Viticulture –the future is now

150 years ago the first vineyard was planted in Marlborough. Since then, extraordinary progress has been made in our viticulture industry. Technological advancements designed and implemented in Marlborough are world-leading, Judene Edgar explores just far we’ve come.

In 1873, a small vineyard of brown muscat was established in the Fairhall area by David Herd. Two years later, in 1875, the first wine was produced commercially. Known for its lucerne, cherries and barley, it was another 100 years before the most significant commercial developments were to happen. In 1973, Montana, the country’s largest wine producer, bought 1200 hectares of flat land in Marlborough and an industry was born. At the opening ceremony, Frank Yukich, who took the gamble and paid the deposit out of his own pocket while waiting for the Montana board to make its decision, said that “wines from here will become world famous”. And indeed, a few years later when Sauvignon Blanc was produced, it wowed the international market.

Now New Zealand’s largest wine producing region with around 30,000 hectares – just over 70% of the country’s wine producing area – Marlborough’s wine industry accounts for 18 percent of the region’s economy and one in four jobs. Growth over the past three decades has been exponential, with the vineyard area doubling between 2000 and 2008 alone.

But the next frontier is technology.

Wine Marlborough’s general manager Marcus Pickens says, with critical challenges facing the industry, such as land and resource use, “it’s important to challenge assumptions – on everything! Challenging times bring innovation as well as greater awareness of well-being”. Research and technology are increasingly helping with labour efficiencies and safety, winemaking innovations, reducing carbon emissions, vineyard systems and more.

“The industry is constantly evolving and striving to innovate and do things differently. Just because it’s always been done a certain way, doesn’t mean that it should continue being done that way,” he says. “Good data, good evidence and trials are needed to make good decisions. We do that pretty well as an industry.”

The key to some of the industry’s biggest advancements has been collaboration.

Dr Stewart Field, viticulture tutor and researcher with Te Pūkenga – Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) says there have been some major changes over the past few years resulting in the creation of the New Zealand Wine CentreTe Whare ā Waina Aotearoa at NMIT’s Blenheim Campus. The centre is a collaboration between NMIT, Plant & Food Research, Bragato Research Institute (BRI), Marlborough Research Centre (MRC), Wine Marlborough, Sustainable Winegrowing NZ, and local and central government to form an integrated hub for innovation, research and education.

Opened in 2022, Stewart says “we now have worldleading facilities that are a draw-card for the region, the wine industry and students. It’s really changed the campus,” he says. “Students not only get to work alongside researchers, but we also get to see some of their outcomes implemented in the field.”

The latest collaboration is the Experimental Future Vineyard (EFV). The new 600m2 facility which is due to open next year will provide a controlled environment to expand current research to prepare for future challenges. Plant & Food Research will operate the facility and develop research programmes in collaboration with MRC, NMIT, industry and government. The EFV will enable research to be conducted within the vine and beneath the soil, and allow researchers to control aspects of vine growth such as soil type, temperature and water availability.

“Viticulture regions around the world are all very different, yet face many of the same challenges,” says Dr Damian Martin, Science Group Leader Viticulture and Oenology at Plant & Food Research and member of the MRC’s advisory committee. “We know climate change will add to the challenges of wine production with warmer days, more pest and diseases, and greater weather volatility. We also know that consumer expectations are changing with an increased focus on sustainability.”

Labour shortages, reduced reliance on agrichemicals, soil erosion, climate change, drought, rain, ecosystem management and limited land availability are just some of the challenges facing the industry. Many of these elements are dependent on soil health, hence the focus on below-ground factors. “They’re harder to study so we needed specialised facilities. Field studies take a long time to see changes, so the Experimental Future Vineyard will enable us to go a lot faster and learn quickly,” says Damian. Despite the similarity of the issues faced, Damian says that the solutions will be very different depending upon the vineyard – from small boutique single vineyard producers to large multinationals and everything in-between.

The Marlborough wine industry has already seen a number of steep-changes – the rise of Sauvignon Blanc, introduction of grafted grapevines, introduction of cover crops – but Damian feels that technology is now disrupting the industry. “The facility will also be a good place for tech developers and start-ups to come in and work alongside us.” down digital scenarios, we could pick options to conduct field trials. It’s been 10 years in the making, but we’re really committed to the use of digital technology to improve the sector and make research more efficient.”

Mechanisation is also continuing to grow with the use of drones, self-driving tractors, three-row sprayers, dual operation (mowing and spraying together), machine stripping and barrel pruning. And a lot of these innovations come from Marlborough.

Vineflight provides aerial mapping, vineyard analytics and thermal imagery which can help growers analyse such things as crop cover removal, vine count and canopy gap measurement. Their analytic system also allows growers to assess vine health, identify missing vines, and the extent of any disease.

Another local innovation is the Oxin – a driverless tractor which uses artificial intelligence to do labourintensive tasks such as mowing, mulching, and vine weed spraying. Developed by Smart Machine in conjunction with Pernod Ricard Winemakers, they are already looking to add further functionality to their machines.

Another important element of the EFV is that it is a “hub for national and international connection,” says Damian. “It will be a magnet for collaboration and expertise.”

Pam Wood, curriculum area manager of primary, food and environmental industries, says that NMIT is a “really unique campus in terms of being able to bring all different aspects of business, research, education and related organisations onto the one campus. Nowhere else would you get that level of specialism.”

Being able to work alongside national and international researchers and industry at the NZ Wine Centre enables “cross-pollination” of ideas and research. “Around the coffee cups on a dayto-day basis we’re able to discuss work, research and international exchange programmes. And when visiting researchers come, our students are able to be involved,” she says.

One of Plant & Food Research’s latest innovations is an orchard ‘digital twin’. Successfully used in a number of different sectors, no one has created a virtual orchard until now. A digital twin could help scientists and growers predict what would happen as a result of multiple future scenarios: increasing carbon dioxide, rising temperatures, changing crops, altering pesticides and so on.

“It can take up to 10 years to trial and collect data from a new canopy system for example, but with a digital twin we can run simulations and have results in a few weeks,” says Damian. “Once we’ve narrowed

“It’s really exciting the amount of data students will be able to access in the future to make decisions with all of the new technologies, some of which will be trialled and tested in the new facility. It will herald a new wave of vineyard managers,” says Stewart.

As most students are now working while studying, they’re also bringing into the classroom what they’re learning in practice, which brings an enormous depth of knowledge, and they’re also getting to apply their knowledge on a daily basis.

“Students need to be much more business- and tech-savvy these days; balancing the daily impacts of weather, environment, staffing, health and safety, logistics and so much more,” says Pam. “We’re preparing them for the future.”