour in fi nished wine. It is also an important pre-cursor to botrytis and other rots.

Other diseasesThe addition of copper off ers eff ective control of phomopsis, downy mildew and black spot. Copper should always be applied in good drying conditions.

The spray of HML32 + sulphur + copper before fl owering and then at 80% cap fall eradicates and protects against further microscopic powdery mildewor botrytis infection.

Botrytis control otherwise is achieved by usingHML32 throughout the season.

Why is this programme based on the control of powdery mildew?

Spray timingThis spray programme nominates a 10 -14 day spray pattern. This timing should be tempered by best local practices, disease pressure and weather. Where possible, spray ahead of weather events.

ApplicationGood coverage is critical. Sprayer performance should be confi rmed with water sensitive papers. Application should take into account canopy density and bunch exposure. Adjust operating speeds accordingly and consider alternating spraying direction.

Water rates Avoid low or ultra-low rates.

Compatibility with other productsBoth Protectorhml and HML32 are alkaline. Under normal conditions both products are compatible with wettable sulphurs and copper hydroxide/oxide fungicides, as well as seaweed products. Incompatibility occurs with some foliar fertilizers such as calcium.

Before mixing in the sprayer, do a ‘jar test’ with spray water and all ingredients to check for fl occulation, separation, etc.

Further information and adviceVisit www.henrymanufacturing.co.nz for full trial reports and supporting data, including notes on sprayer audit.

Call Chris Henry on 027 294 1490 or email:[email protected]

Contact your local Farmlands representative.

Contact your localFarmlands representative.

RatesHML32 - always use at the prescribed rate

Sulphur - 3 Kg/ha all season

Copper - 45g metallic copper / 100 litres. Our preference is red copper (cuprous oxide) as it presented no spray tank issues in the fi eld trials.

For both sulphur and copper, take into account local use rates and manufacturer’s recommendations.

Notes for growers:

This programme has powdery mildew control as the priority and contains both preventative and eradicative elements.

* check with winery PHIs

DISCLAIMER: The Supply Terms of Henry Manufacturing Limited and FarmlandsCo-operative Society Limited apply to the use of this spray programme.Liability whether in tort (including negligence), contract or otherwise, for any loss, crop or vine injury or crop or vine failure, resulting from the application of this spray programme is excluded. Any user of this spray programme accepts this disclaimer.


VINTAGE2014

V intage 2014 may have been bigger than initially expected, but then so too is the export growth. The

29 percent increase in tonnages will go a long way to continue that growth and help wineries that were beginning to feel the bite of low inventory.

In total New Zealand harvested 445,000 tonnes, with the major-ity of that coming out of Marlbor-ough.

But it wasn’t the only region to see an increase in yields. Every one saw a rise, with the increases varying from up two percent in Canterbury and Wairarapa, to up 35 percent in Nelson.By Region:• Marlborough

– 329,572 tonnes up 31%• Hawke’s Bay

– 44,502 tonnes up 15%• Gisborne

– 16,192 tonnes up 4%• Central Otago

– 10,540 tonnes up 25%• Nelson

– 10,494 tonnes up 35%• Waipara

– 10,127 tonnes up 32%• Wairarapa

– 5,743 tonnes up 2%• Auckland

– 1,392 tonnes up 76%• Canterbury

– 835 tonnes up 20%• Northland

– 210 tonnes up 61%• Waikato

– 63 tonnes up 411%Sauvignon Blanc made up more

than 72 percent of the total yield, with 310,240 tonnes. But it wasn’t just in Marlborough that this vari-ety was by far the largest. NZWine-grower CEO Philip Gregan said it was the largest variety harvested

in Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Nel-son and Waipara – a first for the industry.

All of the major varieties saw an increase, with Merlot and Char-donnay growing by 7%, Pinot Gris

up 8%, Pinot Noir up 15% and Sau-vignon Blanc up 36%.

What’s more there were three

UNIQUE VINTAGET E S S A N I C H O L S O N

TOTAL VOLUME OF GRAPES HARVESTED 445,000 tonnes 29%

76.7%tonnage per region

% of total harvestEstimated production figures based on

the 2014 vintage survey.

ALL REGIONS 2014Change on previous vintage

+31%Marlborough

+15%Hawke’s BayNelson +35%

+25%Central Otago

Wairarapa +20%

Gisborne +4%

Waipara Valley +32%

Auckland +76%

Northland +61%

Waikato +411%

Canterbury +20%

Marlborough 329, 572 tonnes

Wairarapa 5,743 tonnes1.3%

Auckland 1,392 tonnes .3%

Northland 210 tonnes

Waikato 63 tonnes

*

*

NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY VINTAGE INDICATORS BY REGION 2014

Canterbury 835 tonnes .2%

10.4% Hawke’s Bay 44,502 tonnes

3.8% Gisborne 16,192 tonnes

2.5% Central Otago 10,540 tonnes

2.4% Nelson 10,494 tonnes

2.4% Waipara 10,127 tonnes

SHARE OF VINTAGE

52.2% GROWERS

WINERIES 47.8%


regions that for the first time ever surpassed the 10,000 tonne mark – they were Nelson, Central Otago and Waipara.

Gregan says every region ben-efited from a benign spring with no major frost events, followed by a stunning flowering and fruit set.

“What happened then? There seemed from our perspective to be a record level of intervention in the vineyards to get the crops down to manageable sizes,” he says.

The large vintage is in sharp contrast to the situation New Zea-land found itself in, back in 2012, when only 263,944 tonnes were harvested. That created a number of headaches for wineries that had been steadily growing their export markets only to find themselves in a situation where they couldn’t supply. By the time it got to vin-tage 2013, stocks were almost non-existent, and the higher yields last

year helped to alleviate that some-what. Gregan says by looking at the export figures since 2009, you can see when the lack of stock began to affect exports back towards the end of 2012. They only began to rise again after the 2013 vintage came on stream, although even that large harvest didn’t give win-eries much leeway.

“We know a number of winer-ies were quite low going into har-vest. We also know that two and a half million litres of 2014 wine was exported in May, which is a record high level for that time of the year. That is an indication of a very early change over. We are expecting to have exported 190 million litres of wine at the year end June.”

While there might be some disconcerted people following the record harvest, Gregan says the situation this year is totally dif-ferent to what happened in 2008 and 2009.

“Our take is that we have had a very good growing season. This isn’t a jump in production fuelled by a whole lot of extra vineyards coming into production. Instead we see this year as pretty much a one off, because of the conditions. We had winery demand for more

grapes. That was combined with fully mature vineyards out there. Then we had a great bud burst, a really good flowering and fantas-tic weather in March. When you put all those factors together, it was a season that was pretty much unique in the past 20 years.” ■

The effect of a small vintage in 2012 is reflected in the drop off in export sales.

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WINENEWS

P inot Noir is a fickle grape and even more fickle in the winery. But research from Australia may have

just made the winemaking task a little easier.

All great red wines, Pinot Noir included, require the right balance of tannins for mouth feel, and anthocyanins for colour. Unfortu-nately for Pinot though, both these phenolics are unusual in terms of their stability and levels, says Dr Bob Dambergs, a Research Associ-ate at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture.

“Pinot Noir is different to other varieties. Although the grapes seem to have a high tannin con-centration, it is mostly seed tan-nin, as the skin to seed tannin ratio is low,” Dambergs says.

Adding to that, Pinot Noir is also low in anthocyanins and these in turn are also quite unstable, which can lead to colour degra-dation in the resulting wines.

“Even though anthocyanins are the colour in the grape, they are not the final colour in the wine. They have to react with the tan-nins to produce large pigmented compounds.”

Given the problems, Dam-bergs’ research was looking for ways of manipulating both pheno-lics, once the fruit hits the winery.

There are a number of tried and tested methods of winemaking when it comes to Pinot. Cold maceration is one way, as is running some juice off the skins immediately.

Some winemakers prefer to perform extended maceration

where the skins are left in for an extended period after ferment, others prefer to add stems to the ferment or to perform whole bunch ferments.

“We have benchmarked a lot of these techniques, but then we tried some unusual methods to enhance tannin extraction and not necessarily colour extraction but colour stabilisation. One method is really simple to perform.

“Winemakers are used to run-ning juice off as soon as they crush, a method known as saignée, which is French for bleeding. So you bleed some of the juice off, which allows more skin concentration.”

What Dambergs and his team found though, was if that juice was stored cold and placed back into the tank near the end of ferment, the end result was more tannin in the final wine.

“The yeast has a lot to do with these extraction processes,” Dambergs says. “Some of the metabolites the yeast produce also cause these reactions, but these metabolites are only produced from actively fermenting yeast. Near the end of ferment, when

the yeast metabolism is slowing down, the concentrations of these metabolites fall off.

But if you bleed some juice off early and feed it back near the end of the ferment, it actually helps keep them kicking along a bit more and enhances the tannin extraction.

“ We h a v e a l s o w o r k e d on methods to enhance skin tannin extraction over seed tannin and to allow extraction before fermentation, so that the wines can then be fermented at cooler temperatures, to assist in retaining volatile aromas,” Dambergs says.

“The ramification of this research is that it will give winemakers better control over wine style”.

H e a l s o b e l i e v e s m o r e winemakers should be testing

their tannin levels, than are currently, given this is such an important aspect of the final wine. For example, when testing tannin levels in a range of Burgundies, Dambergs found their average level was at 2.4 grams of tannin per litre of wine. Whereas the average in Tasmania was 1.2, with some wine’s levels being as low as 0.3. New Zealand Pinot Noir tannin levels are in a similar range to Tasmanian.

“Some of the best wines in the world are made from Pinot Noir in Burgundy.

“They are difficult wines to make, but winemakers love the challenge and love the wines .” This research may help those winemakers to get closer to achieving the goal of producing the perfect Pinot ■[email protected]

MANIPULATING PINOT NOIR PHENOLICST E S S A N I C H O L S O N

“Winemakers are used to running juice off as soon as they crush, a method known as saignée, which is French for bleeding. So you bleed some of the juice off, which allows more skin concentration.”

Bob Dambergs


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WINEAWARDS

T wo highly respected international wine personalities will be joining this year’s judging panel for the country’s premier wine competition, the Air New Zealand

Wine Awards. Respected wine writer David Brookes from

Australian Gourmet Traveller WINE, Wine Companion and Wine & Spirits magazines, and Sebastian Braun, one of Sweden’s leading wine buyers, will be joining the judging team of 26 for this year’s competition.

Judging for the 2014 Air New Zealand Wine Awards will take place November 3 - 5, in Auck-land. Announcement of the gold medal win-ners will be a week later, prior to the trophy announcements, which will be revealed at the black tie dinner in Hawke’s Bay on November 22.

In last year’s competition 1,379 wines were entered across 16 different classes. A total of 655 medals were awarded: 111 gold, 196 silver and 348 bronze.

A i r N e w Z e a l a n d W i n e A w a r d s Chair of Judges Michael Brajkovich MW, says having international judges involved in the process ensures the Awards maintain their high standard. “The Air New Zealand Wine Awards is a highly respected competition internationally,” he says. “Our winemakers are world-renowned and having an experienced judging panel is crit-ical in helping the industry strive for improve-ment in quality and innovation.”

The competition has been running for over 30 years, recognising excellence in New Zea-land winemaking. Entries for the 2014 com-petition open to New Zealand wineries on 11 August.

For more information visit www.airnzwinea-wards.co.nz

AIR NEW ZEALAND WINE AWARDS

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WINEMARKETING

T he age of the Australian wine consumer is chang-ing and with it the way they look at where their

wine is coming from. That’s the opinion of wine commentator Mike Bennie, who among other outlets, writes for Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine Maga-zine, Sydney Style Magazine and is Editor at large of the online Wine-Front.com.au

In Marlborough last month as a judge at the Spiegelau Interna-tional Wine Competition, Bennie said it is the younger generation, 18 – 35-year-olds, who are “very much plugged in to wine”.

They are also the generation that is becoming more conscious of what they are eating, drinking and where it is coming from.

“This generation is asking where their wine comes from and how it is made. They are interested in consuming things that they equate with what’s in their pantry. So if they have organic vegetables from the farmer’s market in their cupboard and produce from the food markets they are using for their daily consumption, then they want to know their wine has a similar philosophy behind it.” That has led directly to a far greater awareness of organic, biodynamic and natural wines. Never was that more obvious than at Rootstock 2014, held in Sydney earlier this year. The two-day event attracted 13,500 people, making it the larg-est wine and food festival ever held in Australia. Bennie says it has set a precedence that all consumable producers should be tuned in to.

“And certainly it was the younger generation, largely again those 18 – 35-year-olds that were there in huge numbers. They were highly engaged and having a great time.”

That is not to say there is no place for conventional wines, far from it, but Bennie said there needs to be more acceptance of different philosophies.

“There is a strange line drawn in the sand that really shouldn’t be so contested. The debate between producers who are farming organi-cally and biodynamically, and those who choose to make the most of their grapes by extrapo-lating what they can in the winery to produce wines of great consist-ency, needn’t be a tooth and nail fight. It’s really about giving con-sumers something that is aligned more with their consumption phi-losophies. It is a bit of a ying and yang thing. There are many people who are not interested and don’t care (where their food or wine comes from) but then there are a number of others who are truly interested. Rootstock is evidence of that.”

B e n n i e s t r o n g l y b e l i e v e s t h a t w i n e shouldn’t be treated as an aside when it comes to accompanying a meal.

“Food and wine are too intrin-sically linked and wine is another food. It really should be seen as a condiment on the table, and not necessarily something that is set to the side.”

That is already the case in many top restaurants, where chefs and

sommeliers work hard to partner their food with the wine list. It is in this area, that he says organic, biodynamic and natural wines are starting to make an impression.

“Sommeliers and chefs are more engaged with their entire set of products. If you’re a chef and you are foraging, or using sus-tainably farmed produce or sourc-ing from a single source for your beef programme, then it should be that your wine programme matches that. Serving up mass produced wine along-side single farm pork is a bit of a lack of alignment in terms of what you are offering. So I think chefs are becoming more aware that they h a v e t o have an

entire experience at their restau-rant and are working to match the sustainable food with the equiva-lent wine.”

There are some producers who will say, taking the organic or biodynamic route can be more expensive. Can wines produced in this way command higher prices?

“I think so. Fine wine has precedence in the world, of being very expensive. Compared to

the fine wines of the world, the wines

produced with a keen eye on sustainability are relatively

inexpensive.”Theoreti-

cally New Zea-land should be

well placed to take advantage

given

THE CHANGING CONSUMERT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

Mike Bennie


the emphasis placed on Sustain-able Winegrowing. While full of praise for the way the New Zealand wine industry has worked together to deliver the programme Bennie believes there is more needed to ensure the consumer understands it.

“There needs to be more con-sumer generated talk, to gain more interest in what is going

on,” Bennie said. “Sitting down with New Zealand Wine is quite inspiring. I find them and the pow-ers that be, very acutely aware of being progressive and having a contemporary understanding of wine and this younger generation. And I think there will be great suc-cess, once the sustainability pro-gramme is communicated more clearly.”

On a completely different note, Bennie allayed fears that Austral-ian consumers have ended their love affair with Sauvignon Blanc. Important that they haven’t, given they are our largest market. He said while there appeared to be a backlash to the variety, that came more from media than it did from consumers.

“The drinking public has had

no backlash. It has an equal and/or greater thirst for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Perhaps the media in terms of understanding consumers are missing the mark a little bit, in terms of the way they are communicating to them.”

Just another area for produc-ers to focus on when it comes to marketing. ■[email protected]

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WINEUPDATE

“I TRULY believe that 2013 is the vintage that will firmly put Hawke’s Bay on the international map and am confident that these wines can go up against Bordeaux wines worth much more and come out looking very good,” says Nick Picone, senior Auckland win-emaker for Villa Maria.

The wines he refers to are the full bodied reds from Hawke’s Bay’s 2013 vintage; a year that is widely being hailed as the best or one of the best in modern New Zealand wine history.

The summer weather in 2013 was warm, dry and relatively rain-free. The season was long. Disease risk was minimal to non-existent in many parts of the Bay.

As we talk about these factors, Picone pours Hawke’s Bay barrel

components of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Malbec from the 2013 vintage into our tasting glasses. It is May this year when we taste, so these wines are all but finished. They are extremely deep in colour, extremely high in tan-nin and extremely ripe in flavour; all signs of a potentially long life ahead.

Picone says that the deep col-our of 2013 reds was more uniform than in most vintages, especially compared with the challenging 2012 vintage reds, in which cool days and lack of sunshine stood in stark contrast to 2013 and 2014.

The samples we tasted for this story contained a maximum of 20% new oak and their alcohol lev-els were also moderate; all under 14% ABV. Both of these figures are

lower than usual, says Picone.It is the Merlot that surprises

most with its intense colour, fla-vour and tannins. Picone describes it as classic. He is not alone.

“Poor old Merlot. I think it is very underestimated, both in terms of its potential quality and in how hard it is to make well. We talk a lot in New Zealand about how hard it is to make great Pinot Noir, but I think it is just as hard to create great Merlot. There are few people doing it well outside of Bordeaux; good value Merlot comes from Chile and some good wines from Washington. And Mer-lot is one of Hawke’s Bay’s great strengths.”

These wines and Picone’s words call to mind the 2013 bar-rel components for another top

red Hawke’s Bay wine from 2013; Craggy Range Sophia.

Craggy Range general manager and Master of Wine Steve Smith has been doing an international tasting tour this year of compo-nent wines from 2013, showing Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Caber-net Sauvignon and Petit Verdot to trade and media in the UK and US as well as in this country.

“There have been a lot of aha moments at these tastings of these compo-nent wines,” says Smith. “Whichever way you look at it, 2013 and 2014 are both great years, but I am strongly of the view that ‘13 is a better vintage because the heat between flowering and veraison was really warm, whereas it was cool in 2014 until the end of January and then pretty warm around veraison into March. The 2013’s are going to be very classic wines whereas the 2014 vintage has given us very open, forward, delicious wines – I think they’ll be glamour wines but the ‘13s are classics.”

Classic or glamour, two years with such strong heat summa-tion signal a reversal of fortune for Hawke’s Bay, whose winemak-ers struggled with ripeness levels in the cool 2012 vintage.

The numbers stack up for the past two vintages in more ways than one. While flavours in the 2013 vintage reds from the Bay are extremely ripe, the alcohol levels remain moderate with

TOP VINTAGE NUMBERS STACK UP

Nic Picone

Why and how was 2013 such an exceptional vintage for full bodied New Zealand reds? Joelle Thomson investigates.


Craggy Range Sophia finishing at 13.6% ABV, which Smith attributes to vine age as well as a long, dry vintage.

In the summer of 2013, Hawke’s Bay was officially in drought.

“This wine (Sophia) and oth-ers we are working with are made from vines that are now 15 years old. That’s giving the vines – and us - the ability to show different characters than they did in their youth.

“And since we planted those vines ourselves, we are now watch-ing the fruit of our labours trans-late in riper grapes at lower sugar levels than many winemakers have ever seen before in New Zealand,” says Smith.

Picone says the moderate alco-hol levels can also be attributed

to the high diurnal range during the 2013 summer,

which, combined with dry weather, enabled top vine health.

C o o l n i g h t s a n d relatively dry weather leading into the 2013 vintage ensured mini-mal disease.

“These are not blockbuster wines because they don’t have high alcohol lev-els,” Picone says.

“Instead, there’s an incredible purity and fineness of fla-vour without high alcohol. The cool nights lengthened the vintage and the ripening, so 2013 wines will age well because the components are so well bal-anced,” he adds.

I t w a s a similar story in North Canter-bury. Ataahua

winemaker Stephanie Hen-

derson, who is working with vines that she planted herself in the early 1990s, says that 2013 was a long season with cool nights, a dry finish to the season, minimal disease pressure and intense tan-nins and colour.

“We had cool nights and a dry vintage, so there was no pressure to bring grapes in earlier than scheduled in 2013, which made it an ideal harvest. Sometimes we get so much heat over summer that the acids tend to drop but in 2013 we had such a long season with cool nights that we got intense colour and lots of tannins in the Pinot Noir.”

It was a season in which mini-mal sprays were used, due to the dry weather, says Henderson, who uses her grapes to produce her relatively new Ataahua wines; first made from the 2008 vintage.

For many winemakers in both islands, vineyard maturity is a key

to rising quality, says Smith.“Over the past year I have heard

time and again from winemakers all over the country that they are getting maturity coming through in the vines which is translating lower alcohol levels with ripeness that we just wouldn’t have seen in the past.”

There is at least one more rea-son for high quality wines of 2013; low cropping.

The vines were naturally in a low cropping mode after 2012, says Smith.

“They weren’t overly vigorous because in a cool year they don’t put down a lot of stored energy, so that’s another reason why 2013 has been so good.”

So there was a silver lining to the cool 2012 vintage after all. [email protected] ■ * While most of the 2013 reds have yet to pour out of wineries, the trickle of wine that is already on the market proves these numbers with their moderate alcohol levels, intense colour, ripe tannins and flavours.

Steve Smith

Craggy Range’s Sophia Cellar.


REGIONSNELSON

H ats off to Nelson Wine-growers who in just under a year have gone from deciding to take a closer

look at their branding, to being almost ready to launch a new name and look.

It was only last August at their AGM that the possibility of mov-ing away from the name Nelson Wineart was first raised. Some of those present felt maybe this des-ignation had passed its use by date.

What began as a discussion, moved at an exponential pace into a decision to strategically review the entire positioning of Nelson Winegrowers and their marketing arm. Chair of the marketing com-mittee, Andrew Sutherland said two consultants were employed to help with the review, which began with extensive interviews of industry members including growers and winery owners.

“We also talked to wine writ-ers and influencers as well as people from around the world,” Sutherland said. “We wanted to

test their percep-tions of the Nelson wine region, and our name and what it meant to them. The over riding conclu-sion was we should move away from using Wineart to something new.”

The Wineart title was always an appropriate one, given the strength of the artistic community residing in the Nel-son region. No more so than when the city was home to The World of Wearable Arts, (which has now moved to Wellington). But it was fairly obvious Sutherland said, that it was no longer as appropri-ate in this day and age.

The end result is Wine Nel-son will be the new moniker for the region – simplistic and to the point.

But the changes don’t stop with the new name. There are three other goals the organisation is working towards as well.

“Firstly to strengthen Nelson’s wine marketing capability. Second to strengthen communications and enhance what we have been doing in the past. And the third is to develop strategic partnerships. We will be looking for key people and organisations to partner and look at how we increase awareness of who we are and the quality of what we do as we head into the future.”

Following on from the stra-tegic review, Nelson Winegrow-ers has appointed two new staff members. Replacing Gisela Purcell who has been General Manager at the helm for six years, are Jane

Docherty(winemaker) and Andrea McLeay (Marketing, Communica-tion and Engagement Specialist) Docherty will take on the admin-istration role, while McLeay has been contracted as Marketing Manager. She said now the name has been confirmed, her next step will be to create a distinctive brand identity and a guiding “toolkit” for everyone in the Nelson wine industry from growers, to cellar doors and winemakers.

“It is really important what we put around the Wine Nelson name; the imagery and a tone of voice that express our story. It will be the stories we tell about this region, and the experience people have when they visit that will help us take Nelson wines to the level where they should be.”

She said the toolkit will help everyone involved with Nelson wine industry to speak with “one clear voice.”

“That is very important as we move forward into the future.” ■[email protected]

NEW LOOK FOR NELSONT E S S A N I C H O L S O N The interim logo of Wine Nelson.

Nelson Marketing Committee Chair, Andrew Sutherland.


YOUNGGUNS Brought to you by

YOUNG GUNSCENTRAL OTAGOHow Long Have You Worked In Central Otago?

Eight and a half years.

What Brought You To Central Otago?

I was in pursuit of a profoundly perfect Pinot Noir posting.

Where Have You Travelled In Wine To Get Here?

It began with my Dad and Uncle in Mount Gambier, thrusting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir twigs into the ground in the early nineties.

Warm climate winemaking in McLaren Vale and a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Oenology) at University of Adelaide in the early 2000s.

Over to Margaret River to make Chardonnay and Cabernet before launching into Central Otago. In between all of this frivolity, a couple of overseas jaunts to Austria’s Kamptal mak-ing Grüner Veltliner and Riesling and into Italy’s Le Marche making Pinot Noir, Albanella, Sangiovese and Ancellotta.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Your Job?

The diversity of role; having to know ample about everything, or at least know where to find the information, but be a master of none of it. From civil engineer-ing, to geology, organic chemis-try and psychology.

Being able to take my best mate Zeus to work every day.

Interacting, discussing, chal-lenging, laughing and tasting with the GVW team, particularly CK, Swirtz and Sheeba.

Having an incredible hands on role, from in the vineyard, the cellar and laboratory.

Liaising and learning from our viticultural team.

Adapting to and experiencing each growing season within our vineyards, the evolution of our techniques and wines.

What Do You Enjoy Most About Central Otago?

The people and camaraderie within the wine industry. From the region’s pioneers, along with its eccentric, eclectic and elec-tric personalities. Discussions

and knowledge sharing are as open and loose as late nights are during The Pinot Celebration.

When You’re Not Making Wine?

I’m thrust into outdoor adven-tures, usually with Dog leading the way. For 2014 we are in con-stant search of lakes, rivers and beach experiences, no matter how chilly it may be.

Always trying to keep on top of veggie patch maintenance with a mild self sufficient twist.

Holidaying in Australia with my hilarious and engaging family.

Experimental cooking.

It Sucks When….

There are no cold Emersons in the fridge at 4pm during harvest!

I run out of clean, comfortable warm socks also during harvest.

I split my favourite winery pants two years running, climbing ladders or fences, again during harvest.

Your Favourite Wine?

I have a quite a few favourites at any one time. Currently I’m into the deliciousness of Chignin- Bergeron from the Savoie, Char-donnay from Western Australia – particularly form Donnybrook and Pemberton, Pinot Noir dominant blend Champagne/Sparkling with no dosage, full MLF and 3 years on lees, Pinot Noir from the Gibbston sub region of Central Otago.

Which Wine Region Excites You Most Right Now?

Mount Gambier in the Lime-stone Coast of South Australia, The Henty region of South West-ern Victoria and The Jura.

Future Aspirations?

Obtain a Stainless Steel Welding qualification, to articulate better in social occasions, have a herd of Buffalo and make my own mozzarella, create an unfor-gettable dining experience for David Attenborough, Damon Albarn and Robert Downey Jnr and finally, travel to Copenha-gen and get our Home Block Le Maitre Pinot Noir on the wine list at Noma. ■

S A S C H A H E R B E TA G E 3 9T I T L E W I N E M A K E R - G I B B S T O N VA L L E Y W I N E S


How Long Have You Worked In Central Otago?

10 yrs


Lifestyle outside of work and close to home


France, Germany, USA, Switzerland


Being outside every day


The amazing scenery and ability to explore so easily, rivers and mountains which are on our doorstep

When You’re Not Making Wine Or Growing Grapes?

Kayaking, mountain biking, snowboarding

It Sucks When….

The frost alarm goes off before you’ve gone to bed


Any 2007 Central Otago Pinot right now..


Central Otago

Future Aspirations?

Continue to explore, learn and understand the world of wine and use it to grow the best wine I can, and have fun along the way. ■

N I C K PA U L I NA G E 3 0 T I T L E V I T I C U LT U R I S T AT P E R E G R I N E W I N E S



Three years going on four.


I worked a vintage at Peregrine in 2010 and just fell in love with the place, so when a permanent job came up at VinPro I jumped at the chance.


Several harvests each in Australia, France and Ukraine, plus the USA, Chile, Spain and Germany. Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay round out my New

Zealand experience.


The wide variety of quality fruit we get to work with here. We see almost every sub-region and variety produced in Otago, and it gives a real understanding of what each parcel can do and their individual strengths.


The epic scenery and lifestyle. In terms of work, I love the way that Central Otago winemakers work together, sharing equipment,

experience and even staff. It’s definitely not as cutthroat as other regions I have worked in.


Brewing beer, snowboarding and getting stuck into the garden.

It Sucks When….

The weather dictates your picking decisions. The big issue down here is frost, and it’s heart breaking to see a good block get fried before it can deliver to its full potential.


Central Pinot of course!


China. It’s so massive, and the momentum is building to make premium wines there, so I think the next 10 years will see Chinese wine go from strength to strength.

Future Aspirations?

Always striving to increase knowledge and skills and to continue making wines that I can stand behind and be proud of. In time I’d like to extend that right through to point of sale with my own label. ■

DAV E S U T T O NA G E : 2 9T I T L E : W I N E M A K E R F O R V I N P R O LT D

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I began working in Central Otago in late 2007 and became firmly entrenched in the vine-yard with regular forays into the winery during harvest and then off to the northern hemisphere during our southern winters.


While studying at Lincoln, I had the grandest job ever where I worked at a wine bar that served Central Otago Pinot Noir. After becoming familiar with these mysterious wines, I immediately felt drawn to this part of New Zealand that I had previously not explored.


I started thinking about wine seriously at Lincoln University then moved to southern France for a year before shifting to Central Otago. Since arriving, I’ve been lucky enough to have the flexibility to work northern hemisphere vintages in Canada and a couple of times in Bur-gundy.


The diversity. I work with a small company that has a great team. I like the mixture of farming, sci-ence and creativity that results in a most interesting product.


The scenery is breath-taking. I really like the distinct change in seasons, from dusty, dry and hot to shivering cold, hoar frosts and snowing in the hills. The isola-tion can be challenging some-times but then growing grapes is a somewhat rural occupation.


In the summer, I like to go kayaking and mountain biking and wintertime is skiing. I love cooking, having dinner parties and sharing time with friends, my wife and our two spoilt rot-ten dogs Edgar-Allen and Sophia.

It Sucks When….

Nature changes the rules.


Not sure that’s a fair question; there’s just too many. It’s the glass of wine that I’m drinking with family and friends at the dinner table that captures my attention then pairs perfectly with the meal.


Absolutely, it’s Central Otago. It’s a relatively young region with unlimited potential. At Terra Sancta, I am privileged to work with some of the oldest vines in the region and as a result I have some insight into what the future may look like for Central Otago Pinot Noir. It’s exciting!

Future Aspirations?

Keep learning, stay engaged and have a bit of fun along the way. ■

L E N I B B O T S O NA G E : 3 4T I T L E : H E A D O F V I T I C U LT U R E T E R R A S A N C TA

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REGIONSMARLBOROUGH

T he Babich name goes back to 1916 when a young Josip released his first wine. The grapes were his

own, grown in the far north (Kai-kino) personally trod and made, and then sold in a wine shop he opened.

These days the Babich name is associated with fine wines that emanate from Henderson,

Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. While the company has been producing wine for 98 years, they have never had a custom built winery – something that has now been remedied with a state of the art facility in Marlborough.

T h e n e w w i n e r y , commissioned in time for the 2014 vintage, is the biggest investment ever made by his family, Managing

Director Joe Babich says. The design and construction

was undertaken by Apollo Projects and was the first greenfield project in the region for four years. Originally when the build began, Babich says the aim was to have a 3000 tonne facility.

“We had consent for 6000 tonne and this year we put through 4820 tonne, so it became

a 4000 tonne winery during the build.”

In that sense the winery had to undergo some major expansion, with part of that occurring during vintage itself.

“Stage two was due to start about mid May, but the four tanks we put in, went in during vintage because our estimates were showing that this year

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was potentially going to be very big,” Babich said. “We started to become a bit nervous about whether we could accommodate all the fruit. So we put in four extra tanks and three of them were filled in the last week of vintage.”

The multi million dollar winery is an indication of the commitment Babich has to the Marlborough region.

“We have investment in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, but we have more money invested in Marlborough than we have in the rest of New Zealand. That is the way the market has gone and we have gone with it.”

T h e s p e c i f i c a t i o n s f o r the winery were to be able to complete harvest in a 20 day window, bringing in 200 tonne a day, working up to a maximum of 300 tonne a day. However the reality was slightly different in

this the first year of operation.“The total intake was 4820

tonnes and we were able to ramp up to 350 tonnes a day, and for two days we did 450 tonne.”

Not all the fruit coming in, came in large tonnages. One of the specifics Babich was adamant about was the ability to continue to make artisan wines, from small batches of fruit. While at the front of the winery there are four presses catering for up to 400 tonnes a day, at the rear, there is a small crusher and press (for whole bunch pressing) that deals with just three to four tonnes of fruit.

Given Babich was the company winemaker for 35 years, he must be marvelling at the new technology available and wishing he could be hands on once again.

“Put it this way, I am just happy to direct it.”

But his experience has played

a large part in the development of the facility.

“I learnt a lot in those 35 years and it was very nice to be able to put all of my experience into this winery, knowing exactly what we wanted.”

And it might not finish here, especially given the expansion that occurred during vintage 2014. With 1.6ha of land at the Cloudy Bay Industrial Park site, Babich is not ruling out further expansion in the future, but only if it is managed properly.

“ We h av e t h e s c o p e to expand, but the thing is we are a family company and we have no ideas or reason to expand for expansion’s sake. We have not set the company up for sale, we are not selling it!,” he said adamantly. “We are setting the company up for the next generation.”

With Joe and brother Peter the second generation, the third

is already represented by Peter’s son David who is now the general manager.

So would his dad Josip who began the dynasty, be proud?

“I think he would think we were mad. My father had real sound principals of winemaking, but when you have enough, why go further? I am not like that. To me, business is the game and I like it. So to me it is a business progression. I have no interest in growing it to make more money, but you do have to go forward or backwards. We are not in the business to go backwards, but I do not necessarily want to go forward just to get bigger and make a million cases. That doesn’t appeal to me. I just want to make better wine and hand it on to the next generation.” ■[email protected]

A family affair, Peter (left), Joe and David Babich.


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REGIONSHAWKE’S BAY

D elegat’s new winery northwest of Hastings is designed to establish the company’s presence and

public face in Hawke’s Bay and to be a showcase for the processes involved in growing and making wine.

Prominently located alongside the Hawke’s Bay expressway and with a vineyard to be established alongside, the winery will have a glazed façade to allow views through, into and out of the building.

Australian-based architects Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp say “the parts of the winery will be clearly apparent to visitors and celebrate the whole winemaking process of growing, harvesting, pressing, aging, decanting and consumption.”

Currently under construction, the winery, with a floor area of up to 18,980sq m, is being future proofed to handle up to 20,000 tonnes of grapes a year. As a yardstick of its capacity, Hawke’s Bay’s total production in 2014 was 44,502 tonnes.

Delegat’s, which has a 14 percent share by volume of New

Zealand wine exports, says the Hawke’s Bay climate and soils have unique qualities which make them ideal for producing world-class cool climate wines. It regards Merlot, Syrah, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris as the region’s leading varietals.

The company’s extensive Hawke’s Bay plantings include sites on the Heretaunga Plains, G i m b l e t t G rav e l s a n d t h e Crownthorpe subregion. The 500 hectares of plantings represent around 10 percent of the region’s vineyard area, making Delegat’s one of Hawke’s Bay’s largest producers.

The ne w wine ry, unde r construction on the south-eastern corner of a 13.42ha site on the corne r of the expressway and Everden Road, is to be a dedicated Delegat’s facility and won’t be undertaking contract winemaking. The proposed operational date is early 2015, ready for that year’s harvest.

To be “a landmark within the Hawke’s Bay landscape”, the complex will include a grape receival area, wine processing and

cellaring areas, laboratory, staff facilities, administration offices and reception and a cellar door which will be open seven days a week year round.

“As the expressway is an important public face to the development, it is proposed to have glazing along this building frontage, with wine vines in the foreground, allowing views through to the activity and function of the building.”

Delegat’s say the development, with its focus on the winemaking experience and close proximity to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park and Hastings’ network of cycling and walking pathways, will add to the tourism experience offered by the region.

In three lots, the flat site was formerly used for agriculture, including for cropping and lamb fattening and more recently an apple orchard. The vineyard, to cover about half the site, is likely to be planted in Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.

The development has required a restricted discretionary consent as the gross floor area exceeds the permitted threshold limit for a

winery building in the Hastings District Council’s Plains zone.

Delegat’s plans to employ a maximum of 27 permanent staff in the winery and two permanent cellar door staff, expanding that to include 62 seasonal workers during the six weeks of harvest.

“ We a r e p o s i t i o n e d t o continue to grow our production substantially in the Hawke’s Bay region and our intention (is) to increase our vineyard plantings in the region.”

“To meet our growth plans for the region we require a state of the art winery and cellar door. This winery development will need to showcase the integral relationship between the land and the planting, picking and processing of grapes into wine, which we consider is one of the essential principles of our winemaking story.

“The winery and cellar door, in the surrounds of the vineyard, will provide an opportunity for wine tasting and education on the vinification and viticulture education from Hawke’s Bay as one of the world’s great New World wine regions.” ■[email protected]

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MARKETNEWS

W i t h t h e i r l o v e o f a c h a l l e n g e N e w Zealanders can turn almost any occasion

into a competition. So what better way to create a splash in the increasingly important Chinese market than to hold a France v New Zealand wine tasting? This was the idea of Jerry Hong, Shanghai-based Business Development Manager for NZ Trade and Enterprise. I was already in Shanghai to judge the Wine 100 competition so was delighted to be asked to lead the tasting there.

I was joined by five Chinese panel judges; Martin Hao, Ronnie Lau, Stephen Li, Yang Lu and Fongyee Walker (who also doubled as my interpreter). We tasted without discussion, handing our sheets to Natalie Potts, NZWG Asia Marketing Manager, who collated the scores and ensured the integrity

of the results.An important feature of this

tasting was that before the results of the panel were revealed, the audience, which consisted of 18 interested consumers, 13 wine media and 44 sommeliers and distributors was asked to vote on which wine they preferred. This meant they gave an honest reaction to the wines, rather than be potentially swayed by the professional panel.

A criticism often levelled at these events is a flawed selection process for the wines. Same vintage? Same price range? Ensuring a level playing field is a tough ask and the only way I attempted this was to ensure that all the wines should be currently available in the Chinese market.

The Chardonnay flight was probably the one where style differences were most subtle. Kumeu River Hunting Hill and Vidal Legacy showed that, on

form, New Zealand Chardonnay r a n k s w i t h t h e b e s t f r o m anywhere, taking first and second place respectively.

The Pinot Noir flight contained six wines from the most recent vintages. Again, New Zealand wines took first and second place in both the audience and panel votes.

Syrah continues to confound. Whilst attracting positive press from wine media both at home and overseas, the tiny amount produced means it cannot (yet) get the traction enjoyed by Pinot Noir and so was a relatively unknown quantity on the Chinese market. But at this tasting (and the Mature Red Masterclass presented by myself and Debra Meiberg MW at VinExpo Hong Kong), it was the variety that shone. Against stiff competition, 2010 Craggy Range Le Sol looked stellar, claiming first place from both panel and audience.

T h e C a b e r n e t M e r l o t class was always going to be the most competitive, given China’s fondness for Bordeaux. Interestingly the panel scores showed little consistency; whereas I found the Leoville Poyferré jammy, others awarded it their highest score. The purity of the Villa Maria Reserve and Te Mata Coleraine impressed but the audience preferred to stay with the style they knew best.

A spirited Q&A session followed. One person asked whether it was fair to show youthful French wines, that “needed cellaring time to show at

their best” alongside New Zealand wines which, by implication, didn’t. I replied that was a rather clichéd view; the VinExpo tasting showed New Zealand reds were capable of cellaring just as well as any. Indeed the beauty of the New Zealand wines was their ability to be enjoyed both in youth and with some age.

Following the tasting we asked the audience for feedback, which was overwhelmingly positive. Sylvain Shi, Education Manager for Summergate Fine Wines was surprised by the “ incredible performance of the New Zealand wines” whilst Yanni Wu, CEO of Wine 100 was very curious about the result of the blind tasting and said “ New Zealand wines didn’t let me down’.

Whilst no comparison of price was made, nevertheless it was no surprise that the New Zealand wines were considerably less expensive than their French competition. This, together with the strong showing in the tasting should give considerable encouragement for the continuing promotion of premium New Zealand wines in this market with huge potential for growth. ■• My thanks to Jerry Hong and Vanessa Chan from NZTE and Natalie Potts NZWG

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REGIONSGISBORNE

T he number of grape grow-ers in New Zealand has declined since its dizzy-ing height of 1,128 in 2009,

but the diversity of what they grow now includes an idiosyncratic bunch, especially in Gisborne.

Albarino, Arneis, Gewur-ztraminer, Gruner Veltliner and Viognier have all shown unprec-edented growth in the number of vines supplied to growers over the past five years, says Geoff Thorpe, managing director of the largest vine nursery in the country, Riv-

ersun.The wines made from these

white grapes are beginning to shine too, as judges at the fourth annual Gisborne Regional Wine Awards in May this year saw – and rewarded.

On the table at the end of the day-long event was the most unu-sual range of contenders at any wine show this year.

The five great whites vying for top spot were made from Albarino, Arneis, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Gewürztraminer.

The trophy was awarded to the 2012 Villa Maria Reserve Barrel Fermented Gisborne Chardonnay; a good choice, but a tough one to make. Comparing Chardonnay with Chenin and Albarino with Arneis is not exactly comparing apples with apples.

The staggering range of win-ning wines is an indication of Gis-borne’s diversity, which is helping to change the bulk mentality label given to the region in the past. A lot of that diversity can be put down to the range of vines now

available via Riversun Nursery.L i k e m a n y , R i v e r s u n

retrenched when the Global Financial Crisis hit six years ago, but the change in growers and winemaker attitudes helped keep business ticking over, says Thorpe.

“Over the past few years it has been the lesser known varie-ties such as Albarino, Arneis and Gruner Veltliner that have quietly ticked along and now interest in them is growing.

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vine nursery, ENTAV; home to the grape experts who cracked the confusion in Chilean Merlot when they discovered that much ‘Merlot’ was actually Carmenere. These grape busters have raised the global viticultural bar.

Gisborne winemaker Steve Voysey is one of many in the region whose experimentation with Viog-nier and Syrah has now expanded to include St Laurent, Gruner Veltliner, Tempranillo, Albarino, Marsanne and Petit Manseng. He now has his sights on Glera (formerly known as Prosecco), which has yet to be released from quarantine. Winemaker James Millton now has Marsanne and Rousanne, which supplement his long-term commitment to championing diversity with such outstanding examples of Chenin Blanc and Muscat. These two are at the forefront of experimenta-tion and show that Gisborne has many more strengths to offer both the industry and New Zealand wine drinkers.Two top performing new white wine grapesAlbarino

Albarino originally comes from the Spanish-Portugeuse border where it is also known as Alvarinho (in Portugal). It is traditionally from a warm maritime climate

and works well in Gisborne for this reason, says Gisborne viti-culturist Doug Bell. “I grow it on a spur pruned system with total ground cover, avoiding herbicides. The bunch structure is such that it throws a wing to the bunch, not a second set of fruit as such, but it can cause issues with green ber-ries on the bunch, so pruning is important.”Arneis

Arneis is originally from the Roero and Langhe in Piemonte in north west Italy. It is known there as a varietal dry white, but was his-torically also planted alongside Nebbiolo to attract the birds to its powerful perfume (and away from precious Nebbiolo grapes), writes Master of Wine Jancis Robinson in Wine Grapes. It was also histori-cally blended with Nebbiolo. Villa Maria Estates appears to have the largest plantings in New Zealand of Arneis because its founder and managing director, Sir George Fis-tonich, is a great fan of this grape.

New Zealand Arneis is, like the Italian versions, bone dry. It has a moderate lemon- zest like acidity and lends itself to a small portion of barrel ferment or aging. ■[email protected]• Joelle Thomson judged at the fourth Gisborne Regional Wine Awards in May this year.

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REGIONSMARLBOROUGH

A fter four years of trials funded by NZWinegrow-ers, the 2014 season has given researchers their

best ever opportunity to deter-mine the worth of mechanical thinning.

The trials over recent years have focused on Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay, although this year the commercial uptake in Marl-

borough was far greater than its northern counterpart.

With a bumper season, grow-ers and wineries alike were keen to reduce yields to ensure quality within the vineyard. In total more than 2,500 hectares in Marlbor-ough alone, were mechanically thinned. The trial’s project man-ager, Mark Allen says they hadn’t expected to get to that level of

interest and participation this early on in the trial process.

“It’s fantastic for a lot of rea-sons. But the number one reason is we will get a lot of data out of this season.”

Given the potential size of the crops, he says most people were looking at substantial thinning, which offered up some interesting scenarios.

“In the (past) trials we have been trying to reduce yields by between five and 10-15 percent. That has been mainly because crop levels haven’t been high in previous years. But this year they (growers) have wanted to try and reduce by 30 to 35 percent. So that was quite a new territory for us in terms of the harvester settings.” There is no exact science with

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mechanical thinning; you can’t just dial up a reduction of say 25 percent. It all comes down to how many beats or shakes the vine gets per minute, and that is also affected by the ground speed of the harvester undertaking the shaking. The faster it goes the less shaking of the vine overall. The slower the harvester, com-bined with increased speed of the rods that are hitting the vine, will increase the crop reduction. But knowing how and where to place the rods that are doing the beat-ing is another factor that requires consideration Allen says.

“The critical thing if you want to get more off is to lower the rod to approximately 30 mm above the top cane. You only have to go up say 20 mm and you will take less off. The height of the rod is quite critical. You can imagine if you put the rod in the fruiting zone, you would end up taking everything

off.”What has been determined

during the trials, is the percentage of yield reduction is not limited to the fruit you can see come off at the time. There are a number of other factors that result in reduced yield.

“We work on the proportion of 50 percent being removed when you are doing the shake and the other 50 percent will shrivel up in the canopy. So if you want to remove a kilo a vine, 500 grams will be physically removed at the time of shaking, the other 500 grams shrivel in the canopy from berries being damaged and the overall berry size being smaller and thicker skinned. The impact of hitting the trunk affects both the bunch size and creates a looser architecture.”

The last four years of trials have shown that at veraison the thinned bunches lag 5 – 7 days

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behind the unthinned (control) vines, which has concerned some growers thinking that ripening will be delayed. Allen says despite the lag at veraison, they have found the thinned bunches ripening catches up to show no discernable difference at 20 – 21 brix. This is most likely a function of the lighter crop load.

The shaking also removes a large amount of floral trash, which

has been proven to reduce the incidence of botrytis later in the season. Allen says that is a major financial benefit growers need to calculate into their budgets when considering whether to hand thin or mechanical thin.

“We know that even a ‘light’ shake targeting 5% or less crop reduction removes the same amount of floral trash as a ‘heavy’ shake targeting 15% or more crop

reduction. Along with other meth-ods such as the Collard, it would appear that shaking vines even lightly, has great potential as a cul-tural method of Botrytis control.

“A lot of people have said they can hand thin for the same price as machine thinning, which is prob-ably true. But then if you are going to get a botrytis benefit at the end of it, you are starting to get a finan-cial benefit.”

This year as part of the research, a cost sensitivity analysis will be undertaken on mechani-cal thinning, that will be able to highlight just what those financial benefits are.

There is a timeframe when the mechanical thinning needs to be undertaken to be effective. But Allen says this year, normal was been thrown out the window.

“It is normally undertaken in

the first few weeks of January, but this year we did 40 days of mechanical thinning. I was at the stage I didn’t want to see another harvester for quite some time.”

Due to the warm spring experi-enced in Marlborough he says the bunches grew quite long and for a long period of time, the berries were relatively loose, drawing out the time frame where shaking the vine could be undertaken.

“That was peculiar to a season like we have had, but in most sea-sons you would have about three weeks in January when it would be suitable.”

The Mechanical Thinning pro-ject was made possible by your levy, with co-funding coming from SSF (MPI). ■[email protected]• Photos Marlborough Plant and Food Research.

The unthinned Pinot Gris bunches were tighter and far more prone to botrytis as can be seen.

A Pinot Gris bunch, from a vine that was mechanically thinned with no sign of botrytis.

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WINESHOWS

W ith the number of wine shows seeking entries, both in New Zealand and internationally,

the choice and what they offer, has become bewildering. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe in the show system and judge in quite a number of them, and managed properly by the winery, wine com-petitions are capable of adding value to the winery both in qualita-tive assessment and the marketing of the wines. In some instances the easiest way to get your name out there is to leverage off the show success of your wines.

Wine shows are not infallible, the result will always be a consen-sus decision of three judges who have independently tasted the wine and then argued to an agreed consensus view based on how they saw the wine on that day and in that glass. In 20 years of judging, I have always been impressed how often there is complete consensus and how consistent the results of wine shows in New Zealand are. Like Australia we currently have a great pool of very high quality, well-trained professional judges who judge regularly in most of our competitions.

So often the question is, should I enter wines into shows and which ones will provide the best return? Unfortunately there is no easy “one size fits all” answer, but there are some considerations that should be weighed up when decid-ing which competitions to enter.

If entering New Zealand competitions, are you looking to benchmark your wines in the

pursuit of quality or provide the consumer a guarantee of the qual-ity of the wine (often these are one and the same) or to drive forward sales? Competitions such as the Air New Zealand Wine Awards and the Royal Easter Show pro-vide both prestige and visibility, with an Air New Zealand Wine Award’s Trophy winner recently experiencing a 300% increase across all of their brands in Cel-lar Door sales. Consumers rec-ognize the award stickers from

both these shows and relate to the quality endorsement they pro-vide. Similarly competitions such as the International Wine Show and the Spiegelau Wine Competi-tion are great shows to benchmark your wines against international wines. For direct sales of wines, the Cuisine tasting is recognized by consumers as a great endorse-ment and the top 50 wines selected at the New World Wine Awards ( a little disclosure here; I am the Chair of Judges) are a guaranteed

six weeks marketing, exposure and sales through the New World Supermarket chain nation-wide.

Regionally there are a number of very well run shows that create local exposure, give importers a good look at what is coming out of a region and are often accom-panied by a public exhibition of the wines. Good examples of these shows are the Gisborne Wine Competition, Marlbor-ough Wine Show, International Aromatic Competition as well

THE VALUE OF WINE COMPETITIONSJ I M H A R R E


as some of our regional A and P shows and specialist shows such as the Bragato Wine Awards which is focused on being a single vineyard competition rather than the wine producer competition.

International competitions are often quite different in their organization, structure and the benefits available to New Zea-land producers. Other than a third party endorsement, the major benefit from International competitions comes from the export potential their exposure provides. If you are exporting into the UK or European markets then the two biggest competitions are the Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Chal-

lenge (IWC). These are important awards as the judges are often journalists or members of the wine trade who have an in depth understanding of the markets, what will sell and are often them-selves involved in the sales of New Zealand wine.

I have judged in both competi-tions and continue to judge at the IWC, both are quite different in structure. Decanter has specialist panels that only judge the wines of a specific country while the IWC has panels that are changed every day and judge a range of wines from all countries and regions. In theory having a group of New Zea-land wine experts judge your wine makes sense although in my expe-rience, more often judges were put on the New Zealand panel to fill places rather than for their expert knowledge of New Zealand wine!

Since I last judged in the Decanter Awards, Bob Campbell has taken over as Regional Chair, the first time a New Zealand based judge has held the position which is a positive move for New Zealand wine in that competition.

The IWC operates on a differ-ent system where in the first half of the competition, all the wines are judged as medal or no medal, then all of the medal wines are re judged and awards given. In addi-tion to this the IWC has five Chairs who re taste every wine judged “no medal” in the first round to make sure that nothing is missed and then every medal wine in the second round to make sure the medals reflect consistency across

the competition. So every medal winning wine has been judged at least three times by separate panels. Both these competitions employ a great collection of the worlds best judges.

Two competitions in Asia that stand out are the Japan Wine Chal-lenge and the China Wine Chal-lenge, both are owned and run by Ronald Brown a winemaker who originally hails from England and has spent most of his working life in the Asian Wine and Spir-its trade. The point of difference with these two competitions is the use of International Panel Chairs. There is a strong training compo-nent within the panels; the local judges who tend to be sommeliers, wine buyers and importers all have great palates but are developing their judging experience. These are palates that enjoy the vibrancy

Wine competitions if managed properly, are a cost effective way to benchmark the quality of your wines and also add to your marketing profile, but just like any other part of your business, it’s about applying good background research and entering those competitions that will provide value to your brand.

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of New Zealand wine and in their daily lives are often buyers looking for wines to put on restaurant lists or importers; a great opportunity for New Zealand producers in these markets. Both these compe-titions have a charity component; raising money in China to finance the digging of fresh water wells in a project called Wine into Water and in Japan working with the competition’s Patron, Her Impe-rial Highness Princess Takamado.

Whatever competition you

enter your wines, select the wines that are the most appropriate to the competition. The role of the judges is to asses the quality of the wine not the style, make sure you have the stock volume required to leverage the marketing ability of the Competition; this will require the involvement of both the sales/marketing teams and winemakers and check that the competition is supported where you intend to market your wines.

There is no point in winning

a Gold medal in a competition if your retailer won’t allow you to use the medal stickers as it has a tie-in with a competing competi-tion.

Wine competitions if managed properly, are a cost effective way to benchmark the quality of your wines and also add to your mar-keting profile, but just like any other part of your business, it’s about applying good background research and entering those com-petitions that will provide value

to your brand. The most expen-sive part of a Wine Show is taking advantage of your good results so as to gain both sales and brand lev-erage. This will involve advertising and marketing the result; competi-tion organizers and sponsors can only do so much, the rest is up to you. ■• Jim has been a wine judge for over 20 years and regularly judges in most New Zealand competitions as well as internationally in USA, China, Japan, UK and Australia.

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VINEYARDNEWS

W hen I was younger, I thought by the time we reached 2015, we would have robots to do

all those menial tasks that humans hate. Washing, cleaning, ironing and even cooking. While those childish fan-tasies may have been way out in terms of time frame, there is one robotic force that is getting ready to be unleashed – pruners.

Three years ago Dr Richard Green of University of Canterbury received $3million dollars in an

MBIE grant to research the possibility of cre-

ating a vision based automated cane-pruning system. In layman terms, that means a robot that could prune grape vines. The funding was to be spread over five years.

The idea of creating an automated workforce for one of the hardest jobs in the wine indus-try’s cycle came from NZWinegrow-ers and Per-nod Ricard. If it was at all possible, it would solve

huge problems of finding a com-petent and skilled workforce every year. What’s more it was

estimated that the savings to the wine industry would be

$27.5 million a year.G r e e n h a d n o

doubts about the f e a s i b i l i t y o f

t h e i d e a – although he

admits the success

ROBOTIC PRUNERS ARE COMINGT E S S A N I C H O L S O N

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achieved in just three years is well above what he had imagined back in 2011.

“I am really excited, because we can now do this. It is now a reality, not just a research pro-ject which we hope to achieve.” His excitement is due to the fact that into its third year, the researchers are about to employ robots in the field for the first time, to prune vines in Lincoln University’s vineyard.

Getting to this stage has taken a lot of hard work from a myriad of experts in computer vision, robotics, software and hardware, manufacturing and viticulture. The most difficult task for the team was ensuring the brain of the robot had a clear, 3D vision of the vine, so it knows where to make the correct cuts.

“It required a lot of computer vision expertise, which is about 95 percent of the work. We needed to get the robot to see the vines clearly in 3D,” Green says.

The robots require cameras to be able to view what is in front of them. The problem with that Green says, is that most cam-eras with 3D sensors don’t work effectively in sunlight. So the team came up with the idea of creating a mobile outside laboratory, with the robot inside away from infra-red light.

“So we have a mobile canopy where we have controlled lighting inside and high resolution cam-eras which allow us to see more pixels per vine.”

The system created is unique.“There is no other system that

we are aware of, where they can do 3D models of vines with so much complexity in real time from a dynamic moving platform. No one else appears to be attempting cane pruning,” Green says.

Creating something that has the ability to determine which canes should be cut and which should be left, was the next hur-dle the scientists had to overcome.

“We have been telling robots where to go for decades with sub millimetre accuracy. The trick here though is we have something moving. Before we make a single cut, we have to have the perfect 3D model of the whole vine. That could be seven canes overlapping at some point. Even humans have difficulty sometimes to see which vine is which. We have to do this without touching them.”

Understandably, Green and the team are not keen to let too much information out into the public, with the IP being carefully guarded. But what he will say is that they are now in the proof of concept state and will begin prun-ing rows at Lincoln University this year. By next year, he hopes they will be able to do demonstrations for the industry.

“We have two seasons to go. We have had a significant increase in accuracy and the robot arm is working accurately to the cut points so we will continue to trial this and next season.”

The benefits of such a crea-tion are huge. Imagine if pruning could be undertaken 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all under the cover of a canopy? The robot could be spraying pruning wounds as it goes, helping prevent trunk diseases. It wouldn’t have to stop because of weather conditions. And there is also the chance that a second robot following behind, could be tying canes down. In years to come, they could be devel-oped to pick grapes.

The ramifications are substan-tial not only for the New Zealand wine industry, but New Zealand as a whole. Export earnings from this technology are expected to be $200 million within 10 years of release.

But for growers who dread the thought of winter pruning, the benefits of having a robot doing the job, will be far closer to home. ■[email protected]


NZWNEWS

A fter 10 years of hold-ing down the hot seat of advocacy and trade, John Barker is leaving NZ

Winegrowers.A lawyer by trade, Barker came

into the wine industry after work-ing as a lawyer specialising in wine law in Australia and a stint at the New Zealand Food Safety Author-ity. Which meant he brought to the table a raft of skills that have been put to good use over the past 10 years.

It has been a decade of monu-

mental growth for the wine indus-try and with that growth has come an array of issues that needed a clear head to sort through. Barker has been at the forefront of those, whether they be fight-ing for the right to use frost fans, through to the Wine Act, develop-ing geographical indications to the WWTG agreement.

The Wine Act is one that com-manded a great deal of time, but he says it has proved to be an achieve-ment he will remember.

“The Act was a very long and

challenging process, but in the end we ended up with something that I think is terrific. The GI act will probably follow a similar path, where nothing comes easily, but we will have something that will be beneficial to the industry.”

Since 2004 Barker has also been involved in the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), representing New Zealand as an Export Delegate.

“I mainly worked in commis-sion three which is the law and economy commission. That is

important because it deals with product definitions and label-ling, things which are esssential to trade.”

Between 2009 and 2012 he was the President of that commission and is still the Vice President.

During his tenure at OIV he has seen some dramatic changes, which have been of benefit not only to New Zealand, but other new world producers.

“When I first went to the OIV the organisation had re-formed itself essentially to be a bit more

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democratic. The old structure and voting system was very Eurocen-tric. I would like to think that I have played a part in trying to change the base of the organisa-tion to take more into account new world positions.”

Issues such as whether or not oak chips should be accepted as a winemaking practice have been discussed and more recently Barker has been involved in dis-cussing the issues surrounding the production of low alcohol wines.

“It has been a very long and dif-ficult process looking at de alco-holisation and those processes where you fraction wine and take bits out of it. We have had to think about the legal implications and implications for definitions of those sort of technologies. That is very relevant to New Zealand, not that we are fractioning wine, but because we are looking to produce low alcohol wines in other ways.”

In 2004 when Barker took up his role, New Zealand wine exports were aiming for $1billion. Ten years later those exports have hit $1.39 billion and are head-ing for $1.5billion, something he describes as an amazing achieve-ment. He puts a lot of that suc-cess down to the unity within the industry, something other coun-tries envy.

“ T h a t a n d t h e f a c t w e have focused on premium and added value products.” As to the future, he believes there are more challenges to come, with the greatest likely to be the “well founded public concern about the harmful consumption of alcohol.”

“From the wine industry’s perspective, we are trying to do something meaningful and genu-ine to reduce harmful alcohol consumption. But we don’t want to see unnecessary neo prohibi-tionist restrictions placed on us

as an industry. That will be one of the challenges to be faced in the future.”

Barker is due to leave NZW in mid September and is establish-ing his own law firm, specialising in food and beverage law.

“It’s a niche area but I like to think I can bring some o f w h a t I have learned from NZSFA and NZW to it.” ■[email protected]

John Barker

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REGIONSGISBORNE

M atawhero Wines’ owners Kirsten and Richard Searle feel they’re reaping the reward of

six years of hard work after a haul of medals and trophies at the fourth annual Gisborne Regional Wine Awards.

The winery, which was started by Denis and Bill Irwin in 1975 and bought by the Searle family in 2008, won the Trophy for The Highest Awarded Wine Company, along with other accolades at the recent gala dinner.

En route to the top company trophy, Matawhero won gold medals for their 2013 Pinot Rosé, 2013 Church House Arneis, 2013 Church House Chenin Blanc and 2013 Church House Albariño. They also collected class wins for the Pinot Rosé, Arneis, 2013 Church House Malbec and 2013 Gisborne Chardonnay, and best new white varietal with the 2013 Church House Albariño. Matawhero’s company viticulturist Jeremy Hyland won the Lead Viticulturist Trophy.

“Our passion behind reviving the historic winery was to showcase the Gisborne region as one of quality and diversity,” says Kirsten Searle. “We are thrilled to be awarded the accolade for The Highest Awarded Winery Trophy. It feels like a reward for all the hard work our family, winemaking team and growers have put in since we bought Matawhero.”

To have gold medals awarded to the company’s emerging varieties, was vindication in their belief that Albariño, Arneis and Chenin

Blanc thrive in the challenging Gisborne terroir. Sourcing fruit from around the region, as well as their own vineyard in Riverpoint Road, allows them to celebrate the best of Gisborne in their wines.

“Our Church House range was launched specifically to carry on the pioneering spirit that Matawhero was renowned for, so to receive awards for these wines feels like we are heading in the right direction,” Searle said.

“As a region, Gisborne is very fortunate to have a company like Riversun, who has done a lot of work with importing these new varieties into New Zealand, and we believe this gives us as a real edge to shine as a region with a difference.”

She also applauded those who

had produced the winning grapes for Matawhero.

“It was nice to see gold medals awarded to wines coming from different appellations in the Gisborne region, and from long-time grape growers like Paul and Jenny Tietjen (Golden Slopes) who grew the Pinot Noir for our Rosé and also the Albariño, Pete and Robyn Briant (Patutahi) who grew the Chenin Blanc, and Doug and Delwyn Bell (Hexton) who grew the Arneis.

“ T h i s h i g h l i g h t s o u r winemaking philosophy at Matawhero to showcase the Gisborne region as a whole.”

All of Matawhero’s wines are made in Gisborne’s state-of-the-art GisVin contract winemaking facility.

S e a r l e p a i d t r i b u t e t o

viticulturlist Jeremy Hyland, who is based in Marlborough where he runs his own consultancy business, but is originally from Gisborne.

“He is very much still involved in the Gisborne grape growing scene, looking after Matawhero’s company and grower vineyards.”

Jeremy started his career at Corbans in the early 1990s, was head viticulturist at Kim Crawford Wines from 2004-2007, and now consults to Astrolabe, Jules Taylor and Eradus, as well as Matawhero.

“Some say Jeremy is the best viticulturist in the country due to his ability to provide the desired fruit flavours to the winemaker through intelligent vineyard management techniques . . . we tend to agree.” ■

TOP GISBORNE WINE COMPANYD I A N A D O B S O N

A winning team . . . Matawhero Wines’ co-owner Kirsten Searle and viticulturist Jeremy Hyland with their trophies and the winning wines from the Gisborne Regional Wine Awards. Photograph by Diana Dobson/The Black Balloon

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SCIENCEPROFILE

T he importance of scientific research in the growth of the New Zealand wine industry cannot be

underestimated. Yet while we laud growers and winemakers for their skills at creating the perfect wine, the people who provide the tools to accomplish that are often unknown.

In this issue, we begin a series that will profile some of the scientists who provide us with the information that allows us to do our job that much better. First up, the General Manager of Research for NZ Winegrowers – Dr Simon Hooker.

Utilising science to create business is a driving force for Hooker. As is getting the results of research back to the people who can use it.

Having been a part of the science and research arm of NZW for the past six years, Hooker came to the table with no intimate knowledge of wine. Rather, his background was in marine science, coupled with experience in business development and accessing funding for scientific research.

Following an undergraduate degree at Auckland University, he undertook a PhD at the Leigh Marine Laboratory in Northland. His exploration of pipis, cockles, tuatuas and surf clams was followed by a post-doctorate in crayfish aquaculture. Applying for and receiving the David Johnston Memorial Scholarship (administered by the Guardian Trust) perhaps provided the first

hint of the unique career path Hooker would follow.

“The scholarship was for farmers who wanted to develop farming,” Hooker explains. “I argued that aquaculture was farming and I was successful. It

was the first time they had not funded a land-based project.”

T h e s c h o l a r s h i p w a s to investigate commercially farming crayfish. Unfortunately, the research showed that at that time it probably wasn’t commercially

viable to take baby crayfish caught in the wild and grow them on for sale. Nevertheless, the project did highlight an enduring passion for Hooker.

“I realised that my interest was creating wealth out of

science. That gap between knowledge and someone making money really interested me, so much so that I wanted to use my science background to create business.”

That was something that

caught the interest of the CEO of NIWA, who headhunted Hooker just as he was finishing his post doc.

“I was offered a job as their business development manager of aquaculture.”

For the next eight years h e w o r ke d f o r N I WA a n d was responsible for creating a n a q u a c u l t u r e f a c i l i t y i n Northland. From finding the land, to planning the facility, to overseeing the building of it, through to commissioning, Hooker was in control. He a l s o u n d e r t o o k b u s i n e s s administration studies, earning a Grad. Dip. Bus. Admin. from Auckland University.

By the early 2000s, he and his wife were planning to take a break from New Zealand and live overseas for a period. Sweden became home for the next three years, until his two sons reached an age when a permanent base was necessary.

“It was either going to be Sweden or New Zealand, but to be honest, the winters in Sweden are a bit hard for a Kiwi boy like me.”

He w a s n ’ t b a c k i n Ne w Zealand for long when he saw the job of Research Manager for NZW advertised.

“It really interested me, that interface between science and commerce. So I applied and got it.”

While he had some formal q u a l i f i c a t i o n s i n te r m s o f commerce, the world of wine was a long way from the world of pipis and surf clams.

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


“Technically I knew very little about grapes and wine. But the research committee was effectively the technical brains behind me,” Hooker says.

“ I n s o m e w a y s i t w a s advantageous that I didn’t have the knowledge, because then I didn’t put my views on the table. Technically that committee was very good, but the one thing I did notice was there was not a dedicated tech transfer component to what we were doing. That is one thing I am very keen on. It is fine doing all the science, but we have to integrate it into the industry.”

All the research undertaken by NZW is determined by industry and paid for with a portion of members’ levy funds, which are then leveraged with additional government funding on a project-by-project basis – typically, on a six to one ratio. Using members’

levies for research is vital Hooker says.

“There would be no reason for the government to invest in our industry if we weren’t spending our own money. If you put cash

into research, that is the litmus test that shows it is important to the industry, and then the government is willing to co-fund it.”

While the information that comes from research is an easy to see bonus, Hooker says there are other benefits that are not so obvious.

“Take a biosecurity incursion, for example. If we didn’t have the science team already working in the wine industry, we would have to crank a team up in a short period of time. That isn’t likely

to happen. It takes years to gain an understanding of an industry, and that is something that people underestimate. We have pathologists, plant physiologists, spray technologists, sensory scientists, chemists, consumer scientists – the whole range. And the fact that we are one organisation working with a

range of different research provider organisations enables a unified approach. Having that one body looking after the whole industry is a major benefit. I think many other sectors and countries are envious of that.”

And well they might be, especially as moving forward the research team is not resting on its laurels. The PGP Lower Alcohol/Lower Calorie wine programme is the largest ever undertaken by NZW. It will begin this year and continue for another six with a total investment of $17 million. Given the potential outcomes, the expenditure on R&D is a drop in the bucket of wine sales and vineyard practices that could eventuate.

A g r e a t e x a m p l e o f t h e potential interface between science and commercial success. ■

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All the research undertaken by NZW is determined by industry and paid for with a portion of members’ levy funds, which are then leveraged with additional government funding on a project-by-project basis.

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RESEARCHNEWS

T he global wine industry may be on the cusp of a revolution, thanks to pio-neering genetic research

conducted by scientists at Lin-coln University and Plant & Food Research. The research not only has ramifications for controlling disease and increasing produc-tivity, but will quite likely mean completely new varieties of grapes and styles of wine.

The research project initially commenced to fill a knowledge gap in the identification and func-tion of the genes that underpin the key characteristics of grape-vines. The goal was to bed down a research framework, such as those used by researchers with other plant species, to establish a knowledge base for the study of gene behaviour and the critical processes of grape production.

As the research developed, however, new opportunities became apparent, and a greater emphasis was placed on inves-tigating the potential for manu-facturing and encouraging the expression of genetic elements within grapevines which may, in turn, come with commercial benefits.

At the heart of the research

are transposons: naturally occur-ring, mobile DNA sequences that have the ability to replicate and insert themselves into new posi-tions within the same or another chromosome.

All living organisms have transposons and often in very high quantities. Up to 40 percent of the grape genome is made up of transposons with most inter-clonal diversity within grapevines caused by them. Yet, while most transposon expression within a grape variety is unwelcome or harmful, they usually remain ‘silenced’ through the plant’s own internal system which looks to prevent new mutations.

There are numerous cases, however, where transposons can be activated; under certain stress conditions, for instance, such as UV exposure, temperature shocks, or exposure to certain microor-ganisms such as bacteria or fungi. As such, the researchers explored how to activate and identify trans-poson expression within grape-vines with a view to producing a population of plants in which each plant contained a number of new insertions.

“Through our five year project with Plant & Food Research we

have now proven this to be pos-sible and are looking to extend this work to produce populations of grapevines in which every gene in the genome contains a trans-poson insertion,” says Dr Chris Winefield, project team leader and Senior Lecturer in Plant Molecular Biology at Lincoln University.

“In a sense we’re looking to create stress conditions so as to ‘hyper-activate’ the genome, thereby creating conditions con-ducive for dense, multiple trans-poson insertions. We can then search the individual plants for transposon insertions in their genes and subsequently assess to what extent the transposon has disrupted the gene and what impact this will have on the plant.

“From there, we can assess which plants we could be inter-ested in from a commercial per-spective; for instance, for reasons such as disease tolerance, sustain-able production, or a capacity to produce an interesting new variety of wine.”

In order to activate the trans-posons, the researchers worked with plant tissue cultures from grapevines. After subjecting these cultures to a range of stress treat-ments, the plants were regener-

ated from the cultures and new transposons insertions identified using bioinformatics.

The work of Lincoln University PhD candidate Darrell Lizamore was crucial in developing a means for identifying and measuring these genetic mutations: work which earned him the prestigious David Jackson prize in 2013.

The problem of finding a method for identifying new trans-poson insertions was made all the more difficult by the large ‘back-ground’ of ancient transposons in the grapevine genome, and the fact that new transposon insertions might only make up 0.2% of the entire transposon compliment.

To overcome this, transposons were ‘tagged’ using a fluorescent dye, after which the tagged DNA was sorted using a capillary DNA sequencer. This allowed transpo-sons to be grouped according to their particular type and position within the grapevine’s DNA.

The systematic, multi-experi-mentation approach to overcome the problem of transposon iden-tification, as well as other prob-lems, such as the development of treatment protocols capable of activating specific transposons, has meant a considerable body of

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information is now available to the wine industry. This information is of particular importance as it involves sequencing approaches across the entire grape genome.

Now that the ‘hard yards’ are done, this sequencing and rese-quencing information is openly available to researchers who wish to identify individual plants with interesting new mutations with an eye for replicating them further. Resequencing is a pro-cess whereby the complete set of genes making up a genome are catalogued and usually compared to the sequence (or catalogue) of genes from an original reference genome.

“The upshot of this work is that we are now in a position to encourage, identify and replicate mobile genetic elements so as to increase genetic diversity in grape-vines,” says Dr Winefield. “This approach is non-GE and uses the same processes that underpin the formation of common bud-sports in grapes and other similar species

“As far as the wine industry itself is concerned, we now have the means to generate new clones of existing varietals and the exper-imental framework to explore the production of completely new wines. This is very exciting and significant.”

The possibility of New Zealand leading the world in the produc-tion of completely new varieties has exciting commercial implica-tions for a competitive industry where differentiation is important and where grape types are used to market products as a marker of style and quality.

Plant & Food Research has played a pivotal role in the project. As a Crown Research Institute, it is responsible for delivering research and development to support a range of primary sector industries, including wine, and has a long his-tory of working closely with these industry partners. This project has also been partly funded via the Ron Bonfiglioli PhD Fellowship, awarded by NZ Winegrowers. ■

Team leader Chris Winefield (left) and PhD candidate Darrell Lizamore.


T he Health and Safety Reform Bill currently before Parliament is expected to become the

new Health and Safety at Work Act in April next year.

The Bill is part of a package of major changes to the health and safety system and will provide a new regulatory framework for work health and safety, largely shaped on the Australian model - anyone who has worked in Australia will understand the implications of what lies ahead.

The Act will be supported by Regulations and Codes of Practice which are expected to be available nearer the end of 2015. Regulations explain the How, What, Where, When and Why of the requirements of the Act.

There are 3 principles to the Regulations – to provide clarity and certainty of the rules; out-line responsibility; and provide for an increase in Health and Safety activity and awareness.

The new regime (under a stand-alone health and safety regulatory agency, WorkSafe New Zealand) recognises that a well-functioning health and safety system relies on participa-tion, leadership, and account-ability by government, business, and workers. This includes—

• a law flexible enough to work appropriately for small and large businesses and high-risk and low-risk sectors, without imposing unnecessary compli-ance costs

• obligations placed on the

people in a work environment who create the risk and are best able to manage the risk

• a worker participation model that provides for better levels of participation and helps workers to have the knowledge and accountability to keep their colleagues safe

• an appropriate system of regulations and guidance to ensure that people understand their obligations and can comply with them

• an effective enforcement regime with graduated catego-ries of offences and penalties to provide better guidance to the courts about appropriate fine levels

• ensuring that participants in the health and safety regula-tory system are able to share information where appropriate

While it is likely that there may be some amendments before the Bill becomes the Act, it is widely accepted some of the changes in the pipeline include:

• The Reform Bill requires the undertaking of “reasonably practicable” steps, being a step that a person could reasonably take at a particular time to ensure health and safety measures are in place. In other words there is a paradigm shift from hazard identification to risk management. This is a higher test and means one can’t hide behind “I wasn’t aware of that” excuse.

• The Bill imposes a primary duty of care on a Person Con-ducting a Business or Undertak-

ing – PCBU. (Some clarification on the exact definition of this is to come).

• Those in governance roles assume a positive duty of “Due Diligence” to ensure the health and safety of people at the work site. An officer of a PCBU is any person who is a director, partner, general partner, or any person occupying a position in a body that is comparable with that of a director. This is a new concept that includes any other person who makes decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the PCBU e.g. Chief Executive Officer, General Manager and possibly senior managers

• There will be significant due diligence requirements for Company Officers including:-

Keeping up to date with health and safety matters of the PCBU.

Analysing/assessing the risks associated with the business.

Ensuring that the business has appropriate resources and processes in place.

Ensuring that communica-tion and reportage are in place.

• Duties are not transferable nor can they be contracted out, and a person may have more than one duty at a time.

• Moving from the cur-rent concept and obligations of employers and employees, future workplace safety will be about businesses and workers, with the allocation of a general duty to keep all workers safe at work.

• There is no longer a refer-

ence to employee, principals, contractors, visitors, subcon-tractors. There is more onus on providing a safe workplace no matter who is the working group.

• The new legislation doesn’t care about categories of people – if you are in command or control and people are on your prop-erty/workplace, they are your concern.

• The current term “Serious harm” is being replaced by “noti-fiable injuries”.

• A new concept - “Notifiable incident” - being an incident that exposes the worker or any other person to a serious risk to that person’s health and safety.

• A far greater focus on the duty to engage workers in the management of health and safety through work groups and active worker representation.

• For breach of the duty to keep workers safe at work, pen-alties will significantly increase.

This overview is designed to give you a flavour of some of the likely changes coming. One thing is certain - those busi-nesses who are not doing enough already will find the new law more onerous than those who are already managing health and safety in a systematic way and meeting their current obliga-tions.

Those in the know are telling us these changes will be costly to businesses, so start budgeting now. There is much work to be done by many employers.

Paddy Battersby Email [email protected] ■

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WINEMAKERNEWS

What types of tests are there for microbiology and how do I choose which one to use?Microscopy

If you are looking for fast results that will give you a general ‘picture’ of your juice or wine I would always advocate a microscope exam first – this is a “quick and dirty” method that gives ‘instant’ results as well as pointers on how to proceed. A

good compound microscope will allow you to examine a wet mount for yeast and bacteria – it is a great method where you can check yeast viability and counts (good for slow / stuck ferments), monitor the diversity of yeast populations for non-inoculated ferments, monitor the populations of bacteria and the like. However, the two main limitations on the microscope is that the yeast and bacteria need to be present

in high levels – the generally held view is that is you see 1 cell out of 10 views of a slide, this is roughly equivalent to 10,000 cells / ml. And, secondly, you can only provide presumptive results on both quantity and identity. Yeast and bacteria morphology can alter radically based on their environment and the age of the colony and therefore the results will only ever be indicative of what is in your wine.

Plating onto agarFu r t h e r c l a r i f i c a t i o n o f

presumptive microscope results can be found by plating onto specific agar. These agars can inhibit or promote growth of desired micro-organisms depending on what you are trying to identify. This will prevent potential overgrowth of quick growing yeast or bacteria which may hide the real issue in the wine.

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s e v e r a l d i f f e r e n t w a y s : presumptive identification and quantification of yeast and bacteria as in the above example; an affirmation of the integrity of filters and sterilization on bottling lines, and when used in conjunction with real time PCR, a confirmation that the management of wines containing v i a b l e b u t n o n - c u l t u r a b l e microbes is working.

Generally any wines that are unfinished (unfiltered) can be directly plated onto the agar but anything that is filtered or has been sitting in tank for long periods and is ‘bright’ will require filter plating.

The limitations of plating are the length of time it takes (up to 10 days for some slow growing yeasts like Brettanomyces) and that the results are only presumptive.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR or Rapid DNA or Scorpions®)

T h i s m e t h o d i n v o l v e s equipment that amplifies and reads the DNA of common wine yeast and bacteria present in the sample. It is a very fast test (2-3 hours) and provides absolute identification and quantification of what is in your wine. It is able to identify 5 yeasts, all the most prevalent species of Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Acetobacter and Oenococcus down to a detection level of 5-10 cells / ml. It is an incredible tool to determine the baseline of what living microbes are in your sample but should be used in conjunction with plating which detects culturable cells.

What are VBNC microbes?

VBNC stands for viable but not culturable – in other words, the cells are live and able to grow in the future but due to some environmental pressures (usually sulphur) are not able to be cultured onto agar. The most common example of this is Brettanomyces, but it can also affect lactobacillus.

This means that if you just use plating, you may get a false result about the microbial status of your wine. The best way to determine if you have VBNC microbes in your wine is through PCR.

I think I have Brettanomyces - what

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is the best way to monitor my wine?

The most important thing to do is to get a base line of the Brettanomyces population in your wine. The best way to do this is using PCR. Whether you are trying to eliminate it or create complexity in your wines, you need to have a clear figure in your mind of what level of Brettanomyces you will accept.

If your result exceeds your tolerance, you will need to take remedial action immediately. A general rule of thumb is that when Brett reaches levels of between 10,000-100,000, the yeast will start producing volatile phenols (4-EP, 4-EG), which will start to impact on the aromatics of the wine at about 400 ppb.

If the levels of Brettanomyces are acceptable then it is a simple matter to regularly monitor the wine. I suggest a combination

of chemistry (VA, RS, SO2) and

plating. The reason to use plating

at this point is to monitor how effectively you are controlling the Brett population through the use of SO

2, cool cellar

t e m p e r a t u r e s a n d t o p p e d barrels. If the Brettanomyces does not show up on the plates, you know you have kept the yeast in a VBNC state and that your cellar practices are controlling the population.

It is a good idea to use PCR once throughout the aging process and again at the final blending. This will give you a

good history as well as a clear picture of how you may want to finish the wine to bottle.

How many cells are too many?

This is a hard question to

answer in general terms, as there are so many different scenarios. However, micro results should never be considered in isolation but always in conjunction with the wine history, chemistry and understanding of how the wine will be finished.

P o i n t s t o c o n s i d e r a r e z e r o t o l e r a n c e f o r Z y g o s a c c h a r o m y c e s a n d

Saccharomyces on finished wine with residual sugar; proactive SO

2 management for Lactic acid

bacteria in wines that will not go through MLF; filtration level on wines that have a pH of >3.6, RS of >0.5g/l and Brettanomyces >10 cells/ml.

E a c h w i n e s i t u a t i o n i s different and is best discussed with your lab provider.

Identifying and tracking the microbes in your wine throughout the winemaking process allows clear, confident decisions to be made about managing all wines, and it p r o v i d e s g r e a t h i s t o r i c a l information in understanding what is ‘normal’ for your wines/vineyard.

All three of the main methods have limitations and should be used hand in hand to get a full picture of what is growing (or not!) in your juice or wine. ■

Each wine situation is different and is best discussed with your lab provider.

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Value Adding from Grape to Glass


YEASTS

Microbe Substrate Comments

Hanseniaspora

uvarum / Kloeckera

apiculata

Fermentable sugars

Requires B vitamins from the

must

Distinctly ovoid to lemon-shaped under the

microscope; can be responsible for

increased levels of VA, esters

Pichia

membranifaciens,

Pichia anomala

Anaerobic- Sugar OR

Aerobic - EtOH, acids

Can be responsible for undesirable levels of

acetaldehydes and acetates post ferment but

can also produce positive esters during

fermentation

Zygosaccharomyces

bailii

Fermentable sugar, preferably

fructose

Metabolises sugar and malic acid, can

increase acetic and succinic acids.

Brettanomyces

bruxellensis

All sugars (as low as 0.275g/l

could support a population)

or EtOH

Can increase acetic acid, volatile phenols.

Sugars include trehalose, galactose, possibly

cellobiose

LACTIC ACID BACTERIA

A group of bacteria who utilize sugar and malic acid; require low – zero O2 conditions


Lactobacillus All sugars, malic acid Depending on the pathway, a combination

of Lactic acid, EtOH (homo-fermenters) and

acetic acid (hetero-fermenter) will be

produced. Di-acetyl production can be high.

Oenococcus oeni Fermentable sugars, malic

and citric acid

Preferred MLF bacteria; can produced

higher levels of acetate, EtOH

Pediococcus All sugars Can lead to increased di-acetyl, biogenic

amines (homofermenter so no acetic acid

production)

ACETIC ACID BACTERIA

Aerobic group of bacteria that produce high levels of acetic acid and ethyl acetate from the

breakdown of sugars or EtOH



NZWNEWS

F riday May the 16th marked International Sauvignon Blanc Day, or ‘#SauvBlanc Day’, an online initiative

dedicated to the wine and the grape from which it comes!

Celebrated the world over, #SauvBlanc Day is an event that originated in California as a global social media wine tasting of Sau-vignon Blanc exclusively. Media, retailers, restaurants, wine bars, importers, distributors, media and consumers alike are encouraged to discuss, delight in, and most impor-tantly drink Sauvignon Blanc, and then share their experience with

the world on Twitter.In order to create the maximum

amount of noise, NZW organised events in all major international markets. These events were pri-marily designed to celebrate and encourage tweeting prior to, during, and post events, and also to facilitate relationships with influential and socially active wine media. In addition, given the timezones of the varied markets, through these international events #SauvBlanc Day was able to be cel-ebrated by New Zealand wine for 43 hours, beginning in New Zealand and culminating in San Francisco,

fittingly at Twitter Headquarters.Wine Marlborough began the

official celebrations with a Fri-day afternoon drinks event at the Cloudy Bay Treehouse. Australia and Hong Kong followed soon after, with intimate Sauvignon Blanc themed lunches for top media, organised by NZW’s inter-national offices.

In Europe, London trade and media were hosted for New Zea-land Sauvignon Blanc and canapés at Peter Gordon’s famed Provi-dores. In addition, UK-based Will Lyons of the Wall Street Journal penned an article on New Zealand Sauvignon, as well as a television segment devoted to New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on WSJ TV (USA).

Oysters featured in Canada, with NZW Canada hosting a Sau-vignon Blanc and oyster shucking afternoon with TV celebrity and oyster shucker Guinness World Record holder, Paddy Murray in Toronto.

Finally across both sides of the United States, NZW organised Sau-vignon Blanc tastings for top trade and media at Michelin starred Kiwi

restaurant The Musket Room in New York, and the InterConti-nental Hotel in San Francisco in association with Napa wineries. Eventually the global celebra-tions concluded with a tasting of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at Twitter Headquarters itself, with a number of wineries who had attended the New Zealand Wine Fair in San Francisco the previous day.

The whole event, had incred-ible exposure worldwide over a two week period, reaching 12.7 million Twitter users with 34.1 mil-lion impressions! The top hashtags were #SauvBlanc with 19.7 million impressions, immediately followed by #nzwine with 10.8 million impressions. The top tweet of the event, with 7.5 million impressions, was from New Zealand wine’s own Twitter account, @nzwine, kicking off the celebrations!

Looking forward, #SauvBlanc Day 2015 holds huge opportu-nity for New Zealand wine, in the buildup to the industry’s inaugural conference celebrating the grape in early 2016. ■

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# 51at Romeo Bragato

NZ Wine Grower.indd 1 22/07/2014 10:00


EVENTSBRAGATO

ROMEO BRAGATO NEW HORIZONS

N ow in its 20th year, the Romeo Bragato Conference is entering a new era. Over the last

few years the conference has been primarily focused on the outcomes of, and developments in technical research. While this year’s Bragato will continue to have strong research components, the scope has been widened to include sessions and discussion from other activity areas including Sustainability, Marketing and Advocacy. It is

evolving into a true national conference.

The two and a half day con-ference will once again feature the Bragato Wine Awards and dinner, as well as the finals of the National Young Viticulturist of the Year.

Guest speakers throughout the event come from far and wide, including; the Key Note speaker Kym Anderson - Profes-sor of Economics from Univer-sity of Adelaide, Alison Jordan - Sustainability Director for

Californian Winegrowers, Shari Mogk Edwards, VP, Products, Sales and Merchandising from the LCBO and Peter Margarey from Australia, to name a few. The NZW international market-ing team will also be present and will present at various times including an early session prior to the official opening, on exporting into our key markets.

Sustainability and what it means to different people and markets will be one focus. Another will be new research

and the issues of quality versus yields, below ground manage-ment, powdery mildew and man-aging a difficult vintage, are all up for discussion. Winegrowing with technology is likely to have many talking, with guest speak-ers Ruby Andrew, Mark Krstic of AWRI Adelaide and Mark Shaw from Social Guy.

Where to in terms of GIs and how they might be perceived by international markets is another hot topic to be discussed.

Following on from the suc-cess of last year, a wine tasting from outside New Zealand will be a feature. This year, the wines are from California, with Mike Insley, who spent many years working in that part of the world, leading a panel of international viticulturists and marketers.

This year’s keynote speaker will end the conference. Sir Ray Avery, who went from being a street kid to an internationally renowned scientist will speak on Customer Centric Business Strategies for the Wine Industry.

All in all, the 20th Romeo Bragato promises to be the most wide reaching ever. Registra-tions are available at www.bragato.org.nz ■• (Full programme available on page 74.)


Copyright of this drawing is reserved by

Peek Display Corporation Ltd. and is issued

on the condition that it is not copied,

reproduced or disclosed to any third party

either wholly or in part without the consent

in writing of Peek Display Corporation Ltd.

Drawn by: Peek Exhibition

Stand Size: 3.0m x 1.8m

Scale: 1:195

Initial Plan date: 19 March 2014

Revised Plan date: 19 March 2014

Drawing Number: One

[email protected] | www.peek.co.nz

Client: MCC Event Co-ordinator: Fiona Lovell-Smith Shell scheme type: FrontrunnerShow Dates: 27th - 29th August 2014

Project: Romeo Bragato

Room/Level: Marlborough Convention Centre

Venue: MCC

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INDUSTRY EXHIBITION LAYOUT

Site Number Organisation

10 Klima

6 Mantissa Crop Ltd

56 Misty Valley Nursery

3 Netafim New Zealand

42 O-I New Zealand

22, 23 Riversun Nursery Limited

51 Randox Food Diagnostics

27 Silvan NZ Pty Ltd

32 Stanmore Farm

68 United Fisheries Limited

54 Valtex Horticultural Products

37, 38 Vitis (NZ) Ltd

19 Water Supply Products Ltd

61 WaterForce Ltd

SITE ALLOCATIONS

Site Number Organisation

15, 16, 17 AgriSea NZ Ltd

62 Asure Quality

4 Aurora Process Solutions

24 & 35 BASF - The Chemical Company

44 Bertolini Australasia

55 BioStart Limited

9 Cuddon Limited

33, 34 Della Toffola Pacific

5 EcoTrellis (NZ Tube Mills)

20 Empak Distribution

48 Extenday

64-66, 70-72 FMR Group Ltd

29 Hill Laboratories

13, 14 Hydralada Company Limited HCL

1, 2 Horticentre (Tasman Crop)

Romeo Bragato 20th Annual ConferenceMarlborough Convention Centre42A Alfred Street, Blenheim

27-29 August, 2014


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BRAGATOPROGRAMME

8am Registration desk opens Sponsor’s area open to non-registrants from

9:00am to 11:30pm9am First steps to exporting - Additional $25 fee Thinking of exporting? Come and meet members

of our international team, and hear tips for export-ing to key markets.

11am Conference opening11.15am Wine, a new icon for New Zealand - Steve

Green11.35am Bragato Address New Zealand in the modern wine world - Kym

Anderson, Professor of Economics from University of Adelaide and Australian National University.

12.15pm Lunch and AGMS for NZGGC and Wine Insti-tute

1.30pm Sustainability the Great Debate Sponsor: River-sun

What does sustainability mean to us and the world? Chair of the New Zealand Winegrowers

Sustainability Committee Gwyn Williams will be joined with presentations from James Millton,

Organic Winegrowers New Zealand and Alison Jordan, Sustainability Director for the Californian Winegrowers Association as well as Dr Mat God-dard from the University of Auckland, to present different perspectives on what sustainability means to different people.

2.45pm Bragato Wine Awards – Chief judges report2.55pm Afternoon Tea3.25pm Concurrent forums 1 1A. Technical: Are yields and quality truly

opposed? Sponsor: Tasman Crop Dr Mike Trought from Plant and Food Research is

joined by international scientists Dr Mark Krasnow from the Culinary Institute of America and Dr Nick Dokoozlian from Gallo Estates California, to give insight into whether low yields always lead to high quality in cool climate viticulture.

1B. Technical: Managing a difficult vintage Spon-sor: FMG Advise & Insurance

Join New Zealand Winemakers Tony Robb and Steve Voysey as well as Sileni Estate Viticulturist Stephen Bradley as they give their perspective on

Day 1WEDNESDAY AUGUST 27


how to manage a difficult vintage in the vineyard and in the winery.

1C. Marketing: USA, Canada and Asia New Zealand Winegrowers Market Managers

David Strada, Robert Ketchin and Natalie Potts present updates from their markets in USA, Canada and Asia.

1D. Advocacy: Crossing the borders – is the time right for Geographical Indications?

What do Geographical Indications look like, is the time right for this and are our markets ready for more precise definitions of regions on our bottles of wine? Dr Glen Creasy from Lincoln University and Emma Jenkins MW provide insight on this topic.

4.35pm Concurrent forums 2 2A. Sustainability: Sustainable Winegrowing NZ,

Learning from Successes FMR Group Hear first hand what has been the most workable

aspect of Sustainable Winegrowing NZ for some New Zealand wineries, and how the Sustainable Winegrowing NZ programme has influenced their operations.

2B. Technical: Below ground management for above ground quality and productivity

Is contouring all that bad? How important is our topsoil, and should we all be changing our practice to Biological Farming. Dr Scott Sharp-Heward, Dr Brent Clothier and Nicole Masters pass on some insights into the soil beneath our vines.

2C. Technical: What’s making my wine special? Wine Microbial Ecology

Is everything everywhere? Are there microbial pat-terns across New Zealand vineyards and what is happening with yeasts in Australia? Join Auckland University’s Dr Mat Goddard, Sarah Knight and Australian Professor Vladimir Jiranek as they flesh out this topic.

2D. Advocacy: Eco-labelling, Organics and sus-tainability

Come listen to Paul Melville from Ministry for Pri-mary Industries speak through the European Union Environmental Footprint Project, and Dr Michelle Glogau from BioGro talk on the market rules for Organic Wine.

5.45pm Bragato Wine Awards tasting Sponsor: O-I Bragato Wine Awards tasting to 7.30 pm

7.30am Breakfast in the sponsor’s area8.30am Registration desk opens9am Biosecurity What will happen if an incursion occurs in our

Day 2THURSDAY AUGUST 28

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backyard? New Zealand Winegrowers Sustainabil-ity. General Manager, Philip Manson and Andrew Coleman of Ministry of Primary Industries lead this session on ‘Are we prepared for an incursion?’

10.20am Morning tea11am Young Viticulturist of the Year, quick fire ques-

tions11.20am Winegrowing with technology Sponsor: Vitis

(NZ) Ltd Keep abreast of current technology for the wine

industry, with presentations from Ruby Andrew, New Zealand Winegrowers, Mark Krstic of AWRI Adelaide and Mark Shaw from Social Guy.

12.15pm Lunch and Poster Session1.30pm Concurrent forums 3 3A. Sustainability: Future Sustainability Join members of the NZW Sustainability Com-

mittee in this open discussion on the role of sustainability in the future, including Sustainable Winegrowing NZ.

3B. Technical: Hot off the press Sponsor: Plant & Food Research

Join four students from around New Zealand as they present their technical research on Viticulture and Winemaking.

3C. Marketing: Australia, UK & Europe New Zealand Winegrowers Market Managers,

Natalie Corkery (Australia) and Chris Stroud (UK/Europe) present market updates and where sus-tainability fits in the future.

3D. Tasting: Californian Wines - Additional $50 charge

Join Mike Insley and his panel of international viti-culturists and marketers as they talk you through a tasting of Californian wines.

Important note: This has very limited numbers, tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

2.40pm Afternoon tea3.20pm to 4.30pm Concurrent forums 4 4A. Succession Planning: The baby boomers

dilemma The modern NZ wine industry is the creation of

the baby boomers, what happens next for the businesses they have built up? Hear from Philip Gregan from New Zealand Winegrowers, PWC’s Richard Longman, Mal McLennan from MaiMai Creek Wines and Tony Hammington of Rabobank discuss the issues and options.

4B. Technical: Powdery Mildew, Slipskin & Botrytis Sponsor: BASF - The Chemical Company If you have experienced any of these in your

vineyard come along to hear Peter Magarey from Australia, Gareth Hill and Rob Beresford from Plant & Food Research update you on the latest infor-

mation on these pesky problems. 4C. Advocacy: Wine marketing in the modern

environment Social responsibility is a key part of the modern

marketing environment. This session looks at cur-rent and future labelling rules as well as ways that industry can make a positive difference to drinking behaviours through Cheers!

4D. Tasting: Californian Wines - Additional $50 charge (repeat of 1.40 Session)

Join Mike Insley and his panel of international viti-culturists and marketers as they talk you through a tasting of Californian wines.

Important note: This has very limited numbers, tickets will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

7pm Conference Dinner Join our host Chef Michael Van de Elzen from

The Food Truck, as we present the Bragato Wine Awards winners and listen to speeches from the finalists of the Young Viticulturist of the Year.

8.20am REGISTRATION DESK OPENS9am Is ‘sustainability’ sustainable in the market

place? Join both Kevin Bowler, Chief Executive of Tourism

of New Zealand and Shari Mogk Edwards, Vice-President, Products, Sales and Merchandising from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario as they speak on the importance of New Zealand’s sus-tainability image to both our international visitors and the retailer.

9.50am Morning tea10.30am Future leaders Sponsor: Rabobank They hold the key to the future of the industry, hear

the vision of some young viticulturists, winemakers, executives and marketers as they talk about their vision for the industry.

11.05am Rabobank speaker David Clarke, Regional Man-ager for Northern South Island

11.10am Keynote guest speaker Sponsor: Rabobank New Zealander of the Year 2010 and celebrated

author, Sir Ray Avery, is a former street kid turned scientist - his low cost, sustainable medical devices, invented in his home garage, are making a difference to millions of the world’s most vulner-able!

Sir Ray Avery will be speaking on ‘Customer Cen-tric Business Strategies for the Wine Industry’

12.30pm Conference closure

Day 3FRIDAY AUGUST 29

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REGIONSWAIPARA

ART AND WINEP yramid Valley Vineyards,

have taken the art of wine a step further with two street artists helping to

adorn their new winery in North Canterbury.

It was the Cranmer Cantina, a pop-up fundraising restaurant in Christchurch that Pyramid Val-ley Vineyards has been involved with since 2012, that sparked the connection with two of that city’s respected street artists. Morpork and Yikes have created an eight metre by four metre artwork on the inside back wall of Pyramid Valley’s new winery completed earlier this year.

Owners Claudia and Mike Weersing wanted to support the talent of street artists of Christch-urch and invited them to visit the vineyard to commission a bespoke piece of art.

“I wanted them to show their expression of Pyramid Valley and what they felt while they were here,” says Claudia “The art was to be totally representative of their emotions when walking the property and their subsequent creativity.

“It took four days to complete and was a very emotional piece for me. It embraces everything about what we do here at Pyramid and the gifts of life we enjoy living in

the country.” Morpork and Yikes visited the

vineyard while the winery was under construction and together walked the property to get a sense of the style that is unique to Pyramid Valley, and developed their work that depicts the phi-losophies, flora and fauna of the property.

The development of the Pyra-mid Valley winery means for the first time, everything is on the one site – the home block, in North Canterbury. Self sufficiency is at the heart of the development, and

provides enough space to not only make the Growers Collection and the Home Collection under one roof, but also to allow storage and dispatch to happen from the one location.

“This will give us complete control over the whole winemak-ing and logistics process, which is a huge benefit for us” says Managing Director Caine Thompson.

In keeping with the tradition of growing all of its fruit using organic and biodynamic practices, the new winery has been built with energy conservation in mind.

“We use very little energy in our wine making process. We have no pumps as we gravity feed, we have no filtering devices as we naturally settle, and we have no heating or cooling systems.

“The winery is very well insu-lated and because it’s relatively small, we can use nature’s ele-ments to heat and cool wine.

“This is simply done by remov-ing tanks in the evening to cool and returning them inside to warm, wrapped with blankets in the morning.

“Being such a small highly focused winery, each tank can be individually treated this way. Energy consumption is minute and as a result, our energy foot-print is one of the lowest in the industry, way below industry benchmarks,” says Thompson.

All the fermenters are 1000 litres or less, providing a very hands-on abiity.

It allows for hand and foot plunging “and allows us to listen to the health of each ferment before we intervene”.

Claudia and Mike Weersling arrived in New Zealand back in 1996, with Mike first employed at Neudorf Wineyards in Nelson. The couple bought their property in North Canterbury’s Pyramid Valley near Waitaki in 2000. ■

The street art wall by leading Christchurch street artists, Morpork and Yikes that adorns Pyramid Valley’s new winery.

Mike and Claudia Weersling


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REGIONSHAWKE’S BAY

KNIGHTHOOD FOR INDUSTRY GREATM A R Y S H A N A H A N

S ileni Estates founder Graeme Avery may have a knighthood, but he feels there is still much to be

achieved with his Hawke’s Bay-based wine company and other business and sport endeavours.

Avery was made a Knight Com-panion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and sport in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list.

Having moved to Hawke’s Bay from Auckland 15 years ago, Avery says the region has a lot of unre-

alised potential. Agri-business, added-value food products and inbound tourism have yet to be properly harnessed.

His efforts to realise that potential include establishing the Hawke’s Bay Food Group and the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market and spearheading the formation of the Hawke’s Bay Wine Country Tour-ism Association.

Avery transformed medical publishing company Adis Inter-national, a company he launched in 1963, into a $100m worldwide

business. He went o n t o e s t a b l i s h award-winning Sileni Estates on the Bridge Pa Triangle. Over the years, the company has extended its vine-yard developments to include Mangatahi, further west of Hast-ings, and Marlborough.

He partnered with AUT to cre-ate the $30m Millennium Institute of Sport and Health as a sport and fitness academy for top athletes.

A v e r y h a s attracted many hon-ours and accolades. In 2002, he was North and South magazine’s New Zealander of the Year and in 2007 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand

Order of Merit for services for business and sport. In August, he is to be inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. ■[email protected]

Graeme Avery

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FORSALE

There will be many winemakers and industry personnel who will recognise this building. It is the original research station for New Zealand’s viticulture industry, Te Kauwhata.A slice of history, this heritage building has seen many of today and yesterday’s winemakers walk through its doors. Built back in 1903, it was the base for Romeo Bragato as he studied the potential of viticulture in this part of the world. While Bragato may have left these shores, the building continued as a research station right through until 1992, when Rongopai Wines bought it. In 2007 it was on sold to TK Vintners and Bottlers, who placed it on the market in June.The building and land are currently on the market for $1,890,000 plus GST. I don’t think even Romeo Bragato could have predicted that.

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Rate of Levy under the Wine (Grape Wine Levy)

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Pursuant to Article 9 of the Wine

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2014, that the levy rate to apply to

sales of grape wine, or the grape wine

component of grape wine products,

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fixed at the rate of 2.25 cents per litre.

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Auckland: Grant Bevin +64-9-529 3700

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REGIONSGISBORNE

REVIVING VINEYARDSS ubstantial vineyard rede-

velopment by a major player in the wine indus-try is under way on the

Poverty Bay Flats around Gis-borne.

Indevin Partners are replant-ing 40 to 50 hectares a year in the district in addition to 35 hectares a year in their Hawke’s Bay vine-yards.

Indevin regional vineyards manager Andrew Blakeman says project “Revive” - launched at the company’s Patutahi Estate in September last year - is indica-tive of the company’s confidence

in the future of the industry in the region.

An ongoing operation over the next 12 to 15 years, Indevin is planning to spend $5 million in the first five years of the project, the majority of this in Gisborne, says Blakeman.

“We are one year into this major redevelopment project and due to plant our second area of new vines in September. We planted 46,000 in our Gisborne vineyards last year and are looking at planting 93,000 this year.”

The high demand for wine, the buoyant state of the industry

and the advancing age of vines in Indevin’s vineyards are behind the decision to undertake the huge project which will see 75 hectares of new planting this spring, 40 hectares in Gisborne and 35 in Hawke’s Bay.

“The average age of our vines is 17 to 20 years. The optimum age for a vine is about 12 to 14 years after which the yield drops off.”

The demand for the product, especially Chardonnay, is high and increasing, he says.

“Sixty percent of the area under redevelopment in Gisborne is being planted in Chardonnay

and 40 percent in Pinot Gris with small amounts of other varie-ties like Pinot Noir and Merlot in Hawke’s Bay.”

Indevin’s senior viticultur-ist Sarah Phillips is the one who determines the best variety, clone and rootstock selections for each site, he says.

It’s a massive undertaking involving not just the removal and replanting of vines but the replace-ment of all the trellising.

“We are standardising all the trellises from 3 metres to 2.4 metres between rows in order to gain 25 percent more vines per

J U S T I N E T Y E R M A N

Indevin Partners regional vineyards manager Andrew Blakeman pictured in Gisborne’s Patutahi Estate vineyard with Chardonnay clone 809 vines on 3309 rootstock planted last September. “The growth has been phenomenal,” he says.


hectare, so everything comes out, Phillips says.

“After the wires, nails and sta-ples are removed, a bobcat is used to pull the posts, strainers and vines out of the ground. The bare ground is ripped and cultivated to get as many of the roots out as we can and we then go through and pick up the remaining root material by hand. The roots har-bour mealybug so it’s important to get rid of as much as possible. A lot of the posts are reused but the wire suffers fatigue so usually can-not be used again. What we can’t reuse, we recycle.

“We’ve just finished pulling out vines in the next areas to be planted - a 20-hectare block in Gisborne and 20 hectares in Hawke’s Bay. The drainage has gone in and we now wait until the 3rd week of September to plant the new vines. The timing of that is weather-dependent though – there’s no point planting into cold, wet ground,” she says.

“We had a phenomenal spring last year and the planting went

very well. The new vines put on incredible growth, about double what we expected,” Blakeman says.

He attributes this to four or five good waterings over the summer, great weather, excellent weed con-trol and vigorous plants with great root development.

“Revive is a huge vote of con-fidence for this area. We haven’t had a planting programme like this since 1999. And it’s a great boost for the Gisborne region too as it’s an all-local operation from the Riversun plants to the Coxco contractors.”

Indevin Partners own 380 hectares in Poverty Bay and 180 hectares in Hawke’s Bay.

The bulk of the area is in Char-donnay followed by Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer with smaller areas of Merlot, Pinot Noir, Mal-bec, Pinotage, Arneis, Viognier and Semillon.

“Chardonnay is still the big one for us here in Gisborne though,” he says. ■[email protected]

Simone Tuhaka, Indevin vineyard crew supervisor.

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ROMEOBRAGATO

YOUNG VIT 2014T E S S A N I C H O L S O N

W ho will take out the title of New Zealand Young Viticulturist of the Year for 2014? With more

competitors than in any other year, the competition is likely to be a tough one.

At the time of going to print, not all the regional finalists were confirmed, so we can’t give you a run down on who is vying for the title.

But we can give you a heads up on just why so many are keen to pit their skills against their peers.

Not only will they take out the national title, they will also go on to represent the viticulture indus-try at the National Young Horti-culturist of the Year, in November.

On top of that, they will receive $2000 in cash, a NZSVO travel grant worth $5000, a week of learning with wine industry

leaders, plus a 12-month lease of a brand new Hyundai Santa Fe. Well worth competing for.

But before they get to that stage, the contestants will be put through their paces in a variety of ways.

Running in conjunction with the Romeo Bragato Conference, all the competitors will have to compete in a practical compo-nent on the Tuesday before Bra-

gato begins. If that gets the brain cells working overtime, the next event, Biostart Horty Sports will push them to the limit in a myriad of fun ways. That is being held at the Marlborough Vintners Hotel, between 1pm and 1.30, allow-ing those attending the NZSVO workshop to cheer on their local representative.

In the afternoon, there will be more practical components to

complete, before the day ends.The day of the Bragato open-

ing, will give them all a rest, but not for long, as on Thursday they will take part in an interview with industry members, then prepare for a quick-fire general knowledge quiz in front of the delegates. Later, at the Bragato Wine Awards dinner each com-petitor will deliver a prepared three-minute speech, on a topic provided to them by organisers.

The overall winner will be announced that night.

Good luck to all the competi-tors, and in the next issue of NZ Winegrower, we look forward to introducing you to the Young Viticulturist of the Year, 2014. ■[email protected]

The contestants in last year’s competition, won by Mat Fox from Gisborne. Who will take out this year’s title?

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NZWNEWS

THE WiSE CHOICE

N ow in operation, WiSE (Wine Industry Sustain-ability Engine) is receiv-ing the accolades that the

former software provider failed to achieve.

For Philip Manson, NZW Sus-tainability GM, that is satisfying, given how much concern mem-bers expressed about the previ-ous scorecard system in last year’s member survey.

“There were elements about Sustainable Winegrowing that needed to change and we have listened to those concerns. It has changed and those changes are embodied in the launch of WiSE,” he said.

Not only is the new system already proven in other agricul-tural fields, it has been fine tuned specifically for the New Zealand wine industry, with ease of use

being one of the main attractions.“One of the things members

told us, was getting into their scorecard was like mission impos-sible. They had to climb through all sorts of hoops and then when they got to it, they found them-selves locked out. So one of our key focuses was to make it really easy to access.”

All members need is their user name (email address), which is the

password already used to get onto the NZW member’s website.

Once in, the layout is also much clearer, with the ability to answer just the compulsory questions, or go for broke and answer eve-rything. This is a big advantage Manson said.

“The compulsory questions are the ones you need to answer to be able to meet the base line agreed internationally for sustainable

T E S S A N I C H O L S O N


production of grapes and wine. “The voluntary questions are

everything else. These answers are what give you the informa-tion around benchmarking, like the amount of water and energy you use.

“So if you value the informa-tion coming back from those, then you can fill them out. The choice is yours.”

Those who have already tri-alled the WiSE software have been pleased to note that irrelevant questions are no longer part and parcel of the scorecard.

“We had a lot of feedback about why we were asking questions that weren’t relevant. This software is really responsive to answers. If you tick a box saying ‘no I don’t irrigate,’ then you won’t get any questions relating to irrigation.”

The aim of keeping it simple and relevant follows through each aspect of the new system Manson said.

“We have tried to reduce the workload and make things more efficient.”

Where information has already been supplied to NZW, for exam-ple via the vineyard register, then this will already be input. While there will be a need to fill out much of this year’s scorecard, many of those answers will be able to be cut and pasted in next year, saving even more time.

“Over time we will look to do more of that. We had hoped to pre populate the whole score-card but it wasn’t possible. But next year you will be able to copy the answers on core elements that don’t change from year to year, straight across.”

Some of the other advantages of the new software include; being able to attach electronic files to the scorecard in the appropriate place, meaning they are readily available at audit time.

The task manager, which while manual at the moment will become automated later this

year, will allow you to record work required and assign to staff mem-bers.

Because the auditors are using the same system, Manson said they are working off the same page as members, and are able to access all attached documents.

“We recognise an audit can be stressful, so WiSE streamlines it and makes it easier. WiSE is being seen as a platform for new think-ing. It gives us flexibility to no longer be “one size fits all” and we are looking in the future to what an extended Sustainable Winegrow-ing programme would look like for those who want to do more and be recognised for it.”

As mentioned, members appear to be more than happy with the change. The following are comments made at the launch of WiSE in June.

Guess what? One of our vineyard managers just told me he LIKED the new scorecard!!! Unheard of.

Congratulations! It took less than one hour to study the system and then complete the questionnaire without referral to any back up paper.

“All previous irritants (e.g. non-use of water for irrigation, frost protection etc.) have been fixed. Well done!

I had to eat my words - I have to say it is very easy to access and now I know how to do it, it is a whole lot easier than previous Scorecard. It’s a hell of a lot easier

Manson said comments like that make the hard work under-taken by the Sustainability team to get WiSE up and running, well worth it. ■[email protected]

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BOB’S BLOG BOB CAMPBELL MW

The vinous equivalent to an archaeological digVertical tastings are very revealing. They illustrate the evolution of a wine style, its ability to age and the influence of vintage. I’ve enjoyed several vertical tastings in the space of just a few weeks.

At Man O’War’s Waiheke tasting room I joined Mike Cooper in a fascinating tasting that featured five vintages of their Bordeaux blend “Ironclad”. I expected the 2010 vintage to be my favourite and so it was, although the overall standard was very high with four of the wines earning gold medal ratings.

Te Mata offered nine vintages of their barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc, Cape Crest, generously throwing in a 1er crus Graves, 2010 Château Malartic-Lagravière, as a reference point. The tasting illustrated how well Sauvignon Blanc can age – my top wines were 2006, 2010 and 2013. They also opened nine vintages of Elston Chardonnay together with a 1er cru Burgundy, 2010 Jean-Marc Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts. Favourite vintages were 2006, 2007 and 2013. The Burgundy earned top spot.

Mark Mason from Quest Farm in Central Otago opened seven vintages of his single vine-yard Pinot Noir all of which showed a strong vineyard character. My top wine was 2010.

In an interview reported in Wine Searcher recently the top Burgundian producer, Fred-eric Mugnier, claimed that it was just as important for him to express vintage character as it was vineyard character. I absolutely agree. Without vintage differences wine would be as exciting as … well, beer.

Duncan McTavish, winemaker for Man O’War.

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New York vs San Francisco Last year I conducted two tastings in

the US each featuring a dozen examples of New Zealand Pinot Noir from all the major regions. One of the tastings was in New York while the second was in San Francisco. Both were attended by a sophisticated audience of wine writers and wine buyers. After each tasting I asked the audience to vote for their favourite wine. There was little or no consensus which made me wonder whether wine tastes differ on the east and west coast of America. It was an eye-opening exercise in other respects with considerable enthusiasm shown for New Zealand Pinot Noir generally.

This year I conducted a second tasting in the same two cities for similar audiences. Both tastings featured the same New Zea-land Chardonnays from eight regions. The same wine won by a considerable margin in San Francisco and New York. It was Neudorf 2012 Moutere Chardonnay. This time the audience reaction was one of surprise. A common response was “I didn’t know you made Chardonnay that good!”

Why did the audiences in both cities agree

on the best Chardonnay but not on Pinot Noir? I think it’s because Neudorf Chardon-nay (as well as several other wines in the tastings) have some of the attributes of

white burgundy – intensity, complexity, good acidity and an influence of chalky minerality. The audiences in both cities are familiar with good white Burgundy and voted accordingly.

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Merlot is hot The Six Nations Wine Competition features a class “Merlot &

Carmenere” which should, in theory at least, be dominated by Chile. Carmenere is Chile’s signature grape with Merlot close behind. Last year I could only find four wines worthy of entry and yet New Zea-land scored top place with Villa Maria 2010 Reserve Merlot and won the class by scoring the most points overall.

I have been astounded by the quality of a handful of mostly inex-pensive Merlots from Hawke’s Bay’s 2013 vintage, a year that Craggy Range’s winemaker, Matt Stafford described by saying, “No other season has come together like 2013. The stars truly aligned to provide the vintage of a generation.”

Matt was so excited about the vintage that he offered a tasting of barrel samples of the 2013 components of Sophia, a blended wine that is 60% Merlot. The Merlot component was truly spectacular. Move over Chateau Petrus!

For the eleventh year in a row I’ve just spent several days choosing wines for the Six Nations Wine Challenge to be held in Sydney this August. I have to choose 110 wines divided into 17 different classes with a maximum of 10 wines per class although I don’t have to enter every class. I don’t bother with blended whites, other non-aromatic whites (kidnapped with ease by Australian Semillon), Malbec (Argen-tina rules) and other red varietals (we’re outclassed by five countries here).

I start by making up a list of the small

handful of wineries who I know will refuse our invitation to enter. I accept that they have their own very good reasons for not wanting to enter but wish they would be motivated a little more by national pride rather than (I suspect) fear of failure.

Next I review the entries and winners last year before searching my database for prospects. Finally I select the strongest team of wines that I can find. New Zealand has had a string of successes in the past. We have (naturally) dominated Sauvignon Blanc but have also done consistently well

with Riesling, aromatic whites, Pinot Noir, Merlot/Carmenere, Shiraz/Syrah, and dessert wines. New Zealand has only been the outright winner twice with Australia occupying top slot for the other nine competitions.

The competition has certainly got stronger since the US joined last year. In the trophy tasting at the end of last year’s show I was elated to taste a Pinot Noir that I felt sure was from Central Otago. It was from the Russian River Valley of California. Damn!

Selecting a top team

Pigeon New ZealandMy office window looks out onto a Puriri tree where a particu-

larly twitchy Native Wood Pigeon regularly dines. It has taken me one year to get a photo of him. It may not have anything to do with wine, but I really wanted to publish the picture.


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NOT ON THE LABELLEGAL MATTERS WITH MARIJA BATISTICH

SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND KRISTIN WILSON, SENIOR SOLICITOR – BELL GULLY

EARNING THE GOLD STARS – THE INTRODUCTION OF THE VOLUNTARY HEALTH STAR RATING SCHEME

O n 27 June 2014 the Minister for Food Safety announced that the Government would

be joining with Australia in introducing a voluntary labelling system to show the nutritional value of food products. New Zealand and Australia will both operate under the Health Star Rating Scheme (HSR Scheme), which will rank products based on overall nutritional value. The

HRS Scheme will be able to be used for most packaged food products available for retail sale. Alcohol is explicitly excluded from the scheme, which means that the Health Stars cannot be displayed on products such as wine, beer or spirits (regardless of the potential health benefits of an occasional glass of red wine).

The HSR Scheme is designed to allow customers to make

better informed and healthier choices, by making the nutri-tional value of products more obvious to consumers at the point of sale. Nutrition labels can be confusing, and terms such as ‘low fat’ or ‘high fibre’ can sometimes hide the fact that products are less healthy in other ways. Under the new system, shoppers will be able to quickly get an accurate and comprehensive idea of the

nutritional value of a product by looking at the front of the packaging.

The HSR Scheme will use a rating scale of 1/

2 to 5 stars. The

more stars a food is allocated, the higher the nutritional value of that food.

In addition to the stars, the voluntary label will show the amount of energy, saturated fat, sugar, sodium and one optional positive nutrient (for exam-

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ple fibre or calcium) in 100g or 100ml of the product. The amount of stars a product will have will be determined by the levels of these nutrients and can be calculated using an algorithm that is available at foodsafety.govt.nz.

By way of example, most soft drinks are likely to be rated as 0.5 – 1 star, most breakfast cereals will be around 2.5 stars, and trim milk and unsweetened yoghurt are likely to be 5 stars.

Most health experts appear to be in favour of the HSR Scheme, noting that it is simple but more comprehensive than the ‘traffic light’ labelling that was also considered. The advantage of the HSR Scheme over the traffic light system that is used in Britain is that it allows the nutritional value of the product to be assessed as a whole, rather than evaluating and displaying

the results for certain nutrients individually. The traffic light system in Britain is also focussed only on the negative aspects of food, and not on the presence of both positive and negative nutri-ents as required by New Zealand dietary guidelines.

Major players in the industry also appear to approve of the scheme, with Woolworths and Sanitarium both announcing that they will apply the new labels to all of their products. The Food and Grocery Council has stated that it is confident that a significant number of manufacturers would also sign up. The labelling scheme is likely to be embraced by manufactur-ers which are already producing relatively healthy foods, for obvi-ous reasons.

There are of course draw-backs to the proposed labelling system. One is that the scheme

is voluntary, meaning that prod-ucts that have a low nutritional value are less likely to adopt this labelling. Nutrition is also com-plex and there is regular debate about what kinds of food are best for people to be consuming. The HSR Scheme needs to be simple to be effective, but there is a risk that the HSR Scheme oversimplifies the nutritional assessment.

Products that are highly processed for example may fare better than products which are closer to being natural (for example low fat flavoured milk is likely to have more stars than regular whole milk).

Additionally, as was pointed out by the Food and Grocery Council, the fact that the nutritional content of products is measured per 100g may cause anomalies for some products. Vegemite and Marmite are

likely to both receive a reduced number of stars as they are high in sodium. A consumer would however use far less than 100g of these spreads per serving, which means that nutritionally the picture is not as negative as it would appear.

It is likely that we will start seeing these new labels on prod-ucts on the shelf in the next 6-12 months, and an education period will be required for both the industry and consumers to allow them to understand the labels.

The effectiveness of the calculator and the style guide will be reviewed in two years, and a review in five years will evaluate the system as a whole, including the level of voluntary uptake. If there is not ‘consistent and widespread’ uptake of the system, it is possible that this labelling scheme may be made compulsory. ■

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INDUSTRYPROFILE

MINES TO VINEST E S S A N I C H O L S O N

H idden amongst the many vineyards of Marlborough is a man who has under-gone a metamorphous,

from clearing landmines to tend-ing vines.

The former Major John Flana-gan, now known simply as Flan, spent 11 years working in some of the worst war devastated zones in the world. From Cambodia, to Bosnia, Kosovo to Afghanistan, Lebanon to Sudan, he has worked to clear landmines and cluster bombs, making the areas safe for the people living there.

These days he is the vineyard manager at McLean Estate at the top of the Wairau Valley in Marl-borough.

Joining the army at age 16, Flan’s first overseas posting was to Cambodia after the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from the country. His task was to help map and clear the country of the mil-lions of landmines that had been planted during the conflict. It was a devastating introduction to the aftermath of war.

“One of the most shocking things when I first arrived in Cam-bodia was seeing the number of people who were missing arms and legs, or had been blinded by explosions. People were forced to go out into the fields to make a living, and with no records kept of where the mines were laid, they had no idea when they would come across them. Often the only way we knew there was a minefield in the area was when people were killed or injured. It was a sad aspect of the job, that you always had to be talking to the victims, to get them to show you where they were blown up.”

Flan was deployed in Cambo-dia for a year, before coming back to New Zealand. But his experi-ences there, paved the way for his future.

In 1997 he went to the UN headquarters in New York to help establish the Mine Action Service,

as an operations officer. The two-year posting saw him set up mine clearance systems that ensured operators around the world were working together. Much of the UN focus at the time was based around Bosnia. But Kosovo was also enter-ing a period of major unrest, with

NATO forces and the Serbian mili-tary at loggerheads. The end result was a concerted bombing of the small country in May 1999.

Due to return to New Zealand in June 1999, Flan was trying hard not to get involved with Kosovo. He wasn’t successful.

Flan with one of the many bombing victims in Cambodia. Photo: NZDF Official


“It was a Thursday and I was due to leave New York the follow-ing week. That afternoon I had to attend a Kosovo planning meeting, where the impending UN support programme was being discussed. Everyone was talking different game plans, which got me really wound up. After the meeting I went in to see the boss and said, ‘You guys are going to screw this up. It’s not going to work as there is no vision for how this is opera-

tion should be managed.’ He said if I was so clever, why didn’t I man-age the programme? I said ‘I will, but you have until next Tuesday to make it happen because the pack-ers are coming to our apartment then and we are heading back to New Zealand. Good luck getting me out of there once I’m home.’”

Not for one minute did Flan think his boss was serious. After all there were only four days until he left New York, and there were a number of diplomatic and bureau-cratic hurdles to be cleared for such a decision to be made. So the packers arrived, everything was boxed up, waiting for the truck. All his army gear was sitting in the corner – just in case. “Next thing the phone rang and my boss said, ‘yeah you are going to Kosovo.’ Oh Shit! The guys were all standing round and I asked them to give me five minutes to explain the situa-tion to my wife, Sally.”

He quickly realised that the Kosovo situation wasn’t going to be fixed in a matter of months.

So while he had signed on for a six-month period, he ended up extending that to two and a half years.

While Cambodia had been subjected to landmines, Kosovo was suffering from unexploded cluster bombs as well. These were designed to be dropped from the air and explode on contact with the land. However between 10 and 15% of those bombs didn’t explode and were left lying either

on the surface or buried in the soft ground half a metre deep.

“When NATO bombed Kosovo, 800,000 refugees fled across the border. Then when the Serbs pulled out, these people wanted to come back and pick up their lives. I got thrown in there in June of 99 and the place was just chaotic. The land mines were obviously a prob-lem but the unexploded cluster bombs were worse. They were everywhere and they were really attractive to kids because most had a sort of parachute, and were yellow in colour. In the first month there were 130 people killed or injured. Farmers wanted to get back in to plough their fields, so they were ploughing these things up and people had no idea of what they were encountering. They had huge destructive power. So the awareness problem had to change from land mines and unexploded ordnance, to focus specifically on cluster bombs.”

The systems he helped put in place, were unique in terms

“One of the cluster bomb designers was a Norwegian fellow and he wouldn’t believe they weren’t exploding on impact. We brought him out (to Lebanon) and showed him all these areas and he just transformed overnight from being a cluster bomb designer to being a proponent of banning them.”

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of mine clearance programmes. With full autonomy, the UN was able to ensure all the organisa-tions were working off the same page, meaning within two and a half years, the area was deemed clean – well as clean as anything ever can be after a war. During that time 10,000 landmines and 25,000 cluster bombs were cleared from the small country.

Satisfied with a job well done, Flan came back to New Zealand and the army, at the end of 2001. He was due to go to staff college in 03, but as he puts it, he “acciden-tally got a job in New York.”

That accident, as he puts it, saw him become the Chief of Opera-tions for the UN Mine Action Service a programme that grew over his five and half years in the UN, (he went on to become Acting Director in his last 12 months). Sponsors to help with the clearing of war-ravaged areas

also increased, helped substan-tially by the fundraising Flan was doing with heads of governments throughout the world. Seeing the devastation cluster bombs were creating, he was also instrumental in helping to ban their use in future conflicts.

“One of the cluster bomb designers was a Norwegian fel-low and he wouldn’t believe they weren’t exploding on impact. We brought him out (to Lebanon) and showed him all these areas and he just transformed overnight from being a cluster bomb designer to being a proponent of banning them.”

He got onto the Norwegian government and once they got on board they provided money to start this movement to ban clus-ter bombs. New Zealand was a particularly strong player in that movement as one of the five core countries organising the ban.

And the ban took effect just as I was leaving at the end of 2008. So now cluster bombs are on the pro-hibited weapons list for the major-ity of countries. That was a great result. I could actually walk away from the UN being very happy with what I had contributed for the last five and a half years and also in Kosovo.”

And walk away he did, arriving back in New Zealand in late 2008, with three young children and no career in the army. With family based in Blenheim, he was lured by the growth of the local wine industry. With a half share in a vineyard, (bought back in 2003) he saw the possibility of changing his focus completely. After the high-powered job in the UN, the pros-pect of working the land without having to worry about bombs of any sort, appealed.

After a year’s correspondence in Viticulture and Oenology at

EIT, he then transferred to the on-line course at NMIT in 2010. Despite being challenged on a world scale in his former life, Flan admits the getting back to education was just as much of a challenge. Last December the hard work paid off, with his graduation and a Diploma in Viticulture and Wine Production.

Now he manages his own shared vineyard and is the vine-yard manager for McKean Estate. And while he still keeps tabs on what is happening globally, he doesn’t really miss the cut and thrust of his former job.

“I left at a really positive time and it’s time for someone else to carry the mantle. Besides I love what I am doing and I love where I am doing it. It’s just great, a very special place.” ■[email protected]• This article was first published in Winepress earlier this year.


John Flanagan

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is 4,000 times faster than the traditional method of using yeast to create a sec-ondary fermentation to pro-duce carbon dioxide (CO2). The yeast remains unal-tered by being magnetised after fermentation. Sen-sory tests by the research-ers suggest that the wine’s aroma, texture, body, taste and the size of the bub-bles are all unaffected by the magnetizing process. “As the global population grows

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REGIONSGISBORNE

MOVING ONJ U S T I N E T Y E R M A N

T wo vintages of exceptional quality, the prospect of oversupply of grapes and ‘perfect storm’ con-

ditions for powdery mildew are among the good, the bad and the ugly elements outgoing president of the Gisborne Winegrowers’ Association Doug Bell has expe-rienced during his term in office.

Bell, who steps down in August after two years at the helm of the group that represents the district’s grape-growers and wineries, says he has been very lucky in his time as president.

“I have had the good fortune to be president during the best vintages in recent memory - 2013

and 2014 have been exceptional seasons for us,” he says.

“The two prior to that were not so good and I think grow-ers lost heart in what they were doing. Poor vintages can affect your whole demeanour. But the past two excellent vintages have injected positivity into the indus-try. This has been reflected in major planting and replanting by two of the largest players in the industry here, Leaderbrand and Indevin. Investment in new plant-ing represents a significant com-mitment to the district by these companies.”

Bell says while he didn’t seek the position as president, after

being vice-president for five years or so, he was happy to take it on, ever mindful of “the big boots the previous president John Clarke had left behind”.

“I knew John had left the com-mittee in good spirits, and it was the right thing to do. I think eve-ryone should take their turn at contributing to the community at some stage and I’m pleased I’ve done it.”

He says the workload wasn’t extraordinary but the responsi-bility was.

“The need for careful steward-ship was something I learned as time went by. You have to remem-ber which hat you are wearing and

the far-reaching impact of any statements you might make.”

There were monthly meetings with the committee of 12 and other meetings as required.

“I was very fortunate to have a fabulous committee, really lovely people all there for the same rea-son – a belief in the district and desire to guide its promotion - but each adding a different skill-set to the group. Working with such enthusiastic, good-humoured peo-ple has definitely been a high point of my time as president. Being involved with like-minded folk who have knitted well together has been very pleasurable indeed. They have been a tremendous sup-


port network for me.”One of the challenges has been

allocating sufficient time to the job in an already busy schedule.

“The role must take pri-ority so other things are, of

necessity, squeezed into the extremities of the day

resulting in some very late nights. It’s impor-

tant to understand the commitment and do

the job wholeheart-edly,” Bell says.

“And you have to recognise that you can’t keep every-one happy all the time. Ultimately you have to do what’s best for the region. You might set out to achieve consen-sus but it’s not

always possible.”

While the past two vintages have been outstanding, they have not been without their headaches for growers.

“The irony of it is that the same dry weather that has provided great growing conditions for the grapes has also been the ‘perfect storm’ for powdery mildew.

“We are now seeing a different type of powdery mildew which reproduces in a different manner so growers must be far more care-ful and diligent with management practices. It’s fair to say that eve-ryone in this region has had pow-dery mildew to a greater or lesser degree. In fact all the main grape growing regions in the country

have experienced it this year. It’s serious stuff.

“The worst-case scenario is that wineries can reject crops with bad powdery mildew. Grow-ers need to pay attention now. Ignore it at your peril!”

Another major concern locally is the impact a large national grape crop will have on pricing, says Bell.

“Any oversupply of grapes will always impact on prices. While the industry cannot influence the national crop, individually grow-ers and wineries need to under-stand the ramifications of a large crop.”

Bell believes like all industries, winegrowing needs to change with

Doug Bell’s beloved WWII aircraft, Allison - gets a mention on the Coopers Creek Marsanne.

“Gisborne is gaining a reputation for the diversity of its varieties and there can’t be many that aren’t being tried here.”

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the market.“Gisborne grows good Char-

donnay and it has been one of our great strengths. There’s been a resurgence in planting especially since the newer high-health clones have been available. But in addition Gisborne is gaining a reputation for the diversity of its varieties and there can’t be many that aren’t being tried here,” he says.

“ G i s b o r n e h a s r e c e n t l y become the New Zealand home of Albariño, a Spanish variety first imported and first grown in this district. Growing it has been an incredibly rewarding journey for us personally, and for Coop-ers Creek who make the wine. To have a new variety achieve such success on its first commercial release was fantastic - it won a gold medal in every competition it was entered into and won the Other White Wine Trophy in four

of those shows. “So now we ponder what will

shine in the other varieties that are in the trial block - Sauvignon Gris, Fiano, Vermentino, Lagrein,

new clones of Chenin Blanc? Vari-eties have come and gone on our 30-hectare vineyard over the past 30 years and there will inevitably be more decisions to make about ‘what to plant next’ as the prefer-ences of wine drinkers change yet again,” he says.

Answering the critics who still

think Gisborne is a bulk-wine region, Bell says, “We left that label far behind in another era, two decades ago. Have a look at what we have to offer now and surprise

yourself!” So what advantages does Gis-

borne have over other regions?“Gisborne has a very impor-

tant part to play in the industry because growers here can pro-duce reasonably-priced grapes that are attractive to the winer-ies. Our wines tend to be low in

acid and this enables them to be released early with full, rich, fruit characters.

“I also believe we have a good marketing direction here now and it’s the right time to put this region in front of a bigger audi-ence, nationally and internation-ally,” he says.

And how does Bell plan to use the all free time he will have after August?

“I’m confident the gap left by this role will be filled by something lurking in the shed,” he says with a broad grin, alluding to his beloved Allison, the WW2 aircraft engine he is restoring.

His wife and full-time vineyard/business partner Delwyn also has a number of projects lined up for her engineer-handyman husband.

“I don’t think for a minute there will be any free time!” he says. ■

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“Any oversupply of grapes will always impact on prices. While the industry cannot influence the national crop, individually growers and wineries need to understand the ramifications of a large crop.”

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LOOKINGBACK

FROM COLD DUCK TO ALBARINO

T he 1990s was the rushed decade, not in a bad way, but so much happened in ten years. Hundreds

of new names of winemakers and brands appeared, new buildings and new vineyards changed the landscape of Marlborough in par-ticular, with Waipara and Central Otago on the verge of a similar explosion.

In wine industry terms inter-nationally, the 1990s were indeed ‘quite a rush’. Exports grew from 4 million litres in 1990 to almost 20 million a decade later when exports were earning New Zealand about $180 million dollars.

The number of wine producing companies grew from 135 in 1990 to 331 in 2000, according to Wine Institute Annual Reports. The same reference marks the climb in New Zealand vineyards from 5,500 hectares in 1990 to 13,000 in 2000.

Growth was only part of the rush. Muller Thurgau dropped from being the leading grape variety planted in New Zealand to just 400 hectares in 2000, behind Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Merlot. Even Ries-ling in 2000 showed more planted hectares than Muller Thurgau. By the end of the decade, Pinot Gris

was starting to show as significant in the New Zealand vineyard.

The corporate structure was changing too. Montana Wines Ltd became a subsidiary of Corporate Investments when Seagrams sold their 40% share to Peter Masfen. Nobilo, deRedcliffe (Hotel du Vin) and Morton Estate became listed public companies.

Overseas investment saw Craggy Range become the most talked about winery and produced wines to mark that standard. Kem-blefield planted five terraces in Hawkes Bay under USA finance. Other investors were ‘looking’ from overseas, making their move

in the following decade, all alert to New Zealand wine – and its potential.

Local investment too glowed as Sileni established major premises and vineyards in Hawke’s Bay. Just south of Blenheim Mount Riley showed a grand new winery with Digger Hennessey as winemaker. Babich produced a wonderful new establishment around the hum-ble cellars and wine shop that had served for decades in Henderson. .

Villa Maria built a winery in Marlborough on a site big enough to serve company needs for at least 50 years. In Auckland, they built a sloping cellar for barrels

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and storage alongside the aging property on Kirkbride Road which comprised of add-on lean-tos and old homes..

Names with a big future appeared from just below the hori-zon, like for example Dry River, Martinborough Vineyard, Palliser Estate, Kumeu River, Waimea and Fromm to name but a few. Most remain with us today in even stronger form.

C o m p e t i t i o n o f c o u r s e increased in New Zealand with so many new names and brands but steadily export became the drive.

Terry Dunleavys says: “There was much more than just impres-sive numbers: our member winer-ies ensured that our export wines expressed the unique flavour profiles of our largely cool climate

terroir and created a reputation for consistency of quality at an affordable price. It was the decade in which we came of age as a wine export nation.”

The Wine Guild within the Institute was a user-paying bunch of wineries focusing on export and a New Zealand sales office was established in London. This was part of a change in the Wine Institute. The structure begun in 1976, was of a seven person com-mittee, plus a salaried Executive Officer (Terry Dunleavy, later Philip Gregan). In the 1990s, the committee became a Board of Directors and the full time head became CEO. It was an important corporate-structural change.

What we saw was a new look, taken all round, helped by a vision-

ary Chairman of Directors in John Buck. Instead of a ‘them and us’ relationship between wine mak-ers and grape growers, the com-bination took on greater unity. It was a forerunner to the new body, New Zealand Winegrowers. Sales, especially exports, became the industry focus.

The existing companies had their own frenzy; Montana built their new Brancott winery near Riverlands in Marlborough, com-plete with a new restaurant. Other significantly sized wineries were built nearby thereafter. Morton Estate began their expansion in Hawke’s Bay following a small beginning in Kati Kati. Larry McKenna from Delegats became a hero at Martinborough Vineyard. Simon Waghorn left the corporate

comfort of Corbans and moved to Whitehaven in Marlborough before establishing Astrolabe. Selaks built a new winery in Marlborough. And so on. Action aplenty amongst the established names came with the new faces.

But this was not all. Many farmers became grape growers and later many of those, in turn, later established wine companies or brands. Facilities may have been contracted out or shared with another winery.

This was an exciting decade, expanding and maturing as fast as it could. Under John Buck as Chairman of the Wine Institute in 1993, an export target of $100 mil-lion was set by the Wine Institute for the turn of the century, only to see such a statistic exceeded well

John Buck, founder and now Chairman of Te Mata Estate, played an important role in the changing form of the Wine Institute from a ‘committee’ to a Board of Directors with a CEO.

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before the millennium change. A billon dollars of export shifted from a dream towards a reality. New Zealand optimism grew for wine and the wine industry.

Grape varieties grew and styles changed. Sauvignon Blanc became the most planted and the most exported grape variety of New Zealand. This partly reflected the change towards drier wine styles by those who grew up with 25 grams of sugar per litre in their Muller – under whatever name. Chardonnay expanded, along with a little (or perhaps a lot) of ‘value added’ through the forceful use of oak.

Cabernet Sauvignon became Merlot-Cabernet, the Merlot vines initially from Davis in Cali-fornia, but more recently from Bordeaux with a closer climatic similarity to New Zealand. Pinot Noir expanded, new clones help-ing. Even Syrah was given a shot in the 1990s, to emerge over the next decades as a winner espe-cially in Hawke’s Bay and Waiheke Island. Zinfandel and Tempranillo showed their head.

Central Otago became more than a skiing escape. Pioneer work by Rolfe Mills and Alan Brady took on a new look when the region discovered Pinot Noir magic here. In Marlborough with rising Rapaura land prices, vineyards moved outwards, to the Awatere and Waihopai Valleys.

Some went even further afield and planted grapes in the Waipara Valley, south of Marlborough, 45 minutes drive north of Christch-urch. It was a move to bring its own intrigue and rewards and more and more companies including Montana planted in the Waipara-Amberley area.

Modern wineries and new barrels revealed the potential of the New Zealand climate for well-fruited wines from all sorts of unexpected grapes. Behind this was of course a new personal tal-ent pool, some educated in wine off-shore, some from a growing New Zealand wine campus.

The two wine competitions both closed down fortified wine classes. The growing range of table wines was filling the time

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available for judging anyway and the shows grew from two panels each to four in the 1990s. Instead of being presided over by an important overseas name, the tal-ent in New Zealand steadily made this unnecessary and whilst a big name or two from overseas were welcomed in the judging, they sat under a New Zealand chief judge, a practice continued to this day.

The Auckland A&P show became The Royal Easter Show Wine Awards. The move in the qualifying scores to earn a medal occurred.: What used to be 13 or more panel average for a bronze medal became 15.5; silver level went up from 15.5 to 17 and gold from 17 to 18.5. The interesting point resulting from the alteration was that there was little change in the number of medals awarded in each category, a signal of the on-going rise in quality.

Such quality was quickly spot-ted by wine buyers, journalists and merchants in the United Kingdom. Exports have been on-going with small downwards spikes only when light yields shortened sup-

ply. In the 1990s, Australia, USA and China were just warming to New Zealand wine and have gone on to become major buyers.

Was the New Zealand wine quality going up through the 1990s or was wine, and New Zea-land wine becoming more part of our way of life? A bit of each, per-haps, but without doubt the 1990s brought a quality orientation. Even the winemakers accepted what we now know as ‘Sustainable Viticulture’ to protect the envi-ronment where vineyards existed alongside other people. Consid-erations of longevity, rejuvena-tion of both the vineyards and the industry brought many to accept the standards which started to be required by commercial buyers overseas anyway.

The 1990s bustled through with growth, development and change If nothing was set in concrete, so to speak, the decade ahead would bring some consoli-dation, but, as Peter Hubscher said on his retirement, don’t expect the next ten years to stop changing or developing. It hasn’t. ■


REGIONSGISBORNE

A GISBORNE BLOGS teve Abramowitz’s con-

servative parents found it hard to handle their son’s announcement that he

was quitting university in favour of travelling the world.

The Rhodesian-raised market-ing consultant to the Gisborne Winegrowers’ Association globe-trotted or rather galloped for the next decade, not getting his first proper job until nearly 30.

“I landed an advertis-ing role in 1989 in Johan-nesburg, thanks to my big mouth,” says Steve who still tells people he comes from Rhodesia, because he never lived in Zimbabwe.

“That’s not a political thing. It’s just a fact,” he says.

This led on to a 20-odd year career in advertising, and, following his passion for wine and food, a three-year stint as a restaurateur. He has lived and worked in exotic spots all around the world and received many international awards for his crea-tive endeavours.

However eight years ago, Steve and “the fragrant one” - his wife Suzie, who grew up in Gisborne – gave up the sophisticated high life in favour of “la bonne vie” in a rambling old house with chick-ens, beehives, fruit trees, an olive tree and a vegetable garden in Gisborne.

It’s the simple things in life that Steve loves – selecting fresh pro-duce at Gisborne Farmers’ Market, looking for a good local wine to drink with it and cooking a meal at home.

Earlier this year, Steve’s mar-

keting consultancy business, Big White Shirt – “because I wear a lot of them” – was contracted by the Gisborne Winegrowers’ Asso-ciation to formulate a marketing strategy.

“Gisborne did not appear to have a regional message to take to New Zealand and then to the world. Central Otago is synony-

mous with Pinot Noir and Mar-lborough with Sauvignon Blanc but Gisborne did not seem to have an identity. We grow great Char-donnay and other varieties here . . . but we don’t know it or believe it. The wines here will blow you away,” he says.

“My first thought was to take the mountain to Mohammed – get hold of a shipping container and cart it round New Zealand as a pop-up cellar door, featuring tastings of Gisborne’s splendid wines at places like Britomart where there’s foot traffic of tens of thousands of people in rush hour. The pop-up idea was good

but not feasible in the implemen-tation phase so I had to look at a different vehicle to get Gisborne wines out there, quickly and cost-effectively.

“In late May, I launched a blog, The Gisborne Gourmet, featur-ing postings about our great regional lifestyle and recipes using fresh local produce matched with

our wonderful wines. The blog, designed to promote Gisborne as a brand, has been a huge success so far with 2800-plus views from all over world in the first few weeks.

The tags are carefully chosen - Gisborne, Wine, Food - so those who visit the blog are already a dedicated audience.

“Wine tourists spend 40 per-cent more than the average tour-ist so they are the people we want to attract to the region. We need to market the attributes of this region to them - great weather, great produce, great wines . . . the romance that is Gisborne. A blog has wonderful flexibility and

immediacy. It’s a great vehicle for spreading information. It works like a Petri dish, you set it going, feed it, cover it, go away and come back to find it has multiplied.

“The tag line we arrived at is: ‘Gisborne wines - surprise your-self ’. It is a really simple brand statement that challenges you on every level. A call to action . .

. with no assumptions. A firm foundation on which to build, and something Gisborne can deliver on.

“We make beautiful wines here. Gisborne can put its white wines up against anywhere. They are of international quality. But we have to believe they are great.”

The Gisborne Gour-met has had a great start but now Steve is looking for wineries to add in the personal factor and offer rewards for reading the blog.

“For example, provid-ing a platter and a tasting, a chance to meet the win-

emaker, picking grapes for a day, watching the harvest. How about a glass of Méthode Champenoise while feeding the stingrays at Tatapouri? Now that would be a first!

“One of the things I love about Gisborne is the blood and sweat invested in the land here. There is real grit in this district, like in southern France. Nothing is taken for granted. But we don’t do enough celebrating. We need to shout out about Gisborne. We need to shout it out to Gisborne, New Zealand and then to the whole world.” ■[email protected]

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Due to the formation of a bio-film on the surface of the mem-brane, MBR membranes have been tested to provide much finer filtra-tion than 0.1 micron due to col-loidal particles and viruses being adsorbed onto bacterial flocs and captured in the biofilm on the membranes.

For example in tests where a 0.03micron virus was dosed into

an MBR with a 0.1micron nominal pore size, the MBR system showed a total removal rate of 98% of the virus. This level of removal of bacteria and viruses far exceeds the capabilities of almost all other types of winery wastewater treat-ment.

As well as directly cleaning up the wastewater discharge by filtering out these contaminants, the fact that this system retains virtually 100% of the bacteria that

are used for reducing the organic and nutrient loading of the waste-water, means that typically three times as much organic loading can also be removed in a given size aerobic wastewater treatment plant into which the membranes are incorporated. This is due to the concentration of water treat-ment bacteria in MBR systems being over five times that found in traditional biological treatment systems.

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Another positive effect of operating the MBR at such high biomass (sludge) concentrations is that this often results in a very low food to biomass ratio in the reactor, which can significantly reduce the mass of waste sludge produced. The total volume of waste sludge produced by the system is further reduced by the high strength of the sludge – with-

out any additional thickening the sludge is already at 1.5 to 2% solids when it is discharged directly from the treatment process.

New Zealand wine and cider producers that have implemented MBR treatment of their wastewa-ter have typically done so for the following reasons:

To reduce their environmental footprint to worlds best practice

To be able to discharge to sur-face water (lake, creek, river etc.)

To allow beneficial reuse rather than just disposal of the treated

water To enable treatment of sewage

(e.g. from an on site restaurant) in the same system as the trade waste.

In the case of this last point, MBRs are one of the few waste-water treatment systems where this can be done. In traditional systems the mixing of human pathogens from sewage into the

tradewaste introduces significant risks and limitations as to how the treated product can be disposed of. Because the MBR system removes these pathogens, the two streams can be combined.

Two such examples in New Zealand are Craggy Range’s Giants winery and restaurant in Hawke’s Bay, and Mt Difficulty’s winery and restaurant in Central Otago. At these sites a number of synergies arise by being able to combine the two waste streams in an MBR. Firstly the more continu-

Another positive effect of operating the MBR at such high biomass (sludge) concentrations is that this often results in a very low food to biomass ratio in the reactor, which can significantly reduce the mass of waste sludge produced.

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ous production of sewage from the restaurant helps to keep the system running optimally outside of the highly seasonal wine mak-

ing vintage, and secondly, whilst restaurant waste and sewage are high in nutrients that need to be removed, winery wastewater is

notoriously nutrient deficient and therefore the biological processes in the treatment plant benefit sig-nificantly from the additional sew-

age nutrients.Another area where MBRs are

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Flat sheet membranes installed in a winery.

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ter treatment where industries are seeing the need to either find bet-ter reuse options for their treated wastewater, or open up alterna-tive means of disposal. A current example of this is Redwood Cellars in Nelson who operate a large cider factory, and wished to achieve a very high level of treatment prior to discharging any waste to the environment. Using a membrane bioreactor they have been able to reduce their tradewaste strength from around 9,000mg/L BOD

down to as low as < 5mg/L.Whilst the technological

advances have been significant, one of the key factors in the grow-ing adoption of MBRs is the sig-nificant reduction in capital cost of the systems.

As MBR technology has matured, the increase in the num-ber of companies manufacturing membranes and improvements in materials of construction have

significantly reduced the capital cost of such projects.

For example, whilst all of the first generation of flat sheet MBRs in New Zealand were based on Chlorinated Polyethylene Kubota membranes with a nomi-nal 0.4micron pore size, recent advances have seen more chemi-cally resistant and easier to clean 0.1micron PVDF membranes, manufactured by SINAP, enter the market. A significant number of existing MBRs in New Zealand

already have, or are in the process of, removing their old membranes and replacing them with the new generation of SINAP membranes. Along with being manufactured from more inert materials, the sig-nificant reduction in cost of the newer membranes reduces both the capital cost of new plants and the on-going cost of replacement membranes in existing plants.

The availability of a high qual-ity, lower cost membrane has also gone a long way towards de-risk-

ing the installed capacity of these systems. Where there was previ-ously a strong economic driver to install the minimum number of membranes possible due to their extremely high cost, system designers can now allow signifi-cant contingency in the installed capacity of the plant and still come in at a lower capital cost than pre-viously.

These advances in technology and capital cost have now reached the point where over a large range of plant sizes, the cost of install-ing an MBR is equivalent and in a number of recent cases less than, that of installing a traditional biological treatment system. When combined with the world best practice level of treatment achieved and the other advantages of MBR technology, this has now become an increasingly appeal-ing option for wastewater treat-ment. ■

These advances in technology and capital cost have now reached the point where over a large range of plant sizes, the cost of installing an MBR is equivalent and in a number of recent cases less than, that of installing a traditional biological treatment system.

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N ew nationally-recognised qualifications developed by industry members and launching next year will

give cellar workers a cost-effective way to build their skills and careers on-the-job..

Until now, a university degree has been the only option available for many people.

“I’ve thought for many years that New Zealand needs formal qualifications for cellar workers, as they have in other countries,” says Steve Simpson, Production Winemaker at Foley Family Wines, Blenheim.

“Winery work is technical, and needs a lot of training and exper-tise. It’s always concerned me that

we don’t have formal training or ways to recognise the skills of people working in this part of our industry.”

About the qualificationsThe new qualifications (New

Zealand Certificates) will be avail-able at three levels, providing a clear pathway of learning on-the-job for people who want to build their skills and a career in the wine industry.

The level 3 qualification is aimed at cellar hands and has a strong focus on health and safety.

The level 4 qualification is aimed at cellar hands who may be responsible for other workers, for ensuring safe work practices and

for meeting production require-ments. Graduates will understand the technical principles and pro-cesses, plant and equipment involved in producing wine.

Graduates of the level 5 quali-fication will be responsible for managing people and processes to meet and improve safety, pro-ductivity and quality. They will understand the specialised tech-nical aspects involved in produc-ing wine.

Involving members of the industry

Industry involvement is criti-cal at all stages of this work to make sure the qualifications ben-efit everyone in the industry and

meet the needs of all employers and learners. Industry Training Organisation Competenz is lead-ing the work to develop the new qualifications. Members of the industry are heavily involved and some have taken part in regional meetings held recently to learn about the proposed qualifications.

Next steps

Thanks to the wine industry’s support, Competenz has gained approval from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to develop the cellar operations qualifications. The next step involves setting up an industry working group to work on the detailed content. ■

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REGIONSNELSON

NEXT GENERATIONSE very family owned busi-

ness has to face this ques-tion at some stage “how are we going to get out”?

For some the answer is simple, just sell it. Others however can have a huge emotional attachment or the business may be so big it isn’t easy to sell. Many wineries fit into this latter category.

The wine industry brings out the passion in people like few other industries can. Being a rural sector there are a variety of risks and these add to the emotion of owning a winemaking business. It is very difficult to separate per-sonal life from work life when you have absolutely everything (all of your money, often your home and

normally plenty of debt) tied up in one asset.

Another obvious way to exit a business is to pass it on to the next generation and this can have sig-nificant pitfalls if it isn’t handled correctly, each sibling needs to be treated fairly to avoid a huge fam-ily bust-up in future years.

One wine company that has

been quietly thinking about the next stage is Seifried Estate in Nel-son. When I spoke with Anna Sei-fried she asked me why I wanted to use them as an example of handing over a business to the next gen-eration because they aren’t doing anything special.

I have known the Seifried fam-ily for many of the 40 years they

The epitome of a family business, the Seifrieds, from left; Anna, Heidi, Chris, Agnes and Hermann.

N E I L H O D G S O N


have been in business and have watched it grow from a small pro-ducer in the Upper Moutere Vil-lage to the large enterprise it now is. Anyone who knows Hermann and Agnes Seifried will know of their huge capacity for work and this work ethic has been passed on to their children, Heidi, Chris and Anna.

Agnes says while they always hoped the kids would stay involved she and Hermann also knew they had to find their own way in life and come back to the family busi-ness if and when they were ready. Obviously having grown up with jobs to do around the vineyards and winery there was s a high likelihood they would return; they already had an emotional connection.

And that is the Seifried secret to handing over the business to the next generation. The children have always been part of and are

fully integrated into it. A real key to the success of Seifried’s busi-ness is that the children didn’t just walk into a job in the winery when they left school. Instead they all went to univeristy and then onto jobs with other companies. Heidi’s first qualification was as a dental surgeon an industry she worked fulltime in for three years. She then went back to Lincoln Uni-versity where she completed her Post Grad Diploma in Viticulture and Oeneology.

She still spends some time hon-ing her dentistry skills on a part time basis while juggling a young family and working in the family business four days a week.

Chris has a winemaking quali-fication from Charles Sturt Uni-versity, as well as a Post Grad Diploma in Marketing from Lin-coln University, and has worked in wineries in Australia, USA, Austria and France. He came back to New

Zealand for a harvest at home in 2001, and has been a major part of the family business ever since. In 2007 he enrolled for the Ice House Owner Manager Programme.

Anna has a Marketing Degree from Otago, as well as a Post Grad Diploma in Wine Marketing from Adelaide University. She spent a few years in Australia working with Coles Myer, before returning home in 2003 to work alongside Agnes in sales and marketing.

Since the early 2000’s the Sei-fried children have all drifted back into working fulltime for the busi-ness, bringing loads of experience with them.

Given Seifried’s was going through a significant growth phase at the time, building and relocat-ing into a new winery complex and significantly increasing vineyard area; the children had real jobs to come back to, not just jobs created for them.

Another key to Hermann and Agnes making sure the business is in good hands in the future is that none of the Seifried family have job titles on their business card. If a job needs doing it gets done and if that means Anna, who deals with much of the marketing and admin-istration with Agnes, has to spend some time on the bottling line she does – “it’s a good opportunity to make sure we all know our own business inside out” says Anna.

Everyone in the family has a role representing the business in the market place.

Hermann and Agnes can rightly be proud of what they have created and that their family will continue that legacy. They now can have confidence to spend more time with their grandchildren, know-ing the company will continue to prosper – even so, don’t use the ‘retire’ word around Hermann. ■ [email protected].

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REGIONSMARLBOROUGH

SUSTAINABLE GRAPE MARCA number of Marlborough’s

largest wine producers have come together with the Marlborough District

Council in a new collaborative approach to manage the disposal of grape marc.

With tens of thousands of tonnes of marc produced every year, the collaboration will ensure it is turned into a commercially viable and environmentally sus-tainable product.

With the assistance of the Dis-trict Council, participating wine companies have formed the “Mar-lborough Grape Marc (MGM) group” to realise a proposal for an environmentally sustainable use of the wine industry’s waste streams.

The MGM group is chaired by Eric Hughes of Pernod Ricard Winemakers with representa-tives from Cloudy Bay, Constel-lation Brands, Delegat’s, Giesen, Indevin, Matua, Mount Riley, NZ Wineries, Saint Clair and Villa Maria. The group members gen-erate approximately 80% of the wine production in Marlborough. MGM is an open collective and it’s hoped further companies will join the initiative.

MGM has selected the Austral-ian-based Tarac Technologies Pty Ltd (Tarac) proposal submitted for consideration.

Tarac proposes to use all grape marc and residuals produced in the Marlborough region, extract-ing alcohol from the by-products and converting the spent marc (or steam distilled grape marc), into compost and stock feed, thus returning the nutrients to the land.

Tarac was established in 1930 by ex-CSIRO scientist Alfred Allen in the heartland of the Australian Wine Industry – the Barossa Val-ley, South Australia. Tarac ser-vices the Australian wine industry through the processing of winery residuals, as well as supplying valued products and advice. At present Tarac processes approxi-mately 125,000 tonnes of grape marc, over 40 million litres of liq-uid waste and about 7,000 tonnes of solid waste for the Australian industry.

By comparison, the Marlbor-ough industry generates approxi-mately 35,000 to 45,000 tonnes of grape marc annually.

Chief Executive, Jeremy Blanks says he is “impressed with the col-laborative approach taken by the industry and Marlborough District Council to seek solutions which create value and enhance the image of the New Zealand Wine Industry”.

He was especially compli-mentary of the Marlborough Dis-trict Council and Marlborough Research Centre and the coordi-nation and assistance they have provided.

“The Food and Beverage Inno-vation cluster is a leading exam-ple of how to facilitate regional economic development through collaboration,” he said.

“Without the facilitation and assistance provided it is doubtful we would have looked to expand into Marlborough.”

MGM Chairman Eric Hughes is pleased with the outcome achieved by the collective and believes further collaborative opportunities exist which will provide similar mutual benefit.

“The Marlborough District Council and the Marlborough Research Centre deserve a lot of credit for the facilitation role they have played.”

Marlborough Research Centre

CEO Gerald Hope said this was exactly the sort of outcome the Food and Beverage Innovation cluster was formed to achieve. The partnership between Mas-sey University, Riddet Institute and Marlborough Research Centre supports the food and beverage sector to innovate and grow.

“It’s inspiring for everyone to see how collaboration, co-ordina-tion and connection can achieve great regional outcomes.”

The Food and Beverage Inno-vation cluster, through the sup-port of the ANZ Bank and the Marlborough District Council, has assisted the industry achieve significant environmental and economic outcomes.

Mayor Alistair Sowman said he is looking forward to Tarac establishing in Marlborough and is pleased Council had been able to play a role in helping achieve such an excellent outcome for the region.■

Marc like this will be turned into an environemntally sustainable product, thanks to a collaboration in Marlborough.

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INDUSTRYNEWS

INNOVATION RECOGNISED A major investment in tech-

nology by Zelam Limited, a New Plymouth-based agrichemical company,

has been recognised by Callaghan Innovation.

Zelam is well-known among grape growers for its agrichemical brands – like Apex, Nexus, Vixen and Zed. But few will be aware that the company behind these brands has one of the country’s largest research teams outside the universities and CRIs.

Each year, Zelam invests up to $3 million in chemistry, field trials and analyses. Now 20% of its New

Zealand research budget is being refunded by way of R&D grants from Callaghan Innovation, a gov-ernment agency that helps fund businesses that invest in research and development.

The aim of the grants is to accelerate innovation by firms in New Zealand, so they turn ideas into marketable products and services more quickly and suc-cessfully.

“Of our 45 staff, 17 are full-time researchers,” says general man-ager Andrew Thompson.

“Our research focus is on tried and true agrichemicals that are

off-patent. By developing novel formulations and delivery mecha-nisms for these products, we are helping farmers to beat weeds, pest and diseases that continue to prevent crops reaching full yield potential.

“We have developed formula-tions that are effective at lower application rates than estab-lished products. In addition, our oleo formulations make it easier for farmers by providing a one-drum product, versus having to mix separate products that are not normally stable in water.”

Of the company’s 10 top sell-

ing products, eight are based on Zelam IP. These include innova-tive mixes of chemical actives, the use of micro-encapsulation tech-nology developed by Zelam and the adaptation through trial work in New Zealand of actives used in unrelated crops overseas.

Some of Zelam’s formulations have a big potential to earn foreign exchange from sales overseas. But most of the company’s products will reward taxpayer support indirectly – by making farmers and growers more efficient and helping boost the primary export economy. ■

2925


N ew wine barrels are an expensive, rapidly depre-ciating asset and funding annual purchases can put

significant pressure on any win-ery’s cash resources and lines of credit. Of course, paying cash is pretty attractive to some busi-nesses. But cash isn’t free, it’s a limited asset and there may be bet-ter ways to use it than tying it up in depreciating assets like barrels.

A Vintech Pacific Barrel Lease combines proven Phoenix Barrel Rejuvenation technology with a simple operating lease. The ser-vice life of your existing barrels is extended by at least three years and the cost of your barrel inven-tory is reduced by leasing, rather than buying.

This means a reduced cost per litre of wine produced, with-

out compromising wine quality while your business’s cash and

credit resources remain available for funding assets that will appre-ciate in value and create wealth.

Buying capital equipment such as barrels often involves a lengthy budget approval process. Choos-ing leasing can help shorten the process, achieving the result you want, faster.

For winemakers, a barrel lease is a great way to minimize the impact on your oak capital budget, since month-to-month payments usually come out of your cash budget.

At the end of the term, leas-ing gives you the option of simply returning the barrels or extending the contract, making it easier to cascade, upgrade or dispose of the barrels. ■

INDUSTRYNEWS

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REGIONSCANTERBURY

WINNING RESEARCHA study into a fungal dis-

ease with the potential to negatively affect New Zealand’s $1.3B wine

export industry has won a Lincoln University student a prestigious industry prize.

Lincoln viticulture student Jackie Sammonds was awarded the David Jackson Prize at the Wines of Canterbury David Jackson Dinner in June. The $2000 award recognises wine industry research that displays both academic rigour and innovative thinking, but must also show how the findings could lead to a beneficial change within the industry.

Sammonds’ research focused on the behaviour of Botryospha-eria fungal spores prior to infec-tion. The fungi are a growing issue for New Zealand’s wine industry, causing a fall in production or even death in vines.

Although the fungi have spread worldwide, she says there is still a lot about the disease cycle of these pathogens that we don’t under-stand.

“This research will improve the understanding of the disease infection process, specifically during the early stages of disease development. This information

may be useful in order to develop new disease control strategies.”

Sammonds’ study investigated the properties of the fungal spores and the processes that occur before penetration into the plant – information that could be useful in preventing infection.

Botryosphaeria spores infect directly through wounds or natu-ral openings in the plant, so the research focused on the spore’s adhesion properties – studying how they bond to the plant long

enough to infect the healthy vine.The research also indicated

that spores are only travelling a relatively short distance, so infec-tion is likely to be coming from within the vineyards themselves, rather than travelling over long distances. This highlights that emphasis should be placed on disease free vines and clearing pruned or harvested wood as soon as possible.

Sammonds says she was inspired to follow the course of

research during her early educa-tion at Lincoln.

“During my undergraduate studies, I encountered Professor Marlene Jaspers who taught a number of pest and disease man-agement, plant protection and plant pathology courses.

“She had a lot of knowledge regarding diseases of grapevines caused by Botryosphaeria fungi so it was a natural progression for my research to be based on these pathogens.” ■

Lincoln University Associate Professor in Oenology Roland Harrison, and David Jackson Prize winner, Jackie Sammonds, at the Wines of Canterbury David Jackson Dinner PHOTO: PAM CARMICHAEL

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NZ WINEGROWER JUNE/JULY 2012 // 127

CALENDAR

AUGUSTAll month:Auckland Restaurant Month

5 – 6:New World Wine Awards Judging

8: Spiegelau International Wine Competition Awards Dinner – Auckland

11: Air New Zealand Wine Award Entries open

18: Inaugural Master of Wine Class – Villa Maria, details www.amiando.com/mwmasterclassnewzealand2014

26: NZSVO Pinot Gris Workshop – Blenheim

26 – 28: National Young Viticulturist Competition – Blenheim

27 – 29: Romeo Bragato Conference - Blenheim

SEPTEMBER

2: Taste Waipara Valley Boutique Wine Tasting – Christchurch Casino

6: Pinot at Cloudy Bay – Marlborough

8 – 22: Introduction to Wine – New Zealand School Of Food And Wine - Auckland

18 – 19: WinEng 2014 New Zealand Conference and Exhibition ‘Value Adding From Grape to Glass’ – Napier War Memorial Centre

22: Waiheke Island of Wine Expo 2014 – Sofitel Hotel, Viaduct Harbour

25: Pick The Trophies Tastings – New Zealand International Wine Show, 2014 – Auckland

27:Awards Dinner International Wine Show 2014 - Auckland

OCTOBER

4-6: International Aromatic Wine Competition (Canterbury A&P Show) - Christchurch

7-8: Marlborough Wine Show Judging - Marlborough

16: Gimblett Gravels 2013 Pre Release Barrel Tasting – Auckland

6: Gisborne Wine and Food Festival - Gisborne

NOVEMBER

16: Toast Martinborough- Martinborough

22: Air New Zealand Wine Awards Dinner – Pettigrew Green Arena Hawke’s Bay


2029-08 layout_global_P 9/23/08 9:32 AM Page 1

Composite

C M Y CM MY CY CMY K

The New Zealand Wine Global Events Programme for 2014-15 kicks off with a busy schedule of events this side of Christmas. These include NEW events in Chicago, Sydney, Singapore, Melbourne and Brisbane as well as a presence for the first time at ProWine China.

SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER• New Zealand Wine presence at the

‘Three Wine Men’ and ‘The Wine Gang’ consumer shows in seven key cities throughout the UK

OCTOBER• New Zealand Wine tastings for trade, media and/or consumers in

Stockholm, Berlin, London and Chicago• New Zealand Wine presence at the FIZZ sparkling wine trade tasting in

London

NOVEMBER• New Zealand Wine tastings for trade, media and/or consumers in

Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and Osaka• New Zealand Wine pavilion at ProWine China in Shanghai• Air New Zealand Wine Awards tastings for trade and media in Melbourne

and BrisbaneBooklets detailing the 2014-15 Global Marketing and Events Programmes

will be set to all winery members in early August and are available at www.nzwinemarketing.com for more information and to register for these events.

MEET THE GLOBAL MARKETING AND EVENTS TEAM

Team members from our Asia, Australia, Canada, UK/Ireland/Europe and USA offices will be visiting New Zealand in late August to attend the Bragato National Conference and to participate in a Global Marketing and Events roadshow.

FIRST STEPS TO EXPORTING PRESENTATION

Monday 25 August: Roadshow, Auckland and Hawke’s BayTuesday 26 August: Roadshow, WairarapaWednesday 27 – Friday 29 August: Bragato National ConferenceFriday 29 August : Roadshow, MarlboroughWednesday 3 September: Roadshow, Gisborne

Thursday 4 September: Roadshow, Nelson and CanterburyFriday 5 September: Roadshow, OtagoPlease register your attendance at the roadshow presentation in your region via the Events Calendar at http://www.nzwine.com/members/tools/

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2013/JANUARY 2014 // 129

PRINCIPAL EXPORT MARKETS

MAJOR VARIETIES IN MAJOR AREAS

MAJOR NZ VINEYARD AREAS PRODUCING HECTARES

*n.c. = no change

*(npr = not previously recorded separately)

Exports up againExports for the 11 months to end of May 2013 (Moving Annual Total)

Region (Actual) 2012 2015

(forecast)

% of Total

Marlborough 22,587.3 23.017.7 66%

Hawkes Bay 4,841.4 4,938.5 14%

Otago 1,786.7 1,791.9 5%

Gisborne 1,616.5 1,586.2 5%

Waipara 1,034.5 1,082.2 3%

Wairarapa / Wellington 941.9 943.5 3%

Nelson 962.6 1,015.4 3%

Auckland / Northland 319.77 315.7 1%

Waikato / Bay of Plenty 16.1 10.2 0%

National Total 34,269.5 34,952.8

Variety 2012 % producing

area

2015 % producing

area

Sauvignon Blanc 19,929.8 58.2 20,214.7 57.8

Pinot Noir 5096.4 14.9 5175.1 14.8

Chardonnay 3120.9 9.1 3164.0 9.1

Pinot Gris 2396.2 7.0 2399.7 6.9

Merlot 1195.9 3.5 1245.4 3.6

Riesling 719.0 2.1 746.2 2.1

Syrah 354.1 1.0 400.6 1

Gewurztraminer 331.3 1.0 311.4 0.9

Cabernet Sauv 284.8 0.8 323.7 0.9

Viognier 160.8 0.5 146.5 0.4

Malbec 130.2 0.4 143.9 0.4

Cabernet Franc 111.6 0.3 108.9 0.3

All other varieties 438.7 1.3 572.7 1.6

Total 34,269 34,952.9

PRODUCING AREA IN HECTARES BY SIZE - NUMBER OF VINEYARDS

New Zealand’s total producing vineyard will increase by only 0.5% over

the next 2 years. This table shows the variation for major varieties (in

Ha), with % change and percentage of total in 2012.

Region 0-5 5.01-10 10.01-20 20.01-50 50.01

and over

Aklnd / Nthlnd 60 13 3 0 1

Canterbury 16 6 2 0 1

Gisborne 20 30 25 13 7

Hawkes Bay 75 56 57 32 21

Marlborough 190 291 210 181 100

Nelson 45 37 12 6 3

Otago 80 61 26 15 3

Waikato / BoP 2 1 1 _ _

Waipara 12 16 3 6 4

Wairarapa / Wgtn 61 16 10 8 3

National 561 527 349 261 143

CountryLitres(m)

$ FOBAverage$/L 2012

Average$/L 2011

United Kingdom 47,811 273,830 4.93

USA 42,473 281,135 6.62 6.36

Australia 49,460 368,191 7.44 7.11

Canada 7448 80,322 10.78 10.82

Netherlands 3806 24,213 6.36 5.78

Denmark 0.792 5446 6.87 6.55

Ireland 2089 14,830 7.10 7.55

Japan 1129 13,203 11.69 11.46

Germany 1661 9844 5.92 5.70

China 2366 28,978 12.24 12.10

Hong Kong 1541 19,940 12.94 12.10

Singapore 1252 16,066 12.83 12.72

Finland 0.163 1356 8.31 9.73

Norway 0.201 1326 6.59 7.42

Sweden 1.603 13,425 8.37 8.12

Others 5,057 48,820 9.65 9.79

Total 168,861 1,200,933 7.11 6.56


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 May 2014

(Moving Annual Total)Region 2014 2016

(forecast)% of Total

Marlborough 22.903.1 23,287.3 64.9

Hawkes Bay 4815.7 4895.4 13.6

Otago 1979.2 2012.3 5.6

Gisborne 1602.4 1615.9 4.5

Waipara 1266.4 1272.0 3.5

Wairarapa / Wellington 996.7 1008.5 2.8

Nelson 1114.7 1152.1 3.2

Auckland / Northland 372.0 374.1 1

Cantebury 195.8 206.7 0.6

Waikato / Bay of Plenty 22.8 22.3 0.1

National Total 35,312.8 35,894.4

Variety 2013 % producing area 2016 forecast

Sauvignon Blanc 20,014.7 56.9 20,260

Pinot Noir 5487.9 15.6 5734.5

Chardonnay 3202.3 9.1 3247.0

Pinot Gris 2402.7 6.8 2448.8

Merlot 1245.6 3.6 1288.5

Riesling 787.0 2.2 791.7

Syrah 408.4 1.2 430.1

Gewurztraminer 333.6 0.9 332.7

Cabernet Sauv 300.5 0.9 314.9

Viognier 160.4 0.5 158.4

Malbec 141.8 0.4 144.5

Cabernet Franc 118.6 0.3 118.1

All other varieties 569.6 1.6 625.0

Total 35,182 35,894.4

PRODUCING AREA IN HECTARES BY SIZE - NUMBER OF VINEYARDS

New Zealand’s total producing vineyard will increase by only 0.5% over

the next 2 years. This table shows the variation for major varieties (in

Ha), with % change and percentage of total in 2012.

Region 0-5 5.01-10 10.01-20 20.01-50 50.01 &

over

Regional

Total

Aklnd / Nthlnd 90 14 4 0 1 109

Canterbury 26 7 2 0 1 36

Gisborne 26 33 24 12 7 102

Hawkes Bay 81 67 64 32 22 266

Marlborough 203 315 214 182 101 1015

Nelson 55 36 17 7 3 118

Otago 100 67 28 17 3 215

Waikato / BoP 9 1 — — — 10

Waipara 23 21 9 8 4 65

Wairarapa / Wgtn 78 17 10 10 3 118

National 691 578 372 268 145 2054

CountryLitres

(m)$ FOB

Average

$/L 2014

Average

$/L 2013

UK 52,189 318,578 $5.73

USA 49,124 328,442 $6.69 $6.62

Australia 53,643 382,038 $7.12 $7.44

Canada 7,579 78,127 $10.31 $10.78

Netherlands 5,437 36,273 $6.67 $6.36

Denmark 0.759 5,975 $7.87 $6.87

Ireland 2,173 15,971 $7.35 $7.10

Japan 1,205 14,061 $11.67 $11.69

Germany 2,690 14,557 $5.41 $5.92

China 1,819 24,891 $13.68 $12.24

Hong Kong 1,381 17,666 $12.79 $12.94

Singapore 1,572 20,960 $13.33 $12.83

Finland 0.260 2,301 $8.82 $8.31

Norway 0.336 2,850 $8.47 $6.59

Sweden 1,495 12,143 $8.12 $8.37

Others 5,655 54,881 $9.70 $9.65

TOTAL 187,325,295 1,329,720,617 $7.10 $7.11


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

Information and Updates on NZ Winegrowers Research Programmes.

Editor: Dr Simon Hooker, General Manager Research and Innovation

LIST OF PROJECTS

RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT

Quality Wine Styles for Existing and Developing MarketsThe pathway of volatile sulphur compounds in wine yeast – The Bragato Trust and NZW ScholarshipUniversity of Auckland – (Dr Bruno Fedrizzi - student Matias Kinzurk)

Literature review of grape and wine anthocyanins and phenolics to give viticulturists and winemakers knowledgeLincoln University (Roland Harrison)

Preliminary investigation of factors responsible for variability in tartaric acid additions to Pinot noirLincoln University (Roland Harrison)

Influence of juice pH on thiol productionPlant and Food Research (Claire Grose)

Identification of natural genetic variation in grapevine contributing to pathogen resistanceLincoln University (Chris Winefield)

The pathway of volatile sulphur compounds in wine yeast – The Bragato Trust and NZW ScholarshipUniversity of Auckland (Dr Bruno Fedrizzi - student Matias Kinzurk)

Pests and DiseaseVirus diversity in New Zealand grapevines: sequence, ecology and impact – The Rod Bonfiglioli ScholarshipPlant and Food Research (Dr 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

Implementation of Virus Elimination Strategy Various (Nick Hoskins – Project Manager)Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund

Virus diversity in New Zealand grapevines: sequence, ecology and impact – The Rod Bonfiglioli ScholarshipPlant and Food Research (Dr Robin MacDiarmid - student Arnaud Blouin)

Sector weather data licence & toolsHortPlus (NZ) Ltd.

Sustainability/OrganicsOrganic Focus Vineyard Project Organic Winegrowers New Zealand(Rebecca Reider) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund

Effects of undervine vegetation management on grape quality, vine performance, grape composition, and soil propertiesEastern Institute of Technology (EIT)(Mark Krasnow)

Cost Reduction/Increased ProfitabilityNew opportunities for sustainable grape thinning Plant and Food Research (Mike Trought) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund

Reduced berry size and Botrytis tolerance through trauma to the vinePlant and Food Research (Mike Trought)


PROGRESSREPORTS

New opportunities for sustainable grape thinning – what have we learned after five years of research?Trought M1*, Neal S1, Mundy D1, Grose C1, Pineau B2, Beresford M2, McLachlan A3, Allen M4

1 The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Marlborough Wine Research Centre, PO Box 845, Blenheim2Plant & Food Research, Auckland3Plant & Food Research, Palmerston North4Allen Vineyard Advisory, Blenheim

*Corresponding author [email protected]

11-101

The production of high quality wine starts in the vineyard by growing fruit capable of delivering optimal grape flavour attributes. This has to be done profitably by minimising costs and maximising the return to growers and winer-ies. In some recent years (between 2009 to 2014), grape yields above the contracted target obliged some growers to remove fruit.

Historically this was generally done by hand thinning vines after fruit set, a labour-intensive and expensive exercise. A New Zea-land Winegrowers programme investigating the use of machine harvesters to thin vines shortly after fruit set was started in 2009.

Initial trials focused on Mar-lborough Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. In 2011 this was expanded through additional funding from a Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund grant to include Pinot noir and Pinot Gris in Marlborough, and Merlot and Pinot Gris in Hawke’s Bay.

Machine harvesters (Gregoire, Pellanc, Braud and Nairn) were used to shake vines shortly after fruit set, once yields had been established, to remove a propor-tion of the fruit on the vines.

Initial concerns that machine thinning may increase disease (in

particular the incidence of botrytis bunch rot) proved unfounded.

In fact, machine thinning resulted in the same or lower incidence and severity of botrytis bunch rot than was found in the unthinned con-trols at harvest. While dis-ease pressure was generally low (reflecting good botrytis management by the commer-cial vineyards on which trials were undertaken), on one site in 2012 the severity of botry-tis bunch rot was reduced on Pinot gris from 13.1% to 1.8% as a result of machine thinning.

Our research indicates that this is the result of a combination of factors, including the presence of less-dense bunches, caused by berry loss during thinning and/or smaller berries at harvest.

This reduced compactness of the bunch means that the berries do not suffer the same degree of splitting as they expand and press against each other during ripening.

Likewise mycelia growth from one berry to another is likely to be slower.

Another factor contributing to reduced botrytis severity is the removal of significant amounts of trash from within the bunches

(Figure 1). This trash (flower caps, aborted berries etc.) forms a potent Botrytis cinerea inocu-lum source within the bunch and an initial infection source within the bunch.

A third factor that may con-tribute to reduced susceptibility of berries to infection is increas-ing skin thickness and/or elicitor concentrations. While machine thinning is unlikely to replace the use of fungicides in the vineyard entirely, it does potentially pro-vide a useful, non-chemical, means of reducing botrytis risk at harvest.

Mechanical thinning, unlike hand thinning, reduced average Sauvignon Blanc bunch and berry weights (Table 1) and increased the proportion of small berries at

all sites. This effect, caused by a transient slowing of berry growth shortly after thinning, was consistently observed in all the trials. Approximately seven days after thinning, ber-ries resumed a growth rate equivalent to that seen in the unthinned controls, but failed to catch up in size by harvest.

This slowing of berry d e v e l o p m e n t w a s a l s o reflected in the later date of véraison, of generally four to five days, once vines had been machine thinned.

However, the lower yields resulted in faster soluble solids accumulation, and generally har-vest dates were either unaffected or advanced over those of the unthinned controls. The earlier harvest dates, together with the lower disease pressure, combined to reduce botrytis severity further at harvest (Figure 2).

Accurately assessing the amount of fruit removed during machine thinning has proved dif-ficult.

However, when the weight of fruit collected in the trays under the vine was expressed as a pro-portion of vine yield at thinning, a relationship has been devel-oped using combined data col-

Figure 1: Trash on a white tray after machine thinning Sauvignon Blanc vines. The tray was placed in the row directly under the vine to assess the amount of fruit removed during thinning.


lected from 13 Sauvignon Blanc trials conducted between 2009 and 2013.

This indicated that the total vine yield loss at harvest was twice that collected under the vines at thinning i.e. a weight of fruit in the tray equal to 10% of the crop at the time of thinning resulted in a 20% yield reduction at harvest.

The difficulties in predicting yield reductions reflect the vine-to-vine yield variability and differ-ences in canopy structure within and between vineyards.

At the same time, the time of day (fruit appeared to be easier to remove early in the morning) and/or changes in the machine, in particular the temperature of the beater rods, also appeared to affect the degree of fruit removal. These changes in fruit removal responses are well known by machine harvester operators, who when harvesting vines will adjust the machine settings accordingly.

Exceptionally high yields were experienced in 2014, with the result that approximately 2,500 ha of vines were commercially machine thinned in Marlborough alone. Unlike in our trials, most commercial trials did not remove the belts or “elephant ears” from the harvester.

To determine the amount of fruit removed at any setting, we operated the machine over a pre-determined row length, collecting the fruit in the belts. The machine was then emptied by running the belts into a bucket, and collect-ing the fruit from the on-board gondola to measure the amount removed. This protocol has a number of potential advantages, as the harvester does not have to be modified before thinning, the degree of fruit removal is deter-mined over a greater distance, it integrates the vineyard variability, and thinning assessment can be undertaken several times during the day to ensure that the original settings are still appropriate.

Field observations suggest that yield reductions were gener-ally greater where beaters struck within the fruiting zone. Of the varieties assessed, the degree of yield reduction in Riesling was the easiest to determine, as the machine removed whole bunches. In contrast, thinning the other varieties generally resulted in berries and/or part bunches being removed.

The commercial thinning in the 2103-14 season started in late December and continued into early February. At this time we fielded numerous enquiries from the industry, which raised some additional questions, in particular:

How early and late in fruit development can machine thin-ning be used?

We concluded that berries needed to have sufficient mass for efficient thinning to occur. Thinning Merlot vines in 2011 was a challenge, the fruit having insufficient mass, and as a result machine settings caused damage to shoots and bunches. In this par-ticular case, as the vines were spur pruned, damage to shoots gener-ally occurred above the pruning cuts, but had the vines been cane pruned, some problems at prun-ing might have been anticipated, particularly with canes breaking during wrapping. We concluded that berries needed to be greater than 5 mm in diameter before thin-ning should be implemented.

In our trials in 2009-10, mechanical thinning was under-

taken on two separate dates (four weeks post flowering on 13 January 2010) or shortly before bunch clo-sure (26 January 2010). The tim-ing of thinning had no significant (P<0.05) effect on yield, berry or bunch weight, although the early thinning resulted in a soluble sol-ids content at harvest of 22.1 oBrix compared with 21.1 oBrix for the later thinning.

Experience in Australia has indicated that vines should not be machine thinned once fruit start to soften and are far more easily damaged. At this time, grape juice is very acidic and machine thin-ning can cause defoliation of vines.

How much crop can be removed?

We received requests from growers in January 2014 asking if machine thinning could be used to reduce yields by 20 T/ha (or 50% of the original potential yield). This degree of thinning is significantly greater than we have undertaken in our trials, and our answer to that answer to the question is “no” - that to remove this amount of the crop will probably result in

damage to the canopy (and potentially the machine har-vester).

In our opinion, aiming for this degree of crop removal empha-sises the need to gain good yield estimates early in the growing season, at a time that cane cutting could be undertaken.

Further moderate yield reduc-tion could be undertaken using machine thinning after that time, if required, for botrytis manage-ment.

Can one set the machine up to thin vines by trunk shaking only?

Research reported elsewhere (Trought et al. 2014a) indicates that shaking the trunk alone does not provide sufficient shaking to the canopy as a whole. Trunk shaking affects only bunches around the head of the vine, hav-ing little effect on bunches aris-ing from shoots at the end of the canes.

In total, 26 wines were vini-fied at the Plant & Food Research micro-vinification unit from seven sites over three seasons (five Sau-vignon Blanc, four Pinot Gris and two each of Pinot Noir and Mer-

Yield (kg/wine) Average bunch weight (g)

Average berry weight (g)

Unthinned control 16.3 c* 150 c 1.86 c

Hand thinned 11.9 ab 140 c 1.83 c

Light machine thinned 12.5 b 120 b 1.61 b

Heavy machine thinned 9.4 a 103 a 1.49 a

*Thinning treatment means in each column with different letters are significantly different (<0.05).

Table 1: Influence of thinning on vine yield, bunch number and bunch weight of Sauvignon blanc at harvest maturity (Trought et al. 2012b). Vines were thinned by hand or machine shortly after fruit set. Thinning was undertaken using a Nairn harvester with a ground speed of 3.2 km/h and beater speeds of 400 or 459 strokes per minute for light and heavy machine thinning respectively.

Figure 2. The estimated degree of botrytis bunch rot incidence for the various Sauvignon Blanc thinning treatments at harvest (vertical bars are the harvest dates of each treatment at 21.5°Brix) (Trought et al. 2012b). Vines were planted 2 m apart within the row. Vine yields are given in Table 1.


lot). All wines were subjected to formal sensory evaluation.

In each case, where fruit from machine thinned vines were har-vested at equivalent soluble solids content to fruit from un-thinned vines, our expert panel, with the odd exception could not differ-entiate wines made from grapes from the machine-thinned and non machine-thinned treatments.

The study provided evidence that, on an experimental scale, machine thinning of grape vines had no detrimental sensory effect on the resulting wine, irrespective of the grape variety considered.

An experimental, acceler-ated aging protocol (storing the wines at 50oC for nine weeks and measuring the OD 420, browning

of wine) was used to investigate the potential of wines to store for prolonged periods.

With the exception of Pinot gris, machine thinning appeared to have no adverse effect on the ability of wines to age. After nine weeks of storage, wine made from machine-thinned Pinot Gris had a higher OD420 value than the non-machine thinned control, although this also reflected dif-ferences in browning at the start of the storage experiment. Con-clusions

Mechanically thinning grape vines, shortly after fruit set, pro-vides a valuable tool to growers for crop reduction.

We conclude that machine thinning had no adverse effects on

wine sensory properties or aging ability, but generally reduced bot-rytis severity at harvest through a combination of reduced bunch trash, compactness and increased resistance of the skin to Botrytis cinerea infection.

The high yields in the 2014 sea-son resulted in machine thinning being used on approximately 2,500 ha of vines in Marlborough.

Further details of protocols for machine use for thinning/Botry-tis management can be found in reports listed in the reference section and on the New Zealand Winegrowers Fact Sheet “Mechan-ical thinning & yield reduction”.

AcknowledgementsThis research was commis-

sioned and funded by New Zea-land Winegrowers (NZW08-334; NZW11-101).

Additional funding from the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund is appreciated.

The support is appreciated of wine companies, in particular Villa Maria, Wither Hills, Pernod Ricard, Constellation and Matador Estate, who actively participated in the programme, providing staff, vineyards and machines for the trials.

We also recognise and thank the Plant & Food Research labo-ratory, winery and field staff at the Marlborough Wine Research Centre who assisted in the smooth running of the programme.

Prevalence of grapevine trunk disease in New Zealand vineyardsMark Sosnowski1 and Dion Mundy2

1South Australian Research & Development Institute2The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited

13-100

IntroductionEutypa and botryosphaeria

dieback are major grapevine trunk diseases worldwide, causing sig-nificant yield and quality reduc-tion. Trunk pathogens infect vines through pruning wounds, colonise woody tissue, and cause dieback of cordons and trunks, observed as dark wedge-shaped tissue in cross-section.

The Eutypa lata fungus pro-duces toxic metabolites which are translocated to the foliage, caus-ing stunted shoots, necrotic and distorted leaves, reduced bunch size and uneven ripening.

Up to 100% of vines in older vineyards are affected by trunk diseases around the world. New

Zealand vineyards have been recorded with species that cause both botryosphaeria and eutypa dieback. With reliance on the highly susceptible variety Sau-vignon Blanc, trunk diseases threaten the sustainability of the $1.9 billion New Zealand wine industry and are becoming an increasing problem as vineyards age.

A survey of vineyards was con-ducted in the Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough regions to provide a snapshot of the extent of trunk disease in the country. It will also provide data for economic analy-sis of the cost of the disease to the industry and the benefits of man-aging trunk disease.

SurveyIn December 2013, 256 vineyard

blocks were assessed in Hawke’s Bay, ranging in age from 4 to 24 years and included 21 varieties, with Chardonnay and Merlot the most common. In Marlborough, 441 vineyard blocks were assessed, ranging in age from 4 to 33 years, and included 11 varieties with Sau-vignon Blanc and Pinot Noir the most common. The average age of all vineyards surveyed was 12 years old, which was also the aver-age age of the vineyards surveyed in each region. The proportion of blocks surveyed for each variety was consistent with the propor-tional area planted to each variety in New Zealand.

In each block, 200 vines were visually assessed for both dieback and foliar symptoms of eutypa die-back. Symptoms classed as ‘die-back’ consisted of at least two dead spurs or dead canes on at least one side of a vine. Missing vines were not counted in the survey, as it was not possible to determine the cause of the vine loss. Whilst it was possibly trunk disease, it may also have been because of virus elimination or other causes. The numbers of vines with the above symptoms were counted and inci-dence calculated.

Data were analysed by linear regression, and coefficients of determination (R2) were calcu-lated using Microsoft® Excel, and


results and correlations presented graphically.

ObservationsDieback symptoms, which

ranged from two dead spurs to dead arms and completely dead vines, were observed in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough (Figure 1a-d).

Foliar symptoms character-istic of eutypa dieback were also observed in vineyards in both regions (Figure 2a-d, pg 135).

Other observations during the surveys were the proactive management strategies in place in some vineyards, including the use of remedial surgery to renew

infected vines (Figure 3a, pg 136), and removal of dead arms from vines, temporarily heaped up at the end of rows (Figure 3b), which will eventually be removed completely from the vineyard to avoid their becoming sources of further inoculum. In addition, the use of pruning wound paints was seen in some vineyards on pruning wounds ranging in size from 1-year-old spur wounds to large trunk wounds (Figure 3c). However, there was also evidence of poor wound coverage in some instances from either careless application (Figure 3d), sap flow after paint was applied (Figure 3e), no protection at all (Figure

3f ), or applying paint years after the wound had callused (Figure 3g). Another observation was that some dead arms were associated with strangulation of cordons on the trellis wire (Figure 3h), which may have been caused by wrapping canes too tightly.

Effect of variety, age and region

Data for the nine varieties that were represented by 10 or more vineyards in the survey of both regions combined are presented in Table 1. Malbec and Caber-net Sauvignon were observed to have the greatest overall mean incidence of dieback, 31 and 21%,

respectively. Chardonnay, Riesling and Syrah had 11-13% incidence of dieback. Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris were recorded with only 6-8% incidence, and notably lower average ages of 9-12 years, except for Merlot (14 years old). When only considering mature vines (15+ years old), the incidence of die-back in Sauvignon Blanc was 17%, which was greater than that for all other varieties except Malbec (49%), Cabernet Sauvignon (32%), Chardonnay and Syrah (22%). The overall mean incidence of foliar symptoms was low, with a maxi-mum of 2.6% for Cabernet Sauvi-gnon, down to no foliar symptoms

Figure 1. Grapevine trunk disease symptoms observed during the December 2013 survey of Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough vineyards: (a-b) dead arms, (c) dieback, (d) trunk canker and (e) dead vine.

Fig 1a Fig 1b

Fig 1c Fig 1d Fig 1e


Figure 2. Foliar symptoms of eutypa dieback observed during the December 2013 survey of Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough vineyards.

recorded on three varieties.The influence of vine age and

region on incidence of dieback and foliar symptoms is shown in Fig-ure 4. The youngest vines recorded with dieback in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough were 4 (3%) and 6 (2%) years old, respectively. The prevalence of dieback increased with age, more rapidly in Hawke’s Bay (2.4% per year on average) than in Marlborough (1.3%), with a great deal of variation observed in both regions. The maximum incidence of dieback recorded was 88% in a 19-year-old vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and 80% in a 14-year-old vineyard in Marlborough.

The incidence of foliar symp-toms was considerably lower than that of dieback. Foliar symptoms of eutypa dieback were recorded on vines as young as 7 years old in both regions, with incidences of 0.5-1%. The prevalence of foliar

symptoms increased with age but at a lower rate than that of dieback incidence. Foliar symp-tom incidence increased by <0.1% per year on average in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough, with vari-ation observed in both regions. In Hawke’s Bay, the maximum incidence of foliar symptoms recorded was 10.5% in a 21-year-old vineyard and in Marlborough, 1.7% in a 33-year-old vineyard.

The influence of age on inci-dence of dieback for varieties rep-resented in at least 15 vineyards in both regions combined is shown in Figure 5. One Cabernet Sauvi-gnon vineyard had reached 88% incidence of dieback by 19 years of age, and a Pinot Noir vineyard had 80% by 14 years of age. Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Sauvi-gnon Blanc were recorded with maxima of 62, 59 and 51% dieback incidence in 9-, 21- and 8-year-old

Fig 2a Fig 2b

Fig 2c

Fig 2d


vines, respectively. A Merlot vine-yard was recorded with the low-est maximum incidence of 27%. The greatest mean rate of increase (6.8% per year) for dieback inci-dence was recorded in Cabernet Sauvignon, greater than that of all

other varieties, ranging between 3.3 and 0.3% per year. Sauvignon Blanc was recorded to have 1.3% increase in dieback incidence each year.

The greatest incidences of foliar symptoms were recorded

in a Cabernet Sauvignon vine-yard (10.5%, 21 years old) and a Sauvignon Blanc vineyard (7%, 19 years old). Foliar symptoms were recorded on up to 2.3% of all other varieties, with no foliar symptoms recorded in any Merlot vineyards.

DiscussionPreliminary analysis of the sur-

vey data indicates that Cabernet Sauvignon is the variety most sus-ceptible to trunk disease, and Pinot Gris and Merlot the least suscepti-

Fig 3a

Fig 3b

Fig 3c

Fig 3d Fig 3e

Figure 3. Observations from the December 2013 grapevine trunk disease survey in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough vineyards: (a) remedial surgery, (b) dead arms removed from vines in a pile awaiting removal, (c) pruning wound protected with paint (d) careless application coverage, (e) poor coverage due to sap flow, (f) no coverage on a large wound, (g) poor timing of application and (h) trellis wire strangulation of cordon.


VarietyBlocks surveyedAverage age (y)

Dieback incidence (%) Folia symptom incidence (%)

4-9 yo10-14

yo15+ yo

All 4-9 yo10-14

yo15+ yo

All

Sauvignon Blanc 265 11 7 4 17 6 0.01 0.03 0.29 0.08

Pinot Noir 115 12 0 6 14 7 0 0.01 0 0

Chardonnay 107 14 0.5 5 22 11 0 0 0.13 0.06

Merlot 55 14 2 6 10 8 0 0 0 0

Pinot Gris 42 9 6 6 10 6 0.04 0 0 0.02

Cabernet Sauvignon 32 14 na 14 32 21 na 2.64 1.89 2.64

Syrah 15 12 3 12 22 13 0 0.05 0 0.09

Malbec 12 18 na 15 49 31 na 0 0 0.14

Riesling 10 16 3 11 14 11 0 0 0 0

Table 1. Grapevine varieties surveyed in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough in December 2013, number of blocks and average age (years) for each variety. The mean incidence of vines recorded with dieback and foliar symptoms are given for vines: 4-9 years, 10-14 years, 15+ years and all vines.

Figure 3. Observations from the December 2013 grapevine trunk disease survey in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough vineyards: (f) no coverage on a large wound, (g) poor timing of application and (h) trellis wire strangulation of cordon.

Fig 3f Fig 3g

Fig 3h

na = not applicable

ble, supporting results from previous research and surveys in Australia.

Many vineyards in Australia are up 50 years old, whereas most New Zealand vineyards are still less than 25 years old. This age difference may account for the lower mean incidences of trunk disease symptoms observed in this

survey than in previous surveys in Australia. The fungi that cause eutypa and botryospha-eria progress and kill mature grapevine wood at a rate from 10 to 80 mm/year, depending on the species and variety, so it can take many years for external dieback symptoms to become visible. Similarly, foliar symptoms of eutypa

dieback take from 3 to 8 years after infection to manifest.. The older the vineyards become, the more chance they have to be infected and then for symptoms to be expressed. In this survey, vineyards that were 15 years of age and above tended to have greater incidences of both die-back and foliar symptoms. Given the average


age of vineyards in the survey was 12 years, it can be expected that there will be a marked increase in trunk disease incidence in New Zealand vineyards over the next decade if strategies for managing disease are not implemented.

Sauvignon Blanc vines have been reported as being highly susceptible to trunk disease in Australia.

The average age of Sauvignon Blanc vines in this survey was only 11 years. It could be reasonably expected that once New Zealand vines mature, in the absence of management strategies, they too will exhibit a high incidence of trunk disease symptoms.

Incidence of symptoms was greater in Hawke’s Bay than in Marlborough. As the average age of vineyards in both regions was the same, and annual rainfall similar in each region, the most likely rea-son for the difference is the higher prevalence of cordon pruning in Hawke’s Bay. Long-term research in France has revealed that foliar symptoms of eutypa dieback are more prevalent in cordon-pruned vines, but that greater mortality occurs in cane-pruned vines.

Therefore symptoms will be visible earlier on cordon-pruned vines, which have greater num-bers and surface area of pruning wounds than cane-pruned vines.

However, large wounds located close to the trunk on cane-pruned vines can lead to infection, caus-ing vine death in mature vines with fewer visible external symptoms.

Linear regression coefficients were relatively low for relation-ships between vine age and inci-dence of dieback (R2 = 0.3) and extremely low for incidence foliar symptoms (R2=0.07).

Coefficients improved for some varieties to R2≤0.5 for die-back symptoms.

However, these results indicate that variables other than age and variety may account for the inci-dence of trunk disease symptoms.

Additional data col-lected from growers, including information on clone, rootstock, pruning management system, remediation, frost protection and i r r i g a t i o n s y s te m will be analysed and may provide a clearer u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the effect of planting material and vine-yard management on disease incidence. In addition, survey data are being incorpo-rated into an economic analysis to establish the cost of trunk diseases, and the benefits to the wine industry of man-aging them.

Encouraging obser-vations during the sur-vey were the extensive use of pruning wound paints and remedial surgery already being practised. However, rather than waiting until symptoms appear, early intervention will be important to avoid infection of young vines. During the sur-veys, poor coverage of wounds with paints for various reasons was also observed, which will reduce efficacy, so it is imperative to ensure good coverage.

The current project is also developing more practical and efficient methods for the pro-tection of pruning wounds against infection so that this can become a routine practice in New Zealand vineyards.

It is recommended that this survey be repeated in the same vineyards in 5 and/or 10 years, to monitor the rate of increase in disease incidence and impact of management strategies. In this

survey, only vines 4 years of age and over were included, to target disease caused by pruning wound infection. There is also a need for future surveys in vines 3 years and under, to establish the status of young vine decline.

AcknowledgementsThis project was made possi-

ble by funding from New Zealand Winegrowers and the New Zealand

Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF 13-071). The authors wish to thank the survey team for their contri-bution: Mike Manning, Matthew Ayres, José Ramón Úrbez Torres, Amna Shafi and Marlene Jaspers. We also thank Villa Maria, Pernod-Ricard NZ, Delegats and Constel-lation Brands for providing access to and detailed information on vineyards.■

Figure 5. The relationship between age and variety on incidence of dieback in grapevines for both regions combined, surveyed in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough in December 2013.

Figure 4: The relationship between age and region on incidence of dieback and foliar symptoms in all grapevine varieties combined, surveyed in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough in December 2013.

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