NZ Winegrower April/May 2016

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ISSUE AP

NEW ZEALAND WINEGROWER

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97

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF NEW ZEALAND WINEGROWERS

A P RI L/ MAY 2016

I SSU E 9 7

ISBC 2016 ✽ LOW A LCOHOL HE A DACHE ✽ V IN TAGE PR E V IE W ✽ FA MILY V IN ES

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w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / G l a s s I s L i f e

CONTENTS

ISSUE 97

24 R E GUL A R S

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ISBC 2016

Highlights from the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration. From Oz Clarke, to Matt Kramer, Alexandre Schmitt to Robert Joseph, plus an in-depth look at some of the sessions from the NZSVO Workshop held prior to the Celebration.

Editorial Tessa Nicholson

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From the CEO

Philip Gregan

8

In Brief

News from around the country

36

Family Vines

Ben and Jack Glover

52

Science of Wine

Dion Mundy

56

Bob’s Blog

Bob Campbell MW

76

Not On The Label

Legal Matters with Bell Gully

81

Calendar

Wine happenings in New Zealand

82

Research Supplement

The latest science and research projects funded by NZ Winegrowers

Cover Shot: International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration 2016. Supplied by NZW

FEATURES

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Family Vines

This month we talk to two brothers, who entered the world of wine in separate disciplines, but are now working together for a major corporation. Ben and Jack Glover from Accolade Wines are our Brothers in Wine.

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45 Low Alcohol Headache

When Felton Road’s lower alcohol Riesling was left languishing on the dock, it rang alarm bells for many producers. Blair Walter explains what happened and why – plus we have the EU regulations pertaining to lower alcohol wine.

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Are Wine Gadgets Worth Your Time

They are appearing everywhere these days – gadgets to help you enjoy that special bottle of wine. Lee Suckling takes a closer look at the latest technology and explores whether it is a must-have, or simply the latest craze.

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E D I TO R Tessa Nicholson tessa.nicholson@me.com

FROM THE EDITOR TESSA NICHOLSON

CO R R E SP O N D E NTS Auckland: Joelle Thomson joellethomson@vodafone.co.nz Gisborne: Justine Tyerman justine.tyerman@clear.net.nz Hawkes Bay: Mary Shanahan maryshanahan173@gmail.com Nelson: Neil Hodson neil@hodgson.net.nz Central Otago: Mark Orton seeingredmedia@yahoo.com

A DV E R T I SI N G Sales Manager & Upper North Island: Stephen Pollard stephenp@ruralnews.co.nz Ph: 09 913 9637 Mobile: 021 963 166 Central North Island: Ted Darley ted@ruralnews.co.nz Ph: 07 854 6292 Mobile: 021 832 505 Lower North Island: Ron Mackay Ph: 04 234 6239 Mobile: 021 453 914 South Island: Kaye Sutherland kayes@ruralnews.co.nz Ph: 03 376 5552 Mobile: 021 221 1994

C I R C U L AT I O N & SUBSCRIPTIONS Lorraine Rudelj lorraine@nzwine.com Ph: 09 303 3527 Fax: 09 302 2969 New Zealand Winegrowers PO Box 90 276, Auckland Mail Centre, New Zealand

PUBLISHING & P R E - P R E SS 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

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

UNASHAMED AND PROUD OF IT

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achievement. his issue of NZ Winegrower is unaWe are renowned for having a tall poppy shamedly dedicated to Sauvignon attitude here in New Zealand. Stick your Blanc. head above the parapet and then wait for it I say unashamedly because if one to be knocked off. Sauvignon Blanc has done thing came out of the recent International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration it was that New just that. It has not just stuck its head up Zealanders should be standing tall and proud high, it has floated over the entire country.

For a number of years the pot shots taken of what we have achieved as a winemaking at the variety have continued to grow. As nation. We should be singing from the Oz Clarke said; “To be frank, this is the rooftops about how brilliant our Sauvignon grape variety that, every three years at the Blanc is, instead of being embarrassed about Pinot Noir Celebrations just over the water it. in Wellington, I have to stand and defend We should never scorn it, citing its lack almost single-handed.” of seriousness or the lack of intellectual and He, like Matt Kramer, Robert Joseph, technical talents involved in creating it.

Daenna van Mulligan, Jamie Goode and a We should be reveling in the fact plethora of others consumers cannot get his head the world over around why some in adore it. They We should be singing from the rooftops about how brilliant our Sauvignon Blanc is. New Zealand want can’t wait to to snub or even buy it or drink worse denigrate it. And let’s Sauvignon. face it, isn’t As for those who predict an unseemly end that why people make wine? So others can to the world’s fascination with Sauvignon enjoy it?

Blanc, Matt Kramer put an end to that But maybe those that ridicule, dismiss particular sentiment. and ignore Sauvignon Blanc don’t care about “I guarantee there is a group of consumers. As Oz Clarke asked – are they handwringers and naysayers – some instead only interested in the wine snob? even inside your own industry – who are Are they so easily bored and therefore saying; ‘it’s all over, oh it’s done, oh their busy searching for the newest thing, that they star in the sky has fallen’.

I have heard this have forgotten just who it is that pays their about Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. It’s way – the consumer? nonsense!”

The fact of the matter is, Marlborough It would appear he is right, especially Sauvignon Blanc placed New Zealand on the when you consider how much Sauvignon world’s wine map. It has paved the way for Blanc left our shores last year. Any guesses? other regions and varieties to make their own How about 242,305,333 bottles. Now that mark. It has allowed winemakers throughout is something to shout about. the country to fulfill their dreams of creating So welcome to NZ Winegrower – The wine that has a market crying out for it.

Sauvignon Blanc issue.

Which in just 40 years is quite an

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FROM THE CEO PHILIP GREGAN

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST RISK FOR THE NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY?

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of questionable quality. Was the preferences … ? he recent International cause complacency or perhaps For what it is worth the Sauvignon Blanc arrogance? Whatever the reason, answer I gave was: ‘That’s easy, Celebration (ISBC) we got ourselves into trouble … complacency is the big risk as I and all the associated and to be fair we got ourselves see it’. events – the Sommit, Foraging out of the difficulties. Our wine So why ‘complacency’? in Waipara, the Central Otago quality has steadily improved In part, the answer reflects Pinot Noir Celebration, the since then, and hopefully lessons WineFlight, and the Chardonnay that over the past 30 or so years have been learned. the industry has grown and and Sparkling Symposium Looking forward, are there prospered because it has been in Gisborne – were a huge signs of complacency that we anything but complacent, simply plus for the industry. Warm should be worried about? That is because early on we had very congratulations to all those who difficult to say, not in least part little to be complacent about. made the events so successful. because complacency is much From the mid-1980s onwards, The ‘all’ in the above is critically important.

Without the ‘all’ – growers, “Complacent is about the worst attitude that I could ever wineries, regional imagine taking hold in the industry…. The risk is not so much associations, marketers, the risk of complacency taking hold, but rather the risk of what exporters, sommeliers, writers, suppliers, sponsors, happens if it does.”

NZ Winegrowers – it would not have been possible to showcase so much depth more difficult than frost, rain at once CER was signed, we were and detail about the New vintage, or a new virus to identify Zealand wine story. The benefits under threat in the domestic and combat. And that is one market from Australia, while of working together in the reason it is such a risk for any in export markets we had none interests of both the category industry. of the reputation that is so and individuals have never been At ISBC, one speaker, Oz important to us today.

In every clearer.

Clarke I think, warned New export market we were the new During the course of the ISBC Zealand about the risks from kid on the block with no history I was interviewed by an overseas over cropping in terms of wine and few friends, the outsider journalist about aspects of the quality and the New Zealand who had everything to prove.

New Zealand industry, and reputation.

From where I sit, As an industry we knew there among the questions asked was over cropping can be a sign of was much to do and we were not this one: ‘What is the biggest complacency.

It represents a going to win by sitting back and risk for the New Zealand wine focus on quantity before quality, not working hard. industry?’

In part the answer also relates and as we all know our success What would you answer? has been built on quality, not to what happened in 2008-2010.

It’s a very interesting quantity. Over cropping is about In that period, for whatever question, and only time will exploiting the here and now, reason, we got ahead of the tell what the actual answer is of rather than investing for the market.

We produced more wine course. Will it be a biosecurity future. Complacency, maybe? than the market at that time incursion, a run of poor vintages, ‘Complacent’ is about the could absorb, and some of it was scandal, changing consumer

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

worst attitude that I could ever imagine taking hold in the industry, hence my answer to the journalist’s question. The risk is not so much the risk of complacency taking hold, but rather the risk of what happens if it does.

Fortunately the vast majority of the signs out there are that the industry is anything but complacent. ISBC and all the associated events were the acts of a young, innovative and ambitious industry. While ISBC was a huge success, the debrief held by the organisers shows a determination to make it even better in the future, no complacency there.

New grape varieties and new wine styles, new vineyards being planted, the investment by wineries into low alcohol/low calorie wines, the forays into new markets, the continuing investment in existing markets, the industry’s support for open and competitive access into key Asia Pacific markets through TPP, these and many more initiatives are all the signs of an industry that is future focussed, that is innovative and open to new ideas and new ways of performing.

So let’s ensure complacency never takes hold and the 2016 vintage delivers superb wines that thrill and excite our consumers wherever they may be.■

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

STAY ON THE GRASS! Terry Dunleavy, Founding Editor of NZ Winegrower

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took one simple message from the superbly organised International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Marlborough, a message enunciated by two overseas prophets who deserve honour in this land: Oz Clarke from England, and Matt Kramer from U.S.A. That message: keep our Sauvignon Blanc green!

In an interview with John Campbell - accessible here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=In7SUJ4J_d4 Oz’s reply to the Campbell question whether we need to reinvent Sauvignon Blanc (SB): “Be careful about reinvention.

What people love is exactly what

you did so well in the first place.

If you’re trying to reinvent away from the greenness, the freshness, the crispness, be careful! There are tens of millions of people around the world, who every time they see a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand in a wine shop or a bar, their mouths start watering.”

Oz went on to tell Campbell that our sales of SB are still going up. “You’re a premium product.

You don’t need to drop the price; keep the quality up.”

Top and forthright American wine communicator Matt Kramer was even more direct about Marl­ borough SB: “So you’re 40 years old. I perceive a sense of mid-life crisis; you think you have missed

something. Get over it! You have created one of the world’s most successful wines; you have created something that can be identified in a blind tasting by anybody; you’ve created a terroir the world has never known; you’ve taken a variety that’s been grown every place but the Moon and you have created something no one else has created!

What the hell do you want?”

Kramer described Marlborough’s “mature wine ecosystem” and went on to advise more attention to site-specific wines, and restriction of crop yields. His entire talk should be compulsory viewing, and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DsWEB9P397I

Terry Dunleavy

In other words, carry on succeeding with what’s made our Marlborough SB the unique runaway success it has become. Don’t mess with that success! Wise words from two men wise in the ways of the wine world.

Terry Dunleavy MBE, FWINZ

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 7

IN BRIEF

NATIONAL WineExplorer

Villa Maria In Top 10 Again

Brancott Estate along with BlueChilli are looking for that special product or idea that will have an effect on the world of wine. Chief winemaker Patrick Materman says; “whether its an idea about how people choose what wine to drink, or how they share that wine with their friends, if it’s big, bold and revolutionary, then we want to hear it.”

The competition is open to Australians and New Zealanders and has a cash prize of AU$35,000.

While entries closed in early March, those who have submitted their ideas will be interviewed later this month (April).

The winning idea will also be considered for startup acceleration by BlueChilli and have the opportunity to work with Brancott Estate to commercialise their ideas.

For the second year Villa Maria has been named as the only New Zealand winery in a prestigious top 10 list of the most admired wine brands.

The Drinks International ‘World’s Most Admired Wine Brands’ is an annual list compiled by polling over 200 wine industry experts. Included in the top 10 are some of the global wine industry’s big hitters that have been established for hundreds of years - in Chateau d’Yquems’ case – 400 years. For a relatively young winemaking nation like New Zealand, inclusion on this list is immensely powerful for New Zealand wine and the New Zealand export sector.

Villa Maria was placed at number 8 on the top 10 list, with Penfolds 1st, Torres 2nd and Ridge 3rd.

AUCKLAND the archives and is sharing 100 never-before-heard stories from its history. 26 stories were posted on babichwines. co.nz/100stories before Christmas. Thirty more stories will be added soon.

The remainder will be added throughout the year.

“We are throwing the doors

Babich Tells the 100-Year Story Babich Wines, one of New Zealand’s oldest and most respected family-owned wine brands, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

To mark the milestone, the Babich family has dusted off

open and sharing the most intimate parts of our history,” says Babich Wines Managing Director and secondgeneration winemaker Joe Babich. “These stories touch on every emotion. A few will have you laughing out loud, some give an interesting glimpse at what winemaking was like

in New Zealand in the 1900s, and others are simply hard to believe!

“They really demonstrate that deep personal connection we have had with the vines, the land and the wine since that first bottle was produced by my father, Josip Babich, in 1916 – when he was just 20 years old.”

HAWKE’S BAY New Executive Officer For Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Melisa Beight is the newly appointed Executive Officer, responsible for the ongoing marketing and brand development initiatives for the Hawke’s Bay wine industry.

She moves to Hawke’s Bay following a successful stint as Marketing Manager for Whitehaven Wines based in Marlborough and prior to that a highly successful

Bridge Pa Festival Grows Attracting around 50 percent more participants in its second year, the Bridge Pa Wine Festival will now be a permanent fixture on Hawke’s Bay’s summer

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14 year career as a senior litigator with law firms both in London and Auckland.

HBWG’s chairman Michael Henley said the Association is very fortunate to have secured someone of Melisa’s calibre for the position. “Her valuable combination of marketing and legal experience plus unbounded energy and enthusiasm makes her the perfect choice to lead the HB wine industry on the next stage of its journey towards being recognised as one of the world’s great wine regions,” he said.

calendar of events. The festival was launched last summer and this year 1500 took part. The format is modelled on the former Harvest Hawke’s Bay, with

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

the close proximity of wineries providing an added benefit. Festival-goers using the hop-on hop-off buses travel no more than five minutes getting from

Branding With A Difference Hawke’s Bay winery C J Pask recently staged a branding launch with a difference, with the venue a great long lunch held in Napier’s Marine Parade gardens as part of the city’s popular Art Deco Festival. The February 20 event attracted hundreds of guests dressed in 1920s and 1930s’ finery.

one venue to the next.

Participating wineries were Abbey Cellars, Alpha Domus, Ngatarawa, Hawke’s Ridge Wines, Sileni Estates, and Paritua.

HAWKE’S BAY Sileni Rebrands New packaging, upgraded paper stock and the StelvinLux cap have all been introduced to Sileni wines from Hawke’s Bay. The wines have had a rebranding, which includes an increase in font size for greater shelf visibility.

“We have upgraded the packaging and made it fresher as well as premiumising it with textured paper,” says marketing and brand manager Juliette Lynch.

“We have retained the triangle and the circle – the three sides of the circle are intended to represent great wine, great food and great company, which underpins the philosophy of Graeme Avery who founded the company,” says Lynch.

The name Sileni is also more prominent on the front label, which has a high quality look, and feel, thanks to the improved paper stock that the company has chosen for the new look.

MARTINBOROUGH Martinborough’s New Winery Grava Wines is the new name for the winery formerly known as Hudson Vineyard in Martinborough. The new venture is dedicated mostly to the production of Pinot Noir and has been taken over by winemaker Alistair Gardner, who graduated in 2002 from the

hence the new look and feel of the branding, which is very much in the style of the Spanish wines that I have been making while working in Galicia, Spain,” says Gardner.

Gardner is alternating between working vintages in Martinborough and also in Spain.

post graduate winemaking and viticulture at Lincoln University.

He and his partner, Karla Falloon (no relation to the late John Falloon), have four other shareholders in their new wine company.

“We wanted to do something totally new in Martinborough,

MARLBOROUGH Giesen Wines Announces New Internship A 21-year-old Blenheim born viticulturist is the first to win a graduate internship at Giesen Wines in Marlborough.

Andrew Jeffries, aged 21, has been working for Giesens as a technical support role for the past two years, having completed a Degree in Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University.

Giesen’s GM Rhyan Wardman says after his initial stint in the premium vineyards, Andrew will switch to the company’s more traditional vineyards in September. In 2017 he’ll focus on vintage experience in Giesen’s Marlborough winery, then on to France, staying at the Giesen Brothers Estate in Puligny Montrachet, Burgundy. In addition, he will spend time visiting the sales team in the UK, US and Australia.

For Andrew it is a chance to learn all there is about the varied aspects of the wine business.

WineEng 2016 NZ The Winery Engineering Association’s Conference and Exhibition, WineEng 2016 is being held in Marlborough this July. The conference which will run over July 21

and 22, has a goal of bringing the latest global technological advancements together for all industry members. Among the many issues to be covered this year will be; Water usage

and savings, refrigeration design and efficiency, alternative hot water generation, energy efficiency and solar power generation,

Rhyan Wardman and intern Andrew Jeffries.

asset improvement and optimization, oak reclamation and alternative oak maturation application.

For further details visit www. wea.org.au

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 9

ISBC 2016

A LONG AWAITED CELEBRATION TESSA NICHOLSON PHOTOS: SUPPLIED BY NZW AND TESSA NICHOLSON

I

t may have been 40 years in the making, but it took only 3 days to convince the world’s wine media that New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is a force to be reckoned with.

An International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration held here at home has been a long time coming. While aromatics, Pinot Noir and even Syrah have had their time in the proverbial world spotlight with national events, our most famous variety has had to wait until this year to shine. And shine it did at the beginning of February.

Held in Marlborough, with more than 30 guest speakers, 65 international wine media, more than 10 Masters of Wine, sommeliers and winemakers, the event

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showcased the diversity of the variety. Not just here in New Zealand, but internationally as well – an important facet of the event.

As NZW Global Marketing Director Chris Yorke says, the Celebration reinforced what New Zealand has achieved, but most of all it pointed out how unique our achievements have been.

“I think Matt Kramer said it well when he said, you have got something here, you have made something and you should be really proud. And we should be.”

The 2016 event is the first of many more to come Yorke says, and is part of a long-term strategy to promote all our regions and all our wines.

Pinot Noir 2017 takes place

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

in Wellington from 31 January to 2nd February, preceded by an aromatic symposium in Nelson and followed up with a full bodied reds event in Hawke’s Bay. A second Sauvignon Blanc Celebration is

planned for 2019. Then Pinot Noir will be the focus in 2021 – celebrating 20 years since the inaugural event. In 2023 Sauvignon Blanc will again be the star of the show, exactly 50 years after the first modern day vines were planted in Marlborough.

Yorke says while Sauvignon or Pinot Noir are the anchor events, they provide the opportunity to showcase our other styles and regions to the influencers being brought out. For example this year some of the international guests were treated to a forage in Waipara prior to travelling to Blenheim. After the Celebration they flew to Gisborne to get up close and personal with New Zealand Sparkling and Chardonnay – more on that later.

But occasions like this don’t come cheap. The Sauvignon Blanc Celebration was a $1 million event – with funding coming from wineries, delegate fees and sponsors.

NZW put an extra $250,000 in,

to bring out the 65 international media and Yorke says the return on that investment will be phenomenal.

“We have a follow up plan with the wine writers, where we measure how much they have written, how many articles, social meida, etc. We then work out the estimated advertising value. Overall this will run into the millions of dollars.”

The immediacy of social media saw both #nzwine and #SauvignonNZ reach millions of people.

From tracking Twitter, #nzwine had 4,288 posts during the event and appeared on 46 million timelines, while #SauvignonNZ had 2,590 posts and appeared on 10 million timelines. The latter also trended at number one in New Zealand during the three days and number seven in Australia.

That’s an awful lot of people reached in just a few days and there is more to come when you think of the articles, comments and blogs that have yet to appear.

Congrats must go to the organisers of the Celebration – it was a remarkable few days, with everything running smoothly. That is some task given the numbers present and the fact it was new and previously untested.

So if you missed it, here is a basic rundown of what guests, both national and international were treated to.

Day one saw an international A truly unique New Zealand experience for international guests including Oz Clarke..

Sauvignon tasting, accompanied by winemakers and Masters of Wine. Wines from the US, Chile, Italy, Austria, South Africa, France and Australia, were tasted alongside New Zealand.

That evening there was the garden party held at Marlborough’s historic Timara Lodge where the versatility of wine and food was highlighted.

Day two saw an array of speakers, none more entertaining than Alexandre Schmitt, known as “the nose”. After a comprehensive tasting of 300 Sauvignons from around the country and world in one of two barrel halls, guests relaxed under the sun with a picnic lunch. Then it was off to the historic train trip through the Awatere Valley to Kekerungu for a Kiwiana beach party – complete with cricket, KUPs and croquet.

Day three saw where the variety sits out there in the world, while the diversity of Sauvignon expanded to include the alternative tasting, prior to a winery luncheon.

The event came to an end with a Gala Dinner held at Brancott Vineyard, complete with a World of Wearable Arts live show.

Wine, food, great speakers, stunning settings and fantastic weather combined to ensure the first ever International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Then On To Gisborne For the international guests, the fun wasn’t over when the Sauvignon Celebration ended. Instead they were treated to something very unique – a Wine Flight, from Blenheim to Gisborne. Yorke says getting the guests into Gisborne was proving to be a bit of a nightmare, until he approached Air NZ to see if chartering a plane was a logical option.

“I asked them if we could determine our own route and they said yes, they thought we could do that. So I asked if we could Opera Singer Mere Boynton leave Blenheim fly over enthralled guests, singing opera Marlborough, then over on the beach in Gisborne.

Nelson, up to the North Island and fly over Wairarapa, The local Kapa Haka group proHawke’s Bay and then on to Gis- vided the Maori challenge then borne. They checked with the powhiri, welcoming the guests to chief pilot and he said that would the region. There were plenty of be okay. Then they asked what cameras and phones snapping and height did we want to go down to. there was more than one person I asked what height could we get wiping their eye at the emotion of down to and they suggested 5000 it. For the majority of guests, this feet. (Most commercial flights are was there first experience with at least at 22,000 feet).”

New Zealand’s traditional culture The Air NZ Wine Flight was a and it is one they won’t forget. go. In the end two charter planes Gisborne which also turned on were hired, one led by MW Jane the weather, provided the perfect Skilton, the other by MW Michael opportunity for the internationals Brajkovich. While on the flight to find out more about our Sparguests were treated to a wine from kling wines and Chardonnay. In the region they were flying over, depth tastings were held during accompanied by canapés created the day, with a beach party at night,

by Air NZ. under the stars.

For everyone on board it was a Again another superb organisurreal experience. As one inter- zational effort. national guest said, it was like a And I have to mention here; three dimensional wine tasting. hats off to the members of GisWhile looking at the wine region borne Winegrowers who were the from the air, they were drinking waiters and stewards on the night the wine and hearing more about of the farewell dinner. You made the region itself from a Master of the evening very special.

Wine. What more could you want?

So with the major events of Maybe a truly unique New Zealand 2016 now behind us, the countexperience? down begins for Pinot Noir 2017 Which is what everyone got – more on that later in the magawhen they arrived in Gisborne. zine.■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 11

NO LACK OF MOJO TESSA NICHOLSON

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merican wine writer Matt Kramer posed an interesting scenario to the Marlborough wine producers at the recent Sauvignon Blanc Celebration. He wanted them to place themselves in the following situation.

“You’re a winemaker, an employee of some corporation.

They sit you down and say here’s your brief. I want you to create a wine that everyone who tastes it will love it. A wine that will sell in large quantities at varying price points and will taste like no other wine in the world. It will be instantly recognizable, even by amateurs in a blind tasting. That the terroir will be so distinctive that it will be unmistakable.”

Having laid the ground work – he then paused and smiled, and supplied the answer that he believed most winemakers in the world would give.

“Your response if you have any sense at all would be to say f@*# off, it can’t be done.”

Yet as Kramer then pointed out – Marlborough has done just that, in a period of 40 years.

“This is what Marlborough has achieved, a Sauvignon Blanc that is like no other. You have created something that can be identified in a blind tasting by anybody. You have created a terroir that the world has never known. You have taken a grape variety that has been grown in practically every place but the moon and you have created something that everybody wants.

This is a fantastic accomplishment. There are very few other wines or places where anyone can make such a claim.”

Before the Marlborough producers could start getting too big

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“This is what Marlborough has achieved, a Sauvignon Blanc that is like no other,” said Matt Kramer.

headed about the praise, Kramer came back in with another salvo, claiming that the success so far has had a lot to do with luck. He described the first 40 years as being a case of luck beating talent.

It was luck that Sauvignon Blanc was planted here and luck that the terroir was so unique that the wines became so distinctive. Now however, he said the region enters its second phase, where the luck has to be overtaken by talent. The reputation that has been built now needs to extend itself, which he believed Marlborough was beginning to do.

“The trajectory of all fine wine regions, zones and districts are the same everywhere. You go from the general to the particular.”

By that he meant individuals need to determine just where they want to place themselves, either as a producer of site specific wines that emphasize the name or particular place, as a producer of harmonious blends, or even as a producer of the best wine at the most practical

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

price point.

“There is always a lot of disdain at that last comment,” Kramer said, “but I don’t share it.

All mature wine districts, regions and countries have an ecosystem, where the big dinosaurs eat huge chunks of the market. The little suckers who hang around the shop floor and get the scraps and do pretty well for themselves, get premium prices. This is the mark of a mature eco wine system. And you have got it here. Far from not wanting such a thing, you should be grateful. The big guys grow things. Remember there is still a world out there that has not tasted Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc or heard of it and is waiting to discover it. The little guys will never be the vehicle for that discovery – it’s going to be the big guys. So don’t dis the big guys, they have an important place in the eco system.”

As for naysayers who have been busy dissing the variety and the region, Kramer said it was inevi-

table that this sentiment would come out. After all, even massive conglomerates such as Apple have been subjected to continual negativity over the years. As he said, there are many who love to write that Apple has lost its mojo. Just as there are people who will love to say Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc has lost its mojo.

“I guarantee there is a group of handwringers and naysayers – some even inside your own industry – who are saying; ‘it’s all over, oh it’s done, oh their star in the sky has fallen’. I have heard this about Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. It’s nonsense.”

Instead he believed the industry was going through a mid-life crises having reached the 40 plus mark, fearing it has missed something. He offered a little counselling to the industry overall – “get over it”. He said remember what has been achieved, how it has been achieved and prepare to achieve more by moving forward. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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THE SENSATION AND PERCEPTION OF THE NOSE TESSA NICHOLSON

H

ave you ever wondered why you can smell a particular aroma in a glass of wine, but no one else can?

Or why it is that the word you use to describe a certain smell is different to the word others would use?

The simple answer to both questions is– perception. That was one of the great lessons to come out of an enlightening session at the recent Sauvignon Blanc Celebration. Olfactory genius and a man referred to world-wide as “the nose”, Alexandre Schmitt explained how perception impacts on our ability to describe aromas.

The former French perfumer turned to the world of wine 15 years ago, when he was

approached by Jean-Claude Berrouet winemaker at Château Petrus. Berrouet wanted to learn to be able to smell aromas better while Schmitt wanted to learn more about wine. The pair began a 12-year relationship that saw each learn from the others’ skillset. These days Schmitt spends his time travelling the world, teaching winemakers, writers and sommeliers the language of olfactory.

And there is a lot of language to learn, given Schmitt himself can distinguish 1500 different aromas. Fifteen-hundred? I for one was unaware that there were that many aromas in the world.

Although he was quick to point out to me, that he was nowhere

near the top of the game when it comes to current perfumers in France. They can smell anywhere up to 5000, which he describes as being at the top of the human limit.

When it comes to wine though, Schmitt says the aromas fall into five distinct categories; woody, resin, balsamic, floral and citrus.

Break those categories down into individual aromas and hundreds of descriptors appear, depending on the perception of the person smelling.

“Perception is a personal experience,” he said. “It resorts to memories, representations, image associations that differ from one person to another. We all have the same sense of smell, but we don’t

Putting his olfactory skills to the test – Alexandre Schmitt.

14 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

have the same perception.”

Much of that perception is based on experiences and is influenced by our major sense – sight.

Schmitt explained that in terms of the senses, sight makes up 65 percent, hearing around 25, touch 15 or slightly more, while both smell and taste only account for roughly one percent each. He is helping winemakers throughout the world utilize those other senses, with the aim of creating a common olfactory language.

“The idea is to help humans acquire olfactory knowledge, since our knowledge is basically visual.

The brain structure is based on the visual, so when we think, we use the sense of sight, we need to visualize. Olfaction or knowledge of aromas requires abstraction, which is a mental and intellectual act.”

As an example he referred to the word cedar.

“Whenever I mention the word cedar, most people visualize a tree.

It may be a large tree, branches or a conifer. But olfactory knowledge indicates the aromas of cedar, which is altogether resinous. It can be very fresh possibly evoking turpentine, pine sap, wax or polish. On the other hand it has an extremely drying aspect as well which can be the aroma of old paper, or old newspapers or pencil shavings. They are very different and this is something that the person needs to register.”

It is not just sight that impacts on either the taste or smell of a wine.

“Olfactory sense cannot be isolated from other senses. When

we taste a wine, other senses are brought into play. So there are elements in the recognition of wines, like for example, the sense of touch when minerality is referred to. Or when you describe a wine as being silky or velvety, you refer to the sense of touch. If you describe a wine as round or linear, you are referring to the sense of sight. Olfactory does not have a vocabulary of its own, which is why we constantly use words that come from taste, touch or hearing.”

Think of the word spiciness as a descriptor – that comes from a sense of taste rather than smell, yet it often appears as an aroma descriptor.

While there were no bottles of wine to prove his point, Schmitt had a number of glass vials, each containing a different aromatic component. Sticks dipped into

the individual vials were then handed out to the audience, who were encouraged to describe what they were smelling.

There was a wide range of words coming from throughout the room, and while some may have laughed at loud at some of them – Schmitt was at pains to point out that there is no right or wrong answer – it’s all about perception.

So while perception is all important and accounts for the variability between individual’s descriptors, Schmitt says it should not be confused with sensation.

This is something that is quantifiable. There is a right and a wrong.

You cannot confuse acidic with tannic, or concentration.

I guess what everyone wanted to know at the end of the seminar, was if they could improve their olfactory skills. You can

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Alexandre Schmitt prepares the aroma sticks.

says Schmitt, but it takes time, concentration and effort. (Think of Berrouet, it took him 12 years to master it).

While Schmitt can identify 1500 aroma compounds, an oenologist could possibly identify around 80, the average layperson can only pick up close to 20 in a blind smelling. To increase that knowledge, he says you would

need to be training with hundreds of different aromas every day. In fact a perfumer is expected to smell up to 800 a day, every day.

Which probably means that people like myself will never gain the heady heights of “The Nose”, but at least I am happy to know my perception of what I am smelling is neither right nor wrong. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 15

COMMUNICATE YOUR STYLE TESSA NICHOLSON

“Please experiment, please reinvent, please innovate. But please, please, please communicate – talk to your consumer and let them know what you are doing.”

So begged Robert Joseph to wine producers, who are moving down the diversification road with Sauvignon Blanc. The former wine writer, turned wine producer (in France), said diversification is all well and good, but if a consumer doesn’t understand what you are doing, the end result could see an alienation for your product.

In an unusual metaphor, he likened wine to pizza margarita. No matter where in the world someone orders such a pizza, they know it will basically be the same. He warned producers to think about

that. If you are delivering a different style of Sauvignon Blanc, make sure the consumer knows it is different.

“Don’t just say hey let’s screw with their head by giving them a funky wine, or a sweet or maybe oaky wine, because the consumer doesn’t enjoy that any more than we enjoy finding our pizza margarita has suddenly got pineapple on it.”

While he acknowledged that change is good, change for changes sake is not.

He even went so far as to say “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Don’t let the influencers push you into doing something that they might like, but the consumer may not.

Using the analogy of the Rolling Stones who have been performing to full stadiums for more than 40 years, Joseph said there hasn’t been a lot of reinvention going on with them. Why would they? They are successful at what they do, and audiences turn up to hear what they know.

Wine too should be like that.

“I think the danger in wine is the opinion formers get bored.

The sommeliers get bored and the winemakers get bored. But actually if you go down to some of the great Chateaux of France they have been making wine for many years and they don’t stray very far.

They tweak but they don’t necessarily radically change. There is a danger in radically changing and Robert Joseph hammers home his point to Philip Gregan, that communication during diversification is vital.

16 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

expecting the consumer to understand what you are doing.”

Joseph backed his statement up with the example of Australian Chardonnay, when producers moved from a big, oaky style to a more lean Chablis style.

“Well the people who didn’t like the oaky, fruity Chardonnay aren’t going to buy the new stuff, because they don’t know it’s there.

And the people who did like the old stuff are confused by the new stuff and so on.”

Remember also that consumers who have been buying Sauvignon Blanc for a number of years are not going to automatically understand a new style, especially if there is no heads-up on the label.

Never forget that consumers don’t think about wine the way writers or winemakers do.

“Wine is a tiny little corner of their mind. They are thinking about other stuff. When they do think about Sauvignon Blanc, they are not thinking about barrel fermented, minerals and wild yeast.

They are thinking about brands and price points.”

Given the diversity available to Sauvignon Blanc, he said winemakers need to ensure they make it clear what style the wine is, by defining it on the label.

“Yes please do try and do different things, but signal that to consumers, that this is a new direction. Don’t expect them to follow you on your off-piste and know what you are doing.”

He warned that too many producers believed because they were hand selling their wine, the neces-

sity for label explanation wasn’t important.

“But the thing the wine industry is not very good at understanding is what I call the journey of the bottle. We forget that people take bottles to their friends and then the friend puts it in the rack and takes it sometime later to another friend. Any message that was given to the first person has fallen off. The one opportunity you have is your label, your packaging. So for goodness sake use it. If you have a story to tell, don’t presume the consumer is going to come to your website and look it up.”

Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc Joseph was also adamant that New Zealanders are missing a major opportunity by not capitalizing on the growing trend for light sparkling wines – in particu-

lar Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. It frustrates him he said, that people tend to turn their noses up despite the fact that consumers love it.

“At the recent New Zealand tastings in London, consumers were relishing the Sparkling Sauvignon. But the UK wine trade didn’t want anything to do with it. And many people pouring the wine also didn’t want anything to do with it.”

He puts the reticence down to the fact that Sparkling Sauvignon is not seen as a “serious” wine.

“Winemakers and informers, not always but often, stand back from it because it is not a serious wine. It is not aged, it’s not mature.

But that’s a bit like saying; ‘I don’t want to drive a hatchback or I don’t like soap operas.’ It’s very divisive and it’s very commercially dangerous because you are separating yourself from your consumer.”

Robert Joseph

He suggests that wine writers and makers should take a look at local cafes and bars and note what people are drinking.

“Then they need to ask themselves, why don’t I want to give them what they want to enjoy. And secondly, why do I give them what they enjoy through gritted teeth?

“Some of the people I know who do not want to offer crowd pleasing wines are very happy to go and watch crowd pleasing movies. They watch crowd pleasing TV series and they read crowd pleasing novels. What’s the difference?”

Well said! tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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SAUVIGNON BLANC – NOT A SNOB’S GRAPE O Z C L A R K E – G U E S T S P E A K E R AT T H E S A U V I G N O N B L A N C C E L E B R AT I O N

I

know exactly when I first discovered that Sauvignon Blanc has a sense of place.

It was on February 1, 1984, at 11 in the morning. On the17th floor of New Zealand House in London. Just inside the door. On the left, third wine along. That’s the first time I tasted a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand’s South Island. That’s when Montana 1983 Sauvignon Blanc was introducing itself to the world.

My world of wine would never be the same again. Nobody’s world of wine would ever be the same again. There had never before been a wine that crackled and spat its flavours at you from the glass. A wine that took the whole concept of green – and expanded

it, stretched it and pummelled it and gloriously re-interpreted it in a riot of gooseberry and lime zest, green apples, green pepper sliced through with an ice cold knife of steel, piles of fresh green grass, the leaves from a blackcurrant bush, and, just in case this was all too much to take – a friendly dab of honey and the chaste kiss of a peach.

A n d d i d t h a t t a s te o f somewhere? It sure did! It tasted of a somewhere no one knew. It tasted of a somewhere that hadn’t existed before – ever. It tasted of a whole new world of wine that was going to be full of somewheres that had never existed before.

It tasted of a whole new world of wine which would no longer make you wait a generation to be

taken seriously as a winemaker – a whole new world of wine that would allow you to take your very first brave efforts as a winemaker, plonk them down on the table and say – beat that, old-timers!

And the grape that was this friend of the young, this friend of the new, this friend of a youthful wine generation which didn’t have the money, or prestige or tradition to trade on – was Sauvignon Blanc.

Sauvignon Blanc. The truly radical grape variety of the last generation. The grape variety treated with disdain and contempt by so many of the old-timers with their exclusive attitude to wines, and their aquiline noses stuck high in the air, who simply couldn’t bear this marvellous, classless, irreverent variety, which produced

OZ CLARKE HONOURED Long-time friend of, and advocate for, New Zealand wine, Oz Clarke has been named as the 2016 inductee to the New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame. Oz thus becomes the first from UK, and only the second nonKiwi (after Australian David Hohnen in 2006) to be so honoured.

The principal of the New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame is to recognise and commemorate individual persons who have made major contributions to the development and enhancement of the national domestic- and exportbased wine industry in New

18 //

Zealand.

The citation on the certificate of induction reads: In recognition of his early recognition in 1984, and sustained advocacy internationally thereafter of the unique properties and varietal intensity of New Zealand wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir.

Commenting on Oz’s induction, the chairman of the New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame Trust, Bob Campbell MW (who, incidentally judged on the same panel as Oz in 1987) said: “Oz is special to Kiwi winemakers because, in 1984

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

he was among the first to recognise that Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc had added a new style and flavour to the world of wine, and he never stopped saying it to anyone who would listen. Then, in 2001 he rated our best Pinot Noirs as being up there with the best of Burgundy – not better than but comparable with and complementary in style. On personal and regional levels, Oz has taken the time and trouble to get to know our wine people and their terroirs, and the synergies are such that we have come to regard him as an honorary Kiwi.”

sizzling glasses full of fruit and fun – that everyone who didn’t have a palate made of cardboard could drink for sheer delight, never having read a word of any wine writer, never having seen a Robert Parker score, never having heard of such things as National Wine Shows, and medals, and awards.

This is the grape variety wine snobs cannot bear. To be frank, this is the grape variety that, every three years at the Pinot Noir Celebrations just over the water in Wellington, I have to stand and defend almost singlehanded.

But Sauvignon Blanc is just as important as Pinot Noir. In terms of giving pleasure to countless millions of wine drinkers across the world – often drinkers of little pretension and little knowledge, but drinkers perfectly able to revel in the sheer delight of a lovely, affordable drink. In these terms, Sauvignon Blanc is more important than Pinot Noir.

But this brings us to an important point. Pinot Noir is famous for exercising the technical, philosophical, emotional, evangelical, intellectual talents of the grape growers and winemakers who get caught up with it. There’s endless talk of a Holy Grail, which presumably no one, however good, ever quite locates – isn’t that the point of Holy Grails?

Pinot Noir can become a selfabsorbing, obsessive world – a serious world, with an awful lot of debate and not enough laughter.

Nothing wrong with that. Most

top Pinot Noirs are made in small quantities, are difficult and expensive to buy, and may well be best enjoyed in the company of fellow-believers.

But Sauvignon Blanc is not that kind of grape. The best Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t have to be expensive, doesn’t have to be made in an intellectually exhausting way. And it doesn’t have to be difficult to understand.

Almost the only technical detail most Sauvignon Blanc drinkers are interested in is where does it come from? And

nowadays, most Sauvignon Blanc drinkers expect it to come from Marlborough.

So where does this leave us if we are asking how region defines style. Should we be rather asking how attitude defines style? Should we be asking whether, with a grape like Sauvignon, we want the wine to taste of its terroir? And what does that mean?

I can see why many red winemakers endlessly hunt for an extra dimension of flavour or texture with which to seduce connoisseurs as they roll the wine

around their well-polished palates.

But Sauvignon Blanc?

One of Sauvignon’s greatest strengths can be in its beguiling simplicity. Especially since a great part of Sauvignon’s appeal to the vast majority of Sauvignon drinkers is its slightly under-ripe, citrous, leafy flavours in a world gone mad for ripeness, and, even, over-ripeness.

One of the most worrying dogmas in wine today is this determination to achieve maximum so-called phenolic ripeness in wine grapes, and to

abhor and denigrate anything with a whiff of under-ripeness about it.

And these people who bang on about maximum ripeness – I wonder, have they ever bitten into a perfect Williams pear, a perfect Cox or Braeburn apple, or a perfect plum? Perfection in fruit is always at the “just ripe” stage – never at the over-ripe stage. Every gardener will pick the fruit for his own table a day early rather than a day late.

And of all the world’s grapes surely Sauvignon Blanc is the one best suited to that. ■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 19

EVENT NEWS

SOMMIT AND GATEKEEPERS CAMERON DOUGLAS MS

O

n January 31st this year, 21 Sommeliers from around the world gathered at Black Estate vineyard in North Canterbury for Sommit – a one day Summit especially for Sommeliers – the very first time this event has occurred in New Zealand.

Organised by NZ Winegrowers, the object was to specifically target the International professionals who are presenting our wine to our overseas markets - to begin a focused look at the New Zealand wine sector and how it is perceived, to demonstrate what is happening in terms of wine production (beyond what the statistics indicate), to present for tasting some new (and not so new) wines, and discuss some of the many issues that are facing the wider hospitality and wine sectors in our various countries.

The particular focus was beverage service and how, as Sommeliers, we manage wine samples, taste events, trends in wine and food, changes in how customers are learning about and experiencing wine – this included things such as new Apps - and the pressures all these have on beverage programmes.

In brief - there were five specific closed-door sessions hosted by Stephen Wong (Wellington based newly minted MW and Sommelier) and myseslf (the ‘local’ Master Sommelier).

Because the sessions were attended by Sommeliers only, we could speak frankly about the many and varied issues we face,

20 //

and - of course -discuss fully and in ‘somm-speak’ the wines tasted.

Session One encompassed a brief outline of where New Zealand is at in terms of our most recent history, supported by some recent statistics. There was a focus on where we might be heading as a wine-producing nation, and a discussion of what the visiting Sommeliers should be looking to take away with them after their time in the country.

This was mostly achieved by listening to the thoughts of winemakers from New Zealand as pre-recorded interviews. The key themes that emerged from this for discussion were the continuing and significant importance of Sauvignon Blanc as a variety; the increasing emphasis on and excitement for our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay; Sustainability and what exactly it means to us and to our overseas customers; the modern farming philosophies of Organics and Bio-dynamism in the wine industry; and the current interest in ‘Natural’ and ‘Orange’ wines. These led to some great and polarising debates, with many diverse opinions of the latter two wine styles especially.

Session Two was a tasting and discussion entitled ‘Geriatric Rieslings’. We tasted some older New Zealand Rieslings and discussed their merits and potential for export. All Sommeliers present were excited to taste these wines - they were wowed by the quality, precision and potential. Several Somms did mention that despite the high

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

quality of New Zealand Riesling excessively tall bottles don’t make wine lists because they simply don’t fit the wine refrigeration units commonly used – an interesting piece of information.

Session Three was a tasting and discussion of emerging varieties - called ‘Teeny Tiny plantings’.

Again, a robust discussion ensued, with some firm opinions regarding the work still to be done. For example, it was mentioned that some of the ‘new’ white varieties are looking a little too much like Sauvignon Blanc, and there was a need to tone down thiols and herbal notes. The emerging reds were generally well received especially the Saint Laurent.

Session Four was all about ‘Natural’ and ‘Orange’ wines and how they may or may not be influencing any markets internationally - and where the future may lie with these styles.

The conclusions, based on the local samples tasted, were somewhat predictable in that the use and definition of ‘Natural Wine’ remains unresolved, with sulphur use an opinion-hinging component. It is apparent that the story behind each wine must be told when dealing with customers’ enquiries, the wines continue to be a ‘hand-sell’.

Orange Wine is likely to remain controversial - as an emerging category in specific markets it continues to confuse as well as excite. The wine does seem somewhat reserved for customers who are looking for a different adventure.

Session Five was a chance for Stephen and I to show off some wines from our personal cellars. Throughout the day there were some ‘classic’ Kiwi nibbles offered – a selection that ranged from scones to jet planes - and a delicious lunch was served by the team at Black Estate. Several extra wines were on show at the breakout lunch with the winemakers for each presenting. Post Sommit all the visiting Sommeliers were able to attend the Sauvignon Blanc Conference in Marlborough, and the Chardonnay Sparkling Symposiums in Gisborne – a fantastic opportunity to see first-hand what is happening in these varieties and styles, and to interact directly with the winemakers.

What became clear to those present throughout the Sommit event is that Sommeliers are indeed the most significant gatekeepers to wine listings. In our important overseas markets, it is the Sommeliers (in retail, as well as in hotels and restaurants), who are driving the wine selections of the public, as well as interpreting and fulfilling their selections. The professional Sommelier overseas has a solid career pathway, with various qualifications available, and interesting and varied opportunities and experiences existing in the hospitality, wine, retail, service and tourism sectors.

Stephen and I are looking forward to being part of the significant growth and strength of a qualified and engaged Sommelier community in New Zealand. The imminent launch of

The sommeliers celelrbate on the beach at Gisborne, during the Chardonnay and Sparkling Wine Symposium.

our own Sommelier Association is a strong step in this direction.

Sincere thanks to New Zealand

Wine Growers for the Sommit opportunity - because of its success there are already plans for

the 2017 Sommit - and I am being approached already for details from Sommeliers in my role on the

Board of Directors for the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas. cameronjdouglas@gmail.com■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 21

EVENTS

WHAT INTERNATIONAL SAUVIGNON BLANC CELEBRATION 2016 WHERE: MARLBOROUGH WHEN: FEBRUARY 1- 3 WHO: INTERNATIONAL MEDIA, SOMMELIERS, WINE EXPERTS AND LOCAL PRODUCERS PHOTOS: NZ WINEGROWERS AND TESSA NICHOLSON

22 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

16

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 23

WHAT AIR NZ WINE FLIGHT AND CHARDONNAY AND SPARKLING SYMPOSIUM

WHERE: GISBORNE WHEN: 4TH AND 5TH OF FEBRUARY, 2016 WHO: 65 INTERNATIONAL MEDIA, 7 MASTERS OF WINE, SOMMELIERS AND WINE INDUSTRY PERSONNEL. PHOTOS: TESSA NICHOLSON

24 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 25

NZSVO NEWS

COOL CLIMATE 2020 A

s any winegrower in with the same challenges. the International Cool Climate New Zealand knows, Think Northern Italy, Germany, Wine Symposium (ICCWS) has growing grapes in our Northern France, Washington become a major event on the ever changing climatic State. And think about wines wine calendar. conditions can be challenging.

We are very much a cool climate country, where the threat We are very much a cool climate country, of spring and autumn frosts are where the threat of spring and autumn ever present, where cooling winds, the potential for hail and frosts are ever present, where cooling rain over the growing months winds, the potential for hail and rain over can make ripening difficult. the growing months can make ripening While those conditions can difficult. have growers sitting on a knife edge for certain periods, they are also what help create our which emanate from some of distinctive style.

The first symposium was We are not alone – there these regions; Champagne, held back in 1984 and New are many other winegrowing Riesling, Pinot Noir and our own Zealand being such an exponent NZ_ViniQuip 180x120mm_FINAL.FH11 Thu Nov 20 07:05:05 2014 Page 1 regions that are presented Sauvignon Blanc Which is why of cool climate winegrowing, C M Y CM MY CY CMY K

Composite 26 // NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

has hosted two of the six events since then. Now the New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology (NZSVO) is making a bid to host another symposium, in 2020.

Nick Sage Executive Officer for NZSVO says the application for hosting rights is about to be presented and the successful bidder will be announced at the upcoming ICCWS, which is being held in Brighton, England in May. If the bid to host is successful, Sage says the proposal is for the three day symposium to be held in Christchurch from January 27 until Wednesday 29, 2020. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

REGIONS HAWKE’S BAY

AN AMAZING RACE on one situation, explaining more about the wines that were being tasted.

James Medina of Hawke’s Bay Wine described it as an entertaining way to showcase the region’s wine.

“Amongst all the fun we educated trade visitors and international wine media about what makes Hawke’s Bay one of the greatest wine regions in the world,” he said. “The consistency in the quality of our wines, the climate and the beauty of our environment are of an international standing. When you’re surrounded by it every day it’s easy to think of it as nothing special – but what we have here is very special. The more we can get the internationals to experience our wine region first hand, the more results our wineries will see.” ■ Phil Brodie, winemaker at Te Mata Estate shows off his style in the cycle section.

Wine la

bel s

sl

i

F

ollowing hard on the heels of the Chardonnay and Sparkling Symposium in Gisborne, a number of the international media descended on Hawke’s Bay for what turned out to be two days of laughter, fun and learning.

While coming to grips with the local wines and winemakers, the international entourage also got to take part in the Hawke’s Bay Amazing Race.

Divided into teams, they travelled around the region, making specific pit stops where they had to decipher clues and puzzles. They also had to complete a number of challenges, before they could move on to their next stop.

Twenty-four wineries took part in the Race, providing assistance where needed. That gave the wineries the chance to chat in a one

SOUT H

pecia

lists

and

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NZSVO WORKSHOP

THE GOODE NEWS ABOUT SAUVIGNON TESSA NICHOLSON

I

t has become the lifeblood of the New Zealand wine industry, accounting for at least $1.1 billion of the total $1.5 billion worth of wine exports.

But just where does Sauvignon Blanc sit within the world of wine and where is New Zealand’s competition coming from?

Those were the questions renowned writer and academic Jamie Goode was tasked with answering at the NZSVO workshop held in Blenheim earlier this year.

Sauvignon Blanc is the 10th most widely planted grape variety in the world, with a massive total of 90,000 hectares. Trebbiano or Ugni Blanc as it is known in France is the largest with a total of 155,000 hectares. In comparison New Zealand’s other flagship wine Pinot Noir, has a world hectarage of 85,000.

New Zealand is second only to France for land devoted to Sauvignon Blanc, with a total of 20,266 hectares. France has 26,304.

The two countries are way ahead of the competition, with South Africa in third (9446ha), Chile fourth (8862), Australia fifth (7010) and the US sixth with 6238.

The popularity of the variety Goode said is reflected in the growth in the top three countries.

“There has been a surge in popularity. For example in France in 1958, there were only 4860 hectares of Sauvignon. In 1968 that had grown to 8500. Now there are 26,300.”

In South Africa the total percentage of hectares devoted to Sauvignon Blanc has grown from 6.7 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent currently.

So as we move forward, where is New Zealand’s competition likely to come from – is it the birthplace of the variety – or are we at risk from other new world countries? Goode says there are three threats; Chile, South Africa and France. But he described the level of threat from each as being very different. He termed Chile as

being the “highest” threat. South Africa as being a moderate threat, and the risk from France as being “weak”.

Chile will come as no surprise to New Zealanders. It has long been described as having a similar climate to our own especially in the cool climate areas of Casablanca and Leyda Valley.

“Coastal Colchagua make the best wines, while the Central Valley produces more of the cheap stuff,” Goode said.

He described the flavours of Sauvignon Blanc emanating from Chile as “quite green with a dominance of methoxypyrazine.

But the best are very fresh.”

With production costs lower than here in New Zealand, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc undercuts ours in export markets. That is something this country cannot and he reiterated does not want to compete against.

South Africa is a much warmer climate generally, although Goode says there are a number of cool

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areas that are producing some very good Sauvignons. These include Darling, Constantia, Elgrin, Memel-en-Aarde and Elim. Consistency of quality is an issue currently he believes, which is why he places the threat level at just moderate. But if that can be remedied in the future, South Africa could become a greater threat, especially as once again their prices undercut New Zealand.

Many attending the workshop were interested to hear Goode describe France, the birthplace of the variety, as being only a “weak” threat to New Zealand in the future.

“I think one of the problems is that a lot of French Sauvignon Blanc does not actually have Sauvignon Blanc on the label. So most consumers who want to buy (this variety) would not associate Pouilly-Fume or Sancerre with Sauvignon Blanc.”

Because these areas are playing at a higher end of the market, he

said they were not a direct threat to New Zealand.

However the same cannot be said for Touraine, (in the Loire Valley) which is an area he believes could be a potential challenger.

The quality of the wine has risen and is well priced, Goode said.

“And, the wine has Sauvignon Blanc on the label.”

Moving forward Goode said we need to ensure the message we are sending consumers is the right one. The KISS theory of keeping it simple cannot be underestimated, particularly when it comes to Marlborough.

“I think you need to go with the brand that Marlborough is special and it’s different. It’s not a complicated message, but it needs to be out there. So that when they go and buy a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, they say they want a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Sometimes we complicate

With more than 20,000 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand is second only to France in terms of plantings.

it too much. The more stripped down the message can be, the more effective it is. Don’t confuse the consumers.”

And never forget there are threats out there, which means quality and consistency are vital.

To do anything else will devalue

the brand and allow someone else to slip into the position New Zealand has held for so long. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 29

WINEMAKING NEWS

LEARNING FROM THE BEST TESSA NICHOLSON

“I think there is so much potential for New Zealand and particularly Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with barrel ferments. It is still in its infancy and there is so much we need to learn – and Europe is where we need to look.”

So said Sam Harrop MW at the recent NZSVO Sauvignon Blanc workshop. A self confessed adherent of diversity, Harrop says barrel fermented Sauvignon is a way to create that, but it needs to be treated as a halo category. Due to the very nature of the style of wine, which requires lower yields, older vines and maturation in oak, it should never be viewed as a commercial prospect.

“The process is expensive and it’s a harder sell. But I see it as a halo category. That is very much how the Loire have viewed it over the years. It is five percent of their total production but it has a disproportionate impact on the commercial side of things. It is an aspiration to sommeliers and it is where our industry must go.”

Learning from the greats, Harrop says New Zealanders need to concentrate on site and terroir.

The wine should not be overtly fruity. There must be balanced new oak and also an integration of that oak.

“The seasoning is very important in that discussion,” he said.

“Whereas certain big, rich Chardonnays can handle that sort of resinous unseasoned oak quality perhaps, there is no room for that in barrel fermented Sauvignon.”

Subtle, flinty aromas are important.

30 //

“We need to create this hero and barrel ferment is the approach we need to take.”

– Sam Harrop MW.

“Call them what you like, sulphides are very important, whether we are talking about Loire or Bordeaux or anywhere else. A bit of sulphide can enhance complexity.”

The wines must also have tension and vitality on the palate.

“By tension I am talking about acidity. It’s about having a fresh acid, not necessarily excessive acid, but a salty zing linking in with

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

minerality. The flavours are alive, vital and very important.”

And like all great wines, they need to be able to age.

“As they age they start to show more of their site, the terroir of the vineyard.”

While Harrop says we need to look at Europe for our inspiration, he defined that further by saying the Loire and Bordeaux should be our guiding lights. The Loire in

particular given at a recent tasting in the UK comparing barrel fermented wines from Loire and Bordeaux, the conclusion was the former wines were superior. They have the more marginal climate of the two regions and the vine age is much older than in Bordeaux.

Think of vines that are 50 plus years old in Loire versus vines in Bordeaux that are between 20 and 30.

“This is linked to yield,” Harrop explained. “The crops are pathetic in Loire, while they are a little bit more generous in Bordeaux. It is not uncommon to see in places like Sancerre, yields of under a kilogram per vine for their barrel fermented styles. This is not very commercial, but it is very important for their style.”

He said producers in Loire are generally using larger barrels, from 330 to 600 litres and less new oak.

“The best producers are using 10 to 15 percent. There are producers who are fermenting 50 percent in new oak and 50 percent in barrels and then blending.”

The Loire when compared with Bordeaux tends to have smaller blends, multiple cuvees, lower pH, and less intervention. A common practice he said in both regions was to inoculate in the tank and then rack to barrel after a couple of days. The ferment temperatures were generally between 18 and 20˚C, warmer than utilised in New Zealand. There is extended gross less contact and no malolactic fermentation.

So having defined how the Loire has created its reputation, what are the lessons for New Zealand?

“This is an essential category if we are to sustain the Sauvignon Blanc phenomena. We need to create this hero and barrel ferment is the approach we need to take. It

The best producers in the Loire are using less new oak, to define their style of barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc.

accentuates our diversity as well as our vineyards.

“However this is a lost leader.

You need to say I am going to put one or two percent of my production down to barrel ferment.

That’s going to be the vineyard (I take the fruit from), this is my house style and the crops are going to be lower.”

Concentrate on older vines and allow them to reach the grand old age of 50, 60 or 70 years, he said and look for subdued fruit with enhanced minerality. He suggested large barrels are required to make the best fermented Sauvignon and low levels of new oak is best, depending on the site.

“Sympathetic winemaking is a term I use a lot. Only intervene when you need to, let the wine make itself.

“Work on the reductive spectrum which is important for minerality. Very little racking is key to making wines that age and show their site expression in time.”

Think carefully about your fermentation temperatures, and maybe raise them to 18˚ – 20˚C. Harrop said one of the problems he has seen in the past with Marlborough barrel fermented Sauvignon, is the fruit intensity is so great, it conflicts with the wood and doesn’t integrate.

“So if you bring the fruit flavours out, mute them a bit through fermentation practices. Handpicking could be a key, as I believe you will get better integration of oak, regardless of how much new oak you are using.”

Many Loire producers are not actually adding their sulphur onto

gross lees until four to six months after fermentation, with bottling taking place 10 to 12 months after fermentation begins in barrels.

That lees contact is vital he said for the end product.

Harrop could not under-estimate how important it is for New Zealand producers to take the barrel fermented category seriously, if it wants to make its mark on the world stage. There needs to be collaboration and a strong focus.

“Not for commercial, tangible, passive reasons, but more for a marketing perspective. And a very important point – to show our diversity. Not just in terms of wine style, but helping us to understand our regional potential, our site expression and our vineyard expression.” tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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WHAT A LINE! There were some outstanding one off quotes from the recent International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration.

Here are just a few.

“I don’t care if you don’t know a thing about wine, or if you are one of the great wine geniuses - Sauvignon Blanc is the world’s most reliably good white wines.”

Matt Kramer “To find a dozen Kiwis or other wine people who want to talk up the sparkling Sauvignon Blanc isn’t easy. It’s the shameful secret of the area (Marlborough). But why? Consumers love it.”

Robert Joesph –

“I found out things I didn’t know I needed to know.

This entire trip I have learned a lot more than I thought I would.

So I have more juice to work with now.”

Daenna van Mulligen – Vancouver based writer “This is like a real life google map.”

Young Shi on the Air NZ Wine Flight “I think as the age ticks younger, Sauvignon Blanc is poised to become the go to white wine, especially over mediocre US Chardonnay.”

Sara Schneider – Wine Editor Sunset Magazine “Now 40 years on and as I said there seems to be a sense of a looming midlife crisis. That somehow you have missed something. Let me have a little counselling session here folks.

GET OVER IT!” Matt Kramer – on where Marlborough sits at the moment.

“To be involved and see the regions, changes, styles and the blending of all those styles, I feel very privileged.”

Shari Mogk-Edwards - Canada

who can’t understand why Marlborough isn’t producing more sparkling Sauvignon.

“God did not talk to a Frenchman called Moses and tell him what the requisites of wine should be. There is no edict that says Cabernet and Merlot are the only blends.”

Robert Joseph on the potential of blending Sauvignon Blanc.

“Sauvignon Blanc is like gin and tonic in the UK – it’s delicious.”

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HEALTH AND SAFETY

PROTECTING LONE WORKERS

W

hen Sharon Ayres of Sacred Hill Vineyards started the search for a technology solution which would protect Sacred Hills lone workers she wasn’t quite sure where to start.

Their vineyard team were frequently driving between the different sites and visiting far reaches of the properties alone, with cell cover inconsistent on one property in particular.

After a vineyard review which highlighted the risks regarding working alone, a practical solution was sought, with Guardian Angel Security who specialise in solutions for Lone Worker protection.

Guardian Angel are hardware agnostic and can supply and monitor solutions on satellite, radio or

cellular networks, but one solution which they had been finding a lot of success with was EGIS, an Australian designed and manufactured device. While it’s cellular based, the design of the antenna, chipset and modem has shown it requires less signal strength than placing a mobile phone call.

The EGIS device sends the activation via IP and SMS, and will keep sending a duress activation with location details every 30seconds when in alarm, until it’s restored.

The EGIS device has a duress button for manually raised alarm.

It also has a man down and no movement function which can be programmed to automatically raise an alarm if the device is horizontal for a 30 sec period, or has

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had no movement for 10min (delays are programmable).

The user wears the device on their waistband so they will feel the device vibrate and start to make noise to warn them if it’s about to raise an alarm.

The alarm can be deactivated by moving/straightening the device. The EGIS also autodials the monitoring station on alarm. This provides another path of communication should the SMS/IP alert not get through and it also means the operator can ascertain exactly what the emergency is and keep Emergency Services updated. The operator will stay on the line with the user until help is at hand. The call is recorded at the monitoring station.

With full staff training, monitoring and monthly testing of the equipment, Ayres says it has given both her and her workers peace of mind when out in the field alone.

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 33

NZW NEWS

BIOSECURITY RISK – WHEN, NOT IF A biosecurity risk to the New Zealand wine industry is very much a case of when, not if, as Tessa Nicholson discovered when talking to the industry’s new Biosecurity Manager.

E

d Massey isn’t being provocative when he makes that statement, it is something he strongly believes.

What’s more he wants everyone in the wine industry to be thinking along the same lines, to ensure that risk is mitigated before it becomes a major issue.

Massey who took up his new role as Biosecurity Manager for NZW in March, comes into the job with a comprehensive understanding of the risk this country faces.

Ten years experience working with MPI, with the last four as manager of the plant and environment response team, ensures he knows what he is talking about. He held major roles in the MPI response teams that dealt with the Queensland fruit fly detections in the upper North Island in 2012, 2014 and the more significant fruit fly incursion in Grey Lynn last year.

This country does have a few major advantages when it comes to combatting biosecurity incursions. One being our geographical isolation. The other our climate, which with cold winters ensures tropical pests and diseases don’t survive Massey says. But with those advantages comes an issue of complacency.

“The fact we are far away from other land borders has insulated us a little bit from the potential effects of biosecurity incursions,” he says. “But when you look at the volume of trade across the board, it has increased markedly in the last 15 years and as we keep growing our economy, it will continue

34 //

to grow. As well, New Zealand is a very popular tourist destination, and trade as well as travel are sources of potential biosecurity risks. If you look at the last five or six years we have had PSA in Kiwifruit and then a number of fruit fly responses. They may not have had an impact on the wine industry, but what it shows is that there are significant events that can happen. To prepare for these events we have to work hard to ensure the biosecurity system is as robust as possible to mitigate risks before they eventuate while ensuring we are well prepared to respond quickly and effectively to an incursion should we need to.”

Which is why one of Massey’s key roles in his new job will be to ensure all industry members are aware of what to look for and more importantly what to do if they stumble across something they are not sure about. Everybody involved in the industry should have the Emergency Pest and Disease Hotline number in their phone. (0800 80 9966) “That hotline is my mantra,” says Massey. “It is imperative that all our members know that number and are confident enough in MPI processes to use it should they see something unusual in their vineyard.”

Increasing awareness of risks to the industry is just one facet of the job for Massey. The other priority for him is to formalise a Government Industry Agreement (GIA), between NZW and the government. Currently NZW is not a

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

signed up member, and he is keen to design a process that ensures the industry gets a mandate to join.

“Then we can implement that process and work to ensure the partnership with MPI ensures better biosecurity outcomes for our industry.”

Massey says there are three key planks to a GIA. Firstly, joint decision making in a biosecurity response.

“What that means is if a pest comes in that affects our grapes or vines, through a GIA partnership we would be notified early of that detection. We would also be a joint decision maker in whether to initiate a response, in other words whether to press the ‘no or go’ button. We also would have decision making rights on the governance of that response, so we are in control of our own destiny – that is really important.”

The second plank is creating a state of readiness Massey says.

“By joining GIA it helps to ensure agreement on joint priorities for readiness. For example if there was some key work to be done on say Sharp Shooter or Pierces Disease we could work with MPI to make it a high priority to get that work done. Pre planning for incursions is a key element of readiness as it means a faster more organized response, in essence managing risk before it arrives.”

And the third plank is engagement across the system, especially as the biosecurity system is multilayered.

“We have off shore trade

agreements, plant standards and treatment regimes, we have inspection at the border, and then we have post-border readiness and response and long term pest management. Being better engaged through GIA ensures we have a much better understanding on how decisions are made at the various parts of the biosecurity system. So we have better information around the rationale for those decisions and we have the ability to better engage with those decision makers across the different parts of the system.”

Massey says for all the above reasons, it is vital that NZW is part of a GIA, sooner rather than later.

“Getting the GIA signed between the government and NZW is a key priority for my role in 2016.”

In terms of what he considers to be the greatest threat facing the wine industry currently, Massey doesn’t hesitate. It’s Brown Mamorated Stink Bug. “It is an insect pest native to China and other Asian countries, but in the last 20 years it has invaded the US. It has had a significant effect on horticultural

The Brown Mamorated Stink Bug is one of the threats the New Zealand wine industry is facing.

If you see anything that looks like this, you need to let MPI know.

production over there. It has a wide host range and can impact on a wide number of crops including grapes, and can be quite destructive. It is very difficult to eradicate once established. New Zealand doesn’t have this pest at the moment, however we have been intercepting it on a number of pathways at the border and it is really important that wine growers are aware of the pest and that industry organisations work together to maximize opportunities to ensure New Zealand remains free of it.”

(For more on the Brown Mamorated Stink Bug (BMSB) see NZWinegrower issue 95, pages 32/33.)

In the meantime, Massey reiterates that the industry has to be vigilant moving forward.

If as he believes the risk of a biosecurity incursion is just a matter time, everyone needs to be reading from the same page to ensure that risk is mitigated as early as possible.

That Hotline number again – 0800 809966.

Ed Massey’s details are: L +64 3 2654057 M +64 21 1924 924 Edwin. massey@nzwine.com • tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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FAMILY VINES While it’s not uncommon for two brothers to end up within the same industry, it is certainly unusual for the two to be heading their own areas of expertise in the same international wine company.

As Tessa Nicholson discovered, Ben and Jack Glover, both from Accolade Wines, are closer now than they ever were as children.

The Glover brothers are no strangers to the world of wine. Their parents Wendy and Owen first planted grapes on their Marlborough property back in 1985. Owen went on to become a director of Highfield Wines and was the Chairman of Wine Marlborough for a number of years.

Ben undertook a Post Grad Vit and Oneology degree at Lincoln University. Since then he has worked for Oyster Bay, before heading to Wither Hills in 1998. After 15 vintages he moved to Mud House Wines in 2013, as Chief Winemaker. Ben is also the Chair of Judges for Bragato Wine Awards and Chairman of the Pinot Noir Celebration 2017.

Jack completed a Bachelor of Wine Marketing degree at University of Adelaide, before coming back to New Zealand in 2006. In the ensuing years he has worked for Lion Nathan then Pernod Ricard firstly as a wine ambassador, then a field manager ending up as national on-premise manager.

These days he is the Sales and Marketing Director for Accolade Wines NZ, and is currently studying for his Master of Wine.

Along with Ben and his parents, Jack is an owner of Zephyr Wines. Ben is a past board member of Wine Marlborough, Jack is a current one and both are renowned wine judges in their own right.

This is their story of being brothers in wine.

36 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

Ben Glover, 44

M

y first memory of Jack was when he was born.

I was staying at Grandma’s and I made her go and get a box of Roses chocolates, before we rocked up and saw mum and this new, skinny thing. He was a bit eel like –long and skinny. I must have been excited to have a brother, because Mum didn’t get chocolates when my other two sisters were born.

But we lived separate lives to some degree. I went away to boarding school when I was 12, so we didn’t really grow up side by side. It probably wasn’t until he went to boarding school in Christchurch and I was at Uni that we really caught up. I used to go and buy his beer for him. Him being at school and me at Uni, he knew I could help him out. We had him and his mates around a few time for beersies or a Sunday roast.

I actually went to Uni to do a marketing degree – yeah I know, not what you’d think. I failed at law and accounting, so I went to marketing, it was the easiest degree

left. Hey don’t tell any marketers I said that.

But having worked in a bottle shop, and with the vines growing at home, I decided to go to Lincoln to do a post grad winemaking course.

I guess because Dad had transitioned from dairy farming to grapes, I thought I would go down the viticulture path, and probably thought that I was going to kick the old man off the farm. I still haven’t achieved that one! I guess because he wouldn’t move, I had to change my vocation.

No seriously I think I had an affinity for the wine side of it. I did a couple of harvests and then it flowed from there. I thought initially that viticulture was very separate to winemaking, but obviously they are very closely related and they need to be. My farming background has certainly helped me. One of the key learnings from the old man was to be patient. Whatever Heuy throws at you, you have got to be prepared for it, rather than get all uptight.

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With Ben (le ft) at boardi ng school fro time Jack w m the as not quite five, it meant two brothers the didn’t get to know each ot until many ye her ars later.

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to have a think about it, so I asked my little brother for some advice, rather than the other way around.

I don’t think we are competitive. We have a respectful admiration for each other. There are boundaries in what we do.

Although I do have a marketing degree, that’s his baby. And while I get him involved in blending, that’s my baby. So we do bounce off each other when required and we bring subtle challenges across each other’s escritoire.

I wasn’t surprised that he got into judging as he has a bloody good palate, probably better than mine. I would like to judge more with him, he’s a good judge and he brings different aspects to judging because he is a style judge, rather than a technical one. Regarding him doing his Master of Wine – I am in awe, there is no way in hell I would do it. I think it will be a big reward for him – he has my respect.

Clashes? Not really, although I disagree that Grenache is the greatest red wine in the world. I slowly shake my head at him when he says that. But I am coming round, he’s filling me with more and more of the stuff.



That certainly helps around vintage time.

I think when I went to uni I was just following the sheep, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

Whereas when Jack came out of college, he was quite focused on what he wanted to do. He went to Lincoln but that didn’t quite work, he needed a bigger pond. When he went to Adelaide to do the wine marketing degree, he thrived. He probably also thrived with the Aussie attitude as opposed to the Kiwi one being a bit more laconic and laid back. Him going there was a key part of him growing up and being what he is today.

When he came back he was working for Lion and I was as well, so we were sort of going in and out of each others circles on many levels. Now we are working together in a lot of work streams, both across what I like to call the kitchen table (Zephyr Wines) and our day jobs at Accolade Wines.

The job at Mud House came about during Pinot Noir 2013, when MJ (Loza, then GM) had advertised for a winemaker. He asked flippantly one day why I hadn’t applied for it. He told me



 

Phone (09) 3729155 Email : rsf@rd2.co.nz Web: www.rd2.co.nz Available through all good Ag retail stores

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 37

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

lf, rather than rings of a ca y.

Pulling the st as a young bo er ov Gl n a winery – Be

People tell me Jack and I are very different, but I can’t see too many differences. He is nine years younger, two inches taller, the fourth child, whereas I am at the front. I may be more laidback, but he is more focused.

Describe him? Well he’s more talented, he can run faster than me. He can play cricket quite well and rugby. Actually he’s a pretty talented sportsman.

He has worked very hard to

achieve what he has, especially on his current MW project.

He’s a very good leader and I have seen he gets the best out of his team.

He is pretty hands-off at letting them do their projects, rather than being controlling.

He has great people skills and he is harder nosed than I am in dealing with people and getting a sale. That’s the sales bit that comes out in him, he wants a result.

and more of a focus, rather than just being a viticultural crop. Then once Ben became a winemaker, it all became a bigger part of our lives.

By that stage I would have been around 15 or 16 and for the first time I got to see another side of the wine industry – other than bud rubbing and wire lifting.

Although having said that we as a family were involved with the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival from the day dot.

We had the garlic tent at the festival and I have memories of following the garlic clown around and putting stickers on people.

It was in the fifth or sixth form that I realised I was interested in wine. Not in making wine – I have always known that I didn’t want to do that. It simply doesn’t spin my wheels. I mean the concept of it does and what comes out of the process and the ability that people have to make something I like. But I am much

more a blue sky creator, innovator and I am probably not a finisher. I think you have to be a finisher to be a winemaker.

So I knew that I didn’t want to make wine, but I did want to be involved in the wine industry – I just didn’t know what the opportunities out there were.

I actually did do the first year of the undergrad degree at Lincoln.

I knew I didn’t want to be a winemaker, but it was the only wine education that I could see at that time. Then Mum found the wine marketing course at University of Adelaide, which is the old Roseworthy. We applied for the following year, but got the application in too late, so I took a year off and came back home, before going to Adelaide.

I didn’t talk to Ben so much about it, more to Mum and Dad. I guess I have a relatively good palate, I have always had a good sense of smell. When it came to judging, Ben was doing it and was encouraged through his time working with Brent (Marris). So when I came back to New Zealand, I was living in Wellington and stewarded at the Liquorland Wine Competition. In the old days you had to steward before you could judge. It has changed a bit now, with winemakers acknowledged as having a good palate. But I had

Jack Glover, 36

I

guess the thing people don’t working a row each and talking really know about us, is that and generally having a lot of fun. we didn’t really grow up Things weren’t so mechanized together. Ben is about nine back then and there weren’t the years older than me, and he went gangs of workers. Labour back away to boarding school when I then was seasonal backpackers, was about five, so we didn’t start so we had to be in there working to get to know each other as kids. until I was in my 20s.

I don’t have that many early memories about growing up in the vineyard, probably because Dad was growing garlic in my early years. My earliest memories are of being in paddocks around Marlborough picking garlic, clipping the ticket, with Ben driving a tractor and Kate, Lucy (his two older sisters) and myself trying to manage the gangs of pickers. Actually it was probably more me following around behind because I was so much Following in his old er brother’s footste ps, younger.

Jack (left) with his sist er Lucy was also a reg ula r at A& P Sho Certainly a few ws. years later, the vineyard was a good way of earning some extra pocket Looking back I think wine money. I would have to bud rub began to slowly become part of or lift wires – all the jobs that end our DNA at home. That would up being given to the youngest. But be similar for a lot of families it was cool actually. We would have who had converted their land to the four of us kids out in the vines, vines. Slowly wine became more

38 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

to keep stewarding, keep stewarding and take the time to prove myself. Funnily enough Ben and I have only ever been on a panel of a wine show together, once.

Do Ben and I have disagreements? I think we have possibly got some varieties or styles that we like more than the other. But I think the only disagreement we have had has been around Chardonnay. It is a variety that has a lot of influence in it, so if you like some and don’t like others, it’s hard to agree on.

We are competitive, so when Ben applied for the job at Mud House he asked me about it first.

Did I move back to Marlborough to work with my brother – no.

I already do work with him via Zephyr, but I appreciated that there weren’t a lot of opportunities in Marlborough for Ben to look for a different company to grow in, when he looked to move (from

Two generations of Glovers, Ben left, Jack right and dad Owen in the middle.

Wither Hills). So I said go for it.

It doesn’t bother me at all, but it wasn’t what I expected to happen.

We work in different spaces of the business and I don’t know that I have come across siblings working together at the pointy end of two different disciplines. It is pretty special.

It is good, because you can cut through a lot of crap when you are trying to get things done. I don’t know if you could say there is one absolute thing that makes it better

– but being brothers is a massive benefit.

The fact that we both know each other’s game really well is a big benefit. I can step in for him with guests and he can do the same for me. That’s a bit of the brother skill set, the experience we have together.

If I had to describe Ben, I would say he is definitely someone who backs his own judgment. He likes to surround himself with people he trusts. He is always up for a

laugh or something cheeky and there when you need him.

In terms of what he brings to Accolade, he is a fierce defender of quality and ensuring any wine under his care has a real identity.

He is a hugely talented winemaker but I think the real benefit to Accolade is his blending ability. Be it small or large this is an incredibly difficult and often overlooked art.

He is also a bloody good bloke to have around. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 39

AMONG THE VINES Reminders for April...

B

unches become increasingly susceptible to botrytis bunch rot as they ripen. Monitor weather forecasts closely and make sure fungicide covers are applied in anticipation of wet weather. This should be the policy through until pre-harvest while strictly observing product PHIs. If bird damage is a perennial problem in your block, an integrated approach to their management might be appropriate.

Netting should be the mainstay in high pressure blocks as they physically exclude feeding activity. Various scaring devices play an

40 //

important supplementary role and these should be moved frequently within the block to stop birds getting used to them.

Lack of magnesium in vines may adversely affect their ability to manufacture carbohydrates and may even lead to premature fruit drop at harvest. Make sure Mg levels are monitored during

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

the growing season and well-timed sprays are made.

The period leading into harvest represents a key time to gauge the insect pest status in your vineyard blocks. Pests like leaf roller and mealy bug build up their populations as the season advances, so tend to be at their most abundant around harvest time. Both pests habitually migrate into bunches around veraison, the bunches offering them a highly-nutritious food source and a protected environment from their natural enemies. Once inside a bunch, their presence can impact negatively on fruit quality. The ability of mealy

bug to transmit the grapevine leafroll 3 virus underlines the need to keep this pest under control.

Best practice to get an indication of pest pressure is to destructively assess a representative sample of bunches in each block and record the number which harbour insects.

This information gives you an accurate record of the resident pest population and also helps frame next season’s crop protection strategy. Remember SWNZ requires systematic monitoring be carried out before insecticides can be applied. Our Crop Monitoring team can assist you to carry out this assessment■

Battlefield Tactics:

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INDUSTRY NEWS

WINERY BACK IN USE N

ew Zealand winemaker Invivo is about to move into a historic 114-yearold winery at Te Kauwhata , after securing a long term lease and full control of the winery.

The winery was first designed and constructed by the New Zealand government in 1902 as New Zealand’s first viticulture research station. The winery was originally headed by industry pioneer and viticulturist Romeo Bragato. Invivo cofounder Tim Lightbourne is looking forward to adding another chapter to the winery’s long history. “It’s exciting to be taking over the place where Romeo Bragato made some of New

Zealand’s first export wines. The guy’s a legend. Winemaker, innovator and exporter. The history of the place, the great stories that have been documented also really appealed to us.”

The winery will give winemaker Rob Cameron even greater creative control and an on-site bottling plant will turn out up to 12,000 bottles a day of Invivo’s Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and other New Zealand varietals.

“I’ve also got my eye on the enormous copper still,” says Rob. “Who knows what we could make in that beast!”

The winery’s still dates back to World War 2, when it was used to

make medicinal alcohol.

In 1908, six wines made by Romeo Bragato at the winery were sent to the Franco-British Exhibition in London. An incredible five of the six wines won gold medals.

This was the first international competition to award gold medals to a New Zealand wine.

Both founders are pleased that the Historic Places Trust-listed buildings will continue to operate as a winery.

“This is a piece of Southern Hemisphere wine history,” says Tim, “so it’s great that we can continue the winemaking story there and it won’t be used for any other means or property

The 114-year-old winery at Te Kauwhata is now back in use.

42 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

developments.”

Cameron adds; “we plan to respect the historic features and history of the winery but also add extra capacity to support our growth plans. We are honoured to keep this historic winery operating and continue the legacy, when otherwise it would’ve had to close its doors.”

After the New Zealand Government’s ownership, the winery was operated by Rongopai wines from the 1990’s until 2007. It was then recently run as a contract winemaking and bottling facility where all winemaking and bottling equipment has been upgraded to modern winemaking specs.

Invivo’s move to the winery follows last year’s $2 million equity crowdfunding raise, the first New Zealand Company to reach the $2 million statutory crowdfunding limit. The company now has 444 shareholders, including UK chat show host Graham Norton.

As well as the winery, Invivo is investing in product development, further staff and marketing, and is already working with Norton on the 2016 Sauvignon Blanc – which will be among the first Invivo wines to be made and bottled at the 114-year old facility. ■

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WINE AWARDS

ROYAL EASTER SHOW WINE AWARDS Champion Wine of the Show – Royal Easter Show Trophy Villa Maria Reserve Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2014

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Champion Sparkling – Rapid Labels Trophy Te Hana Reserve Brut NV

Champion Sweet Wine – Corporate AV Services Trophy Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2013

Champion Riesling – Red Badge Security Trophy Wairau River Summer Riesling 2015

Champion Rosé – Esvin Wine Resources Trophy Esk Valley Hawke’s Bay Rosé 2015

Champion Pinot Gris – Datacom Trophy Whitehaven Marlborough Pinot Gris 2015

Champion Pinot Noir – NZ Winegrower Magazine Trophy Two Degrees Pinot Noir 2014

Champion Gewürztraminer – The Village Press trophy Johanneshof Cellars Marlborough Gewürztraminer 2014

Champion Cabernet Sauvignon & Cabernet Predominant – United Cleaning Trophy Babich The Patriach 2013

Champion Sauvignon Blanc – Guala Closures Trophy Villa Maria Reserve Wairau Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2015

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

Champion Syrah – The Pullman Hotels Trophy Villa Maria Reserve Gimblett Gravels Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2013 Auckland Agricultural & Pastoral Association Heritage Rosebowl Newton Forrest Cornerstone 2013, 2006, 2002 Winemaker of the Year – Royal Agricultural Society Gold Medal Nick Picone – Villa Maria

REGIONS CENTRAL OTAGO

The offending wine – 1/100th of a degree of alcohol too much means wine destined for the EU languished on the docks.

LOW ALCOHOL HEADACHE MARK ORTON

I

n a day and age where we are constantly reminded to eat less, exercise more and only choose food your Grandmother would recognise, it seems a little odd that a consignment of New Zealand wine could be stopped from entering the EU because the alcohol content is too low. As the maxim to drink responsibly is a message that health professionals love to promote, surely a wine that actually achieves this, should be lauded and not languish on a dock?

Well, according to Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter, the issue surrounding 1000 bottles of their

2015 Bannockburn Riesling is a little more complicated than you might expect. Due to a historic EU rule, wines from outside the EU with an alcohol percentage lower than 8.5 percent aren’t allowed to be sold there. When you consider that German Rieslings regularly sit between 7-9 percent and Moscato d’Asti and other light, fizzy Muscats at 5-5.5 percent, it’s entirely understandable that producers outside the EU might be a little baffled.

Curiously, the incident created enough interest for the mainstream media to report on it, something that irked Walter when

he read some of the ill-informed comments that accompanied the stuff.co.nz piece.

“Look, when the story broke I was made to look stupid because I didn’t know about the lower alcohol limit, but why should I?” says Walter. “I’ve been drinking great German Rieslings for as long as I have been in the wine industry and they are regularly 7.5-8 percent alcohol, so it never entered my mind that they were allowed in Europe and yet we weren’t allowed to ship ours to Europe. In fact, probably the most expensive wines on the planet, the ice wines and Trockenbeerenauslese’s from

the great German producers are regularly 5.5-6 percent.”

Speculating that the regulation was originally put in place to protect consumers against poor quality vintages entering the EU, it does seem slightly odd that this is the first time in 20 years of exporting wine, that Felton Road have fallen foul of the rule. As the law actually allows for the alcohol level to be rounded to the nearest 10th of a percent, the 2015 Bannockburn Riesling only missed the magical cut-off by a mere 0.01 percent alcohol.

“What made it even stranger was that the 2015 was quite pos-

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 45

CURRENT EU RESTRICTIONS ON SWEETNESS AND LOW/ HIGH ALCOHOL FOR IMPORTED WINES Within the EU, some EU-registered Geographic Indications have been granted “derogations” which allow their wines to be produced with as little as 4.5% vol actual alcohol.

Derogations are not currently available for any New Zealand wines.

For New Zealand wines exported to the EU, the wine must qualify under EU reg 1308/2013 as either “normal wine”, “wine of overripe grapes” or “wine from raisined grapes”. (i) Normal wine A wine will qualify as “normal” wine if it meets the following criteria: • at least 8.5% vol actual alcohol • up to 20% vol total (i.e. actual +

sibly one of the best Rieslings we have ever made. It has a racy acidity, which allowed us to make a style of wine that is modeled on great German Rieslings. Because the vintage had a good steely mineral acidity that deserved a little more sugar, the alcohol hit territory that we hadn’t been to before,” says Walter.

Having stopped the wine purely on taste and intuition, Walter is quick to point out that because their bottling had been delayed and they had to meet a tight shipping schedule, the wine was dispatched for shipping before the export paperwork had been completely ticked off, which included a laboratory analysis for the alcohol content.

“To be honest we thought nothing of it as there has never been an issue. When the VI1 form was being produced, the wine was sitting in a container on a wharf awaiting shipment and when the analysis came back at 8.44% alcohol we had no other option but to

46 //

potential) alcohol • generally no enrichment (including chaptalisation); limited enrichment allowed if total alcoholic strength stays below 15% vol • no sweetening or sugar adjustment • If it falls outside those parameters, the wine will need to come within one of the following two special categories, and be labelled as such: (ii) Wine of overripe grapes: • no enrichment • more than 15% vol natural alcohol • at least 15 % vol total alcohol and at least 12% vol actual alcohol (iii) Wine from raisined grapes:

pull the wine out of the container.”

Regional laws concerning wine are much older than the EU itself, so a certain amount of flexibility has been applied to member states within the union. This might explain how German producers are able to market wines under the mystical threshold, so what is the chance something similar will happen for New Zealand producers?

Walter hopes that New Zealand Winegrowers can find an exception to the ruling (derogation) so that a handful of affected wineries producing wines in this lower alcohol range can target the EU as a market. However, even entering into this process may open up a can of worms.

“The derogation will have to be registered against a particular region, which will mean that we’ll need defined Geographic Indications (GI) to show that a wine comes from a specific region. For instance, it might specify that Central Otago and Marlborough are allowed to produce Rieslings

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

• no enrichment • from grapes left in the sun or shade for partial dehydration • at least 16% vol natural alcohol (or 272 grams sugar/litre) • at least 16 % vol total alcohol and at least 9% vol actual alcohol.

For more detail on these and other restrictions on export to the EU, please see the New Zealand Winegrowers Labelling Guide (EU section) and the New Zealand Winegrowers International Winemaking Practices Guide, Appendix 4.

Particularly curly questions from members can always be directed to Silua Ettles silua. ettles@nzwine.com and Jeffrey Clarke jeffrey@nzwine.com

below 8.5 percent and be considered normal wine.

“We have growing conditions here in Central Otago that really suit Riesling being made in this Germanic style. There are not that many places outside of Germany that can achieve this knife-edge precision of the acid and sugar.”

Felton Road’s recent experience might appear to be an isolated anomaly, but further north in Marlborough, Fromm don’t even try to market their Riesling Spätlese in the EU. At just 7-8 percent alcohol that is just the way winemaker Hätsch Kalberer likes it.

“We have discussed making the wine with a higher alcohol content so that we can export it to the EU, but that would just change the style,” says Kalberer.

“What we have is something that is a lot more similar to the extreme versions of German wines in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, and we believe if you are doing something and are really happy with it, why would

you change it just because of a technicality. The wine is more important than EU regulations.”

Fromm have been following Felton Road’s issues with more than a little interest. As they regularly ship wine to Switzerland, if their wine is transshipped through an EU country there can be additional complications even though the intended destination is not part of the EU. “I was really pleased that this happened to Felton Road as that might mean that Nigel Greening will get onto it. Unless someone raises the issue, no one in the EU will be remotely worried about a couple of small wineries from New Zealand having some wines that we can’t export.”

Though, it might just not be a select sample of Rieslings sitting outside those strict parameters that are affected. What about the burgeoning trend towards lifestyle wines? With the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and NZ Winegrowers pumping money and

resources into research that will hopefully position New Zealand as a leading producer of high quality, lower alcohol-calorie wines, the EU stipulation on minimum alcohol content could be a real bugbear.

For now, the Chinese look likely to benefit from the regulation, as Felton Road’s Chinese importer noticed the article and immediately offered to take the consignment. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Felton Road’s European customers will miss out either.

“We are also going to submit it for testing again in May when we have our next shipment going to the UK,” says Walter. “For a wine label to be

accepted into the EU market, it has got to be expressed in decimals of 0.5 or .0, so you round to the nearest and as we are only looking for a variance of 1/100th of a degree of alcohol, I am confident that allowing for a variation in testing equipment and conditions, the wine will meet the requirements and get issued a VI1.

“We’re here to make the best possible wines that we can, and naturally we we are fitting into the trend towards lowering alcohol consumption. If the wines are under 8.5 percent, then so be it.

We won’t ship to the EU until the issue gets resolved. We should be encouraged for making highly regarded quality wines at low alcohol levels. It seems insane to say that you can’t sell something because the poison isn’t strong enough.” seeingredmedia@yahoo.com■

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Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter.

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 47

SWNZ ENERGY

CUTTING BACK ON ENERGY COSTS TESSA NICHOLSON

E

lectricity costs are one of the largest individual operational items a winery faces. To ease the pain many are now looking for alternative sources.

Spy Valley Wines in Marlborough is one of them and their efforts so far will feature in a Television One Rural Delivery programme, expected to air in May. Concerned at the rising costs of electricity, the company installed solar panels in 2013.

Since then their reliance on the

grid has dropped by 25 percent.

Winery Operations Manager Bruce Walker says the initial outlay is likely to pay for itself in just seven years, and will provide free power for up to 23 years after that.

“This winery was established to be conservative with power, but it is still a huge cost for us. And 70 percent of what we use is for the refrigeration plant.”

After consultation with a Marlborough based solar company, 211 solar panels were installed onto the roof of the administration

building, the plant room and the laboratory. In total they generate 52 kilowatts of energy, or 25 percent of the company’s yearly requirements. That is the equivalent power used by 11 family homes over a year. Substantial and free.

Walker says the total cost was $140,000, which will fade into insignificance in the next three decades.

“We paid a lot to get it set up, but now everything we get is payback, it’s power for nothing. The panels themselves have a 25 to 30

year guarantee, so we have years of free power ahead of us.”

Walker says 98 percent of the solar supply is consumed by the company – with the majority feeding the refrigeration plant. Any surplus is then directed back to the mains board, feeding general power use. The company has also been able to sell some of the power back to the grid, although this is not a priority.

“In the winter months when it’s naturally cooler and the load on supply is less, there’s a small

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surplus sold back onto the grid at about 7 cents per kilowatt versus the purchase price of 18-22 cents.

With this price difference it made sense to use as much of the solar energy within the company, rather than selling it.”

Spy Valley has not chosen to install battery banks where the power could be stored, but Walker says that could be

an option in the future.

While free power is an obvious advantage, he says there has been another environmental factor that has come to light; a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

“To date we have avoided

more than 20.63 tonnes of CO2 emissions, compared to if we were relying solely on power off the grid. We have saved that by not having to burn fossil fuels.”

Other forms of energy savings are on the cards,

The solar panels at Spy Valley provide 25% of the company’s power needs.

with the company currently working with Phillips to convert from standard lighting, to movement sensor LED lighting. The new system will involve 200 individual lights working independently.

“The decision to install the bulbs was made after a regular power audit identified this could save on average $4500 a year as well as saving additional CO2 emissions of around three tonnes per room.”

The new lighting will be installed over the next two years and Walker believes it will provide better lighting at 90 percent less cost.

The upcoming Rural Delivery television programme will be covering the energy saving initiatives undertaken by Spy Valley, along with showing how the company has reduced water useage both in the winery and the vineyard. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

WE HAVE MATCHED A FINE SELECTION OF LEGAL EXPERTS TO COMPLEMENT YOUR BUSINESS. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Marija Batistich PUBLIC LAW Simon Watt HEALTH & SAFETY Tim Clarke FOOD STANDARDS Kristin Bradley CORPORATE STRUCTURE Gavin Macdonald To access the full breadth of our team, please contact Marija Batistich in the first instance on 09 916 8809 or email marija.batistich@bellgully.com W W W. B E L L G U L LY. C O M

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 49

PINOT 2017

COVERING ALL BASES

Welling ton Waterfront

31 Jan - 2 Feb

follow us to disc over more abo ut www.pinotnz.c o.nz

@PinotNoirNZ , #pinot17 www.facebook .com /Pino

instagram /Pino

38

Pinot 2017

tNZ

tNoirNZ

Prowein 2015

TESSA NICHOLSON

Q

uestion: What do an English writer, an American Grammy award-winning singer and a Japanese expert on Sake have in common?

Answer: All three are confirmed as speakers at next year’s Pinot Noir NZ 2017.

But this is no joke!

As we say goodbye to the International Sauvignon Blanc

Celebration, registrations for next year’s Pinot Noir celebration have opened. Once again dozens of New Zealand Pinot producers will descend on the waterfront of Wellington, from January 31 to February 2nd to chat, discuss, argue, sniff and taste some of the best Pinot Noir this country has to offer. What’s more they will get to hear from some of the most inter-

esting and influential speakers in the wine world, which brings us back to the original question.

Chair of the Pinot Committee Ben Glover says the three guest speakers announced already will each bring something different to the event.

Master of Wine Jancis Robinson is regarded as one of the most influential people in the world of

wine.

“This is a real coup for Pinot NZ 2017, as she has a lot of kudos and is recognised the world over for her skills and knowledge,” Glover says.

Jancis has not visited New Zealand for more than eight years. A lot has changed in our part of the world in that time, and while she is very much up to date with those changes, nothing beats being able to have her on the ground listening and talking with our Pinot Noir producers.

While wine influence and commentaries are the more traditional approach within the wine world, one of the other speakers just announced could not be further removed. Maynard James Keenan (MJK) is an American musician, record producer and actor. He is the front man for the progressive metal band Tool, the lead singer for A Perfect Circle and is also a member of Puscifer. You may be wondering what a musician has to do with Pinot Noir 2017. Well

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MJK is also a winemaker, owning Merkin Vineyards and the winery Caduceus Cellars in Northern Arizona. Keen to visit New Zealand in his capacity as a winemaker, MJK has said he is intrigued to see how a relatively young New Zealand wine industry is able to move collectively to produce and promote a first-class, world renowned wine.

For Glover, MJK’s involvement is all about moving forward, challenging norms and looking at parallels – in a creative way.

“Out three themes throughout the celebration are; Embrace, Explore, Evolve. And having MJK here is all about evolution, what are we doing, what is the ephiphany?”

Adding to the mix, Japan’s first ever Master of Wine Ken Ohashi will also be among the special guests. What he brings to the event Glover says, is the fact he is also a Sake Master.

“So he has two strings to his bow, in a premium “drinks” position. What that offers us is someone who has nailed wine from a MW and educational point of view, but has another interest in a similar vein. He is also the go-to man in Asia which is an important emerging market for New Zealand wine.”

Pinot Noir NZ 2017 will follow along the same lines as the 2013 event. That means there will be three separate tasting areas. One for Central Otago and Waitaki, one for Marlborough and Nelson and

one Wairarapa, North Canterbury, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland. While mornings will be dedicated to guest speakers designed to evoke discussion and learning with New Zealand winemakers, the afternoons will all be about tasting.

With sights set on 500 attendees, Glover says it is now up to wineries throughout the country to again show their support.

“We need their help. It is their Pinot celebration, not ours. We are essentially a design team, we design the boat but the wineries have to sail it. So the quicker they engage, register and shout about the event, the better.”

While NZW and the Pinot Noir NZ 2017 Committee are charged with bringing in key influencers Glover says it is important the wineries talk to their distributors, and everyone on their data base to “shout about Pinot 2017”, and get them here.

“We want them to get out to all the key influencers they know and link it back to our website or Twitter feed. They also need to invite these individuals that they feel will give them kudos as a winery, which also gives kudos to New Zealand wine as a brand. Because that is what this is all about, creating a noise. Pinot may be the carrot dangling in front of these people, but what these people love is ‘us’ – New Zealanders being passionate about all our wine.

• tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 51

SCIENTIFIC PROFILE

THE SCIENCE OF WINE If there is one job that requires an enormous amount of patience, then science research is it, as Tessa Nicholson discovered talking to Plant & Food Research’s Dion Mundy.

I

t is exactly 17 years since Mundy arrived at what was then HortResearch, in what is now known as the wine capital of New Zealand. The year was 1999 and Marlborough had just under 4000 hectares devoted to grape vines. The rest of the braided plains were taken up with apples, stonefruit, sheep and crops - a far cry from the sea of posts and vines that greet visitors today.

In those 17 years, Mundy has

been tirelessly working away in the background helping to come up with ways of keeping grapes healthy and providing tools to prevent vines from succumbing to an early death from trunk diseases.

Growing up on the first commercial vineyard in Canterbury, St Helena, he has a natural affinity with the wine industry, although he never contemplated winemaking or viticulture as potential careers. Instead he did a BSc at Canterbury University

and went on to gain his Masters with Honours. As a farmer’s son, he wanted to work in the world of horticulture, so when the job came up at HortResearch (now Plant & Food Research) in Marlborough, he jumped at the chance.

The first three years saw him working on a major mulching project that resulted in a book covering all the trials and results. These days, his main fields of research are in seasonal diseases of grapes such as botrytis and powdery mil-

dew, and long-term trunk diseases such as eutypa and botryosphaeria.

“I am a plant pathologist,” Mundy says, “which means people ring me up when plants are dying and they want to know why.”

But coming up with an answer is not always as easy as asking an expert a question. Often it can take years of detailed research. For example, take Mundy’s research into the effects of mechanical harvesting on botrytis incidence in grapes, where he collected all the trash that was removed via the actions of the mechanical thinning and counted, identified and labelled every single piece. That’s hundreds of pieces of minuscule

Dion Mundy: “I have always worked at the applied end of research.”

52 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

debris, from a number of sample vines involved in the research. It takes time, diligence, and of course patience.

The end result, however, of that particular research was to provide growers with a new tool to mitigate against botrytis – something even Mundy wasn’t expecting.

“We were called in at the start because the vines looked awful and people thought they would end up with more disease. We were trying to work out how much disease there was and whether it was going to be cost-effective even to do the thinning. Instead what we found was the thinning reduced disease, not increased it. So we have been able to give another tool to growers – and it’s one that is a non-chemical tool.”

That particular discovery was quickly affirmed, within two seasons. Which is quite a short time, considering some of the other

research projects in which Mundy has been involved.

Take trunk diseases for example.

He first became interested in the topic after noticing from the passenger seat of a plane, the number of dead vines and gaps there were in vineyards throughout Marlborough.

“It scared me,” he says.

His concerns were well founded, as he discovered when he attended an international workshop on trunk diseases in 2003.

“I learnt from that workshop that those dead vines I had seen from the air were a result of trunk disease.”

With seed funding from SFF, he began some preliminary work trying to identify just what was happening in Marlborough. When he

old vines and they weren’t being pulled out because the company was concerned Classic signs of the impact about production, of trunk they just wanted to disease. change the variety.

Which illustrated that the vines can have a certain amount of trunk disease without being affected by it. This is a part of (our research), looking for a balance. Even if the pathogen is there, how do we manage the vine so it doesn’t affect productivity, or spread and heard that Pernod Ricard were propagate within the vineyard? We removing a tract of Cabernet Sau- need to be able to manage what vignon vines to replant, he asked is out there, and find out how to if he could check the vine trunks protect the clean material of the for any signs of disease. young vines coming on.”

“I got out there with my chainSometimes however, findsaw and cut 100 grapevines down ing the resources to undertake to see if they had any staining. And research can be as time-consum– all 100 did. They were 23-year- ing as the research itself.

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“Ten years ago we didn’t have any Eutypa lata spores, we literally didn’t have any fruiting bodies from which to extract spores, so we could set up experiments. So we couldn’t actually test some of the things we wanted to. It took four years of looking, on and off, before we found some fruiting bodies. Things like that can hold research up.

“Trunk disease causes damage slowly. But the research is also rather slow because you spend two or three years to set an experiment up and get results.

Then the full implications of those results may not be known for another two or three years.

We have been monitoring a vineyard here for 10 years to see the progress of the disease, so now we can start to prepare models.”

Those 10 years have demonstrated the slow but sure devastation of trunk diseases, Mundy says. The

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vineyard block has gone from having a small number of dead vines, to a cumulative death rate that means the owners are now looking at removing everything and redeveloping the entire block.

“From our models, we would like to be able to tell people that if they currently have a certain percentage of dead vines, and do nothing, then in 10 years’ time they will be facing complete loss of the block. But if they superimpose certain management techniques in the interim, they could achieve a certain different and more positive result. We can do a cost:benefit analysis of management practices to show whether it is worth taking action, or whether they should just order the plants this year to redevelop the block.”

Research is obviously not a job for a person who wants rapid results.

“That’s part of the nature of

science. If it were easy and quick, people would have done it already.

If we are doing new work, new science, then we always have to take that long-term view.”

The next step in the field of research, in which Mundy is an ardent believer, is getting the results out to the people, so they can become better at what they are doing – earning a livelihood growing grapes and making wines.

“I have always worked at the applied end of the research, so I am looking for solutions for growers and for the industry. That sometimes means seeing what others are doing in other countries, rather than starting from scratch.

“And in other industries as well. One of the great things about being in Plant & Food Research is we are an integrated horticultural and agricultural research company and there are some really good

innovations in other industries.

We can look and decide whether we can bring them across into grapes.”

From an international perspective, Mundy says he has had some wonderful opportunities to learn through travel, having visited Italy, California and Australia. He’s been fortunate to have funding along the way from NZ Winegrowers, the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund, and MBIE Core funding, “Travelling, you gain an appreciation for what we are doing here, as well as learning from what experiences others have to share. I have had some marvelous opportunities in this job to visit so many vineyards, not just here in Marlborough, but throughout the country and overseas.”

Proving that patience does indeed pay off. tessa.nicholson@me.com■

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THE STAKES RISE In my last column I credited Babich with a new record RRP for their 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon. That claim attracted the following response from Ed Aster of Aster Estates/Reliance Wines.

“I just finished reading your latest Blog in the February/March Winegrower and had a bit of a chuckle. The Babich 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is not New Zealand’s highest RRP wine. For the past six years Providence Vineyards of Matakana has been selling their Single Barrel Select Merlot’s and Syrahs at DFS and now ARI Duty Free for $588 for the current 2013 Merlot and $688 for the 2010 Syrah.

Both wines are sold in a beautiful bespoke Rimu gift box with accompanied winery history and tasting note materials. The offering is limited to 300 bottles each ie. Single Barrel, 225 ltr.= 300 bottles per barrel. These wines have sold very well and Aster Estates/Reliance Wines looks forward to our continued marketing relationship with Providence to keep these highly valued wines available to the discerning customers in Auckland Airport Duty Free.”

Any advance on $688?

HOW SWEET IT IS

56 //

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

THIS RIESLING IS... ▲

Wine marketers are happy to let us know when a Riesling is dry (even when it is Medium/dry) but few are prepared to reveal the fact that a wine is medium/ dry, medium or medium/sweet. I assume they feel that any mention of sweetness could discourage potential buyers. But when someone buys a wine expecting it to be dry or off/dry they’re going to be even more pissed off when they discover the wine is too sweet for their freshly shucked Tio Point oysters.

I have some sympathy with the widely held belief that wine consumers don’t really understand where dry finishes and medium/dry begins. When I serve an off/ dry Riesling to students in my wine classes and ask them to indicate what category of sweetness the wine falls into there’s always a wide spread of opinion ranging from bone-dry to medium/sweet.

There is a simple solution.

Dry

Medium Dry

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IRF© www.drinkriesling.com An international group of Riesling producers called the International Riesling Foundation (IRF) have come up with a precise sweetness scale that winemakers can display on their labels for no charge.

It shows a scale ranging from dry to sweet with a marker indicating exactly where the wine sits.

Winemakers simply enter the wine’s residual sugar (RS), total acidity (TA) and

pH into a formula to find out where the arrow sits on the scale.

It’s an incredibly useful guide when buying Riesling and it also helps Riesling drinkers calibrate sweetness levels. I think that every bottle of Riesling made in this country should have this scale on its back label. Only about one-fifth of Riesling bottles carry the IRF scale according to my informal survey.

BEWARE CLEAR BUBBLY BOTTLES Tom Stevenson, chairman of the Champagne Sparkling Wine World Championship (CSWWC), is calling for all producers to restrict the use of clear-glass bottles after experiencing a high percentage of “light-struck” characters in clear-glass entries in the CSWWC. According to studies (see below) just 60 minutes under artificial lighting or daylight in any clear-glass bottle can result in the production of an unpleasant compound, dimethyldisulphide (DMDS), which smells of “old drains and sewage”. Sparkling wine is par-

ticularly susceptible.

From 2015 the CSWWC has “double-bagged” clear-bottle entries in heavy duty plastic as soon as it is delivered. That has resulted in a reduction of Lightstruck faults by 94%.

The same fault can also affect beer in clear bottles. I recall tasting a bottle of beer in a clear bottle that had been exposed to sunlight for one hour – it had an off-odour that reminded me of raw sausage meat, especially when compared to a control beer that had not been exposed to light. To be on the safe side avoid clear bottles wherever possible.

Extract from ‘Sensory Defects in Wine’ by George Vierra “Lightstruck”: Smells like cheese or plastic. Problem in sparkling wine. Magnifies effect of CO2 on aroma perception.

Lightstruck is formed from amino acids plus light to create DMDS, DMS, H2S, methanethiol and ethyl methyl sulfide.

Simply put light characters, often described as wet dog or wool, are caused by the reaction of UV light with amino acids (specifically methionine). The byproducts are: hydrogen sulfide, methanethiol, dimethyl disulfide and sulfide, and ethyl methyl sulfide. Most typically, this problem occurs in finished or bottled wines (note: other food products can have light struck characters).

Wines bottled in flint or clear glass offer the least protection from UV light. Green and brown containers offer the most protection. The “rule of thumb” is the darker the glass the better the UV protection. It also should be noted that the reaction time could be a very short. Experience with flint glass and sparkling wine is that the light characters can evolve in as little of 60 minutes when exposed to a fluorescent light source that is 36 inches from the bottle. This is an enormous problem in sparkling wines because the carbon dioxide amplifies the aromas. Once formed these light characters cannot be remedied by copper additions. Aeration is only method of reduction (not removal), and this can be even detrimental to the wine. The easiest form of prevention is to produce wines that are low or void of sulphur containing compounds.

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VINTAGE 2016

WHAT’S IT LOOKING LIKE? GISBORNE JUSTINE TYERMAN

G

isborne Winegrowers’ Society president Al Knight says the season is going well for local growers and the weather has generally been behaving itself.

“There have been a couple of humid spells but they have had little impact on grape crops and there’s been nothing significant as far as botrytis is concerned,” says Knight.

Feedback from growers has been largely positive and the control of powdery mildew is being managed well in the district, he says.

“As for the possible yield, the crops look to be average to above-average in most varieties.

“Any variability in yield is mainly due to the ‘hen and chicken effect’ which occurs when the vines encounter a cooler period over flowering.”

Knight says the season is tracking a little later than last year, up to 10-12 days behind in some varieties, depending on the location.

“Some of the first grapes in the district were harvested on February 26th, the bulk in midMarch, finishing off around the second week of April with Merlot, Syrah and Malbec.”

Indevin production winemaker Steve Voysey says; “This is shaping up to be another stunning season for Gisborne wine.”

PHOTO LIAM CLAYTON, THE GISBORNE HERALD

HAWKE’S BAY MARY SHANAHAN

L

eading into their extended harvest, Hawke’s Bay’s wine growers were feeling cautiously optimistic about the possibility of pulling off yet another corker vintage.

The growing season got off to a slow start, however. After a cool wet spring, vineyards across the sub regions were lagging behind some 7-14 days by the end of the year.

Summer finally arrived, however, and February’s searing temperatures included a near fortnight’s run of 30-plus degree

58 //

days. That was what was needed to bring the grapes on, and most growers had caught up by the time harvesting got underway in the first weeks of March.

Sileni Estates chief winemaker Grant Edmonds says the only real concern was that, as in 1998, winery staff would have to scramble if a number of different varieties were ready to pick at the same time.

“Acids are down because of the heat, so we have an interesting balance,” he said of the fruit in early March. “We’re not having to

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

push brix high while waiting for acids to drop. We are expecting 12.5 percent alcohol but ripe reds.

That’s a very unusual balance for us.”

Alpha Domus winemaker Barry Riwai says all varieties were looking “very very good”.

“We’re dropping a lot on the ground -- a third to a half. We make expensive wines and want to make good wines. So the bunches are looking perfect. I’ve not seen Chardonnay look quite as good.”

Selaks was off to an earlier

start than most, harvesting Pinot Gris in the first week of March and then Sauvignon Blanc the following week for the company’s low alcohol Breeze range.

Head winemaker Brett Fullerton, who is Hawke’s Bay based, expected vintage to be over by May 1. It was a slightly later season for the company, he said, with growing degree days tracking a little behind average.

However February had been very hot with exceptionally warm nights and he expected that to result in nice flavoursome wines.

WAIRARAPA JOELLE THOMSON

S

MARLBOROUGH TESSA NICHOLSON

ize is never an issue for Wairarapa winemakers, who routinely anticipate that the wind will do its worst - decimate crops before fruit has had a chance to set.

But not this year.

The 2016 season has been radically different for many in the Wairarapa, thanks to settled spring weather, significantly less wind than usual and extremely warm February temperatures.

“We have had nice fruit set and nicely formed bunches, which is a real plus for us here,” says Helen Masters, winemaker at Ata Rangi in Martinborough.

“We often get a lot of shatter with lose bunch architecture but with less wind, we have slightly tighter clusters than

normal. This also means that bunch weights will be significantly heavier than usual. We have been able to prune, taking shoulders off and still have a nice level of crop.”

The region did experience frost in spring, however, which meant some reduced crops.

Masters says that the spring frosts tended to do more damage in the Te Muna area; nine kilometres west of Martinborough township.

“The season until the beginning of February was tracking slightly lower than average in growing degree days, but February has been hot, so while we were about a week behind, we are now back on schedule.”

M

uch of the Marlborough region has been on a diet this season – with thinning being the name of the game.

With predictions that yields were 20 percent above average, machine and hand thinning has become the mantra for many growers.

However not everyone was in the position of having higher yields. Spring frosts impacted on certain areas, and Dr Mike Trought from Plant & Food says flowering was variable due to weather conditions in December.

While late November and early December provided ideal conditions, the temperatures dropped shortly after, impacting

on those varieties and sub regions that were later to flower.

“However more people are saying they (crops) are bigger than average, than those saying their yields are down,” Trought said.

Cloudy Bay’s assistant viticulturist Matt Duggan says there were areas within the region that experienced spring frosts for the first time ever, and while there wasn’t widespread damage, for those growers affected it has been a tough growing season.

He agreed with Trought that the yields are variable, depending just where in the province you are based.

“Some sub regions have heavier crops than others, and

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 59

while some people have had to thin substantially, there are others that have only had to go over the crops lightly.”

Solid bouts of rain in January and February have not only helped refresh canopies at a vital time, they have also helped raise river levels, preventing

irrigation shut downs. However those spells of rain have also heightened the botrytis alert, which Duggan says is being carefully monitored.

“We don’t want too much more rain between now and the end of vintage,” he said.

Despite the warm

temperatures during February and early March, Duggan says they are actually behind on the past two years.

“We began picking for our bubbles on March the 1st in 2014 and 2015.

“Picking this year began on March 9, so we are a good few

days behind. But that’s more to do with the larger crop loads this year, not the growing degree days or heat summations.

“I know it’s still early days, but it’s looking very strong. We are coming off the back of two very, very good years and we are aiming to repeat that in 2016.”

Chairman of Nelson WineGrowers Jonny Hiscox said; “growers in the region appear to be coming through the regionwide challenges all right. We have just had the hottest summer since records began in 1940 and had flooding that left some vineyards looking like swimming pools in late February.

Having said that, people have

worked exceptionally hard with viticulture to manage any issues and most appear to be coming through the challenges well.”

Brightwater Vineyards Gary Neale said; “it was a dry start and while overall rain levels have been lower than normal, it has been a great growing season.

“Canopy management has been pretty important as has

been staying on top of our spray regimes.”

The unusual heat has meant fruit has been developing quickly encouraging flavour development and ripeness at slightly lower than average brix levels.

In the Moutere Hills Tim Finn from Neudorf Vineyards says the vineyard is “looking

NELSON NEIL HODGSON

W

ith record low spring rainfall and nothing in the medium range forecasts, rural water restrictions were introduced in Nelson earlier than ever before, but that all changed in late November with some rain and further rain events occurring regularly through December and January.

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

nmit.ac.nz/viticulture

very green, but it has been a funny old season. It began with what appeared to be not a great start, cold and dry in September.

October was warmer but still very dry and then post flowering

we got the first hit of rain that we needed, it was a drought breaker and helped berries fill out.

“We have ended up with a reasonable crop with little crop reduction required.”

CENTRAL OTAGO MARK ORTON

G

rape Vision viticulturist and COWA President James Dicey describes Vintage 16 as being extremely challenging. “There is a farmer here named Jack Davis who is just retiring from his farm after 39 years and he can’t remember a drier year. We hadn’t had any significant rain since May (2015) so this meant that we were behind the 8-ball going into the season.

“We’ve chucked more water on this year than we have ever done” With the exception of one big dump that drowned the region a few weeks ago, Dicey reckons that the region has had just 50% of its annual average moisture, the whole way through the season.

“The negative with that

deluge is we are just at the start off the cycle where botrytis can become an issue.

Usually 100 berries on a bunch equals 100 gram bunches for our Pinot, well we’ve probably got between 150 and 190 berries this year, so that means very small berries packed into tight bunches.

“As a result of that sudden downpour, there has been some swelling which has pushed some of the berries off the peduncle and that has created a lesion where botrytis has started.

Given how dry it has been, it’s not what we were expecting.”

“This year the yields are, with some minor exceptions, sitting in a really good space. I’m probably more excited about the potential than I have been for a very long time.” ■

Growing Grapes In a Cold Cruel World IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE AND IT’LL HAPPEN AGAIN… Mother Nature has blessed you with great fruit set and everything is developing perfectly. Then you get 3 inches of rain in one day followed by cool damp weather. This global warming thing is hell!

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 61

WINEMAKER NEWS

ENTHUSIASM GALORE TESSA NICHOLSON

O

ne of the treasures of the New Zealand wine industry is the enthusiasm and genuine excitement of the individuals involved. The new chief winemaker for Matua Wines is a fine example – encapsulating both qualities in huge volumes.

It’s hard to keep Greg Rowdon sitting at the table for a chat. You can just feel him itching to get back to the winery, where preparations are underway for the 2016 vintage.

He’s excited, not only because it

looks like it could be a bumper vintage (fingers crossed I am not upsetting the weather gods too early) but also because it is his first year as the head of a large winemaking team at Matua. He has got a lot of plans heading into vintage, not the least of them being to make his mark.

Rowdon is no carpet bagger when it comes to the new position. He has been a part of the Matua team for all bar three years since before he left school. His is

a remarkable story – of someone determined to succeed at an industry he initially didn’t know existed.

Brought up in Auckland, the schoolboy Rowdon was great at science but had no idea where he was going to be able to apply it. His mother suggested wine-making as an option, which led him to write to as many Auckland wineries as he could, asking for advice.

All of them replied, with suggestions of how he could go about

getting into the industry, but Mark Robertson, chief winemaker for Matua went further and invited him to come out to the winery one day after school.

“He offered me his advice of what he thought I should do, which was a science degree first.

Then after that if I was still keen he recommended me doing a vintage. And then if I was still keen, he suggested I go to Roseworthy and study winemaking.”

Rowdon took his advice and

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Matua Wines new chief winemaker, Greg Rowdon.

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when his science degree finished six months prior to his Masters starting he asked Mark if he could come and work at Matua for free.

“He said of course, but that he wanted to pay me. I thought that was pretty good,” Rowdon admits.

“And I absolutely loved it. That first six months was the best time I have ever had in my working life.

It was the most exciting and interesting. I loved every minute of it.”

Long story short, Rowdon went on to Auckland University which was establishing a Masters in Winemaking programme, where he spent the next two years. His research project was on volatile aromatics during microoxygenation – also undertaken at Matua. He freely admits while the research was interesting – it was just holding him back from what he really wanted to do.

“It is interesting and you do get to learn a lot but I just wanted to

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 63

get in and start making wine.”

That dream came true at the end of his studies when Matua offered him a unique “hybrid” role.

“Mark’s thinking was that if you want to be a winemaker you need to serve an apprenticeship in the cellar. You need to really understand everything that happens in the cellar. So I was a cellar hand, slash assistant winemaker to start off with.”

At the time Matua was going through the throes of being bought by the Fosters Group, which saw changes aplenty occurring. Within a few years, Rowdon and Bill Spence, who had become a very close friend, decided to do something small together. Moncellier Wines was born.

“I left Matua at the end of 07 to do this. It was an all encompassing role where I was making the wine, marketing it and doing every single piece of a very small wine

64 //

“Mark’s thinking was that if you want to be a winemaker you need to serve an apprenticeship in the cellar.”

company. We were only producing 5000 cases, aimed at the high end of the market –on-premise, high end restaurants and wine bars.”

But no one foresaw the global financial crisis looming, and launching at the start of that wasn’t all that auspicious. While distribution rights were in place, (via Treasury Wines) Rowdon says there just wasn’t that high end market any more. It had fallen off. So when Treasury offered to bring the label into their portfolio, Spence and Rowdon agreed. He also agreed to come back to Matua as a winemaker. That was 2010.

In 2013 he moved to Marlbor-

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

ough, to undertake the Senior Marlborough winemaking role.

Three years later he is the company’s Chief winemaker, replacing Nikolai St George, who has moved to Giesens.

He admits St George’s shoes are big ones to fill, but his enthusiasm isn’t letting that get in his way.

“I have no problem filling those shoes. I have been making wine for Matua for a long time and have had a lot of influence over the styles of wine made by the company for a long time. I relish the opportunity. I will do it differently and I am prepared to make my mark.”

One area he is keen to expand

on, is wines with texture.

“I am really big on texture, how the wine feels in your mouth. The aromatics and flavour are obviously important, but that feeling of wine in your mouth is also really important to me. So our consumers will start to see a lot of that flowing through in the wines to come.”

He is also looking forward to getting out into the vineyards throughout the country that Matua sources its fruit from. That will mean some heavy travelling in the next few months, between Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago. But again, he is relishing the chance.

“To make good wine you have to get out in the field, so all our winemakers have a lot of vineyard exposure. In my new role it will mean I get even more – but that is fine by me.” tessa.nicholson@me.com■

CHARDONNAY – THE BEST IS YET TO COME A self confessed Chardonnay fan – Rowdon believes New Zealand has only scratched the surface when it comes to this variety.

“I always try to view our wines in a global sense, and globally a lot of our Chardonnays would stand up on the world stage,” he says. “There is some phenomenal Chardonnay coming out of this country.”

Matua Wines already has a long history of producing award winning Chardy. Rowdon says expect even more to come, especially out of

Marlborough.

“Our climate is just so well suited to making Chardonnay, and I very much want to see much more out there. I will throw it out there, that we are just scratching the surface and the reason I say that is I think we have done well, but we can do significantly better.”

Having just blended the 2015 Chardonnay, he says it is one of the best ever to come out of Matua.

The company are backing Rowdon’s theory, by putting their money where their mouth is. A company owned vineyard in the

Southern Valleys of Marlborough has had a significant number of vines pulled, to allow replanting of new Chardonnay clones.

“This is a phenomenal site. I believe Chardonnay here needs heavier soils, so we literally ripped that site out. As you can imagine that is a large cost especially when there is no volume for three years.

But we have thought it through. We have the right clones and the right vineyards and we know they will be supplying us for a long time, which is why we have done it right now.”

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 65

NEW TECHNOLOGY

BEATING GLOBAL WARMING TESSA NICHOLSON

W

hat began as a way of combating frost has developed into a system that offers a multitude of benefits for grape growers, from improved fruit set through to an increase in wine quality.

Every grower understands that heat is a major factor when it comes to producing quality grapes. Without adequate ambient heat throughout every stage of the growing cycle, the number of bunches and/or berries, maturation and chemical makeup of the fruit is compromised.

Which is where Agrothermal Systems comes in with their Thermaculture technology. Described

as an industrial-strength blow dryer that can be pulled or towed behind a small tractor, TPT directs hot air onto the vines, heating the canopy 15 – 20 percent, creating heat shock which activates the plant’s self defence systems. Some intense trials have been conducted in the US that have shown not only does the heat help the fruit set and yield results, it also cuts down the reliance on chemicals for controlling pests and diseases, while raising the level of antioxidants and phenols in the fruit.

Interestingly, the very first trials of using heat within the vineyard were conducted here in New Zealand by Mike Lane of Hawke’s

The Agrothermal Systems machine which is being manufactured by Clemens in Germany.

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

Bay back in 2004/05. At the time he was a grape grower and committee member of the Hawkes’s Bay Grape Growers Association.

Lane explains that initially he was using the heat transference machines (the forerunners of those currently being used) for frost protection.

“We had an air frost in Hawke’s Bay on the 20th of November 2000.

It was obviously very late. Some people lost 100 percent of their crop and we lost 50 percent. We were told that this was a once in a 100-year event and that we didn’t need to worry about it.

Then in 2002 we had three frosts and we lost 95 percent of the crop

that year. That was the year we needed to take frost seriously.

That is when I bought a Lazo Frost Buster.”

He quickly discovered that while it helped mitigate against frost to minus 4.6 deg C, there was also some unexpected results, such as an improvement in fruit set, yields and disease management. In trials evaluated by EIT in 2005, it was shown using Thermaculture cut his pest control costs by two thirds, while his yields increased by 19 percent.

At a later trial at Mission Estate in 2013 those initial findings were validated.

“I was able to reduce my pest

control costs by two thirds and controlled all pest issues except for powdery mildew, a fungus that required 50 percent of the usual sulfur treatments when combined with Thermaculture.

Since then more intensive trials in the US have backed up Lane’s initial findings, with even more benefits coming to the fore.

Agrothermal CEO Marty Fischer says depending on the goals of the grower, you can get away with as few as two treatments per seasons, or move up to as many as 20.

“Heat ranges, frequency of treatment, time of day for treatment, tractor speed and wind speed can all be adjusted to achieve specific results.”

Fischer says there are five major benefits from using Thermaculture.

Assuring adequate fruit set.

“Thermaculture has consistently increased fruit set when applied during bloom. During the 2013 and 2014 heat applications during bloom it led to an average of 24 percent more berries per bunch compared to control blocks in over 25 sites. In 2014 average yields were 31 percent higher at harvest in 12 California blocks where harvest weights were measured.

Disease and Pest Control.

Originally the basis for the TPC patent was because of the ability to control insect and fungal issues within the vineyard. Fischer says using the heat treatment at the right times can disrupt the disease and insect life cycle.

Reduce moisture. Moisture can be a killer for grape quality, especially late in the season, with botrytis a major risk. “TPT can be used either with the burner on or off to dry up and/or blow off standing water from fruit and plants, thus reducing fungus growth and extending hang time for necessary maturity,” Fischer says. “In 2015 we also discovered the capability to rapidly increase sugar levels

when grapes don’t mature to harvest goals.

Increased skin to pulp ratio.

After veraison any rain events can add to the moisture level within the berry. TPT can help reduce that, and while it does tend to reduce yield weights, it does have the advantage of increasing the skin to pulp ratio.

Better quality wine. Now this may seem like a far-fetched idea, but Fischer says they have obtained the services of MW Philip Goodband from the UK, to undertake blind tastings of wine where the fruit was TPT treated, and controls without the treatment. His reaction was extremely favourable. He believes the system could revolutionise the wine industry internationally. “I want to be part of this fascinating innovation.” he says.

The new Thermaculture machines are being manufactured

by Clemens in Germany and use three 45kg gas bottles, with the machine sucking in the air, heating it up and then blowing it back onto the vines. The temperatures achieved equal around 140 - 150 deg C, and can cover one row at a time, with the heat penetrating only the canopy. Given it is only air being used on the fruit, there are no residue issues, making it a highly sustainable form of management. Providing the ability to make up for mother nature at the all important time of flowering and fruit set, it also has the ability to help ripen fruit if the vintage becomes drawn out, or bad weather is forecast.

Despite the initial trials for pest control back in the 2000’s being here in New Zealand, Agrothermal Systems have not delivered any of the new machines to this part of the world. That will change soon when the company launches itself here.

Further information visit

www.agrothermalsystems.com tessa.nicholson@me.com■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 67

INDUSTRY NEWS

DARING TO BLOG TESSA NICHOLSON

N

oticing a dearth of wine bloggers in New Zealand, two former Villa Maria employees have taken matters into their own hands.

Rosé – the wine style that is now out- up a bottle of Rosé and enjoy. selling white wine in France, is beginCaro Jensen and Emily CambCaro Jensen said it was all about lin are the individuals behind Sipning to make its mark here in New providing some credibility to the style. nzwine.com, a New Zealand wine Zealand. Sipnzwine’s recent initiative “We talked to a few producers and and lifestyle website, established Dare To Pink has proven that. many of them said; ‘oh Rosé, it’s just just over a year ago.

With the support of 25 wine produc- a by-product.’ We Jensen says as marketers her ers from throughout the country, the thought that doesn’t and Camblin were used to launchcampaign to bring Rosé to the attention give it enough jusing products and had a good hanof consumers was held over the month tice. dle on digital technology. of February. There were a number of “Then when we “We thought it would be great strategies involved in the cam- talked to consumers to work with some wine blogpaign, including a competi- they would tell us how gers. They seem to be online tion for the consumer’s they loved Rosé, it was everywhere overseas, but favorite Rosé, merchan- their favourite drink, So we thought when we looked here dise that dovetailed into there was an opportunity to bring the in New Zealand, there the lifestyle aspect of consumers and producers together via weren’t actually a lot the wine and the Dare social media.” of them. There are a to Pink day.

Given it was the inaugural event, the lot of people rating Similar to other campaign has been highly successful. and reviewing wines, grape varietal days Jensen is hopeful of it returning next which is great. But – think Sauvignon year, with even more producers and there are not a lot Blanc Day, Syrah consumers taking advantage of it. of bloggers who are Day, Merlot Day By the way the top Rosé from the writing more about – Dare to Pink day competition was Akarua Rua from Centhe stories of the encouraged indi- tral Otago, as voted for by wine lovers industry. So that’s viduals to pick during February.

Caro Jensen where we found a gap.”

She says the aim of Sipnzwine the initiative Dare to Pink (see gers are in abundance overseas, is to bring the human face of the box) and featured stories on indiwhy is it that there are so few here industry to the fore. viduals that would never tend to in New Zealand? Jensen believes it “New Zealand prides itself on appear in more traditional forms is because wine and writing about being young and innovative and of media. wine is actually rather intimidatthere are a lot of really passionate, That has been a deliberate ploy ing. Which she says is a bit silly, because people have no fear of young people out there who are Jensen says. saying whether they like other “It doesn’t have to be the vitinot your typical European old guy, serving wine on a trestle table. But culturist or the winemaker you products. in the on-line world New Zealand are interviewing. It could be the While Jensen and Camblin are doesn’t actually come across that cellar hand or the sales person, or pens. There are a lot of people in the major contributors, a number way.” cellar door lady who has a great management who work for years of other bloggers have come to the So the two decided to do some- story to tell. There is always one and have a great experience of the party, proving that the stories are thing about that – and since their person in the winery who seems to whole industry. That is worth talk- out there and maybe sipnzwine. launch in April 2015, they have have been working there for years ing about.” com is a safe haven for them to Given wine and lifestyle blog- express themselves.■ profiled a number of events, led and knows everything that hap-

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A ROSÉ BY ANY OTHER NAME

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

TINY TOES ROSÉ A

group of three and fouryear-olds have got up close with the Marlborough wine industry recently, all in an effort to help raise funds for their own kindergarten.

The pupils of Renwick Kindy got the chance to stomp, dance, and walk through a paddling pool of Pinot Noir grapes, whilst enjoying the sloshing of juice between their toes. Admittedly whilst it’s not a practice utilised much in Marlborough, (stomping of grapes) the children were in their element.

The fun aspect came about when a group of parents, all involved in the wine industry came up with the idea of having a wine

made, and then selling it to raise funds for the kindergarten.

Dog Point Winery have donated the Pinot Noir fruit.

Fromm Winery had donated their services to make the wine. And Allan Scott Wines have offered to bottle it, having donated the bottles. Even the labels have been donated, by TL Printers Auckland, with designer Kirsty Sutherland creating the label. The children stomping the grapes was more for them to experience where juice comes from.

One hundred cases of the wine will be sold to parents, friends and other interested parties.

The fundraising committee is hoping to raise between $13,000 and $15,000.■

Renwick Kindergarten pupils delight in stomping the grapes – all for a good fundraising cause.

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 69

WINE NEWS

NZ’S 113-YEAR-OLD WINE Century old wines are the stuff of dreams but this year two bottles became reality for a small group in the Wairarapa as Joelle Thomson discovered.

C

hildren often dream of finding hidden treasure when playing hide ‘n seek but William Beetham never gave a second thought to the dusty old bottles in the wine cellar where he hid from his siblings as a young boy – until this year, that is.

This year he finally tasted a drop of wine that is thought to be 113 years old and is one of a handful of bottles remaining from his

70 //

ancestors’ early Wairarapa winemaking at Brancepeth – once one of New Zealand’s largest sheep farms.

Two bottles of wine from a shelf labelled ‘1903 Claret’ were opened for tasting on February 9 for a small group of winemakers and media who visited the estate for the mid morning tasting.

“We knew the wine was special but we were unsure if it was still of any quality,” says Beetham.

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

The tasting took place in the dining room at Brancepath. Two bottles were opened and poured without muslin or sieve filtering, so cork fragments were a factor to contend with. The first bottle was in surprisingly drinkable condition; held together by a framework of noticeably fresh acidity with pronounced flavours of red cherries, dried red fruit such as cranberries and secondary aromas

of smoked mushrooms, truffles and earth; it showed intense complexity and a pale ruby colour, suggesting Pinot Noir, as did its red fruit aromas.

The second bottle tasted cork affected; it lacked freshness and tasted stale, devoid of the red fruit and clean earthy aromas of that first, remarkable bottle.

So, what prompted the opening of the 1903 bottle now?

“The wine community (John Saker, specifically) approached us requesting to run a tasting event.

We were initially reluctant as we did not realise the importance or

uniqueness of the wine.

Once we understood the importance to the wine community, the opportunity to learn more about the wine and our history, plus the ability to recapture and continue another unique story of the people of Brancepeth, we agreed to the event,” says Beetham.

He and his father, Edward Beetham, hosted the tasting at Brancepeth, which is where the story of this wine began at its remote rural location, east of Masterton.

Several bottles still remain housed in the dusty downstairs wine cellar, from which the two that were tasted this year also came from. The cellar is a relatively small room, given the relatively large size of the estate with its 36 rooms, separate stables and buildings from

its busiest days in the past as a vast sheep station.

The old bottles are all unlabeled but have remained on shelves with a tag, which declares them to be: Claret 1903. This wine has been recorded by the family to have been produced by grapes grown

by William Beetham and his French wife Hermance, who is thought to be the instigator of that early winemaking.

Despite the name ‘Claret 1903’ on the cellar tag, this wine is

Many of the property’s facts are beyond dispute, including that it once had 300 staff and a library of thousands of books with a full time librarian who travelled around the extensive property to deliver them to workers.

The site of the original Beetham vineyard is now Photo: Joelle Thomson. planted with grapes but is no longer owned thought to have been made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and by the Beetham family. It is Syrah. There are no records of the called Lansdowne Vineyard and percentage of these grapes that was planted in 2002. The first were planted in the vineyard; only vintage was made in 2009 from that these varieties were planted grapes planted and tended by there at the time.

Derek Hagar snr and his late son, Brancepeth Estate has been Derek Hagar jnr, who passed away divided up many times since its in 2013; the night before harvesting heyday in the second half of the began.

1800s when it was one of New All of the Lansdowne Vineyard Zealand’s largest farms with an wines have been made by original land holding of what I Wairarapa winemaker Karl Johner. understand to be 34,000 hectares. mailme@joellethomson.com■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 71

REGIONS WAIRARAPA

NORTHERN EXPOSURE JOELLE THOMSON

E

very wine region has its challenges but when it comes to New Zealand’s smallest ones, the trials of weather, climate and transportation can take on new levels of difficulty.

There are many small wine regions in this country; from Waiheke Island with its transport issues, to Nelson with its west coast autumn weather pattern, to the Wairarapa and North Canterbury, both of which can experience

the double whammy difficulties of frost and wind in spring.

This story is about the Wairarapa. The region begins in Featherston; the town that lies at the foot of the winding, windswept Rimutaka Ranges.

There are two directions that weather can take in this region; windy and windiest. Which one depends on the day, the aspect of the vineyard, the elevation on which its grapes are planted (mostly flat in the entire region)

and its proximity to the coast. The town of Martinborough is the best known wine growing area in the Wairarapa but approximately 50% of the grapes and wines grown and produced come from the northern Wairarapa areas of Gladstone, Masterton and surrounding vineyards. The changes in climate and weather may seem slight in the northern Wairarapa when compared to Martinborough, but they can result in significantly different harvest dates and subtle but

noticeable variations in the styles of wine.

Climate and weather challenges Wind!

It is the greatest friend and worst enemy of winemakers in the Wairarapa. As in the capital, wind in the Wairarapa is spread throughout the year but is fiercest in spring when its intensity can decimate entire crops.

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point. This grape can be so sensitive at bud burst that it cannot always withstand the intensity of the Wairarapa’s spring winds.

The result is that Gewurztraminer has zero fruit set in some years, in this region. This is a shame because this high sugar grape variety has the potential to make commandingly powerful wines in the Wairarapa, which has one of this country’s most pronounced diurnal variations – that difference between day and night time temperatures. For this reason, the retention of acidity is extremely high for grapes grown in this region. Add to that the pronounced tannins in the skins of the small tough grapes that do survive the ferocious spring winds and you have a powerful structural combo’.

The problem is profitability.

The wind that reduces bunch weights and grape berry size, also wipes out profitability. This is

Mother Nature’s way of wreaking both joy (in the flavour of the grapes) and havoc (in the lack of profitability) in one fell swoop. It is also the reason that the structural support provided by tannins can be more pronounced in Pinot Noir from the Wairarapa than in many other New Zealand wine regions. And it’s all because of the wind.

Annual rainfall is significant in the Northern Wairarapa, which receives between 700 to 800mls, most of it falling between June and September. Fortunately, the ripening months experience low to no rainfall.

The coolest day in the region is approximately 6 to 7 degrees Celcius while the warmest summer days are generally between 30 and 35 Celcius. The temperature can climb to 40 degrees Celcius and over, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

Spring growth such as this can be decimated by strong winds and frost, making life tough for Wairarapa growers.

“For me, what’s really exciting is that while Martinborough gets up to 32 degrees during the day, and drops down to 10 degrees at night, we in the northern Wairarapa are also high during the day but we are even cooler at night; usually down into single figures.

We generally get budburst five to seven days later than Martinborough, and harvest is usually two

weeks later, due to the higher diurnal range,” says Angus Thomson from Urlar Estate.

“The longer those grapes can hang on the vines and mature with the sugar rising and acid falling, for me that is a good thing. I think that those factors have the potential going forward to provide some exciting flavours in the grapes.” mailme@joellethomson.com■

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 73

WINE GADGETS

ARE WINE GADGETS WORTH YOUR TIME? LEE SUCKLING

F

rom the cheap and the cheerful to the uber-futuristic, wine gadgets have gone beyond the simple rubber wine stoppers you’ll see in the kitchen accessories aisle.

Many wine accessories still start and end with one goal: To preserve a bottle for longer. The rubber (or metal) stoppers we often receive as gifts might give our tipple a few more hours worth of drinkability, but newer innovations try to extend that by much more.

Take the Private Preserve (privatepreserve.com) for starters. What looks like a can of CRC lubricant for squeaky doors is actually a can of argon, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which can be sprayed directly into a half-empty wine bottle.

According to its creator, Napa Valley entrepreneur Scott Farmer, this idea came from seeing inert gases used for preserving wine in tanks and barrels. Aiming to bring this to the consumer, he developed Private Preserve, which formulates that mixture of gases that create a blanket-like seal over wine from oxygen after first being opened.

Though the idea of putting a cork back onto a bottle will irk winemakers, independent users have claimed no change in wine taste one week after the gas was used, while Farmer himself claims to have used Private Preserve on bottles first opened four years ago, with no negative effects.

A similar idea of sealing wine from oxygen has come from the

74 //

company Air Cork (aircork.com).

Essentially, this product is a valverelease hand pump (shaped like grapes) connected to a hose and an un-inflated balloon, which is placed into a half-empty wine bottle and then inflated by hand.

While this purportedly creates a seal inside the bottle, users have found the result of a rubber balloon in wine creates a chemical taste.

Nobody would blame winemakers for skepticism about any product that opens your bottle then adds something into it. But what about a technological tool that let’s you drink wine without even uncorking it?

The Coravin (coravin.com) pierces a cork with an argon-filled needle and then extracts the wine from the bottle by the glass with its tap-like handle. Wine writers, critics, and restaurateurs across the world have praised this innovation, which apparently allows a natural cork to re-seal itself after the needle is removed and leaves no evidence of use in the wine’s taste.

Perhaps the main use of the Coravin would be to test a cellared wine to see if it is at peak drinkability, before committing to opening the whole bottle. This is something many with large collections of valuable wine could take interest in. It could also be of value for restaurants that typically only allow top-shelf vintages to be sold

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

by the bottle, as the Coravin would make them accessible by the glass.

There are two major downsides to Coravin, though. Firstly, if you forget to purge the needle between uses you risk inserting oxygen into your next bottle. Secondly, it can’t be used on screw-caps and plastic corks. This renders it mostly largely redundant on New Zealand wines, allowing only for use on those that have been imported.

Something more locally-useful, particularly with our variable room temperatures throughout the year in New Zealand, is the Trudeau digital wine thermometer (trudeaucorp.com). When attached to a bottleneck, this simple stainless steel strap takes

the temperature of the glass and displays it instantly on a small LCD screen.

Alternatives to traditional wine decanters have also emerged on the gadget market, called aerators (such as a popular model from Vinturi, vinturi.com).

Aerators seemingly allow for the acceleration of the oxygenation process of wines. They work by attaching to a bottle top and, when poured, increase a wine’s velocity and decreases its pressure. The result is supposed to allow the “right” amount of air in for that decreased pressure, simulating the standard decanting process.

Wine aerators have mixed reviews from wine professionals.

Many, from outlets such as The

New York Times, Wine Enthusiast, Forbes, and the Oprah magazine have come in favourably on the Vinturi, as one example.

However, in a blind tasting event for Bon Appetit magazine, 75 per cent of sommeliers found this kind of gadget created wines that were “less desirable versions of their former selves”.

Though not yet on the market, wine purification gadgets such as the Üllo (ullowine.com) will be emerging later in 2016, and are seemingly the next generation of aerators. Üllo, designed by a PhD chemist, aims to aerate and remove sulphites from a wine in the same pour. The product is a simple silicone cup with a polymer filter, and it claims the device will reduce added sulphites – the preservatives that are allergens for some people – to a naturally-occurring level of less than 10 parts per mil-

lion.

Other next-generation aerators are more technological. The iSommelier by iFavine (ifavine. com) is leading the way at various 2016 tech conventions: It’s a “smart” decanter that is connected to your smartphone. iSommelier claims to reduce decanting time from hours to minutes by controlling it with an app – meaning, theoretically, you could start decanting wine for your dinner party while you’re still at the supermarket. It also filters ambi-

Vineyard and orchard management application • Reduce costs • Capture work details in the field • Manage health & safety • Eliminate timesheets • Load and manage all worker details • Integrate with payroll & accounting

ent air, removing impurities such as moisture, dust, and odours, and also –like other aerators – isolates oxygen from nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

With one minute on the iSommelier equating to one hour of decanting, this device has picked up a lot of techinnovation industry applause, and is now being used at various high-end restaurants in the UK and China.

The verdict from actual sommeliers, however,

is still out on this one.

Home in New Zealand, despite our reputation for Kiwi ingenuity, we haven’t done much in the way of wine gadgets. However, some wineries are finding unique ways to get their products noticed on the shelves with innovative wine accessories.

A fun and very handy example comes from Ohau winery in the Manawatu. For summer 2015-16, it launched its Wine Glass Buddy, an adhesive square to be stuck to your phone case, for easy removal of lipstick marks on wine glasses.

The Wine Glass Buddy is not enough to gain attention from the masses like some of the other gadgets, but at least it’s useful. On that note, we should all be wary in the world of wine gadgetry. Many “revolutionary” wine gadget products, it must be said, are likely no more than pure marketing hype. lee.suckling@gmail.com■

Intepeople assist many wineries with employment and staffing issues.

• Employment Relations • Performance Management • Workforce Planning • Employment Agreements • Health And Safety

Call Blenheim 03 579 4794 Or Nelson 03 546 8649 www.intepeople.co.nz For more information: Ph 04-978 2039 email: info@vinea.co.nz www.vinea.co.nz As featured in NZ Winegrower February/March 2016

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 75

NOT ON THE LABEL LEGAL MATTERS WITH MARIJA BATISICH SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND SARAH ANDERSON, SOLICITOR, BOTH OF BELL GULLY

ONLINE WINE SALES AND PROMOTIONS – SELLER BEWARE!

T

he online sale of wine is now commonplace and an increasing number of both local and international retailers are using this forum for promoting and selling wine. Those who are marketing alcohol online need to be aware that the restrictions which apply to physical stores under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 (the Act) often also apply to online retailers.

The first key matter to be aware of is that s 40 of the Act

makes it clear that off-licences are required for remote sellers of alcohol. This means that those selling alcohol exclusively in an online forum still need to obtain a liquor licence. Although endorsement as a remote seller can remove some of the obligations around the display of signs which apply to physical premises, the Sale of Alcohol Regulations 2013 still require the name of the person who holds the licence, the licence number and the date on which the licence

A further requirement for remote sellers of wine is that reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that the purchaser is not under the purchase age.

expires to be displayed in a prominent place on the internet site. Every receipt issued must also include this information and a legible image of the licence (or a clearly identified link to an image of the licence) must be included on the website.

A further requirement for remote sellers of wine is that reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that the purchaser is not under the purchase age. This should include asking the prospective buyer to declare by tick-

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ing a box on-screen that he/she is over 18 years of age both when the buyer first enters the site and again immediately before the sale of alcohol is completed.

The key difference for online retailers compared to physical stores is that remote sellers are not required to comply with the usual trading hour restrictions so sales can be made at any time on any day. However, delivery must still comply with the Act so that the goods are not delivered after 11pm at night or before 6am

do not apply only or primarily to alcohol.

In addition to these advertising restrictions, it is also an offence to do anything that is likely to encourage people to consume alcohol to an excessive extent or to promote alcohol in a manner that is likely to have special appeal to those under 18 years of age. The wording, layout and style of advertisements should therefore be carefully considered to ensure that there is no breach of this requirement.

“One of the key restrictions, which in our experience is often overlooked by online retailers, is that it is illegal to promote or advertise discounts of 25% or more below the price at which alcohol is ordinarily sold.”

(or on specified public holidays).

The second key matter for online sellers to be aware of is that s 237 of the Act applies to all those promoting alcohol “in the course of carrying on a business”.

The restrictions in relation to promotion and advertising included within that section therefore apply equally to online sales. One of the key restrictions, which in our experience is often overlooked by online retailers, is that it is illegal to promote or advertise discounts of 25% or more below the price at which alcohol is ordinarily sold (unless this is in a catalogue or similar price list of a holder endorsed as a remote seller).

The advertising of alcohol which is free of charge (for example, buy 2 and get the 3rd free) is also prohibited by the Act and loyalty programmes should be carefully scrutinised to ensure that the rewards and discounts provided

For overseas based online retailers, whether all or some of the above requirements apply will depend on the jurisdiction in which the sale is taking place.

A number of factors including tax obligations and bank account structures may be relevant to this determination. Any retailers considering opening New Zealand websites should therefore seek legal advice to be clear on their specific obligations.

In summary, those selling wine online should be familiar with the requirements of the Act and ensure that all necessary licences are in place.

Promotion and advertising of wine should also be undertaken in a responsible manner in accordance with the vendor’s obligations under the Act. The potential fines under the Act are high, so if in doubt – just ask! Both writers frequently advise on these issues.■

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 77

MACHINERY UPDATE

SHE’LL BE RIGHT – YEAH RIGHT! M A R K DA N I E L S

T

ractors, luv ‘em or hate them, one thing’s for sure, life in the vineyard would be hard without them.

Many of us are probably guilty of jumping on and turning the key, and really only worrying about routine servicing when the solenoid clicks, and she won’t go!

Perhaps with a new vintage just around the corner it might be good use of a rainy day to give the old gal a little TLC, by way of a routine service?

Whether you’re running an old grey Fergie or one of todays’ hi- tech honeys…..the same rules apply.

Broadly speaking the tractor can be broken down into three key areas; the engine, the transmission and the rear transaxle.

Starting at the front of the tractor take the time to check the cooling system. First and foremost check the coolant level - when the engine is cold.

Try to top up with a proper coolant/anti-freeze mix, normally at a 30-50% ratio. This ensures that the system stays clean, free of any deposits and has a chance of operating at maximum efficiency.

With the radiator itself, make sure that it is clean and none of the fins are bent or broken. Finally make sure that the drive belt that runs the radiator fan, and most likely the water pump is correctly tensioned, and free from cracks. If it is - then replace it

78 //

Radiator header tank.

Inset: Air cleaner assembly.

Moving rearwards to the engine itself consider an oil change.

Whilst the vineyard hack may not clock up high hours, it’s important to ensure that it gets a fresh charge of oil on an annual basis.

It’s real easy. Get the engine up to operating temperature, find a suitable receptacle and remove the drain plug from the engine sump. Let the old oil drain out fully, then remove the filter cartridge being mindful

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

that its contents may be hot. Once everything has drained away, the most important point is to replace the drain plug in the sump! Next step is to pre-charge the replacement filter with oil, remembering to lubricate the sealing gasket on the end of the filter. Install the filter and tighten, only hand tight!

Then add oil up to the mark on the dipstick. Now start the engine.

Check that the oil light on the dashboard goes out within a few seconds. Once this happens, stop the engine, add a little more oil to bring it up to the correct mark on the dipstick, then restart the engine. Allow it to warm up before use whilst checking around the engine for any leaks.

Whilst we’re at the front end

it’s also a good time to give the air cleaner a check. This will normally be a cartridge type, and is normally accessed by undoing a number of clips and removing the filter element. If it’s very heavily soiled treat the tractor to a replacement, but if it’s not too bad, blow the filter out with an air-line to remove most of the dust.

Also in the engine department, we need to ensure that the tractor is receiving a fresh supply of clean fuel. At this point it’s worth mentioning that a tractor doesn’t like water in the fuel, particularly when using modern fuels with ultra- low sulphur content, that have very limited lubrication properties.

To change the fuel filter, firstly make sure that the area around the filter head is nice and clean, then undo the bleed screw at the bottom of the filter housing and drain

off any water. Now remove the filter element and discard safely.

Then replace the seals on the filter housing and replace with a new filter element. Now the system needs priming, so firstly ensure the fuel tank is full and the tap is turned on. Use the hand primer pump to fill the filter housing.

Once the housing is full, open the bleed screw on the top of the filter housing to eliminate any trapped air. Keep pumping until all air bubbles have stopped. Now start the tractor whilst keeping an eye out for any leaks.

In some cases you may have to just crack open an injector to get the last of the air out of the system, but only do this as a last resort.

Moving back down the tractor we now need to look at the area of the gearbox/transmission. This area converts the output of the engine into useable power that can be transmitted to the ground. Inside

The Cfine™ difference

Air cleaner elements.

is normally a selection of shaft gears and clutches that need a regular supply of fresh clean oil. The service schedule will say change every 1000 hours, so the transmission oil should be changed on an annual basis.

To change the oil, firstly run the tractor for about 15 minutes and get it up to operating temperature.

Remove the drain plug at the rear of the tractor, and if the tractor is a 4WD, look out for a second

drain plug in the area of the 4WD transfer box. Once everything stops draining replace all drain plugs. If the tractor has the correct hours change the hydraulic filter, and top up the transmission to the correct level.

This may be indicated by a dipstick, sight-glass or even a level plug. Run the tractor for a couple of minutes, then switch off, and top up to the correct level.

If the tractor is a 4WD unit, drain the oil in the front diff cas-

ing, then replace the drain plug.

Remove the level plug, and top up with the correct specification oil until a slight trickle comes from the level hole.

Carry out the same procedure with both final drives. Jack up each of the front wheels in turn and rotate until the drain plug is in the six o’clock position, remove the plug and drain. Rotate the wheel to the 9 o’clock position and fill to the level and the drain plug.

With all this draining and dripping going on, walk around the tractor with a loaded grease gun and give every grease nipple a couple of shots. Pay particular attention to the front axle and steering and the three point linkage at the rear of the machine.

This small investment of a couple of hours of your time, a fresh filter or two, and a few litres of oil might seem like a chore , but the old gal will love you for it!■

Advantages

Cfine™collagen differencefrom a Cfine™ is The a marine •Advantages Highly soluable Cfine is a marine collagen from a soluable sustainably managed New Zealand ••• Highly Retains colour in light reds sustainably managed New Zealand Retains colour in light reds cold water •• Removes Removes haze coldspecies. water species. haze and particlesand particles Cfine offers winemakers a collagen • Reduces filtration in some circumstances Cfine™ offers winemakers a • Reduces filtration in some circumstances • Reduces astringent and bitter phenolic flavours of remarkable solubility and consistent Volatile flavours molecular profile making solubility it a superior collagen of remarkable •• Retains Reduces astringent and bitter phenolic • Enhances fruit characteristics clarifying agent that enhances the flavour and consistent molecular profile flavours • Retains tannins for flavour structure and colur characteristics of wine. making it a superior clarifying agent • Retains volatile flavours To discussthe Cfine flavour in more detail or request a sample contact: that enhances and • Enhances fruit characteristics Ocean Essence Ltd. PO Box 11, Nelson, New Zealand. colour characteristics of wine.

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NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 79

UPCOMING NEW ZEALAND WINE GLOBAL EVENTS MARKET

EVENT

EVENT DATE

REGISTRATION

May 2016 Canada

NZ in a Glass - Vancouver

Thu 5 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

Global

International Sauvignon Blanc Day

Fri 6 May

NA

Canada

NZ in a Glass - Ottawa

Mon 9 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

Canada

NZ in a Glass - Toronto

Wed 11 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

China

NZ Wine Fair - Shanghai

Mon 16 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

China

NZ Wine Fair - Beijing

Wed 18 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

China

NZ Wine Fair - Guangzhou

Fri 20 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

Australia

Game of Rhones - Perth

Sun 22 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

Hong Kong

VinExpo Asia Pacific

24-26 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

UK

Charles Metcalfe Masterclass at Foodies Festival - Brentford

28-30 May

Fri 22 April

Japan

NZ Wine Fair - Tokyo

Mon 30 May

Contact NZWG ASAP

USA

NZ Wine Trade Tasting - Honolulu

Tue 7 June

Contact NZWG ASAP

USA

Kapalua Wine & Food Festival

9-12 Jun

Contact NZWG ASAP

June 2016

DATES FOR AIR NEW ZEALAND WINE AWARDS 2016 Monday 8 August - Entries open Friday 9 September - Entries close Monday 17 to Wednesday 19 October - Judging, Auckland Wednesday 26 October - Gold Medal results announced Saturday 12 November - Awards Dinner, Auckland

80

// NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

To have events listed in this calendar, please email details to: tessa.nicholson@me.com

CALENDAR APRIL

MAY

2:

9:

6:

21-22:

Waiheke Wine & Food Festival

A Taste of Matarangi

– Waiheke Island

30 – 1 May:

International Sauvignon Blanc Day

WINETOPIA presented by Singapore Airlines

14:

– Shed 10, Auckland

8-10:

The Food Show Christchurch 2016 – Horncastle Arena

The Great NZ Food Show Hamilton 2016 – Mystery Creek Event Centre

Saint Clair half marathon – Blenheim

JUNE 12:

22:

NZ Boutique Wine Festival

NZW Grape Day – Marlborough

– Imperial Building, Auckland

10:

- Convention Centre

24:

Auckland Bayer Young Viticulturist Of The Year

NZW Grape Day

– Mudbrick Vineyard

– Central Otago, Golden Gate Lodge

20:

24:

NZW Grape Day – Hawke’s Bay

Marlborough Bayer Young Viticulturist of the Year

-Napier MTG Century Theatre

– NMIT, Budge Street

JULY

AUGUST

2:

21-22:

Game of Rhones

WineEng 2016 NZ

– Shed 10, Queens Wharf, Auckland.

1-6pm

– Biennial WEA Conference and Exhibition – Marlborough Convention Centre, Blenheim

7:

Hawke’s Bay Bayer Young Viticulturist of the Year

Otago Bayer Young Viticulturist of the Year

Game of Rhones

– Cromwell Polytechnic

– Chaffers Dock, Wellington. 1-6pm

Entries open for the Air New Zealand Wine Awards

23-25: National Final Bayer Young Viticulturist of the Year

22:

– Te Awa

19:

8:

– Marlborough

24-26:

Romeo Bragato Conference.

ASB Theatre – Marlborough

28:

Wairarapa Bayer Young Viticulturist of the Year - TBC

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

9:

17-19:

12:

Judging of Air New Zealand Wine Awards

Air New Zealand Wine Awards Dinner

Entries close for Air New Zealand Wine Awards

- Auckland

– Auckland

NZ WINEGROWER JUNE/JULY 2012 // 81

STATISTICS

MAJOR NZ VINEYARD AREAS PRODUCING HECTARES Region

PRINCIPAL EXPORT MARKETS

2014

2017 forecast

22,907.0

23,684.3

67.1

4774.3

4886.6

13.9

Otago

1931.8

1953.2

5.5

Gisborne

1914.6

1961.2

5.6

Waipara

1254.6

1257.2

3.6

1122.7

1159.7

3.3

Wairarapa / Wellington

995.1

1017.7

2.9

Auckland / Northland

392.3

407.1

1.2

24.6

23.28

0.01

35,510.1

36,547.3

Marlborough Hawkes Bay

Nelson

Waikato / Bay of Plenty National Total

% of Total in 2017 forecast

Exports for the year to date to the end of January 2016 (Moving Annual Total)

Country

Variety

Sauvignon Blanc

2014

% producing area

56.4

20,697.2

Pinot Noir

5509.2

15.5

5995.5

Chardonnay

3345.5

9.4

3441.1

Pinot Gris

2451.2

6.9

1395.3

Merlot

1290.0

3.6

1395.3

783.7

2.2

781.1

Syrah

433.1

1.2

446.7

Gewurztraminer

375.5

1.1

363.8

Cabernet Sauv

289.4

0.8

306

Viognier

187.4

0.5

182.2

Malbec

126.8

0.4

134.8

112.7

0.3

112

576.3

1.6

Cabernet Franc All other varieties Total

35,510.1

Auckland/Northland Waikato/Bay of Plenty

Number of

Regional area

Average of

Vineyards

Planted ha

area ha

111

392.4

57,068

367,036

-1%

5%

USA

61,397

439,048

16%

25%

54,380

362,469

1%

2%

Canada

10,182

102,013

15%

17%

Netherlands

7,009

44,743

21%

21%

Denmark

1,002

7,102

-1%

-1%

Ireland

2,723

19,337

28%

26%

Japan

1,244

21,045

8%

64%

Germany

2,617

13,130

35%

18%

China

1,813

27,495

-5%

-1%

Hong Kong

1,349

18,026

0%

6%

Singapore

1,614

21,703

8%

10%

Finland

0,307

2,605

9%

8%

Norway

0,295

2,245

-7%

-16%

Sweden

1,685

13,759

2%

4%

Others

7,960

70,065

17%

15%

212,652,712

1,531,829,099

7%

12%

3.5

12

24.6

2.1

Gisborne

100

1914.6

19.1

Hawke’s Bay

260

4774.3

18.4

118

1122.3

9.5

Nelson Marlborough

1014

22,907.0

22.6

Waipara

64

1254.5

19.6

Canterbury

35

193.0

8.4

Wellington/Wairarapa

119

995.1

9.1

Otago

213

1931.8

17.4

2046

35,510.1

17.4

National

82

// NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

Growth Decline FOB %

594.8 36,547.3

AVERAGE VINEYARD SIZE Region

Growth Decline Litres %

2017 forecast

20,029.4

Riesling

$ FOB

UK

Australia

MAJOR VARIETIES IN MAJOR AREAS

Litres (m)

TOTAL

RESEARCH SUPPLEMENT Information and Updates on NZ Winegrowers Research Programmes.

Editor Dr Simon Hooker, General Manager Research and Innovation

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.wine.nzwine.com/members/research

LIST OF PROJECTS Quality Wine Styles for Existing and Developing Markets The pathway of volatile sulphur compounds in wine yeast – The Bragato Trust and NZW Scholarship University of Auckland (Dr Bruno Fedrizzi - student Matias Kinzurk) Lifestyle Wine (PGP) University of Auckland and Plant and Food Research (Various) Jointly funded by NZW and MPI Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) fund.

Literature review of calcium tartrate stability of wines Lincoln University (Bin Tian) Evaluation of the efficacy of a range of commercial bentonites on New Zealand Sauvignon blanc wine Hills Laboratory (K Creasy)

Pests and Disease Grapevine Trunk Disease; young vine ecology, diagnostics and preventative treatments New Zealand Viticulture Nursery Association Incorporated (VINA) (Nick Hoskins) Leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough, 2015 to 2017 Plant and Food Research (Vaughn Bell)

Virus diversity in New Zealand grapevines: sequence, ecology and impact – The Rod Bonfiglioli Scholarship Plant and Food Research (Robin MacDiarmid - student Arnaud Blouin) Sustaining vineyards through practical management of grapevine trunk diseases South Australian Research & Development Institute (Mark Sosnowski) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund Sector weather data licence & tools HortPlus (NZ) Ltd. Developing Powdery Mildew Best Practise (Year Two) Lewis Wright Valuation & Consultancy Ltd (Trevor Lupton) Grape botrytis resistance to AP and SDHI fungicides Plant and Food Research (Rob Beresford) Grape powdery mildew monitoring Plant and Food Research (D Mundy)

Sustainability/Organics Effects of undervine vegetation management on grape quality, vine performance, grape composition, and soil properties Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) (Mark Krasnow) Pinot noir wine composition and sensory characteristics as affected by soil type and irrigation in the Waipara region Lincoln University (Glen Creasy) Vineyard Ecosystems Programme University of Auckland and Plant and Food Research (Various) Jointly funded by NZW and MBIE Risk Assessment of Nutrient Losses from New Zealand’s Vineyard by Mechanistic Modelling Plant and Food Research (Bent Clothier)

Cost Reduction/Increased Profitability Grapevine growth stage monitoring for prediction of key phenological events Plant and Food Research (Rob Agnew) Supported by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 83

PROGRESS REPORTS

The effect of Leafroll 3 genetic variants on grapevines 12-118

Chooi KM1*, Blouin AG1, Cohen D1, Bell VA2, Mundy D3, Nobilo S4, and MacDiarmid RM1 1

The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand

2

The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd, Hastings, New Zealand

3

The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Ltd, Blenheim, New Zealand

4

Waimarie Wines, Waimauku, New Zealand

* Corresponding author karmun.chooi@plantandfood.co.nz GRAPEVINE leafroll-associated virus 3 (leafroll 3) is the most widespread and economically damaging virus in New Zealand vineyards. This viral disease has been shown to reduce vine vigour, and fruit yield and quality. The current New Zealand leafroll 3 disease management programme actively addresses key disease elements: controlling mealybug populations (mealybugs are insects that can spread the virus in the vineyard), removing (roguing) leafroll 3 infected vines (that can act as sources of virus in the vineyard), and replanting with certified leafroll 3-free grapevines. For red berry varieties, visual inspections looking for characteristic reddening of the leaves and the rolling of the leaf margins are used to identify leafroll 3 infected vines that need removal.

Recent studies undertaken in New Zealand and around the world have identified significant variation in the leafroll 3 genetic code within the virus populations.

However to date, little is known about how this virus genetic variation affects the grapevine whether the different leafroll 3 genetic variants cause different foliage symptoms in red berry cultivars that could affect visual inspections for the virus, or cause differences in canopy growth and berry yield and quality for red and

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white berry varieties.

To understand how different genetic variants of leafroll 3 affect grapevine biology, we initiated a study that includes the establishment of a comprehensive field trial which compares three leafroll 3 genetic variants, found throughout New Zealand (genetic variants Group I, VI, and NZ2) with corresponding healthy (leafroll 3-free) vines, in four grape varieties.

How we set-up the field trial Plant material infected with the different leafroll 3 genetic variants was propagated in the glasshouse. The green shoots from resulting plants were then grafted onto four grapevine varieties: Merlot, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc. To ensure the virus source contained the correct leafroll 3 genetic variant of interest, routine laboratory testing was performed.

At the start of 2014, a total of 320 leafroll 3 infected and healthy vines (20 grapevines for each type of treatment and each cultivar) and an additional 64 healthy grapevines (to act as buffer vines between the treatment bays) were planted at each of the field sites; Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, and Marlborough. During the 2014-2015 season, visual symptoms on grape-

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

vines were monitored on at least five occasions over a period of 74 days. Commencing in late-January, the visual inspections ceased in mid-April.

What we observed from the 2014-2015 season No noticeable symptoms were observed at any sites on white grapevine varieties or on healthy red grapevine varieties. A range of viral symptoms was observed on the foliage of leafroll 3 infected red varieties.

The timing of symptom expression (and in turn observation by assessors) in the Merlot and Pinot Noir foliage varied between the varieties throughout the season.

Consistently for all sites and at every assessment time point, except for one instance in Hawke’s Bay, the successful identification of leafroll 3 (of any genetic variant) based on visual symptoms was higher in Merlot than in Pinot Noir vines. For example, at 35 - 40 days post véraison, over 10% more Merlot leafroll 3 infected vines at all field sites were successfully identified by visual inspections than Pinot noir infected vines.

Positive identification of leafroll 3 (of any genetic variant) based on visual assessments for both red varieties gradually increased as the season/assess-

ment period progressed, with the greatest success at the last assessment (53 days post véraison). Up to 100% of the Merlot and 95% of the Pinot Noir vines were successfully identified at the Hawke’s Bay plot. This supports current recommendations to perform visual inspections later in the season.

However, at the same assessment time point, only 90% and 75% of the Merlot vines and 60% and 70% of the Pinot Noir vines infected with leafroll 3, were marked as visual positives at the Auckland and Blenheim sites, respectively.

This high variation in positive identification between sites raises questions as to whether the different environmental factors affect disease symptom development, or whether assessor confidence and expertise influenced the results, or was it a combination of both factors? In this trial, the local assessors have varying experience with identifying leafroll symptoms in the field setting, which is likely to be representative of the current situation within the industry.

To understand whether the genetic variants affect symptom expression differently, the foliage symptoms caused by each of the different leafroll 3 genetic variants were compared. From this comparison, red variety vines infected with NZ2 took longer for

Figure 1: Symptoms of the leafrool 3 NZ2 virus variant are less widespread in the vine canopy than the Group 1 genetic variant. Photographs of Merlot vines infected with either a Group 1 or NZ2 generic variant at the Auckland site, 2015.

the leafroll symptoms to be fully expressed and observed by assessors across all three sites. There were also noticeable differences in the severity of the foliage symptoms expressed between NZ2 infected and Group I and VI infected red variety vines. By the time symptom monitoring ceased, a lower proportion of NZ2 infected vines showed severe symptoms (where the entire leaf had reddened but still had green veins), and less of the NZ2 infected vine canopy showed symptoms (Figure 1).

What is next?

Results thus far have shown a trained assessor can identify leafroll 3 in the field late in the season, no matter which variant of the virus has infected the vine.

But results also suggest assessor experience and confidence may play a role in the success of visual inspection regimes. To understand the possible effects of the assessor and/or environment on the foliage virus symptoms, in the coming season another round of visual foliage assessments will be performed at all sites, with the

trained assessor from Hawke’s Bay also visiting the other two sites on two separate occasions.

The trained assessor visits will upskill the other assessors and help to minimise the possibility that the observed differences are because of assessor ability.

As a result, if differences are observed this season these will be more likely to be because of environmental factors.

In addition, we anticipate yielding a small crop from the field trial this season. This development provides the opportunity

for us to examine the possible effects of leafroll 3 and its genetic variants on the berry quality and related attributes.

Acknowledgements Funding and support was provided by The Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust, New Zealand Winegrowers, and The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of Riversun Nursery and the vineyard owners and their staff.

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 85

The upsides of viruses 13-115

Arnaud G. Blouin, Vaughn A. Bell, Robin M. MacDiarmid - Plant & Food Research VIRUSES are small infectious agents that reproduce in living cells. We are all aware of the downsides of plant viruses - the diseases they cause, the crop losses, and in some cases plant deaths. But there are upsides too – viruses can have positive effects on plant growth and wellbeing.

Since viruses were discovered in the late 19th century, virus diagnoses have focused on cultivated plants showing symptoms; as a result, the vast majority of the ~1000 plant virus species described are pathogens in crop plants. However, with new detection methods, numerous latent (or symptomless) viruses are being discovered in cultivated plants. Moreover, recent surveys for viruses in natural ecosystems show that the majority of these plants are healthy but virusinfected. This raises the question, what is the role of these viruses in seemingly healthy plants?

Several beneficial aspects of plant viruses have been documented, involving interactions with insects, fungi, other viruses, or their host plants.

The New Zealand Winegrowers Rod Bonfiglioli Memorial Scholarship, awarded to Arnaud Blouin has enabled the development of a detection tool capable of identifying all viruses present in a grapevine. With that tool, we can detect all the viruses present in a plant, not only the pathogenic ones. In addition, by looking at healthy vines, we may detect new viruses that can be friendly to their host.

There are several ways in which a virus may be beneficial to its host, and it is possible that some of the viruses we can now detect will be

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part of the grapevine management in the future. For example, one obvious candidate would be to find an isolate (strain) of Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (or leafroll 3) that is not harmful to the vine and that could be used as to protect it against the common pathogenic leafroll 3.

Are there good viruses known in grapevines?

From more than 60 viruses known to infect grapevine, less than five are very nasty and mobile, leafroll-3 being on the top of that unwanted list. The rest are, at worst, pathogenic under certain condition or only limited number of cutivar/roostock. Grapevine rupestris stem pitting virus (GRSPaV) is the most common virus of grapevine and is probably present in the majority of the grapevines worldwide.

How can this virus, with no known vector, be so common? The answer is probably down to centuries of vegetative propagation increasing the distribution of the virus, which in turn, probably selected against the most harmful strains.

Recently, a laboratory in Italy demonstrated that GRSPaV has a small physiological and yield cost to the plant, while the benefit includes an improved tolerance to water stress. The long co-existence between grapevines and GRSPaV may have resulted in the evolution of a form of mutual adaptation between the virus and its host. This may be an example where the vineyard manager also benefits from a virus-infected grapevine.

The same Italian scientists also studied the effect on wine of

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

Grapevine virus B (GVB), a vitivirus that is often latent but is sometimes associated with graft incompatibly. Virus-infected V. vinifera Albarossa vines yielded 25% less berry weight despite having larger berry size, but there were no significant differences in juice pH, titratable acidity or soluble solids content. The wine produced from these virus-infected vines is higher in total anthocyanins and total flavonoids, which resulted in a more highly coloured and fuller bodied wine. This was highlighted by the overall judgment of a sensory panel, who showed a preference for the wine made from the virus-infected grapes.

What other benefits can viruses provide to plants?

Virus-virus interactions When two viruses infect the same plant, each can either positively or negatively affect the other. Virus-virus interactions can also involve the insects that transport them to the next plant (their vectors). In grapevines for example, the Vitivirus Grapevine virus A can be transmitted only by a mealybug in the presence of a grapevine leafroll-associated virus in the donor plant. Alternatively, virus-virus interactions can be beneficial to the cultivated crop when used in cross protection.

This interaction works like immunisation: a plant infected with a mild strain of the virus becomes protected to a severe virus infection. Although not perfect, this strategy has been successfully used in different horticultural systems, including in commercial citrus production, where non-vir-

ulent strains of the Citrus tristeza virus protect against severe strains of the disease. As explained above, this is a disease management we would like to trial for leafroll 3, if we detect a mild strain.

Host Manipulation Insect viruses such as baculoviruses can manipulate their hosts to move to the top of the plant just before they die. On their way up the plant, the insects spread onto the leaves their heavy viral load, ready to infect more insects. The likelihood of the insects being eaten by birds and the viruses being dispersed long distances also increases.

Plant viruses can also manipulate their hosts to increase their movement. Some have a tight relationship with their insect vectors. For example, geminiviruses significantly modify the fitness (lifespan and egg-laying potential) of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) feeding on virus-infected plants. These whiteflies transport the virus between plants, and increased insect longevity is beneficial for virus dispersal. On the other hand, the same whiteflies have a decreased fitness when feeding on a pepper plant infected with Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). The whitefly cannot spread TSWV. In this case, TSWV can be used to reduce the impact of whiteflies (and any viruses that it may carry), even though TSWV is detrimental to the pepper plant.

Similarly, clover infected with White clover mosaic virus reduces infection by the non-vector herbivore fungus gnat (Bradysia sp.).

In a way, the virus protects its host plant against non-vectored competition. There are also plant

Well before viruses were known as such, the chance occurrence of a virus that gave rise to one of the most expensive plants in history. In the early part of the 17th century in Holland, a single tulip bulb (Figure 1) was sold for 5200 guilders.

This sum was truly significant, at the time equivalent to 400 tons of herring (13 guilders per ton) or 15600 L of French brandy (1.5 guilders per gallon).

So what was so special about this tulip? It was a speculative time for tulip traders in Holland, and colour-breaking flowers were highly sought after.

The spectacular flower-breaking phenomenon was not understood, as it was not transmissible to the seeds, but it could be propagated through bulb offsets, although these offsets were smaller and their growth was delayed relative to that of the normal bulb.

The interest was so great that bulb growers could not keep up with demand.

Three centuries later, a virus was identified as being responsible for the flower pattern, and was named Tulip breaking virus (TBV).

Figure 1 Semper Augustus Tulip 17th century” by Unknown - Norton Simon Museum.

Licensed under Public Domain via Commons.

viruses (e.g. Turnip yellows virus) that help their aphid vectors to reduce the negative impacts of parasitoids of the vector. Complex interactions among the virus, the plant and the insect (differentially for virus vector and non-vector) have recently been observed.

Mycovirus biocontrol Viruses are so small they can also infect other microorganisms such as fungi or bacteria. Viruses that infect fungi can in some cases reduce the pathogenicity of the fungi, and thus be used as biocontrol agents (the use of a natural enemy of pest or pathogen to manage it). Chestnut blight, caused by the pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, was introduced to the USA from Asia at the beginning of the 20th century, and destroyed an estimated four billion American chestnut trees. Cryphonectria parasitica hypovirus 1 (CHV1) is a

virus that infects the fungus and reduces its growth. CHV1 has been used to control the chestnut blight in orchards in North America and in Europe. We now know that most fungi have their own, often specific, viruses. Botrytis sp., for example, can be infected by several viruses, some reducing its fitness (hypovirulence); however, the lack of transmission of those viruses between different fungal populations has historically limited their use as biocontrol tools.

Direct benefits to the plant Viruses can be directly beneficial to infected plants. Several common viruses that are mostly pathogenic under normal growing conditions can confer drought resistance to their hosts. This physiological change provides the infected plant with an advantage

for surviving harsh conditions, and the virus with a more sustainable host.

Another ubiquitous virus – Cucumber mosaic virus – confers freezing tolerance to beet. A virus in white clover suppresses the nitrogen-fixing nodulation that captures the atmospheric nitrogen when there is already sufficient nitrogen in the soil. For the clover, the advantage is the economy of producing an organ only when it is essential to its survival.

A more dramatic example of beneficial virus is the heat-tolerant panic grass (Dichanthelium lanuginosum) growing in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. Curvularia thermal tolerance virus (CThTV), is an essential virus for panic grass survival in soils where the temperature can reach 65˚C. But CThTV does not infect the plant directly; instead, the virus is

specific to the fungus (Curvularia protuberata) growing on the grass.

The fungus or the grass alone are unable to tolerate temperatures above 40˚C. Hence, survival is entirely reliant on all components in what is a three-way symbiosis or microbial “ménage à trois”.

Conclusion These examples demonstrate how complex microbial ecology is, and how viruses can affect their hosts and vectors. Viruses are present in every part of the ecosystem, and the plant-virus interaction fluctuates between antagonism (pathogenicity) and mutualism (symbiosis) under different environmental conditions.

Only good knowledge of these interactions can give us options to adjust some environmental parameters to take advantage of the positive sides of viruses.

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 87

Microbes contribute to a wine’s terroir 14-102

Dr Sarah Knight - University of Auckland FOR centuries we have harnessed the fermentative powers of microbes, more specifically the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to make wine; a cornerstone of many social occasions and a valuable economic commodity. The vast diversity of wine, not only by grape variety but also by geographic origin, intrigues many and adds to the allure and enjoyment of this social beverage. These regional differences, which add value and distinction to wines, form the basis of the French concept of terroir, or sense of place of a wine, which has long been postulated to be driven by the vine interacting with local climates, soils and topography. While this intuitively makes sense and is a logical explanation for the different wines produced, the potential role that microbes could play in shaping these differences has largely been ignored until recently.

Microbes, in particular the yeast S. cerevisiae, are essential to the winemaking process and convert sugars in grape juice to ethanol and a variety of other compounds important to the way a wine tastes and smells. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that these diverse organisms may play a role in the terroir of wine.

For this to be possible, there are two important criteria that must be met.

Firstly, there must be variation in the tastes and smells produced in wine by different microbes.

After all, if all microbes contributed the same tastes and smells to a wine how could they contribute to differences between regions?

Previous research has validated there is variation in the sensory characteristics produced by dif-

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ferent microbes on a number of occasions. If you begin with the same starting grape juice and thus remove all external factors that could influence a wines taste and smell, and then add different species or even different individuals from the same species, you get different flavours and aromas in the wine produced.

Secondly, different communities or populations of microbes must exist in different geographic regions. Since terroir is fundamentally about differences between places, it is logical that for microbes to contribute to terroir they too must be different in different places. Recent research has demonstrated this to be true showing both the communities of yeast and fungi in the vineyard and the populations of S. cerevisiae in the winery are different between regions.

Considering the above two points together, it is reasonable to say that the different communities and populations of microbes that are observed in different places contribute different tastes and smells to wines and thus microbes contribute to regional distinctions or the terroir of wine. While this is believed to be true, it has only recently been experimentally tested.

Our research at the University of Auckland has recently demonstrated that there are genetically different natural populations of S. cerevisiae residing in Hawke’s Bay, Martinborough, Nelson, the Wairau and Awatere Valley’s in Marlborough and Central Otago.

As S. cerevisiae is the main yeast involved in fermentation, we were able to use this genetically

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

well characterised population to experimentally test if microbes contribute to the terroir of wine.

We took six different S. cerevisiae yeasts from each of the six regions and used them to make wine.

The ferments were all performed under the same conditions, and this was repeated three times for each individual. So we could disentangle any differences caused by other factors such as soil type and climate from any differences caused by the yeast themselves, we used the same batch of sterilised Sauvignon Blanc grape juice for all ferments. That way, all the yeast had the same starting materials and any differences we observed in the final wine could

be attributed directly to the yeast that we added.

The wines made by the yeast were chemically analysed for 39 compounds and wine properties that are known to be affected by yeast during fermentation. Statistical analyses of these chemical concentrations were performed to determine if there were any detectable differences in the wines produced by the individual S. cerevisiae that were originally isolated from the different regions. Overall, it was found that the region the S. cerevisiae yeasts were isolated from explained 10% of the differences seen between the ferments, suggesting that microbes play a significant role in the terroir of

wine. Here we only consider S. cerevisiae, the main fermenting yeast; however, if the whole community of microbes that are usually present during fermentation, as well as microbes in the vineyard that may affect the quality of the grapes are taken in to account, this affect could potentially be even larger. It is important to note however, that while this difference is significant, it is quite small and by no means suggests that microbes alone cause the differences we see between wines from different regions.

The traditional factors such as soil type, climate, topography and wine making practices likely play a larger role and the microbes present are a component of the overall differences.

More detailed analyses and tests can be found in the open

access article published in Scientific Reports at the link http:// www.nature.com/articles/ srep14233. This research objectively demonstrates for the first time that microbes may contribute to the regional identity or terroir of wine and this potentially extends to other agricultural products. While other factors are most certainly still important to a wines terroir, these results reiterate the importance of understanding and conserving microbial populations and communities and suggest that doing so may have tangible economic outputs.

With recent technological advancements we have more power than ever before to understand vineyard ecosystems as a whole and learn how microbial communities interact and change with different management prac-

tices. The new Vineyard Ecosystems Programme, co-funded by New Zealand Winegrowers and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is designed to investigate these interactions and thus better inform industry of how their actions may be affecting vine health, vine longevity and the vineyard system as a whole. By having a better understanding of the forces influencing microbial population and community differences, the food and agricultural sectors can devise management practices to sustainably manage and conserve these systems not only to sustainably manage disease and improve the longevity of New Zealand’s agricultural systems but to also help maintain the natural regional distinctions that contribute to the regional identity of products.

Acknowledgements Funding was provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand Winegrowers and Plant and Food Research. The authors gratefully thank Amisfield, Ata Rangi, Churton, Coal Pit, Constellation, Delegats, Domain Road, Frey Vineyard, Huia, Misha’s Vineyard, Mt Difficulty, Mt Riley, Neudorf, Palliser, Pernod Ricard, Rippon, Seifried, Seresin, Te Kairanga, Te Whare Ra, Tohu, Trinity Hill, Villa Maria and Vita Brevis for access to their land and providing samples. Thank you also to Drs. Guenther and Herbst-Johnson who provided help and advice with the chemical quantification and Pernod Ricard who kindly supplied the juice and allowed access to a wine scan.

Grape botrytis resistance to AP And SDHI fungicides 15-103

Rob Beresford - Plant & Food Research BOTRYTIS cinerea (which causes botrytis bunch rot) can develop resistance to modern fungicides that have site-specific modes of action; when resistance develops to a particular fungicide, continued use of that fungicide (or ones of the same type) can lead to botrytis control failure.

New Zealand Winegrowers has initiated a new resistance survey project to accurately define the regional status of the potential sensitivity to two fungicide groups, the anilinopyrimidine (AP) and succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs). This will enable an effective strategy to be devised that will allow the use of

effective products to continue into the future. The survey will be conducted in Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough in March and April 2016.

At present, the AP fungicide group (products like Switch® and Scala®) is the mainstay of botrytis control.

This group was introduced in the late 1990s and has been under resistance management in New Zealand because of the known likelihood of resistance developing. Resistance to AP fungicides is widespread overseas and has been detected in some New Zealand botrytis strains during a study of botrytis genetics that is

being carried out by Plant & Food Research and Landcare Research.

The New Zealand AP resistance management strategy was updated in 2014 due concerns regarding the high reliance that botrytis control has on AP fungicides. However, that update was done without survey data to quantify actual B. cinerea sensitivity to APs in different regions.

The SDHI fungicide group is also of concern in relation to botrytis control. SDHI products target powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) as well as botrytis, and botrytis is known overseas to develop resistance to them very readily.

New registrations of various SDHI fungicides are increasing rapidly and it is crucial to understand the resistance status of B. cinerea to SDHIs, as well as to APs, to guide overall grape spray programme design.

This project will provide knowledge of the degree to which any resistance is present, and of its geographical spread, which is crucial to the development of a robust resistance management strategy. The long-term aims of the research are to examine the sensitivity of other botrytis fungicides used in grapes, so that spray programme design can be optimised.

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016 // 89

Modelling nutrient losses from vineyards 15-104

Brent Clothier & Steve Green, Plant & Food Research, Palmerston North IN 1991, New Zealand passed the Resource Management Act (RMA), which changed dramatically the regulations for the management of natural and physical resources.

The RMA also outlines the need and role for National Policy Statements (NPS). An NPS for freshwater (NPS-FW) was gazetted on 4 July 2014, and it contains a National Objectives Framework (NOF) to assist Regional Councils and communities to plan more consistently and transparently for the freshwater objectives in the NPS. The NOF of the NPS-FW

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demands ‘bottom lines’ for water quality in the receiving waters of lakes and rivers.

Regional Councils are required to develop rules to ensure these limits are met. This means that regulations will be required for nutrient discharge limits for different land uses.

All primary industries will need to be able to demonstrate that their practices comply with these regulations.

Computer modelling of nutrient losses can provide a means to demonstrate compliance and provide eco-verification

NZ WINEGROWER APRIL/MAY 2016

New Zealand Winegrowers has initiated a project with Plant and Food Research to carry out a comprehensive national modelling study, using our mechanistic Soil Plant Atmosphere System Model (SPASMO) to predict the leaching and runoff of nutrients from vineyards using detailed soils and weather information.

The outcomes of this project will consist of an analysis and understanding of nutrient losses in relation to: • Different management practices • Soil type and land use capa-

bility class (LUC) – a proxy used already in two regional plans • Application of the NOF of the NPS-FW beyond the Tukituki catchment where Plan Change 6 (PC6) has been ratified in the Hawke’s Bay • Assessment of the discharge limits in PC6, an understanding of the validity and utility for viticulture • Incorporation of expected N and P vineyard losses dataset within the planned Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) FEMP (Farm Environment Management Plan) reports .

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