NZ Winegrower Dec/Jan 2015 by Rural News Group

2016

CEMB

NEW ZEALAND WINEGROWER

95 ISSUE

1 5 /J A N 20

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF NEW ZEALAND WINEGROWERS

D EC EMB E R 2 015/ JAN UARY 2016

I SSU E 9 5

PER SONA LIT Y OF THE Y E A R ✽ ISBC 2016 ✽ GIs A R E COMING ✽ PR E V EN TING BOTRY TIS

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 95

50 R E GUL A R S

Editorial

The Ins and Outs of GIs

Tessa Nicholson

It has been a long time coming, but the end is drawing near. Geographical Indications are coming to a wine region near you. They will play a key role in the marketing and value of New Zealand wine.

Drones Versus Birds

Technology is ever changing and drones are the latestest tool in the grape grower’s toolbox. Research undertaken in Hawke’s Bay shows unmanned aerial vehicles are pretty nifty at keeping foraging birds away from ripening fruit.

From The CEO

Philip Gregan

In Brief

News from around the country

48 Young Guns

Young Winemakers

60 Bob’s Blog

Bob Campbell MW

Science of Wine

Trevor Lupton

Not On The Label

Legal matters with Bell Gully

FEATURES

Insuring Your Business

The wine industry is unique in terms of insurance, according to Garry Mooney from ICIB. He explains how growers and wineries can protect themselves as they move forward.

Calendar

Beer and Wine Combined

Wine happenings in New Zealand

The world of craft beer is growing exponentially. This month we take a closer look at three winemakers who are combining their craft with brewing.

Research Supplement

The latest science and research projects funded by NZ Winegrowers

COVER SHOT: Provided by Falcon Ridge Estate, Nelson.

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 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015

A YEAR OF HIGHS

nother year is about to end, with the next one waiting just around the corner. And 2015 has been a year of highlights for the New Zealand wine industry, as Philip Gregan points out on page 6. Aside from the gains made in the ethereal world of governance and marketing, New Zealand wines have shown just how versatile they are. This country had its most successful year ever in the 13-year history of the Six Nations wine competition. Not only were we voted the top country by a larger margin than ever before, but we also took out the trophy for top wine and won Nation of Class in seven of 16 classes. With a result like this it is impossible to call New Zealand a one show pony, in reference to our Sauvignon Blancs. In this one competition alone, we were Nation of Class in Sparkling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Shiraz/Syrah, Bordeaux Blends, Other Red Blends and Dessert wines. In the International Wine and Spirits Competition New Zealand wines were awarded Gold Outstanding in five varieties; Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Gris and Pinot Gris. In the Decanter World Wine Awards New Zealand won two international trophies for Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. At this year’s Air New Zealand Wine Awards, international judges were stunned by some of the lesser varieties that are beginning to emerge. Ronny Lau from Hong Kong described how he was surprised – in a nice way – at how good some of the newer varieties entered into the awards, were. Which is promising for the future. While Sauvignon Blanc is likely to be

the major player in our wine future, it is nice to see other varieties and styles are following hard on its heels, at least in terms of success, if not in volume. Talking of Sauvignon Blanc – 2016 is the year that it will be celebrated as never before here at home. The International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in early February will provide the hundreds of guests the chance to see how this variety is expanding in terms of style. Again ‘one trick pony’ is an oft repeated comment by overseas critics. Those that are producing this variety throughout the country can only wonder when the critics will realise that our winemakers are producing an abundance of styles of this variety than the past would have them believe. That Marlborough is not the only region to produce world class Sauvignon in New Zealand. From Hawke’s Bay to Martinborough, Nelson to Central Otago, Sauvignon Blanc is a variety that screams of regionality. The ISBC will provide the opportunity to prove that. The celebration will be quickly followed by the Sparkling and Chardonnay Symposium held in Gisborne. Again two styles of wine that New Zealand can and has proved are world class. Looking ahead to 2016, while these two events will set the scene early on, there are others coming later that will change the face of New Zealand wine. One is the unification of the industry to one body and the implementation of GIs. Both are covered in this issue of NZ Winegrower. So as we say goodbye to 2015 and welcome in 2016, let’s celebrate an outstanding year and prepare for another exciting one. I hope you all have a safe festive season, enjoying a drop or two of some of our stunning wines with friends and family.

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FROM THE CEO PHILIP GREGAN

2015 WHAT A YEAR! The end of the year is fast approaching so some end of year thoughts on a few of the significant developments of the year to wrap things up!

Vintage 2015 While vintage 2015 may have been a smaller than expected, the quality was undeniable with very positive reports from virtually every region. With our reputation based on being a quality producer selling at higher price points, the high quality vintage set a great tone for the year. The smaller vintage certainly tightened supply as well, removing remnants of downward price pressure left after the larger vintage in 2014. From an industry perspective we will always be better off with a smaller, high quality vintage than a larger, lesser quality one and this was again proven this year.

The $NZ In recent years, exporting wineries have succeeded in export markets such as the USA and the UK despite the high value of the New Zealand dollar. Over many years it has been clear that exporters have taken a strategic approach to key markets, continuing to invest in market development despite the $NZ being at times nearly USA 90 cents, approaching parity with the Australian dollar and being well over 50 pence against the UK£. This year with a lower valued dollar that long term view of market development has certainly

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paid off. Into the USA, for example, in the THREE months to the end of September the average fob price of bottled exports is up 35%, while into the UK the increase is 18%. Increases into Australia and Canada are smaller (+5% and +4% respectively) but are still definitely on the right side of the ledger. Provided the lower $NZ continues to prevail this will be a significant driver in increased export returns over the balance of the year. Final comment on the currency … if history is any lesson the one thing you can be certain of is there is about zero chance the New Zealand dollar will sit sedately in one place for long; ours is a dynamic world and the NZ$ rises and falls as a result.

FTAs In New Zealand Free Trade Agreements may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but the benefits to our industry are undeniable. We would not be where we are today in the Australian market without CER, we have made real progress in China since that FTA was signed, while our success in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong has undoubtedly been helped by the competitive access into those markets. 2015 has seen some real momentum on the FTA front … the Korea

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

deal is awaiting ratification, TPP has been signed and is now going through the ratification process, while the government and the EU have announced discussions leading towards an NZ/EU FTA. If all those deals come to a successful conclusion they will provide improved access for around two-thirds of NZ’s total export volume. That has got to be good news for every grower and winery in the sector.

NZW Inc – A new beginning As all growers and wineries will be well aware, the industry voted ‘YES’ in the recent levy referenda, with basically 90% of voting growers and wineries supporting the new levies. This is a very important result for the industry. It means growers and wineries have supported the big picture changes to the governance of industry organisations. Those changes will see a new entity, NZW Inc, come into being, a new way of electing the industry Board and new levy orders all in place from 1 July 2016. Following the endorsement from members, the Board is now working through the minutiae of the plan to have a successful and uneventful transition from NZW to NZW Inc. To that end:

An application for the new levy orders has already been sent to the Minister for Primary Industries. In line with MPI requirements this has turned into a massive tome … a 28 page summary document and supporting material of 19 appendices of well over 400 pages. The Board has reconvened the Governance Working Group to have oversight of all the steps that need to be made to achieve the successful transition to NZW Inc. On all those changes, advice is being received from KPMG and Bell Gully to ensure necessary accounting and legal requirements are adhered to. 1 July 2016 is set to be a red letter day for the industry. A unified industry organisation directly accountable to members will begin operations. A new Board will be elected shortly thereafter and new levy orders will be in place. So with demand strong in key markets, exciting initiatives such as the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration happening early in the year, and a new industry body gearing up to begin operation, 2016 already looks set to be another positive year for our sector. Best wishes for the festive season and the upcoming Vintage 2016. ■

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HORTICULTURE

IN BRIEF

NATIONAL Rosé Set To Be Summer Drink New Zealand wine and lifestyle website Sip NZ Wine is launching a Rosé campaign in February, joining forces with

industry producers to make a rumble about Rosé. Already more than 15 producers are on board for the Dare to Pink

#sipnzrosé with the aim of making the variety the drink of summer. Emily Camblin from Sip NZ Wine says; “Australia,

Europe and the US all have their own Rosé campaigns so it is finally time for New Zealanders to Dare To Pink.”

HAWKE’S BAY Craggy Range’s New Additions A group of bronze cattle are adding to the ambience of Craggy Range’s Giants winery and vineyard in the rural Tukituki valley in Hawke’s Bay. The sculptures of Charolais cattle - a bull, a cow and a calf - are double life-size and are the work of Paul Day, the first created by the British-born artist for a southern hemisphere site. Day, who gained his B.A. Hons from the Cheltenham School of Art, specialises in figurative

sculpture and has had his work exhibited in Europe, the USA and Canada. In 2001 he was chosen to create a monument in London commemorating the Battle of Britain. Visiting Day’s studio in Burgundy while touring the wine region last year, Craggy Range owners Terry and Mary Peabody commissioned the three works. The cattle sculptures are located at the front of the Craggy Range site, alongside a man-made lake and below the soaring Te Mata Peak.

Acclaim for Gimblett Gravels Gimblett Gravels® reds are “the wave of the future for the world’s great red wines” according to leading US wine commentator Dan Berger. Following a tasting of 2013 Gimblett Gravels® wines in the US he applauded the district, saying; “To make utterly world-class red wines in a region three decades after you first joined a game already in progress is an astounding achievement-one that should be widely heralded.” Describing the wines as “food friendly…with complex aromas, varietal precision, and huge cellar potential”, he added that the “sensational Syrahs from the area overwhelmed the tasters with their excitement and varietal integrity.”

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Scholarship for Steve Smith

Bridge Pa Triangle Festival Returns

Awarded a Prime Minister’s business scholarship, Craggy Range director of wine and viticulture Steve Smith ,(left), is one of 12 senior executive and business owners who will study at such internationally acclaimed education institutions as the Harvard Business School, INSEAD (The Business School for the World) and the London Business School. As well as helping them further their educational opportunities, the scholarships are aimed at assisting recipients wanting to develop valuable networks and a global mind set in their business dealings.

Next year’s Bridge Pa Triangle Wine Festival will be offering twice the number of tickets following 2015’s hugely successful inaugural event. Participating wineries Abbey Cellars, Alpha Domus, Ash Ridge Wines, Ngatarawa, Paritua, Sileni Estates and Triangle Cellars will cater for up to 2000 participants, many of whom will take advantage of the hop on/hop off buses provided to travel around on the day. The festival, aimed at promoting the subregion’s cellar doors and sales, will be held from 10am to 6pm on 23rd January and will offer live music, wine tasting, gourmet food prepared on site and masterclasses.

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

MARTINBOROUGH Gladstone Vineyard Partners with the Arts Foundation Wairarapa’s Gladstone Vineyard has further strengthened its association with the arts, becoming official wine sponsor of one of New Zealand’s leading arts organisations, the Arts Foundation. Owner and chief winemaker Christine Kernohan says, “Gladstone Vineyard has a long history of backing the arts – since first bringing Victoria University’s Summer Shakespeare to Gladstone Vineyard in 1998.” They have also sponsored Circa Theatre, Pataka Art + Museum, Kokomai Festival of the Arts, the Oversew Fashion Awards, Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand, the New Zealand Book Council, the Oversew Fashion Awards, LitCrawl Wellington and the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.

New Plantings of Chenin Colin Carruthers and Deborah Coddington’s Te Muna Road Vineyard is now home to seven rows of Chenin Blanc at Redbank; 9 kms east of Martinborough. The new plantings include approximately 1000 vines. “The idea came about from Colin Carruthers after he had a recent trip to France because he was pretty taken with the Chenin Blancs that he tasted there,” says winemaker Simon

Groves, who anticipates making the first Redbank Estate Chenin Blanc in four to five years’ time. The Chenin Blanc vines have been planted on the top terrace at Redbank Estate, right next to the vineyard’s Chardonnay vines (90% of which are the relatively new clone 548 with the balance planted in the unusually aromatic Chardonnay Musque clone).

MARLBOROUGH New Flight Connects Regions For the first time, a direct flight between New Zealand’s two largest wine regions is available. Sounds Air, based in Blenheim, began their direct flights early November. Six times a week, there will be return flights between Blenheim and Napier, with the target audience being wine industry personnel. Sounds Air’s Managing Director Andrew Crawford says the decision to create a link between the two centres was a direct result of inquiries from members of the wine industry. “A lot of people had moaned to us that the wine industry was having trouble getting between the two regions,” Andrew says. “So we got thinking. We had some spare capacity on some days and thought maybe we could offer a route that would solve the problem.”

Wine Brokers Has New Owner Wine Brokers NZ, one of the industry’s leading wine broking companies, has been sold. Former owners George Elworthy and Karen Griffiths have sold their business to George Geris, previously Chief Marlborough Winemaker and Winery Manager for the Villa Maria Group. George Elworthy says while it is sad to sell the business they started, he is thrilled to be passing it on to someone who will realise its potential. “I have no doubt that with George’s knowledge, experience and professionalism, he is the right person to do this.” Gerris says he has admired the business for years. “I understand the fluctuations of the industry and the challenges of balancing supply and demand which puts pressure on wineries, growers and buyers both locally and internationally. I am looking forward to working with everyone to help make their lives easier by taking some of those problems away.”

Nautilus Pinot on British Airways A shipment of Nautilus 2012 Pinot Noir is on its way to the UK, to be served in British Airways business class. It is 15 years since the company delivered their first Pinot

vintage, so this latest accolade is something the entire team is excited about says Managing Director Clive Weston. “Our first vintage of Nautilus Pinot Noir

was back in 1997, so the British Airwars listing is a pleasant reward for over 15 years toil in vineyards and at the winery, with this most fickle but delicious variety.■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 9

GI UPDATE

THE INS AND OUTS OF GIS TESSA NICHOLSON

ithin the next seven months, the Geographical Indications Act may finally come into being. While the act was passed by Government back in 2006, it has taken until this year for the powers that be to decide now is the right time to implement it. NZWinegrowers GM of Advocacy, Jeffrey Clarke says the act’s coming into force will play a key role in the marketing and value of New Zealand wine. But what exactly is a GI and how will having one help you as an industry member? “The definition has two core elements,” Clarke says. “Firstly the GI is the name of the place where the grapes are grown. Secondly there has to be some quality or reputation or characteristic of the wine that is associated with that place. We are talking about how the grapes are grown, the soil, the weather, the diseases and the people who grow them. It is about telling the story, and that is why GIs are powerful and valuable. It is a type of communal intellectual property that lets the people in a region protect and grow the value of the region’s name that is associated with that region’s wines.” As for what a GI is not – Clarke says that is important too. It is not an appellation controlée – which would determine what viticultural or oenological practices a grower or winery would be forced to abide by. “There is nothing that talks

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about what grapes you can grow or what styles of wine you can make. There is nothing that talks about how you market the wines. You will see no reference to appellation controlée.” In fact while the 2006 Act has not been brought into force, many in the wine industry here are already using GIs in terms of identifying their region or sub region on their labels. Which give rise to the question – if we are doing that already – why do we need to have the Geographical Indications Act? Clarke says it is important because of the registration facet of the act. “A register is a government sanctioned list in which any wine zone or region or sub region can choose to record the details of their GI. And that provides four aspects of value.” 1. Reputation and brand. Having a GI allows your region or sub region to tell its own distinctive story, which is critical Clarke says to the success of New Zealand wine. “Whether a registered GI is as broad as New Zealand or as narrow as Bannockburn or Gladstone, or somewhere in between like say Marlborough, the GI register allows it to be distinctive in the way it is internationally recognised.” 2. Market access. Currently New Zealand is the only major wine producing country that does not have a GI system. “In most cases our unregistered GIs have been accepted by other

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

countries, but the fact that we haven’t had a registration system means we are vulnerable to challenges, particularly from the European Union and China.” 3. Protection against misuse by third parties. With the GI act, your wine and your region/sub region’s reputation has a higher level of protection than is currently available. “The GI registration Act would strictly prohibit the use of a geographical name on a wine if 85 percent of the grapes do not come from the GI area. And we would be able to robustly challenge someone trying to call their wine a New Zealand style.” 4. Access to off shore protection. “Once the GI act is enforced, and it is registered in other countries, our wine receives automatic access to those countries enforcement of GIs.” Clarke says the 2006 Act needs some fine-tuning and cabinet will be asked to consider a handful of amendments prior to it coming into force. But all going well, applications will be accepted from around the middle of next year. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand will act as the GI registrar. They will receive the applications, consider them, set up committees to resolve complex issues and will hold the register of Geographical Indications. All applications will be treated on a first come, first served basis, which means NZW are keen to have the major GIs all set to go at

the same time. Between now and then, regions need to be working towards providing the relevant material required. First up boundaries of a region need to be defined. In many cases they will broadly match political boundaries. Neighbouring regions need to be working together to ensure there is no conflict of interest in terms of those boundaries. And it is important that room to grow is factored in. In other words, don’t use the current vineyard plantings as your GI boundary. “Defining a GI boundary is not like doing a vineyard survey. It is not about drawing a map of where today’s vineyards are. Instead we are identifying the regions where we grow grapes, or where we might want to grow grapes in the future, that will be part of the same New Zealand wine story.” Each GI application will need to provide evidence of the particular qualities, reputation and character aspects of the wine from that region. Descriptions of production levels, distinctive profiles, wine styles, history of wine making practices, industry structure, along with the physical attributes of soil, climate and geography. So there is a lot of information that needs to be sought prior to the application being filled in. Clarke says regions should begin preparing for this now. “But time is on our side and many of the regions already have a lot of this information and are using it to tell their story. Plus NZW is

here to help.” With at least seven months to go, he says NZW are working on preparing an application example that will provide regions with the tools to fill their own applications out. That should be available early 2016. In the meantime NZW will be considering a list of 29 priority GIs drawn up in 2008, to produce an updated list, whose application fees will be paid by NZW. “Obviously we don’t have the resources to assist with every single region or sub region in the country. So our plan is to focus on the GIs that are most used and for which the cost and effort of the registration is likely to have the greatest benefit in our markets.” He says NZW wants to ensure that each winery, no matter where they are in New Zealand, has the protection of at least one stand alone Geographical Indication that they can use on their wine. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 11

BOTRYTIS CONTROL

BLOWN AWAY BY SHAKING TESSA NICHOLSON

otrytis is the scourge of winegrowers the world over. It is costly to control, impacts on the ensuing wine and can greatly reduce yields. No one knows that more than Fin Grieve, vineyard manager for Mt Beautiful Wines in North Canterbury. In the past decade, botrytis has devastated at least 30 percent of the company’s two Riesling blocks on a yearly basis. Some years it has impacted on more than 50 percent of the fruit. Which given the popularity of the company’s Riesling in the American market, is a financial nightmare. The two blocks, one of 2 hectares, the other 0.7 hectares are in an area where long lasting fog can be an issue, Grieve says. “The fog is always at the same time of the year, October and November. It comes in around the flats and river, builds up quickly and rolls over the hills we are on. It can get quite thick, coming in at midnight and not clearing until 10 or 11 in the morning. The high moisture content is in among the vines for long periods of time and that makes it difficult in terms of disease pressure.” In an attempt to try and manage the botrytis levels in the Riesling blocks, Grieve moved away from cane pruning to spur pruning four years ago. While that helped to a small degree, there was still a minimum of 30 percent fruit affected by the disease. Mark Allen, project manager for New Zealand Winegrowers’ research project ‘New opportunities for sustainable grape thin-

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ning’, suggested Grieve might like to consider mechanical shaking in an effort to reduce botrytis levels even further. While he was interested, Grieve said there were some issues that prevented him from taking Mark up on the offer. “It always seemed to involve using a harvester at the times I really needed to use it for leaf plucking and trimming, so that was the main reason I never got into it.” But 2015 was a watershed year for Mt Beautiful Wines, in particular their Riesling. He says it followed on the back of some bad vintages where more than 50 percent of the fruit was lost due to botrytis, followed up by a winery mishap that saw all the Riesling fruit lost. “So we were out of any good stock for the US and my CEO said it would be really good if I could make something happen this year. That was my priority for vintage 2015.” Following some early rain, he noticed the build up of rubbish amongst the bunches. It was enough for him to reconsider Mark Allen’s suggestion. And despite his earlier qualms about the timing of turning the harvester from its leaf plucking set up to a shaking one, Grieve was pleasantly surprised. “We took the leaf plucker off the harvester and set it up for shaking and it turned out to be a pretty quick and easy swop. Within a couple of hours we had it set to go.” Initially he intended to trial the shaking method in a limited number of the Riesling rows. The

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

instant results though, changed his mind. “We did a couple of rows and then stopped. I grabbed a couple of buckets and went down those we had shaken and those we hadn’t, took about 60 to 70 bunches from each row and shook them into the bucket. The rows where we hadn’t shaken had about 10 times more rubbish in the bunches, than the rows where we had shaken. I thought that was a pretty positive result, so we went ahead and did the whole block.” He also did every second row in the Pinot Gris and Chardonnay blocks and 10 rows in the Pinot Noir. The entire operation took only a day and a half – which he says was nowhere near the big deal he had thought it would be. “The thing I had been negative about was that it would be hindering our operation of leaf plucking. But it wasn’t such a big deal after all.” So just how effective was it? Grieve was “blown away” by the results. He literally could not believe how clean the fruit was. “We had nil botrytis where we had always had 30 percent minimum. Some years we had 50 percent. Sometimes we had to go and do two or three drops of fruit just to get the botrytis out. Not this year. “I was just blown away by what we had achieved. Okay we had a drought here in North Canterbury and the rest of the season was about as good as you could get. But I have had good seasons before and I have still had to deal with botrytis. Not this year, it just

Mt Beautiful’s vineyard in North Canterbury.

didn’t happen. “I was so excited, as the fruit was nice and clean and we had the biggest intake into the winery that we have ever had.” It was a similar story in the Pinot Gris and Chardonnay where the fruit was cleaner, the skins thicker which meant Grieve could let it hang longer to maintain optimum flavours. He says the wines that are coming through are also “pretty special”. “We are very, very happy I can tell you. And we will be doing it again from now on,” he says with enthusiasm. “It took two days at the most out of our operation, but it saved us days of dropping fruit and the cost of that. And if this coming season is as good as last year I am pretty confident that we will be able to have less chemical input into the vineyard.” In terms of how to go about shaking the vines to remove rubbish rather than yield, Mark Allen has provided the following details. Operational Information For Shaking To Remove Trash And Not Crop Timing: 7 days after fruit set through until bunch closure. Typically Jan 7th – 31st.

Varieties: All varieties respond well Harvester settings for Gregoire, Pellenc and Nairn: Ground speed = 5.5 – 6.0 kph – 2.0

hectares/hour Beater speed = 480 Pinch = 50 Rods = 1 set at mid trunk height and 1 set 50mm above the fruit zone

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Zealand Winegrowers fact sheet on nzwine.com, ‘Mechanical Thinning: Why, What, When and How’. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 13

NEW TECHNOLOGY

DRONES VERSUS BIRDS MARY SHANAHAN

rones may soon be joining the armoury of weapons used to scare birds away from ripening grapes after a trial undertaken in Hawke’s Bay last season showed an unmanned aerial vehicle was effective in driving them off an area of vineyard. The project team for the pilot, made up of Tim Creagh from EIT Hawke’s Bay, Valerie Saxton of Lincoln University and Alice Rule of Second Sight Ltd, wanted to know if the concept of using drones warranted further research. The trial, undertaken in Indevin’s Phoenix vineyard on the outskirts of Havelock North, produced positive result, with the presence of a drone deterring all birds including hawks. As a result, the researchers are planning a more comprehensive project this season. As Creagh, a lecturer in viticulture, points out, New Zealand’s

temperate climate suits birds and populations are high. “There are a number of bird species that are a major pest of grapes. Some species remove whole berries while other species peck and damage grapes allowing fungal and bacterial rots to further damage the fruit. “The cost of protecting grapes from birds can be very high. These costs are typically for netting vines and bird scaring, which ranges from static gas bangers to armed vineyard staff on quad bikes.” The trigger for the trial was a presentation at the 2014 Romeo Bragato Conference in which Dr Marc Kristic from the Australian Wine Research Institute suggested the possibility of using drones to scare birds. “This seemed like a great idea,” says Creagh, “and a quick look at the internet showed there are a number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) available for this

purpose. However, there was no experimental evidence to support these claims.” Most bird species that cause damage may not be timid but they are easily scared, so having a device operating above the bird -- “most bird deterrents operate from the ground” -- was seen as a possible advantage. Other UAVs had been tested -- ornithopters that are radiocontrolled, have flapping wings and mimic predator birds. “The problem with these, however, is that they cannot operate in windy conditions, unlike drones that can operate in strong winds depending on the size of the drone itself. The drone in this trial can fly in winds up to 30km/hour.” Bird pressure was regarded as quite high at the Phoenix vineyard, which is bordered by the Tukituki River, orchards and bush. The UAV was flown in a specified area. Bird species and numUAV flying over a vineyard block in Hawkes Bay.

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

bers from various locations within the flying area were monitored when it flew and at midday. EIT wine and viticulture degree students assisted in identifying bird species, establishing when they were most active and counting the number of birds. The control block, a similar area of the vineyard that had the same variety/rootstock and geographical parameters and used conventional bird scaring methods, was also monitored for bird numbers and species. Before harvest, the vines in both sections were assessed for bird damage. Creagh says that because the trial was set up hastily, only four flights per day could be arranged. These took place at first light and then at around 5pm. The drone was capable of flying around 20-25 minutes for each flight, and some 45 minutes was achieved each morning and evening. The drone used was a quad copter, an off-the-shelf model. The only modification was that it carried a commercial personal alarm on a cable dangling from the drone, which sounded like “a car alarm running off a 9 volt battery at 130 decibels”. The drone was operated by an experienced UAV pilot who manually controlled the flight. Myles Hemera from Apollo Apples gave of his time and expertise in using UAVs. In general, birds were more abundant during the morning. Thrushes and hawks were the exception, with higher numbers

in the afternoon. Bird counts at midday only took place for a short three day period. Birds were most numerous at midday (52 percent), followed by morning (30 percent) and lastly by afternoon (18 percent). Sparrows were three to five times more abundant in the morning and midday, respectively, compared with the afternoon. Hawks were found in larger numbers at midday and afternoon. Across all species, the presence of the drone effectively reduced bird pressure by 42 percent compared to conventional bird scaring strategies. Starlings and sparrows, which accounted for more than 75 percent of the total number of bird observations, were very responsive, with numbers dropping by 65 and 61 percent respectively. The number of hawks reduced by 66 percent. A method that randomly

selected vines and bunches was used to assess the damage. Exterior vines, vines that are at the ends of rows, and interior vines were sampled separately. The amount of damaged berries or missing berries was assessed and expressed as a percentage. The results showed that in the exterior vines in the treatment and control areas there was no difference in the damage caused by birds but in the interior vines there was significantly less damage in the treatment area than in the control area. Issues highlighted in the pilot that may occur in the actual trial were: The drone needs to fly at a random time during the day. There needs to be an assessment of the bird damage in the control area and also in the treatment blocks before the trial begins.

A small drone powered by a 9 volt battery, which allowed it up to one hour’s flight in calm conditions.

The amount of bird pressure needs to be similar in both treatment and control blocks. A drone capable of the volume of work required to scare birds needs to be fairly robust. Breakdowns can cost flight time, so spare parts need to be readily available.

Creagh says flying drones is a sustainable option as, compared with driving around on a quad bike, drones have no carbon emissions, don’t cause soil compaction, generate no lead shot and don’t risk native species or people having accidents with firearms. maryshanahan173@gmail.com ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 15

DRONES IN VINEYARDS VA L E R I E S A X T O N 1 , A L I C E R U L E 2 , T I M C R E A G H 3 .

1 L I N C O L N U N I V E R S I T Y 2 S E C O N D S I G H T LT D 3 E A S T E R N I N S T I T U T E O F T E C H N O L O G Y

The uses and rules The potential uses of drones are many and varied, and for vineyards they may well be very useful. However the high profile media cover of some recent events mean that the industry should proceed with caution, to avoid future regulation that would restrict potential uses. The rapid and overwhelming introduction of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV or drone) technology into everyday life has led to an explosion of potential uses for the technology. There are very real difficulties of managing this explosion in ordinary (civilian) life. Drones need to be robust

and controllable. Roger Clarke (Understanding the Drone Epidemic, 2014) defines the term ‘remote pilot’ as the individual with skills and responsibilities similar to those of an on-board pilot, and explains to what extent the drone must be controlled. ‘Airworthiness’ means the drone is capable of safe flight, is fully capable within its ‘envelope’ i.e. the expectations of its operation. The remote pilot must be aware of the drone’s location, must have full control over its flight, and have a sufficient set of controls to cope with atmospheric conditions, direction and speed of movement. In addition the drone itself should

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have the ability to detect threats, avoid obstacles, and sufficient robustness to withstand windshear, turbulence, bird strike and even lightning strikes. It is clear that safe and responsible operation is a serious matter. Rules for now, applied to the commercial use of drone technology, do not differ much from those for remote controlled recreational planes that have been flown for years by amateurs. In New Zealand on August 1st 2015 new drone regulations required UAV pilots to secure permission and give notification for the commercial use of UAVs over public or private land, below

a height of 400 feet, and during daylight hours and within line of sight of the controller, and not within 4km of an airport. For use outside these regulations permission must be sought under CAA rule part 102. This means that using drones in vineyards that are not on public land and where the owner has consented, could be a useful tool in the management of vineyards, for precision viticulture, for soil surveys and for scaring birds. Whatever the use, responsible flying should be the rule. Acknowledgements to Phoenix Vineyard, Hawkes Bay, EIT and Precision Aerial Technology ■

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NZW NEWS

PERSONALITIES OF THE YEAR TESSA NICHOLSON

here were a number of subjects that came up when NZW CEO Philip Gregan and I discussed this year’s NZ Winegrower Personality of the Year. Just what were the big talking points of 2015 that impacted on the New Zealand wine industry? Between us, we came up with three. 1. The rise of the importance of North America. For the first time ever the US became our largest export market and along with substantial growth in Canada, this region is continuing to grow at stunning levels. They are helping push New Zealand towards a $2 billion export industry by 2020. 2. The fall of the New Zealand dollar this year has brought smiles to the faces of all companies exporting their products – the wine industry included. For years now, exporters have had to suck it up when it came to returns, due to what at times seemed to be, an over inflated dollar. Finally it has evened out. And wineries can now breath a little easier when it comes to getting their money’s worth for exporting. 3. The decision to unify the two organisations that make up NZ Winegrowers. The proposal to dissolve WINZ and NZGGC and transfer their assets to NZW Inc was mooted at the 2014 Bragato conference. In May this year, that proposal was voted on by members and ratified. Then in October members voted Yes to new levy orders that would allow New Zealand Winegrowers Incorporated

to become the industry’s unified body. And it is that third point that struck both Gregan and myself as perhaps the most important industry event/s to take place in 2015. In particular the work undertaken by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Board of NZW, in convincing members of both WINZ and NZGGC to support the unification. Steve Green and John Clark have worked tirelessly for the past 17 months to get the message across. They have travelled up and down the country, outlining the reasons behind the poten-

tial changes. They have answered dozens of questions time and time again. They have listened to those that were against the proposal and worked hard to understand where the combatants were coming from. But most importantly they have both convinced the majority of members of WINZ and NZGGC that unifying into one incorporated body was advantageous to all. Change is not always an easy thing to convince people to take on. But both Steve and John have managed to do this. Their work and that of the Board of NZW means the industry

can move forward in a way that can only add strength to it. The very many facets NZW provides members can continue, including; Air NZ Wine Awards, Romeo Bragato Conference, Research projects, grape price data, Viticulture Monitoring Report, Winemaking Practices, Sustainability initiatives, lobbying of Government, providing labeling guides and export certification support. By this time next year, we all will benefit from that unification. Thanks Steve and John for all your hard work over the last 18 months. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 17

YOUNG WINNER

WELL DONE CALEB O

nce again a young viticulturist has taken out the title of New Zealand Young Horticulturist of the Year. Caleb Dennis, the 27-year-old Group Technical Officer at Craggy Range in Hawke’s Bay’s was one of six individuals representing sectors within the horticulture field. Besides viticulture, the contestants represented Landscaping, Nursery & Garden, Amenity Horticulture and Vegetable, Fruit & Flower Growing. Each of the contestants had to submit a Business Plans for a new product they would like to develop and launch. Dennis’s plan involved launching a wine cellaring app that he is hopeful will eventuate into reality in the not too distant future.

Once they had presented those plans, the contestants were involved in a variety of interviews, covering topics such as a focus on sustainability, HR, plant disease and pruning. They also had to deliver a speech at the Grand Final dinner. While preparing for the finals was months of hard work, Dennis not only takes home the title of Young Horticulturist of the Year, but an amazing prize package which included $7500 travel package and $1000 ICL Specialty fertilisers. He also won $3500 travel scholarship for winning the T & G Practical Activity Award and $2500 scholarship for the Fruitfed Supplies Leadership Award. Combined with the NZSVO travel sponsorship he won from the Bayer Young Viticulturist of

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

the Year, he is looking at heading to California and Bordeaux next year, to learn about the various viticultural practices and challenges in those regions. In the 11 years the Young Horticulturist of the Year has been r u n n i n g, D e n n i s is the 6th Young Viticulturist of the Year to win the competition. ■

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NZW NEWS

THREE NEW FELLOWS T

hree well-known members of the New Zealand wine industry have been inducted into the NZW Roll of Fellows. Alan Brady MNZM, Dr Mike Trought and Kate Radburnd join 26 other industry personnel, already honoured on the Roll. Central Otago’s wine industry could well be called Central Brady, given how much he has helped place the region on the world’s wine map. He planted the first vines in the Gibbston Valley region in 1981, then planted the “Home Block”,

the first commercial vineyard in Central Otago in 1983 and this was followed by the first commercial vintage in 1987. In 1990

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Mt Edward winery which he sold in 2004 with the intention of retiring but this didn’t last long and in 2006 he established another very successful Central Otago label, Wild Irishmen which he still owns today. Alan has given a huge amount back to the industry by holding positions on both the Board of the NZ Wine Institute and the Central Otago Winegrowers’ Association. Alan was a founding member of the Central Otago Winegrowers’ Association and President from 1991 – 1993. He is now an Emeritus member of COWA.

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One of Alan’s greatest contributions has been his willingness to share his time, passion and knowledge with those around him. Throughout the rapid expansion of the Central Otago wine industry the region has remained unified which is a legacy of Alan Brady and the other pioneers of the Central Otago wine industry. Renowned for being the go to guy when it comes to anything to do with what’s happening out there in the vineyard, Dr Mike

Trought is the senior scientist for Plant & Food in Marlborough. While his name is synonymous with wine research, he has also been a lecturer at Lincoln University and was the senior viticulturist for a period for Villa Maria in Marlborough. But it is his innate knowledge of vines that has seen him become a household name to grape growers. Especially when it comes to the tricky questions surrounding potential yields – no one has

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a better handle on the upcoming season than Mike. Kate Radburnd He has produced dozens of papers on wine research back to the Hawke’s Bay and New and is considered one of the Zealand wine industries. Her many world’s eminent wine scientists. roles include; a Board member of Along with his commitments to Hawke’s Bay Vintners, Director of New Zealand wine, he is also reg- the Wine Institute of New Zealand ularly asked to speak at interna- between 2003 and 2013, including tional conferences. Mike was the the Deputy Chair position for nine first New Zealander to be offered of those year. She was a Director of a position on the Australian Soci- New Zealand Winegrowers from ety of Viticulture and Oenology 2002 to 2013, a senior judge of the (ASVO), a position he still holds. Air NZ Wine Awards and Chair of In 2009 he was the NZ Wine- judges at the Royal Easter Wine grower Personality of the Year. Show. She has been a wine conJust as Alan Brady is an inte- sultant to Air NZ and is the Deputy gral part of the Central Otago Chair of the Council of EIT. wine scene, Kate Radburnd is in While she is highly respected as Hawke’s Bay. a winemaker and wine judge, Kate A graduate of Roseworthy Col- has also played an instrumental lege, she is currently the co-owner role in bringing sustainability to and Managing Director of CJ Pask the fore in New Zealand, having winery. Throughout her career, she chaired the SWNZ committee for has given a considerable amount five years. ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 21

INDUSTRY NEWS

INSURING YOUR BUSINESS TESSA NICHOLSON

hether you are a winery, utilise contract winemaking facilities or a grower, insuring against risk is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Due to its uniqueness, the wine industry is far from straightforward from an insurance perspective. Garry Mooney is Managing Director of ICIB and has more than 30 years of experience insuring the wine industry. He and Senior Broker Daniel Szegota sat down with me and outlined what forms of insurance are available and why industry members should consider them. But first – why is this industry different to all others? “Wineries are a very high value product, usually within a concentrated space and with a large number of risk factors,” Mooney says. “There are so many different components. You are growing (a product), converting it to another product and distributing it worldwide. So it’s the whole package, which makes insurance so interesting and complex.” Let’s start at the very beginning – with the fruit. According to Mooney, this is probably the largest uninsured (and to a large extent uninsurable) risk in New Zealand. “The grapes themselves become a case of self insurance as you can’t get frost cover in a frost prone area. Therefore you need to have good risk management through fans, alarms or even bringing in helicopters. You can’t get cover for disease or against

22 //

Insurance is available for situations when customers don’t pay for that pallet or three of wine.

insects and pests which rules out cover in the event of a bio security incursion.” Even insurance for the vines themselves is difficult to arrange, costly and with a basis of settlement far from ideal. “We often get asked about it,” Szegota says. “…but in reality the cover available is actually for the ancillary equipment such as poles, trellising and irrigation/vineyard equipment and restricted to limited perils such as fire, impact, and natural disaster. But if there was a fire through a vineyard, or earthquake damage, there is typically no insurance on the vines themselves under a standard material damage policy.” Growers should though consider insuring their fruit once it leaves their property under a transit policy, and their juice if they are having it made in a contract facility themselves, rather than selling the fruit.

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

“One of the most common things we hear is the idea that the contract facility will be insuring the wine on behalf of the client” Szegota says. “But they aren’t. Under a standard winemaking contract the contract winemaking facility will only insure their legal liability from negligent acts and then you can only receive the actual value of wine, not your selling price. Anything that is not the contract winemaker’s fault such as malicious damage, fire, earthquake or storm, the owner of the wine must insure it if they require cover.”

Winery Insurance It’s probably not surprising that the risk with the highest potential loss to a winery in New Zealand is damage caused by an earthquake. All of the major winegrowing regions are in seismic areas. In 2007 Gisborne’s industry was affected

and in 2013 Marlborough’s wine industry suffered $100 million in damage relating to the Seddon earthquakes. And it could have been worse, given the quake was centered some distance away from the majority of the region’s wine infrastructure. Mooney says the entire New Zealand wine industry is vulnerable if a major quake was to hit Marlborough. “At least 60 percent of New Zealand’s wine production is centered within one small area – Riverlands and Cloudy Bay Industrial Park. If you list all of the major wine companies in this area, built on soft soil, reclaimed land and add in the contract winemaking facilities with multiple clients, the bottling plants and the logistics companies, it’s a very high concentration of risk.” Regardless of how much insurance cover a company had, if that area suffered a major loss there

would be no recovering for some time, which has ramifications for the industry as a whole as there is no capacity in New Zealand that could process a Marlborough vintage. The majority of the $100 million worth of damage caused by the Seddon quakes was not related to winery buildings or stock, it was to tanks and catwalks, which Mooney says have in the past been built “too thin based on cost”. He would like to see the industry bring in standards that would help prevent such damage occurring again. “The wine industry has no earthquake standards. There is nothing that says tanks and cat walks have to be to a certain standard, other than meet the health and safety requirements. Building standards ensure the winery will be able to withstand an earthquake – but catwalks and tanks are too often overlooked.” Since the earthquake, engineers and tank manufacturers are constructing tanks and catwalks to a higher seismic standard - “… but it needs to be a joint approach, not individual regions working autonomously.” If the industry doesn’t drive this forward there is a strong chance the insurers will – which will be to the detriment of those looking to purchase insurance. In terms of other areas wineries should be looking to insure, he says world-wide contamination and recall is vital. Perhaps a worst case scenario is glass fragments in wine discovered in a market such as the US, UK or Australia. You as a company would be responsible for the costs associated with the recall, even if a contract facility has produced the wine. “This type of policy has the lowest uptake,” Szegota says, “versus the potential exposure. There’s the physical cost of getting it off the shelf, dumping costs or additional storage costs. Then

An example of the damage caused to tanks and catwalks during the 2013 Seddon earthquakes that rocked Marlborough.

managing the media becomes a priority because one of the major issues is brand damage and insurers utilise specialist consultants who manage the media on behalf of the winery in overseas markets as well as New Zealand. “And you have to realise that a recall doesn’t only affect that particular batch, it will affect the brand as a whole. A supermarket may take a number of your wines, but even if only one is affected they will remove the entire brand range and until you can show the issue is fully resolved they won’t be allowed back on the shelf for a period of time, determined by the store owner. This ultimately may lead to a loss of shelf space going forward.” The Business Interruption or profits component of insurance is another area Mooney says should be considered and is commonly underinsured. Particularly for those that produce and age wines that won’t be sold for a number of years.

“For those producing wines that they have aged for a number of years they need to imagine what would happen if they lost that stock overnight. It could be years before they could reproduce a similar product. So business interruption insurance becomes important as settlement needs to factor in, or be enough to, cover the timescale the wine will be sold in.” Can you insure yourself against an overseas customer who decides for whatever reason he is not going to pay for his shipment of wine? Yes, under a Trade Credit policy and Mooney says it is important to have this cover. Many people make the mistake of thinking because a customer has been reliable for years, they will continue to be so. But if something were to go wrong and your wine didn’t arrive, or it was damaged in some way, or the company went bust after you had sent the shipment – it is you who will be out of pocket. “In some cases wine being sold FOB hasn’t been paid for. So

if something happens and the wine doesn’t turn up to the buyer and they haven’t got insurance – well they haven’t got the wine, so why are they going to pay you for it? You need cover for that eventuality.” Insurance is not an easy subject to condense down into one article. Needless to say you should be talking with your insurance broker on a regular basis. Work out where your greatest risk lies – how can you prepare for that? Look at the options and as with any other product don’t be fooled by price. And remember, as Mooney says this is a unique industry. “Wine has everything. It has grape damage and transit risk. It has processing risks, spillage, leakage, contamination, bottling risk, warehouse risk, export and overseas risk. Not all insurers will insure wineries on the correct basis which is an indication of their appetite based on those risk factors specific to the wine industry.” tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 23

JULIA HARDING MW ON ISBC TESSA NICHOLSON

One of the guest speakers at next year’s International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration is Julia Harding MW. She took some time out of her extremely busy schedule to answer a few questions about the upcoming event and Sauvignon Blanc in particular.

ulia Harding passed the Master of Wine exams at the first attempt in 2004, the top student of her year. She worked for many years as a book editor specialising in languages and linguistics before applying her keen brain and fine palate to wine. After five years with Waitrose, in 2005 she became full-time writer, researcher, coordinator and associate palate for internationally acclaimed wine writer Jancis Robinson. She played a major part in the most recent editions of The Oxford Companion to Wine (2006, 2015), and The World Atlas of Wine. She researched and co-authored, with Jancis and with Dr José Vouillamoz, Wine Grapes: a complete guide to 1,368 varieties including their origins and flavours. Julia contributes to and main-

tains the editorial standards of the award-winning www.JancisRobinson.com. Despite its international popularity with consumers, this is only the 2nd International Sauvignon Blanc celebration, (the first being in Austria a few years back). Why do you think it has taken so long for an event like this to gain traction? Perhaps because there are few countries where Sauvignon Blanc plays such a lead role as it does in New Zealand, perhaps because its reputation has been based more on good wine than great wine, perhaps because it is seen as a less ‘complex’ variety without the potential longevity of, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chenin Blanc or Chardonnay. In your experience, where does Sauvignon Blanc sit in the world

of wine? I would say that in the UK market, and perhaps more generally, it sits at the upper end of everyday drinking wine – a wine whose popularity is due mainly to reliability and recognisable/consistent styles and flavours. More enjoyable than aspirational but also potentially boring. Where is the variety going? You ask where it is going – I am hoping to learn more about this during the event. My answer is more to do with where I think it needs to go. I think it needs to diversify further in terms of styles. There are already good examples of blends (eg with a little Sémillon), wines that show definite lees influence and perhaps slight oak influence, wines that try to express region or subregion as much as variety, wines with more

diverse winemaking influences (eg fermented with ambient yeast). I think there is a danger of boredom if this diversification does not take place. Personally I would like to see fewer wines that rely on residual sugar to achieve balance with high acidity (in some instances because yields were too high). What are you hoping to learn/discover from the upcoming event? I’d like to discover a broader range of styles and to find out where New Zealand producers are trying to go with their wines in terms of diversification and greater complexity/sophistication. I’m also hoping to learn more about the specific influence of viticultural practices on Sauvignon Blanc and taste a wide range of wines from around the world to compare and contrast with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. ■

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ISBC 2016

THE WILD FACTS ABOUT SAUVIGNON TESSA NICHOLSON

f you think Sauvignon Blanc comes in one style and one style only, think again. And if you think that Sauvignon Blanc has to be drunk immediately, you also should think again. The diversity of this country’s flagship wine is going to be a feature of the upcoming International Celebration. And one winemaker who has proved just how versatile the variety is, believes many will be in for a big surprise. Kevin Judd from Greywacke, along with James Healy from Dog Point could well be considered the godfathers of alternative Sauvi-

gnons. Since 1992 (when both were winemakers at Cloudy Bay) the pair have been pushing the boundaries on creating wines with a difference by making wild fermented Sauvignon. Twenty-three years later they are still pushing those boundaries and producing wines that defy all pre conceived ideas about the variety. So how did the first wild fermented Sauvignons come into being? At a recent tasting of five years of Greywacke’s Wild Sauvignon, Judd explained the background to this alternative style.

Kevin Judd

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

“In 1991 James Healy suggested we ferment some (Cloudy Bay) Chardonnay with wild yeast. Now I had trained at Roseworthy College and I knew that was an absolutely stupid idea and I told him, in the modern world we don’t do that sort of thing. But he kept on and on at me, so I eventually agreed. We fermented eight barrels of Chardonnay that vintage, without yeast. We just put the juice in the barrel and waited for nature to take its course. “A couple of weeks later the whole winery just stunk of H2S, it was absolutely rank. My first instinct was that this stuff would be going down the drain. But of course I was completely wrong and some months later these amazing, rich, savoury and textural wines emerged. I was curious, we all were. So the next thing we thought, if wild ferment is capable of adding this sort of dimension to Chardonnay, why not try some Sauvignon Blanc? “The next year I volunteered some fruit from our own vineyard, which was called Greywacke. We crushed a few tonnes and did the same thing as the Chardonnay. We put it in some barrels and let it take its course – and we ended up with some damn interesting wine.” Te Koko was born, although in that first year it was not known as that – instead the wine was simply called Cloudy Bay Sauvignon 1992. “We took the Blanc off and underneath we put Greywacke Vineyard – that was the first use of the name Greywacke on a wine label.” A sceptic to begin with, Judd

is now a devoted fan of the wild fermented Sauvignons and what they deliver. “When we started Greywacke, it was natural to do something similar. I personally love that style of Sauvignon Blanc, so it was a no brainer that we would encorporate a wild fermented Sauvignon Blanc in our range.” But he says he wanted it to be a different style to Te Koko and different again to Healy’s Dog Point Section 94. While all are wild fermented, the style each is made in, is very different. There are numerous differences between making conventional Sauvignon and wild fermented Judd explains. “When the fruit comes in, we extract the juice and settle it. Rather than put it into another tank and inoculate it, keep it cool to retain all that purity, which is what we do when making the other style, we put the juice into a barrel and go off and do something else. The barrels are stacked in the cellar and we leave the wine to do its own thing. So it is 100 percent wild yeast, uncontrolled fermentation. No refrigeration, we just let it ferment at its own rate. “It takes a couple of weeks for the yeast to build up and the ferment to start. Which is quite a long time. During this period if you look through a microscope, it’s like a zoo. There are all sorts of creatures in there, because there is no alcohol. As the fermentation starts and the alcohol increases, you get a selection process going on. So when you look through a microscope halfway through fer-

ment, it looks like a normal inoculated ferment. “Once it starts fermenting, it goes pretty quickly. Then once the fermentation gets most of the way through and the alcohol increases, the yeast begins to slow down. These yeast have not been bred to tolerate alcohol. And then by the time the fermentation begins to slow down, winter is starting to come in, the cellars are cooler and everything slows down. “The ferments then go dormant during the winter months. By the time spring comes around and the cellar starts to warm up, the fermentations will start kicking in again. When we pull the wine out of the barrels after a year, they are pretty much finishing off. Sometimes it’s touch and go and in some of the wines we have had to encourage them to finish at the end of 12 months. So it really is a very hands off process.”

The end result Judd says is a wine that is riper and more at the textural end of the Sauvignon Blanc spectrum. “I don’t like aggressive Sauvignon Blanc, I am very much into the more subtle interpretations. These wines are much more a savoury alternative. There is some definite Sauvignon fruit, but there are a lot of other flavours and aromas.” Because the wines rely on wild ferments, there is also a level of variability between vintages Judd says. “Eveline Fraser put it well a few years back. She said, when you make wine like this and release them, it’s like releasing the cousins of the one you made the year before, rather than the sister. Basically when you look at these wines you see family resemblances but they are not quite so precise a lineage as they

might be if they were fermented in the new world modern way.” The style also lends itself to aging, as was shown in five years of Greywacke Wild Sauvignons. The oldest, 2009, was drinking superbly and definitely quashed talk of the variety having to be drunk within 12 months of release. Greywacke is one of the dozens

of New Zealand wineries taking part in the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration next year. The Wild Sauvignon will be among many alternative styles that are likely to dispel the talk of one variety, one style only. And the older wines will prove that Sauvignon Blanc can just get better with age. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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EVENT NEWS

CELEBRATING CHARDONNAY & SPARKLING

The mysteries of New Zealand Chardonnay and Sparkling wine will unfold in beautiful Gisborne early next year. PHOTO: KIRKPATRICK ESTATE WINES, SUPPLIED BY NZW.

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

ollowing hard on the heels of the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration, Gisborne will host the country’s first Chardonnay and Sparkling Wine Symposium. Dedicated to comprehensive wine tastings, the symposium on February 4 and 5 will focus on exploring the rich quality, diversity and future developments of the two styles of wine. It will begin with a traditional Maori powhiri as guests arrive

on Thursday afternoon by charter plane from Blenheim. Dinner that evening is at the historic Matawhero Vineyards where guests will sample a wide range of New Zealand Chardonnay and sparkling wine. The keynote speaker is eminent historian, writer, environmentalist and academic Dame Anne Salmond, the recipient of numerous literary awards, scholarships and prizes. Friday morning will be devoted to tastings and discussion of Sparkling wine

INDUSTRY NEWS PROFILES

followed by lunch on the banks of the Turanganui River with local cuisine and beverages. In the afternoon the focus will be Chardonnay. Winemakers Clive Jones (Nautilus Estate) and Michael Brajkovich MW (Kumeu River Wines) and a panel of experts will present four flights of six wines at each session, and discuss these varieties across various themes and styles. The venue for dinner on Friday evening is a marquee at Midway Beach. Guests will be

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served canapés on the beach during which time New Zealand acclaimed Gisborne-born soloist Mere Boynton will arrive by waka to entertain guests in the marquee. Top local chefs will prepare seafood dishes including crayfish on the barbecue, matched with New Zealand’s finest wines. After dark, guests are invited to return to the beach for a fire poi performance and music around a camp fire. justine.tyerman@clear.net.nz ■

MARKETING UPDATES ARCHIVES

www.nzwinegrower.co.nz 28 //

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

EVENT NEWS

SAUVIGNON BLANC WORKSHOP TESSA NICHOLSON

t is 11 years since the New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology (NZSVO) focused on the country’s flagship variety. But it is highly appropriate that their 2016 workshop, just prior to the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration, will once again be shining the light on it. Executive Officer, Nick Sage says since the NZSVO was formed back in the 1980s, they have been responsible for organising two International Cool Climate Symposiums, (and are bidding for the 2020 event as well), and arranging a number of practitioner workshops. From Pinot Noir, to Chardonnay, Pinot Gris to wine finishing, he says the time is now right to revisit Sauvignon Blanc. While the workshops are technical, Sage says they are targeted at the people on the ground, whether that person is a grape grower or

a winemaker. One of the major features is the number of tastings on offer and next year’s event on January 31 and February 1 will be no exception. “As we have evolved,” Sage says, “we have concentrated less on material within the programme and more on tastings. We are looking to help people improve what we are doing, by sharing knowledge. Much of that comes through tastings.” The one and a half day programme is full of comparisons and knowledge of Sauvignon Blanc, not only here in New Zealand, but also internationally. Well-known British author Jamie Goode will open the workshop by defining exactly what Sauvignon Blanc is, in the international sense. This will be followed by sessions headed by winemakers who have made the variety in both

New Zealand and another country. Nikolai St George will discuss the comparison with Chile, Kim Crawford will compare with South Africa and Jean-Christophe Bourgeois will discuss the differences between making Sauvignon Blanc in Loire and Marlborough. “We aim to look at the similarities between each country as well as the differences,” Sage says. Those differences will extend into clonal choices, with microvinifications of six different clones, (five imported) produced by Riversun. “It will give people the chance to look at those different clones and what they produce in terms of flavour, texture and mouth feel. I think that will probably be one of the interesting parts of the programme.” For New Zealand growers who face the prospect of another dry season, Sage says a session looking

PHOTO: PETER BURGE, SUPPLIED BY NZW.

at water stress should be an eye opener. “Bala and Michael Ivicevich from Delegat’s will speak on the effect of water stress on yield and quality, both in the vineyard and from a winemaker’s perspective. How do you handle fruit from water stressed grapes to get the best quality wine? They have made wine from fruit grown under water stress and fruit that wasn’t. We will be tasting both of them and seeing what the differences are. A lot of people say, oh there is no difference – but when you taste them, there are some profound differences.” A number of other sessions covering alternative wine styles, in particular barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc, low alcohol wine and fermented on skins wine will finish off day one. The following morning session will focus on Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough’s sub regions, covering upper, middle and lower Wairau, along with upper and lower Awatere. Then the similarities versus the differences between regional New Zealand will complete the morning of tasting. Sage says while the workshop is aimed at New Zealand growers and winemakers, they are hoping to also attract a number of the international delegates attending the ISBC 2016. Registrations are now open, with options to attend the entire workshop, or just one of the days. To find out more, visit; www.nzsvo. org.nz tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 29

MARKETING NEWS

CHALLENGING TRADE MARK APPLICATIONS E L E N A S Z E N T I VA N Y I / D AV I D M O O R E – H E N R Y H U G H E S I N T E L L E C T U A L P R O P E R T Y

trade mark registration gives its owner the exclusive right to use that trade mark throughout New Zealand in relation to the products or services for which it is registered. But every application can be challenged before it is registered. This gives you the opportunity to stop a competitor from registering a trade mark which could inhibit your freedom to market and sell your own wine. This article discusses why it is important to watch out for attempts to register inappropriate trade marks, and how to take action to oppose the attempted registration.

What sort of trade marks cannot be registered? All trade mark applications are examined by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (“IPONZ”) and must be refused if: Use of the mark would be likely to deceive or cause confusion; or The mark would legitimately be desired by others for use in relation to their own products (usually because the mark is a common term or image already in use in the industry); or The mark is descriptive of the nature, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, or other characteristics of goods; or The mark is identical with or

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deceptively or confusingly similar to a mark which is already on the Register. IPONZ is thorough in its examination of applications. However, it is always possible that applications could be accepted which may unfairly impede your business. There are two main reasons for this: IPONZ will only search for marks which are already registered or applied for on the Register, not marks which are in use; and IPONZ may not be aware of the significance to the wine industry of a particular term. A recent example of an application which was successfully opposed is Application No. 815085 for the trade mark:. The registration of this mark was prevented on the basis that “South Island” is merely descriptive of the geographical origin of wine and the image of the mountain was not distinctive enough to override the inability of “South Island” to function as a trade mark. Another example of a trade mark which was successfully opposed is Application No. 808411 for OYSTERCATCHER. Delegat’s Wine Estate Limited blocked the registration of OYSTERCATCHER for wine on the strength of its reputation in and prior registrations for OYSTER BAY. The Commissioner of Trade Marks considered that “if the applicant were to use the opposed mark, it is

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

likely that a substantial number of persons in the relevant market would be deceived or confused”.

Checking for offending applications Every month, IPONZ publishes – online – a Journal which includes all new trade mark applications which have been accepted that month: http://www.iponz.govt.nz/ cms/iponz/the-journal. An alternative to scrolling through the Journal each month is to set yourself a reminder to conduct some searches every one to two months on the IPONZ database. You could search for all new applications in Class 33 – the class for wine and alcoholic beverages. Or you could search by the name of key competitors to see what new applications they have been filing.

How can you oppose an offending application? If you become aware of an application for a mark that conflicts with your interests, you will have a narrow window of opportunity to oppose it and potentially prevent it from becoming registered: three months from the date of publication in the Journal. The starting point is to file at IPONZ a Notice of Opposition which sets out the grounds on which you oppose the offending mark.

By filing the opposition, you will trigger a deadline for the other side to file a Counterstatement. If the other side doesn’t file a Counterstatement, its application will automatically be struck off. If the other party defends the opposition, both of you will have the opportunity to file evidence. Once all evidence has been filed, the matter is set down for a Hearing at IPONZ. It is important that you keep detailed records of how you have used and promoted your trade mark so that you can easily prepare evidence establishing your reputation. You should retain samples of advertisements and packaging, plus detailed statistics on sales and advertising expenditure.

Checklist Here are our tips for putting your business in a good position to challenge trade mark applications which might adversely impact on your business: Ensure that your key trade marks are registered; Regularly check for new applications by searching the IPONZ database (or discuss putting a watch service in place with your attorney); Ensure that you retain records, statistics and samples of your use, sales and promotion of your trade marks, in case they are needed as evidence. ■

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VINEYARD NEWS

A STINKY THREAT TESSA NICHOLSON

ll New Zealanders are being encouraged to be on the lookout for a nasty insect pest that could change the face of New Zealand horticulture and viticulture. The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is listed as one of the horticultural industry’s top six pests of concern. While it has not established itself, there are concerns it could easily be brought into the country from places where it is already making a nuisance of itself.

What is the brown marmorated stink bug? The adult bugs are approximately 1.7cm long, with a distinctive brown “shield” shape with a white band around the edges. They lay light green eggs (20 – 30 a time) on the underside of leaves. Thought to originate in Asia, the BMSB is found in large numbers in China, Japan and Korea. In the late 1990s it was discovered in the United States and now is present in more than 35 states. It has spread into Canada and a number of European

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countries have also confirmed it is present. It feeds on a host of plants, from apples to citrus, figs to grapes, and is a pest not only to those in the agriculture sector, but also to home gardeners. It gets its name from the smell it emits when disturbed or crushed – a particularly offensive odour, that while not a danger to human health, is described as being very unpleasant. The bugs hibernate over winter in large numbers, often in buildings or houses. In terms of food, the bugs feed on more than 300 hosts, primarily fruit trees and woody ornamentals and field crops.

Why should the wine industry be concerned? Grapes are a food of choice for BMSB’s and their munching causes damage to the berries themselves – opening the fruit up to disease risk. But what could be worse, is the impact of these bugs being caught up with fruit at vintage. Given the odour they produce when crushed, the risk of wine taint is high.

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

How could they get here? BMSB’s are often referred to as the classic hitchhiker. They are easily transported in suitcases or shipping containers. In recent years a number of bugs have been discovered at the border, hitching a ride in cars that had been transported from the US. In response, MPI now demands that all vehi-

cles coming out of the States must be heat treated or fumigated before coming to New Zealand. “In previous years MPI biosecurity staff have found increasing numbers of brown marmorated stink bug during border inspections of vehicles arriving from the US,” Andrew Spelman, MPI’s Border Clearance Manager, Central and South said. “The new rules will minimize the risk of stink bugs establishing in New Zealand well before the imported vehicles reach New Zealand.”

How would New Zealand deal with BMSB? That is the 64 million dollar question, given the bugs can rapidly increase in population and are hard to eradicate. Jim Walker from Plant & Food, Hawke’s Bay gave a rundown on the top threats to our wine industry a few years ago. Regarding the BMSB he said it would be a tough assignment

to get rid of them if they became established. “In apples in the US, up to 13 pyrethroid insecticides are required to control this. And even with those 13 treatments, there was 10 percent fruit damage. (Controlling it) has completely destroyed IPM programmes.” Imagine the impact of that on the New Zealand wine industry and our sustainability programmes.

What can I do? Basically, be on the lookout

for anything that may be a BMSB. MPI is encouraging individuals in all walks of life to be alert to any unusual insect they may come across. Their advice is to photograph it, or if possible catch and contain it and make contact with MPI immediately. 0800 80 99 66. And if you are travelling in one of the countries where BMSB is prevalent, ensure you double check luggage to ensure there are no nasty hitchhikers coming home with you. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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UTILISING WATER

WATER OPTIONS FOR A DRY FUTURE N I C K M E E T E N – C O N S U LTA N T W I T H S M A R T A L L I A N C E S - B L E N H E I M

s we enjoy the warmth of spring, wine growers everywhere will be turning their thoughts towards the growing season, and water availability will surely be high on the discussion list. Nature can be a fickle beast , and in Marlborough and Waipara the drought from last summer has not receded, so these regions are already starting this growing season on the back foot. Adding to the gloomy picture is the threat of El Ninõ conditions possibly taking hold. If this occurs, the next few years could be extremely dry, especially in our wine growing regions. However planning now so you have a Plan A’ a ‘Plan B’ and maybe even a ‘Plan C’ for your water needs to deal with these variable conditions could allow you to manage your water risks with confidence and provide you with more certainty. Something that customers, insurers and bankers would also be happy to hear. There are a variety of options available. Some people are building storage dams to grab rainfall when it occurs and store it to provide some water supply security. Others may keep their fingers crossed that nature will be kind and natural supplies will be sufficient. If not, their ‘Plan B’ might be to resort to thinning vines and accepting reduced yields. There is also investment into more efficient irrigation systems to make each drop of water go further. We are however not alone in facing these challenges. In fact

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some others have it much worse than us. California is grappling with crippling drought, dropping ground water supplies and snow pack levels in the Rockies (which provide a big proportion of their annual water supplies) at only 25% of normal. Their ‘Plan A’ is gone and water shortages are forcing major and rapid changes in almost every part of the State, including the famous wine producing regions. There is no such thing as bad water. Water can come in many different qualities and we should be judging water only on its quality, not on its history. We should be asking what quality of water is necessary for the particular usage in mind. A perfect example here is what quality of water is necessary for flushing our toilets? Most would agree that this task does not require drinking quality water. However drinking water, whilst good enough for us to consume, is not nearly high enough quality for the makers of computer silicon chips. So what quality of water is needed by a grape vine? Where is the lowest threshold, at which point a grower, who’s ‘Plan A’ hasn’t worked and maybe ‘Plan B’ is also not working, would choose to reject a water source as being too low quality and instead accept stressed vines and lower yields? One of the solutions being adopted by wineries in California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys is using recycled water. This is water which has been used before, but is then cleaned up to a high

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

enough quality and reused for vine irrigation. The source of this used water is municipal wastewater. It’s a “new normal in the wine industry,” according to the Santa Rose Press Democrat[1]. Recycled water is a resource which sometimes unfortunately faces a prejudiced audience. The irony is that every drop of water on the globe is recycled water. The volume of water on our earth has more or less been the same since the beginning of time. A portion circulates around in the natural hydrological cycle. This cycle has also been going on since the beginning of time, and every drop of water has probably been through the cycle a number of times. So every drop of water on the planet has been used before, maybe in a piece of food consumed by a dinosaur, maybe in a glass of wine consumed by an ancient Greek soldier, maybe in a cell of Tutankhamun’s body. It’s all recycled water, and since every human being consists of about 75% water, we all mostly consist of recycled water. In Marlborough there is around 15 million litres of used, but then cleaned again, water coming out of the Blenheim treatment station every day. Currently this is water discharged into the ocean. This water source is reliable. It’s available every day, come rain or shine. It will also be available during droughts. What quality is this water? Remember this is water which has been through a robust treatment process to clean it and improve its quality. It’s not drinkable but for

other uses it could be quite appropriate. It still contains low levels of organics and nutrients etc, however according to the World Health Organisation these can be beneficial for agricultural irrigation uses [2]. Back in California, a Napa vineyard that used recycled water was studied by a group of seven university researchers [3]. They surmised that using recycled water is suitable for irrigation of vineyards over the long term. There was no indication that salinity, sodacity or specific ions would limit its use, and nutrients in the recycled water may be beneficial to vineyards, though the levels of nitrogen may be in excess of what’s needed and need to be managed accordingly. Recycled water can also contain bacteria and viruses. The risks associated with these can be managed using disinfection, drip irrigation systems, timing the application of the water to utilise the natural disinfection properties of the sun, providing intervals between the use of recycled water etc. All do-able stuff. Would recycled water affect irrigation systems? Stephen Leitch from Southern Water Engineering advises that so long as the water is filtered with 130 micron filters (which is standard practice for irrigation systems), blocking of driplines should not be a threat. New Zealand currently does not have standards for recycled water quality, but others do. California’s recycled water regulations (Title 22) are used as the industry

Years of drought are having a major impact on the Californian wine industry.

standard in many other US states as well as other countries in the world. In these regulations, the required quality of recycled water for use in “Vineyards with no contact between edible portion and recycled water” is “Undisinfected Secondary Recycled Water”. In Blenheim the treated water should meet this level straight away, but maybe that’s not good enough for some. Winemakers routinely use their skills to blend different grape varieties together to produce a desired product. This

same thinking could be applied to water to blend different qualities of water together. Blending recycled water with higher quality water from a different source (e.g ground water or dam water) would reduce the contaminants within the recycled water by dilution, but still provide more overall water to go around. A 50/50 blend equals half the contamination levels but twice as much water. Would water at this quality be above or below the acceptable threshold? Now is the time to plan for drought, and it’s nonsensical to

be throwing millions of litres every day of good quality irrigation water into the ocean. We have already fielded the first enquiries in Marlborough from growers thinking about their Plan B. Ask yourself where your threshold is.

References: [1] http://www.pressdemocrat.com/ business/2562360-181/droughtfears-in-wine-country?page=1 [2] http://www.who.int/water_ sanitation_health/wastewater/ wastewateruse2/en/ [3] http://californiaagri-

culture.ucanr.org/landingpage.cfm?articleid=ca. v068n03p59&fulltext=yes Nick Meeten is a consultant with Smart Alliances in Blenheim, working in the areas of Buildings, Water and Sustainability. He returned to New Zealand in January 2015 after 5 years living in Germany and working globally leading the Green Buildings team at water technology supplier HUBER. He is a professional member of the Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand. nick@smartalliances. co.nz ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 35

WINE AWARDS

LESSER-KNOWN VARIETIES IMPRESS JOELLE THOMSON

hen asked how well New Zealand wines stacked up at this year’s Air New Zealand Wine Awards, Ronny Lau’s attention automatically turns to white wines and vineyard experiments. The Hong Kong based wine writer was on his second trip to New Zealand when he judged the awards this year and he confessed to being surprised at the lesser known white wines he tasted and judged. “In Hong Kong we are very familiar with Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand but there are other grape varieties that are not that well known and in these wine awards, I found a lot of different grape varieties that showed well. It was a surprise – and a good one,” Lau said, after three days of judging. He suggests that New Zealand Albarino, Arneis and Gruner Veltliner are particularly impressive, from his perspective. “The Albarinos were extremely good and, in my view, they are easily of an international standard

and can compete on that scale, which is good because it is still so early in the life of New Zealand Albarino,” he said. Lau was also a fan of the Gruner Veltliner and, in terms of red wines, he was taken aback at the high quality of New Zealand Syrah. “It’s good to know that more wine producers in New Zealand grow different kinds of grape varieties and make different styles of wines because we tend to look at quite a narrow range of New Zealand wines in Hong Kong.” He says that it would be advantageous for New Zealand wineries to produce higher volumes of their less well-known wines. “I really think that the wine producers in New Zealand should try a wider range of different grape varieties rather than just Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and some of the other mainstream ones they currently produce. This would be especially good for our Hong Kong market because we like to explore different things.” Lau has been on the record prior to this interview to say

Ronny Lau

that he is not strongly focused on wine and food matching, but when interviewed for New Zealand Winegrower, he said that New Zealand’s whites – both the existing successes and the new wave experimental whites – tended to partner extremely well with Japanese and Cantonese food. “The lightness and delicacy that can come through in these foods can work very well with New Zealand white wines because the wines are also light and delicate. This is something that the Chinese market would be very interested in being able to obtain,” he said. Behind the scenes of his wine

judging, Lau is an author of six wine books, to date, as well as the editor and author of two wine books for the Greater China Wine Critics’ Association. He has created two CDs; Music & Wine - The Perfect Matching and Red: A Music & Wine Party. Both were produced by Warner Music Hong Kong. He has been the co-chairman of the Shanghai International Wine Challenge since 2011 and makes a Super Tuscan in southern Tuscany. “I am onto the second vintage which will be released soon. I created a brand for this wine, which is called Dolce Vita.” joellethomson@vodafone.co.nz ■

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WINE AWARDS

AIR NZ WINE AWARDS

old medals were announced in early November. The trophies were announced at the awards’ dinner on November 28, just after NZ Winegrower went to print – hence we do not have them in this issue. But you can find out the winners by visiting www.airnzwineawards.co.nz

Gold medals, by region are as follows: Auckland SOHO Revolver Merlot Cabernet Franc Malbec Waiheke Island 2014

Hawke’s Bay Babich The Patriarch Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec Merlot Hawke’s Bay 2013 Beach House Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2014 Church Road Grand Reserve Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2013 Church Road Grand Reserve Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2013 Church Road McDonald Series Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2013 Elephant Hill Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2014 Esk Valley Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2014 Junction Possession Pinot Noir Hawke’s Bay 2014 Kim Crawford Small Parcels Wild Grace Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2014 Matua Single Vineyard Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2014 Mission Estate Jewelstone Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2014 Newton Forrest Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Malbec Hawke’s Bay 2013 Ngatarawa Proprietors Reserve Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2013 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 17 Plateau Merlot Hawke’s Bay 2014 Selaks Founders Merlot Cabernet Hawke’s Bay 2014 Sileni Estate Selection The Peak

Syrah Hawke’s Bay 2014 Vidal Reserve Hawkes Bay Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 Villa Maria Library Release Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2010 Villa Maria Reserve Chardonnay Hawke’s Bay 2014

Wellington / Wairarapa Craggy Range Single Vineyard Pinot Noir Te Muna Road Vineyard Martinborough 2013 Gladstone Vineyard Rosé Wairarapa 2015 Haythornthwaite Beverley Reserve Pinot Noir Martinborough 2013 Julicher Pinot Noir Martinborough 2013 Te Tera Pinot Noir Martinborough 2014

Nelson Brightwater Vineyards Pinot Gris Nelson 2015 Brightwater Vineyards Pinot Noir Nelson 2014 Seifried Winemaker Collection Sweet Agnes Riesling Nelson 2015 Waimea Family Estate Albariño Nelson 2015

Marlborough Allan Scott Family Winemakers Riesling Marlborough 2014 Awatere River by Louis Vavasour Late Harvest Gewurztraminer Marlborough 2014 Catalina Sounds Pinot Gris Marlborough 2015 Daniel Le Brun Methode Traditionnelle Blanc De Blanc 2009 Dashwood Pinot Gris Marlborough 2015 Delta Hatters Hill Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2014 Deutz Marlborough Cuvée Blanc de Blancs Méthode Traditionnelle 2011 Giesen Single Vineyard Selection Ridge Block Pinot Noir Marlborough 2013 Giesen The Brothers Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc

Marlborough 2014 Isabel Pinot Gris Marlborough 2015 Johanneshof Cellars Gewurztraminer Marlborough 2014 Lake Chalice The Raptor Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Lawson’s Dry Hills Gewurztraminer Marlborough 2014 Lowlands Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Nautilus Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Nautilus Cuvee Marlborough Brut NV NV Peter Yealands Riesling Marlborough 2015 Rapaura Springs Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Saint Clair Godfrey’s Creek Reserve Pinot Gris Marlborough 2014 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 10 Twin Hills Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 11 Cell Block Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 3 43 Degrees Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Saint Clair Premium Pinot Gris Marlborough 2014 Saint Clair Premium Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Sileni Exceptional Vintage Pourriture Noble Marlborough 2014 Spy Valley Envoy Riesling Marlborough 2010 Spy Valley Pinot Noir Marlborough 2013 Starborough Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 The Ned Waihopai River Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Tohu Mugwi Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2014 Vidal Estate Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir

Marlborough 2013 Villa Maria Single Vineyard Seddon Pinot Gris Marlborough 2015 Villa Maria Single Vineyard Southern Clays Pinot Noir Marlborough 2013 Villa Maria Single Vineyard Taylors Pass Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Villa Maria Single Vineyard Taylors Pass Pinot Noir Marlborough 2013 Volcanic Hills Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2015 Whitehaven Chardonnay Marlborough 2014 Whitehaven Gewurztraminer Marlborough 2014 Yealands Estate Single Vineyard Pinot Gris Awatere Valley, Marlborough 2015

Canterbury Greystone Pinot Gris Waipara Valley 2015 The Boneline Waimanu Pinot Noir Waipara Valley 2014 Waipara Springs Riesling Waipara Valley 2015

Central Otago Akarua Vintage Brut 2010 Akitu A2 Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Archangel Stefania Riesling Central Otago 2012 Aspiring Flats Rosé Central Otago 2015 Ceres Black Rabbit Vineyard Riesling Central Otago 2015 Coal Pit Tiwha Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Fifth Bridge Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Greylands Ridge Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Kuru Kuru Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Tarras Vineyards Single Vineyard The Canyon Pinot Noir Central Otago 2014 Terra Sancta Miro’s Block Dry Riesling Central Otago 2014 ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 37

REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION TESSA NICHOLSON

ine and art have an innate symmetry, which is something that New Zealand’s Brancott Estate is well versed in. Already they are the sponsors of the World of Wearable Arts, an iconic artistic endeavor. But for the first time they are collaborating with an international designer to create an artistic masterpiece for the Brancott Vineyard. The collaboration is with Dror Benshetrit, founder of Studio Dror in New York. Google his name and you will come up with a very long

list of achievements, with reams of magazine space dedicated to his innovative designs. A graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven, his work is among the permanent collections of museums in North America, Europe and the Middle East. He currently serves on the board of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. The brief from Brancott Estate was to translate the winery’s innovation-driven spirit and winemaking process through a unique design. He spent time in Marlborough with Brancott

Estate Chief Winemaker Patrick Materman, to get his own feel for the environment and the ethos of the company. “Dror is an incredibly creative guy who works with some of the biggest international brands,” Materman said. “But when he came over, it was about showing him the Estate, getting a feel for where we are and how we have got here. His appreciation for craftsmanship and holistic approach to design has a strong synergy with our brand values. Transformation underpins all of his work and this

reflects our history and spirit in a way that is truly exiting and pioneering. I think he gained a real sense of not only our wines but Marlborough as a whole.” For Benshetrit, spending time on the ground and getting a feel for the wines helped in his design. “The vocabulary Patrick used, body, expansion, volume, resonated with me,” he said. “I envisioned an installation that appeared as if it grew from the ground in the same geometric orientation as the grapevines while encapsulating the entire

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winemaking process with its static presence.” The end result, to be known as Under/standing, will unfold from among the vines at Brancott Estate into a structure of aggregated triangulations. As it will be made of CorTen steel, it will weather naturally to blend into the environment. What’s more it won’t be easy to miss, given it will stand nine metres tall. It is expected to

be unveiled late in 2016. Materman says the installation will not only provide a visual highlight, it will also provide a unique venue for wine tastings and events, at the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre. While the nine metre installation will provide fantastic photo opportunities, those intrigued by the design will be able to take a

miniature version home, in the form of a unique wine rack. Utilising the same geometry used in Under/standing, the rack is being

built by manufacturer Bengal Fierro, also based in New York. Beginning as a flat pack, the wine rack will be able to store six bottles of wine. A limited first run of 500 has already been produced and a small number of these will go on sale at the Brancott Estate Heritage Centre.

Installation Under/ standing concept.

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 39

NEW MW

A SIX YEAR JOURNEY ENDS TESSA NICHOLSON

ebecca Gibb may not be very big in stature – but her place in the world of wine is immense, having just achieved her Master of Wine accreditation. One of 340 MWs throughout the world, Gibb is New Zealand’s 11th Master. It has been six years of solid slog to get to this point, made even more special by the fact that during that time she moved hemispheres, got married, added a mortgage to her list of achievements and became a mother. Pretty impressive you have to say. On top of that, at the MW induction in early November, she was awarded not only the Bollinger Medal in recognition of outstanding tasting ability, but also the Outstanding Achievement Award, for top student. English by birth, Gibb undertook History and Politics at university. But once in the workforce, she had two very definite loves. “I was in the wine trade at the time and I wanted to be either a journalist or a winemaker,” she explains. “Then I got the opportunity to do a vintage in Australia in 2006. I quickly discovered that winemaking probably wasn’t for me, being so clumsy and not at all practical.” So on her return to London, she undertook some night courses and having already written some journalistic pieces while at uni, decided to enter a young wine writer competition. “This was in 2006 and I won it. I was offered a couple of weeks work experience, unpaid, in London with Harpers trade magazine.

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After a week they offered me a full time position. I was obviously very good,” she jokes. Some people thrive on learning – although Gibb says she wouldn’t have thought she was one of them. Despite having undertaken her WSET Diploma, she wasn’t looking at expanding her learning any further. “I swore that I would never go on and do a Master of Wine, because the WSET Diploma was a massive undertaking. But then,” another burst of laughter, “I put on my rose tinted glasses and thought maybe it might be a good idea for me to have a go. As a challenge.” That was 2009. “I wasn’t married at the time, I didn’t have a mortgage, didn’t live in New Zealand and didn’t have a child.” All that was to happen over the next few years. By 2012, she had passed all her exams. Then came the part she thought would be the easiest component of the MW criteria, coming up with a subject for the Research Paper. “I thought the tastings were going to be the hardest part. You have to know wines from every country, every region right down to the little village in France that a particular wine comes from. That’s not easy, you have to have that real detail. I thought that I would breeze through the Research Paper and become an MW by 2013. I soon learned that wasn’t the case.” Before you can even begin researching an idea, you have to come up with an approved

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

synopsis. That’s where things became sticky. Two synopses were turned down, and in each case she had to wait another year before she could present another one. Then finally in 2014, it was third time lucky. Her synopsis of investigating the 1911 Champagne Riots was accepted. The idea came from, what she calls, a little bedtime reading. “I was reading Wine and War and found it really interesting, so I decided I wanted to find out more about it.”

Unfortunately there wasn’t very much about the riots and what the catalyst was in anything other than French texts. Luckily for Gibbs, she reads French well. “I found out that nobody had looked at whether the people in Champagne were hungry or not. Others had looked at whether (the riots of 1911) were caused by socialists or because of the fraudulent production of Champagne back then, but it was obviously a multi faceted problem. In 1910 the wheat, oat and potato crops

Keeping It Local After six years, Rebecca Gibb gets her hands on the Master of Wine certificate.

all failed. Basically there was nothing to eat and what there was, was very expensive. The grape crop had failed that year as well, there were basically no yields, so these people had no money, no food and that led directly to the riots. It was an economic situation, not a socialist one.” Alongside wine, history is an endearing subject for Gibb and having written this thesis, she is keen to do more. “That’s the plan. My ultimate ambition is to write wine history books in a Bill Bryson sort of style, so people want to read them. I

want them to be a rip roaring read, well researched and for them to make me as much money as J.K Rowling.” In the meantime she is basking in having finally achieved her goal, a few years later than she would have liked, but achieved nonethe-less. And while she is New Zealand’s 11th MW, she is likely to be joined by three others in the near future, given Michael Henley, Amy Hopkinson-Styles and Stephen Wong are currently working on their MW research papers. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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WINE HEALTH

WINE, HEALTH AND SCIENCE It is generally accepted by society that a glass of red wine is good for your health. Decades worth of studies, however, have produced contradictory and divergent results, as Lee Suckling who recently completed a master’s degree in health reporting specialising in nutrition myths, has discovered.

henever we hear about red wine being rich in antioxidants, we’re talking about polyphenols. A polyphenol is a dietary micronutrient that is thought to have healthful benefits because of its unique chemical makeup. The primary polyphenol found in red wine is resveratrol. A 2006 study published in Nature journal found resveratrol to improve health and lifespan of mice on a high-calorie diet, and

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this study was one of the first to be overblown by the media decreeing that red wine is good for our health. However, those mice were injected with the combined resveratrol dosage equivalent of 1000 glasses of red wine; hardly something healthy for any person to do. How did media make this connection? It all goes back to something known as the ‘French Paradox’. In 1992, it was established in the scientific journal The Lancet that the

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

French, who drank a substantial amount more red wine per capita than other countries, have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and coronary atherosclerosis than all other Western nations. The paradox here was the French’s relatively high consumption of saturated fats (a fat linked to negative health problems such as diabetes) from products such as butter and cheese, which were placed highly on the standard French diet.

However, between these two influential studies was a review from 1996 published in academic journal BMJ, which concluded that all alcohol – not just red wine –reduces heart disease risk when consumed moderately (1-2 glasses per day). This review looked at ten studies and found white wine, beer, and spirits to be equally beneficial in heart heath, despite containing no resveratrol. It seems, then, that the Nature

study on mice a decade later, often used to declare red wine’s exclusive benefits, may not be relevant at all, because resveratrol doesn’t appear to be relevant to humans. In fact, in 2014 Clinical Nutrition journal concluded after a meta-analysis of studies about resveratrol that this polyphenol’s antioxidant properties have no proven positive effect on human blood pressure. While resveratrol has also been touted as helpful in preventing cancer, slowing the metabolism, and improving lifespan, other meta-analyses of studies have found weak and inconsistent evidence to support any of these claims. This isn’t helped, of course, by misleading media stories. A recent example was seen on 22 October 2015 in New Zealand news outlets, which claimed, “red wine [is] equal to a gym workout”. This report was based on a three-year-old resveratrol study that had nothing to do with red wine, and even the study’s authors fought back at media saying they never recommended wine in place of exercise. Some studies pronounce a specific cardioprotective effect from consuming of any kind of wine (not just red), famously the 12-year Copenhagen City Heart Study. This study looked at 13,285 people and noted that those who drank wine had their risk of dying from heart disease or stoke cut in half from those who didn’t drink it. Consumers of beer and spirits did not experience the same healthful benefit. However, such a study doesn’t take into account other factors such as diet, exercise and socioeconomic status, and how they affect alcohol consumers’ health. Conceivably, thus, those who drink wine instead of beer or spirits may be healthier because they make (and have the financial and

educational resources to make) other healthy choices in their life. This is actually the key flaw concerning the typical study model that is used to explore alcohol consumption: Observational research. Observation-based studies are known to produce lower-quality evidence than other types of academic studies. This is because observational studies in these cases monitor only specific alcohol consumption habits, they do not measure external factors that skew results and alter cause-andeffect theories. Confusion around red wine’s health benefits is usually sparked when an authoritative organisation announces a review on particular studies, and provides a commentary that is contradictory to that which had preceded it. For example, the American Heart Association reviewed 13 studies comprising a total of 209,418 human participants, and this analysis showed “a 32 per cent risk reduction of atherosclerotic (artery clogging) disease with red wine intake”. This sounds promising until another organisation, such as Australia’s Victoria Heart Foundation, reviews and analyses other studies to conclude: “Any positive effects of alcohol in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease have been hugely overestimated. In particular, red wine has no special, protective qualities when it relates to cardiovascular disease.” With such grand contradictions in mind, where are we currently sitting on red wine from a science point of view? As at late 2015, scientists largely still hold the view (dating back to 1996 research) that any type of alcoholic beverage is heart-healthy when consumed at a rate of no more than two drinks per day. This is because the presence

of alcohol in the body raises the amount of healthy cholesterol (known as high-density lipoprotein) in the blood, which means the blood is thinner and less able to clot. This results in lower rates of heart attacks and heart disease, and makes a person less susceptible to Type 2 diabetes. Of course, proclaiming that the alcohol component in alcoholic beverages is the elixir of hearthealth is dangerous, because of the variable of “moderation”. Researchers uniforming agree that heavy drinking outweighs any positive benefits of alcohol consumption, as it quickly stops being cardioprotective and starts becoming “cardio-harmful”. Not to mention its connection to problems with obesity, the liver, the pancreas and other parts of the body, and of course addiction. Many studies, such as a 13-year observation published in BMJ in 1994, found these negative effects to kick in when a person drinks three or more units of alcohol per day. Newer studies such as one by Journal of Internal Medicine in 2015 also stand by the two-drink cap for healthful consumption. With this in mind, however, red wine will continue to be singled out as healthy because of the buzzword ‘antioxidant’. Here’s why.

Polyphenols are antioxidants, and antioxidants are good for the body. Resveratrol, a polyphenol, is found on the skin of grapes, and because red wine is fermented with skins on for longer than other wine, it contains the highest levels of resveratrol. Therefore, red wine theoretically should be best for the body because it has higher antioxidant content than other wine. That is, of course, until the caveats (such as resveratrol volume required for the benefit, or the lack of evidence that resveratrol is beneficial to humans at all) are explained. These limitations are easily left out in media reports, because typical health reporting purposefully overblows science in order to create a more saleable story. A media report filled with caveats doesn’t make for the most compelling reading. Society can only ever rely on the best available evidence to support a healthful claim such as “red wine is good for your heart”, and as it currently stands, the evidence isn’t there to specifically support the dark grape product. Any kind of alcohol will do the same cardioprotective job as red wine. So rest assured, we can still drink to our health. Just not because of the colour of the drop. lee.suckling@gmail.com ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 43

REGIONS HAWKE’S BAY

NO LONGER THE BRIDESMAID Stories of providence always trump those of supply when it comes to Hawke’s Bay’s third most planted grape, Sauvignon Blanc, as Joelle Thomson discovers.

ower grape prices, higher availability of supply and softer acidity levels sound like a match made in heaven for Sauvignon Blanc producers, even if Hawke’s Bay is not necessarily the first place that springs to mind to find these attributes. The region’s winemakers are beginning to exploit the distinctive style of Sauvignon Blanc

grown in their region, where the grape now occupies 923 hectares of the region’s total 4,773 hectares; figures as at 2015 (New Zealand Winegrowers). This makes Sauvignon Blanc third only to Merlot and Chardonnay, respectively, in the Bay’s vineyards. By way of comparison, there are currently 1,107 hectares of Merlot and 1,001 of Chardonnay growing in the Bay.

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“Any significant company of commercial size probably has to have a Sauvignon Blanc if they are exporting because it is New Zealand’s most important variety in a commercial sense,” says Hawke’s Bay winemaker Rod Easthope. “Sauvignon Blanc from the Bay offers an attractive alternative for new wine drinkers as well as those who are fans of big full bodied

whites, such as Chardonnay, and softer styles of white wine,” says Chuck Hayward; New Zealand wine buyer for for JJ Buckley in the United States. Hayward was a guest judge at the region’s annual wine show in September this year, which impressed on him the growth in quality and stylistic diversity in Hawke’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc. “It’s less about talking to

customers about what they should drink, and more about listening to them; I find that there are people who are a little surprised by the intensity of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and while it has a massive following for some people, there are others looking for a softer wine style, particularly to start off with. The Bay’s Sauvignons can offer that and winemakers there can also tell a story of their own regionality by doing so,” says Hayward. Like the senior judges at this year’s Hawke’s Bay A&P Regional Wine Show, the outgoing chair of judges Rod McDonald, agreed with Hayward’s sentiments, adding that providence always trumps supply. “If there’s a variety that Hawke’s Bay is going to build an international brand with, then it’s Sauvignon Blanc,” McDonald says. “It makes no sense for a

Hawke’s Bay wine company at the fine wine end to go to Marlborough to source grapes because it’s a disconnect that means there is no story to tell about their own vineyard. “We think it’s hugely important to have a great Sauvignon Blanc and to make a great one, it’s got to be local.” Investigations into the potential of cooler areas in Hawke’s Bay have shown strong promise, says incoming show chair and fellow winemaker Easthope. “Rather than being a door opener, it’s a new room; some wines take an easier path and this is where Hawke’s Bay Sauvignon Blanc comes in. It’s a wine in the same vein but a different style.” For this reason, he predicts that Sauvignon Blanc is likely to become an increasingly important focus for winemakers in Hawke’s Bay.

A bountiful Bay, producing some special Sauvignon Blancs. PHOTO: SILENI ESTATE, SUPPLIED BY NZW.

It is not only the Bay’s winemakers who can benefit from a Sauvignon Blanc with a distinctively different taste. It can also add another string to New Zealand’s international wine bow. “It’s not a problem having Hawke’s Bay on the label of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc internationally,” says Hayward, who suggests that there are wine drinkers internationally who do not have a pronounced passion for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. “Martinborough’s Sauvignon Blancs have minerality, Central Otago’s have a spicyness and the whole idea is that we can show that we know the regions and what they offer to the drinker, and that we can harness that in the wines we

make,” adds Easthope. “Sometimes I think the barriers to sale are set by sommeliers, critics and members of the retail trade who say that the only good Sauvignon Blanc comes from Marlborough, but we are finding that customers are really open to try anything.” Hayward’s experience of selecting and selling wine in the United States supports this theory. “Diversity is the beauty of the wine world, which is easy to see in Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand today, both in the 100% Marlborough styles, and beyond. “There is huge potential for other regions to work with this variety at a high quality level.” joellethomson@vodafone.co.nz ■

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WINERY NEWS

THE EXTENDED FAMILY – OF 12 TESSA NICHOLSON

eeping everyone happy in a big family isn’t always the easiest task. Inter sibling rivalry, weird hangers on, in laws that don’t get on and children who no one can stand being around – are just a few of the problems to mar family occasions. That is unless you are a Family of 12 wineries, who not only get on, but are also totally supportive of each other.

Chairman William Hoare admits that in this family, there are certain characters who could be described as the wacky Aunty or Uncle that ensures the dinner table isn’t boring. And there are plenty of personalities with a lifetime of experience that provides all members with an innate sense of where they are going and how they might get there. After 10 years the family is

now looking to the future and F12 is about to become an extended family. Not in terms of the number of wineries involved – it began as 12 and Hoare says it will stay at 12. But the time has come to introduce the next generation, so they can begin to form bonds with their cousins as well as their aunts and uncles. “There is this generational shift that is happening in all fields

within New Zealand,” Hoare says, “and especially in the wine industry. One of the key components of the Family of 12 is that the person sitting at the table has to be representative of the winery. So with Villa (Maria) it is Sir George sitting there. With Palliser Estate it has always been Richard Riddiford, and so on. We need this to continue on in the future, so we decided that it was time to bring

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The original Family of 12.

the next generation in, those that are going to grow up and run the winery.” A special luncheon, introducing the “next generation” was held at Merediths Restaurant in Auckland in November. It was a chance for the newbies to get to know each other. Hoare says it is important as in any business, that the knowledge that is already floating around out there, is passed on to the next wave of managers. And given the

Family has more than 240 years of combined knowledge of the world of wine, there is a lot of material to pass on. “It’s no good holding all this information within a small group. The next generation, while they may not be running the business at this stage, are likely to be doing so in the future. We want to nurture those people.” Three original family members (Steve Smith MW, Richard Riddiford and Barbara Lawson) are

either leaving the country or retiring, meaning the next generation is already moving into new roles within the group. “We have always been really close as a group,” Hoare says. “Now it is time to set up a base where the next generation starts talking to each other and form a similar bond to ours.” F12 has also discussed with Icehouse about getting two or three of the next generation onto leadership courses, to assist with

personal development. “We really want to nurture leadership with that next generation coming on.” The Family of 12 is unique in that it includes wineries representing every major wine growing region in New Zealand, who between them produce every major variety. Each of the 12 wineries are either family owned and run, or run as a family business. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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YOUNG GUNS

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This year saw the first ever Young Winemaker of the Year competition held in New Zealand. Three representatives, from Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago battled it out at the Bragato conference. Coming in first was Hawke’s Bay’s Lauren Swift, second was Abby Maxwell from Marlborough and third was Abby Gallagher from Central Otago.

YOUNG WINEMAKERS How long have you worked in Hawke’s Bay? Three years full time. What brought you here? Study and a change of scenery. Where have you travelled in wine to get here? I have done two overseas vintages – one in Cote Rotie, Rhone, France V15 and the other in Sonoma, California V13. I also worked at Clos Henri in Marlborough before taking the leap and moving to Hawke’s Bay to study the Bachelor of Oenology. What do you enjoy most about your job? The range of work I get to be a part of. My main job is the winemaker but I also work on cellar door at least one day a week and get

How long have you worked in Central Otago? I moved down this Easter, so about six months. What brought you here? I’ve wanted to move here since a family holiday when I was about 14. So this was the year and I’ve made it happen. Where have you travelled in wine to get here? I started out in Marlborough where I spent a few years working and studying before heading to France, and then here to Central. What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the fast pace and excitement of harvest.

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LAUREN SWIFT AGE 26 ASH RIDGE WINES. WINEMAKER

involved in the vineyard and the sales and marketing side too. What do you enjoy most about Hawke’s Bay? Hawke’s Bay is a beautiful place with a lot going for it! My free time here seems to consist of walking my dog and trying out

What do you enjoy most about Central Otago? I love the scenery the most. It’s always breathtaking going around all the vineyards each with their own amazing view. When you’re not making wine? I tried to spend as much time over winter up the skifields, but now the snow’s gone it’s hiking and biking time! Your favourite wine? At the moment I’m really enjoying some of the Central Otago Chardonnays. Which wine region excites you most right now? I’ve recently come back from doing a harvest in Burgundy,

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

different places to eat and drink. When you’re not making wine? I am drinking it! Or eating good food. It sucks when…. My dog finds something dead to roll in! She is always proud of her ‘perfume’. Your favourite wine?

I had so much fun learning about the area and tasting the wines. Future aspirations? One day I would like to have a small hobby vineyard, but until then moving up to a winemaking position.

ABBY GALLAGHER AGE 24 CELLERHAND MT D I F F I C U LT Y, C E N T R A L O TA G O

Chardonnay, my partner tries to surprise me by bringing one home and 9 times out of 10 I have already had it! Which wine region excites you most right now? I have to say Hawke’s Bay… as a whole they are re-branding the region and giving it focus and it just so happens to be home to two of my favourtites! Chard and Syrah. Plus I am excited to put into place some techniques I learned in France in the coming year. Future aspirations? I have a lot of great plans… first one off the list is to start making my own wine. Continue to make awardwinning wines for Ash Ridge And I aspire to get into consulting down the track.

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The wine and grape growing community and spirit. After winning the Marlborough Young Winemaker, I had an unexpected visit from our neighbours Indevin who dropped off a congratulatory bottle of bubbles, by forklift! Just one example of many where Marlborough celebrates and works together, and I love being a part of it. Also Burleigh pies, legendary. When you’re not making wine? I’m thinking about my next glass of wine, playing drums, rushing off to dance class or icing a cake. It sucks when…. You can’t reach the top shelf gems at the liquor shop. Your favourite wine? Coming into Christmas, it’s bubbles season! Currently enjoying Nautilus Marlborough Cuvee NV, delicious with salt and pepper squid. Which wine region excites you most right now? Kamptal, Austria. Inspirational Grüner Veltliner. Future aspirations? Win big with Lotto and try for Master of Wine.

ORGANIC

How long have you worked in Marlborough? Two years. What brought you to Marlborough? The challenge of an inaugural vintage for a new winery, being based in the biggest wine producing region of New Zealand, and as I was coming home from my OE, marmite and mince and cheese pies! Where have you travelled in wine to get here? From South Auckland to Hawke’s Bay to study, then Ireland for an adventure, America, Europe and finally Marlborough to start paying off the student loan and work up the winemaking ladder. What do you enjoy most about your job? No day is the same, with a variety of roles and the great team I work with it’s easy to get out of bed in the morning. Babich Wines also provides encouragement and opportunities to learn and grow as a winemaker, with high expectations you’re driven to exceed them. What do you enjoy most about Marlborough?

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

P:09 - 3729155 E: rsf@rd2.co.nz W: www.rd2.co.nz NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 49

REGIONS WAIRARAPA

PIP AT THE HELM JOELLE THOMSON

ip Goodwin has come full circle. On 1 September this year, she was handed the hefty reins of her new role as chief executive officer of Palliser Estate; one of the largest producers in a region of tiny wine companies. The entire Martinborough wine industry produces 1% of New Zealand’s wine each year; the Wairarapa in its entirety makes 2%. Being a big producer here is a soberingly relative concept. Goodwin began her working life as an accountant and management consultant in 2003. She worked her way through New Zealand, London, Australia before leaving business for wine. And now, in a planned twist of fate, Goodwin has landed the job that she says she always dreamt about:

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combining her wine passion with her business experience. The passion part was ignited when she first left university and found herself flatting with a member of the Wellington wine trade; “We used to do a lot of wine tastings in Wellington because of that flatmate, and I loved it.” Then, living in London in the mid 1990s, Goodwin visited Burgundy. That was the beginning of the end; “It was no-turning-back after that. The place, the product and the romanticism of the industry there all lured me into thinking seriously that I wanted to get into the wine industry one day.” It was really only a matter of time as to where, how and when. In 1997, back from overseas, Goodwin started work as a man-

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

agement consultant; an interesting way to look at businesses in Sydney, Auckland and Wellington, she says. “That experience has helped to prepare me for the latest challenge here at Palliser; I am aware it is a big role I am stepping into, but over the past decade at this winery, I have been involved closely in all aspects of the business, so I have some understanding of what is taking place here and what we need to do to move forward in such a crowded wine market.” Like many seemingly overnight success stories, however, Goodwin’s has been several years in the making. In the early 2000s, one of her close friends embarked on the Eastern Institute of Technology

wine course in Hawke’s Bay and she suggested that Goodwin might like it. “I decided to give it a go, and found it so interesting that I decided to pursue winemaking as a career.” Her first vintage was in 2003 at Gisvin followed by vintages at Nga Waka and Saintsbury in Carneros, California. “I had three very different experiences and loved it so in 2004, I went to Lincoln University and did the post graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology.” She was then offered a year long role at Palliser Estate by winemaker Allan Johnson, who has since been a great mentor to Goodwin. “I was incredibly lucky to get such a great position straight off and for the past 10 years at Palliser, I have been involved in all aspects of the business from environmental management, financial involvement and winemaking to looking at the business as a whole,” she says. “While we are a large winery for Martinborough, we are relatively small in the big scheme.” The Palliser business model is for the company to retain all of its own vineyards and split the fruit across two labels; the flagship wines are Palliser Estate, and the more accessibly priced, higher volume wines are Pencarrow. This makes for a not-quite-even split of approximately 40/60 among the two ranges. Last year the winery launched a rose for the first time and Chenin Blanc also interests Goodwin, who sees it as adding another strong string to the company’s predominantly white wine bow. At present, approximately

40% of the production is devoted to Sauvignon Blanc.

Challenges ahead Sauvignon Blanc is the biggest challenge for Palliser Estate and for New Zealand, says Goodwin. “It has such dominance on our export market and there is this talk about a movement away from New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. That is a risk to the industry. We have to keep ahead by innovating, keeping quality high and also looking at other possible emerging trends.” Goodwin says it is important for New Zealand winemakers to remain not only true to their own brand, but also to stay keep ahead of the game. “Allan (Johnston) is always looking at different ways of doing things and I think we have to be leaders as New Zealand wine producers. With Sauvignon Blanc, we used to be very controlled; now we

“I had three very different experiences and loved it so in 2004, I went to Lincoln University and did the post graduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology.”

are introducing wild yeast. With our Chardonnay, for example, we have to let our fruit be the hero. I think it’s believing in what we do.” For Sauvignon Blanc, as for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Goodwin has one overriding mantra: “Less is more.” This philosophy led to winemaking modifications at Palliser Estate, which now embraces wild yeast fermentations, actively uses less malolactic fermentation and has dialed down the inclusion of new oak. Solids ferments have yet to make their presence felt in the

winery’s Chardonnays, but the aim has been to make full bodied whites with a hint of flint. Another innovation will be the use of Chardonnay clone 548; now planted at Palliser, it is in New Zealand via Riversun Nursery. “Chardonnay does very well in our cool climate here. The wines can age beautifully as well as drinking well on release; while it’s something we’re not especially known for, I think the Chardonnays are getting better each year.” Change is not top of mind for Goodwin, whose aim is to steer the Palliser ship in a more high

profile direction going forward, but otherwise plans to keep things largely as business as usual. That said, rebranding will feature on the company’s label for the 2015 Chardonnay and her main crusade is to lift the profile of Palliser wines. “It is world class wine and I think we are often forgotten when it comes to New Zealand’s strong wine brands. I have the impression that in some circles, Palliser is seen as commercial, but we’re actually small,” Goodwin says. “A large part of Palliser’s success has been due to Richard’s (Riddiford) very strong leadership and unique style of marketing. I am very aware that I have big shoes to fill and I’m very aware that those big shoes are not very far away because he remains living in Martinborough and plans to retain his breakfast appointment at Café Medici every morning.” joellethomson@vodafone.co.nz ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 51

WINEMAKER NEWS

WINE AND BEER CROSS-OVER MARK ORTON

t might seen a little sacrilegious in some quarters to be writing about brewing beer in a wine publication, but when it comes down to it, how many viticulturists enjoy a cold one after a hard day of toil, and what winemaker doesn’t crave a pallet cleansing pilsner after a tasting? With at least half a dozen beerbrewing operations of various sizes scattered throughout Central Otago vineyards, it’s certainly worth considering the potential

cross-over between beer and wine production and indeed, can the two disciplines actually compliment one another? At Terra Sancta in Bannockburn, brewing beer means a lot more for head winemaker Jody Pagey, than merely producing a quaffable beverage to toast the vineyard crew. When owners Mark Weldon and Sarah Eliott established Terra Sancta four years ago they were keen to stretch the skill set of the their team. “Mark came to me one day

and said he was keen to engage me more deeply in the business, and setting up a very small scale beer operation was a good way to do that,” says Pagey. “What we did then was start at the ground up, looking at the cost of caps, labels, run size – all the same things that happen in the wine business. Mark and Sarah then asked me to lead this, model out the business, and then execute it – including the brewing of the beer to a specific set of requirements they had developed.”

Just over the Hawksburn Road 25 kilometres away in Earnscleugh, Mike Wing has what he calls “his dream job”. As vineyard manager at Two Paddocks since 2009, Wing talks fondly about his love of working with plants and soils, but also explains how he never fully exorcised the demons associated with a home-brewing hobby formed many years ago. “When you’re a young fella, everyone plays around with homebrew kits, but it never eventuated to much did it? But after travelling

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www.nzwinegrower.co.nz

Brewing up a storm with the Kilarabbit beers – Jody Pagey.

in Europe and tasting good beer, you come home and it’s just not the same. Beer wasn’t something that you just put in a funnel anymore”. After experimenting with kit brews before teaching himself allgrain brewing, Wing and his friend Scottie put together some brewing apparatus consisting of a pot, an esky with a false bottom, and a tea urn for the kettle. “It was still a hobby that just got out of control. Eventually you accumulate so much beer, you can’t drink it all. It was still only 25 litres at a time, but we were getting good feedback from mates, so we splashed out and brought a 50L system. It was great too as it was on rollers so in the winter we would roll it inside to ferment and then stick it outside to cool, we were actually brewing better beer in winter.” Pagey however had to up-skill

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 53

his home brewing credentials significantly as the Terra Sancta plan was to get up and running with a commercially viable brew in decent quantities. “After putting the plan together, we spent 12 months perfecting the recipe – it’s not easy! There were many long nights sorting out how the equipment was going to work, formulating a recipe, marketing and compliance. Our recipe is a secret – but we make a fully organic Double IPA, with great bitterness, using local race water and entirely South Island ingredients. We also use some old Terra Sancta Pinot barrels to condition it before it is bottled. The name evokes the idea of a guy making beer in a shed on the Bannockburn goldfields 100 years ago. The name Kilarabbit has more than one meaning too. Is it to ‘kill a rabbit’ or is it a ‘killer rabbit’ and since we have released it people have actually said that at 7.2% alcohol it ‘would’ actually kill a rabbit.” Mike Wing figured that after a fair few recipe failures and some classic home-brew heroics, it was time to see if his Pale Ale was good enough to leave the shed. After successfully launching it at the 2012 Alexandra Blossom Festival where their five kegs sold out in a day, the production capabilities of his 50L set-up were sorely exposed. But as Wing was managing a vineyard and was only able to

Jabberwocky - a family affair – Mike and Ruenell Wing with baby Zara.

brew on weekends and after hours, he needed another solution. Fortunately Steve Nally at Invercargill Breweries came on board to brew his recipes under contract and ‘Jabberwocky Pale Ale’ was given the kick-start it needed. “So now we had bottled product and kegs to be able to get into places. We were a little bit green about pricing and marketing, but I had seen some of this side of the business through working with wine. But the beer drinker is different to the wine drinker…it is hard to change some people’s perceptions, especially if they have been drinking the same beer their whole lives. Some of the folk around here wouldn’t even try a Steinlager.” With the challenge of securing taps in pubs that are pressured by the big breweries to stock only their products, Wing’s wife Ruenell started making in-roads

by marketing their Jabberwocky beer further afield. An increased demand for their product meant the couple now had to find a way to increase production if they were ever going to take their burgeoning business to the next level. Rather than invest in a new brew system that is prohibitively expensive, it made financial sense to go out on a limb and buy Wanaka Beerworks, which came on the market in 2014. Retaining the Jabberwocky label alongside the Wanaka Beerworks brands, Wing now delegates the brewing to the two brewers who were already employed by the brewery. This also gives him time to experiment with new recipes for the range that presently sits at three Jabberwocky varieties and four bottled under the Wanaka beer works stable. “I don’t really run the business, Ruenell does that. I still stay

focused on the wine as growing things is still my passion and since owning a brewery I have realised that even more. I’d love my own piece of land to be able to grow some grain and mill it ourselves and grow some hops too, though I draw the line at malting grain.” After nine successful batches of Kilarabbit, Pagey views brewing as simply another aspect of his weekly and monthly chores as a winemaker. Though, he is keen to stress, just making wine has never been his only job detail at Terra Sancta. “My role is really varied. For instance I was working in the vineyard on Monday, I’ll be brewing beer on Tuesday and Wednesday, bottling another batch of beer on Thursday and Friday and then I’ll be back in the vineyard on the weekend and on call for frost fighting. For us, winemaking obviously comes first and then when we have some capacity and time, we can do some brewing. The great thing about beer is having complete control over your ingredients but with wine you get one crack a year and it’s all about what you get from the vineyard. So it feels strange to have the amount of control we have with beer, though in saying that the first few beers we made gave me many a sleepless night – it is definitely not easy and not for the faint hearted.” seeingredmedia@yahoo.com ■

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REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

HAVING FUN TESSA NICHOLSON

nother winemaker who has perfected the art of brewing, while still keeping his hand in with grapes, is Josh Scott of Marlborough. Not only is he the winemaker for his family estate – Allan Scott Wines, he is also the brewer behind the highly successful Moa Beers. As we have seen from the previous story, winemakers just love to get their hands on some malt and hops, when not dealing with grapes. For Scott that love affair has seen him take brewing into a new realm for New Zealand, with his having achieved Certified Cicerone status, which is like being a Sommelier of beer. Scott is one of only 300 in the world and the only person in Australasia to hold such a title. Next year he will sit his Master Cicerone exam, and if he passes, will be one of only 12 people in the world with the title. So where did this love of craft beer come from? “I was working in California in 1998, for a company called Saintsbury. They had a philosophy that to make excellence you had to be surrounded by excellence. So everything we ate or drank was excellent. We always had amazing meals but it also went down to the beer we drank. We didn’t drink Miller or Bud, it was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I remember trying it and going, ‘holy mackerel this is awesome.’ I had been used to drinking things like Speights and corporate beers. That was my epiphany moment.” A few more craft beers like that and he was hooked. The only problem though was when he returned to New Zealand he couldn’t find any craft or hoppy style beers on the market. So in true Kiwi style,

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the key player in the Sauvignon Blanc wine stakes, it is its neighbour Nelson that holds that position when it comes to hops. The region is becoming renowned for its dual purpose hops that Scott says provide both aromatics and bittering qualities. None more so than the new variety – Nelson Sauvin. You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that the name Sauvin has more than a little to do with our flagship wine variety. “It is one of the most famous hops in the world at the moment. Named after Sauvignon Blanc, it gives you heaps of herbaceous and tropical characters and it smells just like Sauvignon Blanc. It is in short supply and is only grown in one place in the world – Motueka.” The irony of having a hop that resembles the wine Marlborough is famous for is not lost on Scott. It just reinforces to him that brewing and winemaking definitely go hand in hand.

Trialing Fun

he decided if he wouldn’t buy it, he would make it. Chatting with the owner of a local craft pub in Marlborough, Scott asked how he would go about brewing a hoppy beer. “He told me to make it just like I would make Champagne. So I did. I made my beer using Champagne techniques for the first two and a half years. Every single beer was riddled and disgorged to get the carbonation in it. We didn’t have any of the carbonation equipment or the beer crown seals or anything like that, so I used barrels and a lot of winemaking techniques. We were the first in the world

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

to do a méthode traditionnelle beer and advertise it that way.” Moa Beer no longer practices those techniques, which has a lot to do with how the acceptance of craft beer has grown in the past 12 years, Scott says. “Back in those days Kiwis didn’t like cloudy beers, but that has changed. These days you can have the most cloudy, disgusting looking beer and people love it. So we can allow the lees to settle to the bottom now, whereas before we had to disgorge it. That was really labour intensive, as we had to do it all by hand.” While Marlborough might be

But utilising hops with a wine sounding name is not the only link between the two beverages for Scott. Having come back into the winemaking position in the past year, he was determined that he wasn’t going to focus on traditional styles of wine only. He wanted to have some fun, and the end result is some rather interesting new wine styles. For the first time ever, Scott has combined grapes and hops to produce a wine that is like nothing else he has made. “We have added the Nelson Sauvin (hop) to the Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc grape and that has been really successful.” So successful in fact that orders

for the wine are already coming in from the US. Despite what you may think about adding hops to grapes, he says the final result still tastes like Sauvignon Blanc, albeit Sauvignon Blanc on steroids! “The first trial we did, we put all the hops and the fruit in the press and pressed them out and added more hops to the fermentation vessel. What we ended up with was a very citrusy character. It is really pungent and in your face.” While with the Sauvignon it was standard yeast used for inoculation, when it came to a trial with Gewurztraminer, he decided to try a Belgian beer yeast. “And that has come out awesome.” Flavouring Pinot Noir with chocolate and/or coffee is another trial he has undertaken, although the end results of those wines won’t be truly known until next year. Added to those he has also undertaken an experiment to determine how music during fermentation affects the final flavour components. And before you start sniggering, thinking Yeah Right, he has discovered it has had a considerable impact. Again using Sauvignon Blanc, the juice was separated into three identical barrels. One remained

as a control within the cellar, the other was played Pavarotti over and over again, while the third got up close and personal with Robby Fitch (Band Silent But Deadly, described as a crossover thrash metal band). “The wines are all really different,” Scott says. “Seriously they are. I was talking to a brewer, and apparently it has to do with the resonance that comes from the music, it creates frequencies that keep the yeast up in the solution, so they have a longer fermentation cycle.” All in all Scott says they have taken traditional winemaking and “flipped it on its head”. “So we are doing everything the craft brewers have been doing with beer and replicating that and doing it with wine.” He admits many will consider his trials as gimmicky, and a move from tradition, but Scott says they are an important way of re-engaging with the younger market. “We won’t bottle this wine, it will only be available on draft (specialized wine kegs) or in cans. Yes we are launching cans this summer. We think it will get people excited, and then when they see the traditional Allan Scott Wines, they will recognise us for doing some cool stuff.’ tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 57

170 year old bottles of Champagne, discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

BUBBLES ON LAND, SEA AND AIR Just what impact does atmospheric pressure have on the aging of sparkling wine? If you had the same wine placed under water, a control in the cellar and another at altitude and left the bottles there for a length of time – would they end up tasting different? These are two questions Josh Scott is keen to get answers to. So much so that he has taken 600 bottles of Allan Scott Wines Cecelia, a méthode traditionnelle, placed 200 at the bottom of the sea, left 200 as a control in the cellar and another 200 are aging at altitude. All three batches will be left for at least two years and maybe three in their trial “environment” before the wines are tasted and analysed. The motivation for this trial came about after 14 cases of 170-year-old Champagne were discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea back in

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2010. While only 79 of those wines were drinkable, the condition and taste amazed experts. “(They) pronounced that it had an excellent taste and had even kept some of its fizz,” reports stated. It is probably not unexpected given the wines were stored on their side, at a constant temperature of between 2 and 4 degree C, in total darkness and at high pressure. So if 170-year-old wines can taste all right, could more recent vintages benefit from similar conditions? Scott can’t wait to find out. “We wanted to see what the pressure and the cool temperature does to the wine and then vice versa, what happens at altitude.” In terms of the seawater trials, the bottles were placed in stainless steel cages and have been hidden quite deep in salt water. “The temperature they will be

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

at is around 5 degrees C, so it’s a lot colder than in the cellar where the temperature would normally be between 9 and 11 degrees.” As for the 200 being aged at altitude, Scott says they have also placed them in covered cages at 1200 feet. “They have all been through primary (fermentation) we got them through that first as we didn’t want them to get down or up there and be stuck. “It will be interesting to see how it works.” Long term he says it will provide a point of difference when doing tastings of their méthode traditionnelle. “When you go into a tasting and you only have one bottle, it can be a bit boring. But we will have three, a control, one from the sea and one from altitude. It gives us a lot more to talk about.” ■

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BOB’S BLOG BOB CAMPBELL MW

MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO’S THE BOOZIEST OF ALL? The answer if you accept the OIV figures published in the latest edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine (OCW) is Luxembourg, with a cheerful per capita wine consumption of 60.7 litres per capita in 2012. Luxembourg was also at the head of the list in 2000 with 62.7 litres, so they’ve slipped slightly but the small drop doesn’t indicate that they’ve exactly climbed onto the wagon. I recall discussing Luxembourg’s high alcohol consumption rate (they

led the world in consumption of beer, wine & spirits when I had the conversation) with a local. He explained that Luxembourg had a small local population and a high visitor count which boosted the booze stats. The OIV figures in 2000 were based on total population while the 2012 figures used a population database of people aged 15+. Increased consumption for the decade is likely to be unrealistically high, warned the OCW That doesn’t explain New

Zealand’s apparent increase in consumption for that period by a whopping 2,272%. The 2012 consumption figure of 26.1 litres per head seems about right, but the 2000 figure of 1.1 litres looks a tad low. Mind you we were beaten by Lithuania whose population has clearly made an effort to imbibe with increased consumption of 2,620% in the same decade (from an abstemious 0.5 litres per head in 2000). In 2012 France is narrowly in

second place behind Luxembourg with a consumption of 57.9 litres, Portugal (55.4) comes third, overtaking Italy (43.3) since 2000. For the record New Zealand was in 18th place in 2012, behind Australia which ranks 15th. The most abstemious country (out of the 73 surveyed) is Egypt the population of which consumed, with the help of visiting tourists, a very sobering 0.1 litre per head in 2012. I didn’t want to see the pyramids anyway. ■

IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE SEOUL I’ve just visited seven Asian countries in 14 days for a variety of reasons, all businessrelated. I hosted a dinner for Air New Zealand’s Gold Elite customers in Singapore, attended a dinner featuring Kiwi wines in Macau and ran tastings/lectures on New Zealand wine for the wine trade and press in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Bangkok. The seventh country was Hong Kong where I touched down briefly en route to Macau. The most curious incident happened in Bangkok when I was asked to pose for a photo. Grabbing a glass of red wine and wearing a fake smile I waited for the photographer to press the shutter. He appeared slightly agitated and, through an interpreter, explained that it was illegal to have my photo

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taken with a glass of wine. Being photographed with a glass of wine is in breach of Section 32 of the Alcohol Control Act because the photo of me brandishing a glass of wine could make others want to consume alcoholic beverages. It’s hard to imagine that my picture, if it appeared in the local newspaper, would spark a stampeded to the nearest offlicense but I’m certainly not prepared to take the risk. I would imagine that a Bangkok slammer would not be a pleasant place. 24 Thai celebrities are currently in trouble after posting

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

photos of themselves with a glass of Chang beer on Facebook. They face a nine-year jail term and/or a fine of up to $20,000 if found guilty of breaching the Act. Two of the

celebs have denied being paid to post their photos with a glass of Chang beer. “We were only doing it to help a close friend promote the product” they claimed. ■

NZ VS AUSTRALIA We know how our two countries compare on the rugby field but how do they compare in the competitive business of international wine marketing? That question occurred to me after I received an enthusiastic email from “Australia’s Bulk Wine Specialists” Austwine. They advised that “Wine Australia reported the strongest growth in Australian Wine Exports for 8 years. Not since 2007 has annual value growth been +8%. Total exports for the year were A$1.96Bn, including volume growth of +5% to 734mL”. A$1.96Bn converts to about NZ$2.1Bn. I’d recently read somewhere that NZ’s total

export value for the year to September was NZ$1.47Bn. In 2012 Australia’s wine production was roughly six times larger than the Kiwi wine output. They make six times more wine than NZ and yet the value of their wine exports are just 40% greater than NZ’s wine exports. Score one try to NZ. For the year to September 2015 Australia’s wine exports (in litres) grew by 8% while the value of those exports grew by 5%. In that same period NZ’s wine exports (in litres) grew by 9.4% while value went up by 7.6%. Score another try to NZ Australia exports more bulk

wine (56%) than bottled wine while NZ bulk wine accounts for around half that share (28.8%). That is one of the factors contributing toward Australia’s relatively low average price per litre of NZ$2.87 (A$2.67) for wines exported in the past year when compared with the NZ average of $7.06 per litre. Score yet another try to NZ For the record Australia’s top five export markets, in order, are: UK US Canada China Germany (NZ is in 6th place)

NZ’s top five export markets (in volume) are: UK US Aust Canada Netherlands In the year to September 2015 Australia exported 26.1 million litres to NZ with an average price of NZ$3.05 (A$2.84). In that same period NZ exported 55 million litres to Australia with an average price of $6.51. I think that just about adds up to a fairly convincing NZ win. Still, as the Wallabies coach said, “It could be very different in four years’ time”. True, but it could also be more of the same. ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 61

EVENTS NEWS

NZW IN SEOUL New Zealand’s Shooting Stars – Sauvignon Blanc & Pinot Noir Seminar WITH BOB CAMPBELL MW DATE: MONDAY 5 OCTOBER 2015 EVENT: SEATED SEMINAR, EXCLUSIVELY TARGETING TOP KOREAN WINE TRADE, MEDIA AND EDUCATORS, LEVY FUNDED LOCATION: RUBY HALL, THE PLAZA HOTEL, SEOUL ATTENDEES: 60

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

New Zealand’s Wine Fair, Seoul. A trade tasting held as part of the NZ Festival in Korea DATE: MONDAY 5 OCTOBER 2015, 3.00PM-6.00PM LOCATION: THE PLAZA HOTEL, DIAMOND HALL, 22F, 119 SOGONG-RO, JUNGGU, SEOUL ATTENDEES: 350 APPROXIMATELY

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 63

REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

WINEWORKS REGIONAL GROWTH TESSA NICHOLSON

he premise behind WineWorks, a contract bottling line and warehouse, was to bring business back to the regions. That was 20 years ago and managing director Tim Nowell-Usticke says the plan has been more than successful. The company which celebrated the two decade milestone in November, did so in style, by opening a new warehouse in Marlborough that brings pallet storage up to nearly 66,000. Tim says the success of the business dovetails with the success of the Marlborough wine industry. “Lots of people say to us, that it’s fantastic what we have done, that we must be proud. But it’s not us, it’s the wineries who have undertaken the growth. We just supply what the industry needs.” While the first bottling plant was in Hawke’s Bay, opened in 1995, it was three years before they opened the Marlborough plant. Back then the Bay was producing more wine than Marlborough,

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which Tim describes as a “tiny” slice of what the industry is now. “But I could see that the exports were flying out of Marlborough and that Hawke’s Bay was more geared to domestic consumption. The growth is always going to be in export.” Given he had seen regions losing business infrastructure, he felt strongly about establishing his new bottling line in the heart of the industry itself. “For years I had noticed that industry was being stripped out of the regions. It was moving to Auckland, Sydney or Shanghai. I thought to myself that it doesn’t have to be like this. I knew that the real value increase happens when you turn a crop into a packaged item. For example, NZW stats show that export bulk wine in the last 12 months got $3.91 a litre. But if you export packaged wine, you get $8.57 a litre. So it’s a multiple of value increases and that value increase happens in the regions.” Being in the heart of it, also allows wineries to have day to

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

WineWorks MD Tim NowellUsticke (right) and Chairman Lyn Williams at the opening of the new warehouse.

day contact with those handling their wine. “Rather than sending it somewhere else in the world, where the wineries don’t know what is happening with their product.” It also means more employment for those regions, with everything from forklift drivers, logistics, middle and warehouse managers finding work. In fact the new warehouse means a further 14 jobs in Marlborough. Coinciding with the warehouse

opening, WineWorks were presented with a gift of early Maori and Moa artefacts by the local Rangitane iwi. The artefacts were discovered during the excavation work of the warehouse and include a moa leg bone, a large adze (cutting tool) a moa oven and a hangi. Being discovered on the site that houses the new warehouse, Tim says makes the site quite unique. tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

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he Nelson Marlborough and plenty of moveable tables Institute of Technology and chairs. Perfect for a teaching (NMIT) has provided a environment Hayward says. state-of-the-art sensory With a separate prep room, he room to their Marlborough Campus. It will be used by students undertaking the Bachelor of Viticulture and Winemaking. The first intake of students for the degree was this year, and up until October when the sensory room was officially opened, students had to use less than optimum facilities for any course components that required sensory analysis. Wine Tutor David Hayward says undertaking such course components in a classroom, or the Plant Guests get a first hand and Food sensory room at sensory experience in the the Marlborough Research new NMIT room. Centre wasn’t ideal. “In a classroom there is poor light and likely to be other says it is one of the best sensory smells that can affect sensory rooms he has worked in. aspects,” he said. “And the sensory “The idea is if you are conductroom that Plant and Food have is ing a blind tasting, you can prevery focused on research, so the pare in there. Plus we do a lot of tables are facing the wall. It is basi- sensory trials for students where cally for testing and analysing.” we add things to wine, or ask them With help from Lincoln Uni- to pick up certain sensory aspects versity’s Wendy Parr, renowned within a wine, such as taints. Now in wine circles for her sensory we can prepare these away from research, NMIT has developed the sensory room without floodthe room from a former cater- ing it with the smell of cork taint ing kitchen. It has provided a or Brettanomyces.” large space, with natural light tessa.nicholson@me.com ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 65

REGIONS MARLBOROUGH

AN ANGEL FOR VANUATU A

Marlborough winemaker has brought together a number of local wine industry personnel to help raise funds for the people of Vanuatu. Bill Small, Naked Wines winemaker says the funds raised from a special 2014 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc will be donated to Habitat for Humanity Australia and used to help in the recovery and support efforts in Vanuatu, following the devastation of Tropical Super Cyclone Pam early this year. Three hundred cases of the wine Small and Small Angel 4 Vanuatu have gone on sale in Australia and if all are sold, $25,000 will be raised for the small archipelago’s recovery efforts. Marlborough has a special relationship with Vanuatu, given many of the RSE workers in the region come from that part of the world. When Cyclone Pam wreaked havoc in the Pacific, the impact was felt strongly in New Zealand’s largest wine growing region. Bill and his wife Claudia came

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The devastation of Cyclone Pam was felt throughout Vaunatu, destroying crops, businesses, schools and homes.

up with the idea of a dedicated charitable wine to raise funds to help Vanuatu heal. “The Cyclone hit at precisely the time we were about to start our vintage,” Bill says. “Due to an inexplicable spreadsheet mishap, we somehow had ended up with an extra 300 cases of wine from 2014 that had no home and zero dollar value on our books. So I was sitting there wondering what to do with this wine at the same time as I was wondering how we could

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

help Vanuatu. Needless to say the penny finally dropped, and with a quick email to Naked Wines, it was all organised.” Getting the juice into the bottle, to Australia and then sold and delivered has also seen a multitude of companies come to the table, donating their services free of charge. WineWorks donated their bottling line to get the job done, and also helped procure free bottles and caps. Rapid Labels donated the labels, which

have been deliberately printed in black and white to keep costs down. Also, New Zealand Wineries did all they could to make sure that the wine was ready to go on the day of bottling - even though it was smack bang in the middle of harvest. JF Hillebrand, who are involved with Naked Wines international shipping, agreed to donate the cost of getting the Small and Small Angels 4 Vanuatu wine from New Zealand to Australia. BAM wine logistics have donated warehouse storage space, Naked Wines will promote and sell the wine, and finally, Fastway couriers have agreed to donate delivery services. Mark Pollard, Wine Director at Naked Wines Australia, said; “It’s been easy to get people to support this cause — they’re donating their time and expertise, doing something they’re already highly skilled at.” The Small and Small Angel 4 Vanuatu is only available in Australia.■

SCIENCE PROFILE

SCIENCE OF WINE – TREVOR LUPTON JUSTIN TYERMAN

hile many in the wine industry tear their hair out and suffer sleepless nights over vexatious problems like botrytis, powdery mildew and achieving nil-residue in wine, Gisborne’s Trevor Lupton regards such things as exciting challenges. The horticultural consultant who has conducted extensive research into the control of fungal diseases in grapes says using science to solve production problems is a real passion for him.

He enjoys taking the technical and scientific material from his field trials and translating it into language that growers can understand and apply. “I get up in the morning thinking ‘how can I crack this one?’ That’s exciting work for me,” he says. And the wine industry certainly throws up more than its fair share of conundrums, some taking longer to ‘crack’ than others. At high school, Lupton was interested in science but he didn’t

want to go down the botany or chemistry path. “I wanted to use science in business so I did a Bachelor of Horticultural Science at Massey University and what I’m doing now is the perfect amalgamation of both,” he says. Originally from Wellington, Lupton came to Gisborne in 1982 with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as a horticulture advisor. He began work with Lewis Wright Valuation and Consultancy in 1986.

Two thirds of his work involves supervising 100 hectares of horticultural crops planted in kiwifruit, persimmons and apples, and some consultancy work including vineyard financial forecasts. “This gives me a good feel for the economics of horticultural cropping,” Lupton says. “There’s a strong economic focus to my work.” The rest of his time is devoted to field research. The subject of his research in the 1990s was botrytis which emerged back then as

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 67

Trevor Lupton inspecting a powdery mildew fungicide trial in a Gisborne vineyard in spring 2015. PICTURES BY JUSTINE TYERMAN

a major problem in the Gisborne district. “Botrytis had become resistant to an earlier-used fungicide (Rovral) so growers were using Euparen DF and Shirlan as well as Captan and Bravo as broad spectrum applications,” he says. “Then in the late 1990s, Switch and Scala came onto the market. Growers began asking questions about the relative merits of each product, what to apply and when. At $140 per hectare to apply just one product, the cost of controlling botrytis was significant so we decided it would be beneficial to evaluate the products in the vineyard.” In 1999-2000, Lupton and independent consultant Andre Geelen (managing director of Agrivet Services) undertook extensive trials on Chardonnay clone UCD 6 in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay comparing existing fungicides and new fungicides. The research, funded

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by the wine industry, demonstrated the clear superiority of Switch and Scala. Once they were adopted by growers, there was a huge improvement in levels of botrytis control. “As a result of our findings, there was a major step-change throughout the New Zealand wine industry,” says Lupton. In collaboration with writer and editor Ruby Andrew, Lupton produced a book in 2013 entitled Understanding Botrytis in New Zealand Vineyards that went out to all levy-paying winegrowers. Published by NZ Winegrowers, it covered the biology of botrytis, its lifecycle, impact on wine and the management of the disease in the vineyard, and soon became the Bible on the disease. “The important thing about

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

the book was that it pulled it together the last 25 years’ of research and put it into context for growers,” he says. However, there was no chance to rest on his laurels. With the growing emphasis on residuefree wine from the mid-2000s, the next problem facing the industry was achieving that goal. “Where there is high botrytis pressure, residue-free fungicide options have not been up to the challenge so research is now going into the timing of using conventional and soft fungicides

combined with bio-controls and cultural solutions such as maintaining an open canopy through leaf plucking and regular close trimming.” Lupton has been involved with industry trials and grower evaluations in the commercial development of a bio-control for botrytis (Botry Zen) based on New Zealand research. He is also part of GrapeFutures, a three-year project in conjunction with the Gisborne wine industry to develop commercial best practice for botrytis control in an ultra-low wine residue environment. “The botrytis problem has not gone away and we can expect to see resistance to the current fungicides appear. We need to keep analysing existing products to see if they are still working, and keep looking for new products to take over.” Lupton says with an El Niño year forecast, there will be hot and dry conditions which do not favour wetweather fungal diseases like botrytis. The next problem to arise was powdery mildew, “a tricky beast to work with”, says Lupton. “Powdery mildew surfaced in a big way in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay in the 2012-13 season and to a lesser extent in Marlborough. Many growers experienced problems managing the disease with some crop rejection or requirements to drop infected bunches prior to harvest,” he says. In response to this, NZW brought experts Peter Magarey and Trevor Wicks over from Australia, and Lupton has been conducting research work and field trials on the efficacy of powdery mildew fungicides. The research confirmed a few

of the fungicides that growers had been relying on for the past 20-30 years had lost some of their effectiveness. Why did this happen? The timing coincided with the establishment of chasmothecia (the sexual stage of powdery mildew) in New Zealand. Chasmothecia (or cleistothecia) was officially identified for the first time in New Zealand in January 2014 by Peter Wood from Plant & Food Research Ltd. “Sexual reproduction produces a more genetically-diverse powdery mildew population which is likely to result in more rapid development of resistance to fungicides,” Lupton says. “It is not known how long the sexual form has been present in New Zealand but the asexual variety of the disease has been around since the colonial era. The Europeans have lived with chasmothecia for 200 years and Australia for 30 years. It’s all about managing fungicides,” he says. However the testing of fungicides for grapevine powdery mildew is very complex. “It is a green disease which can only live on green grape tissue such as leaves, shoots and young berries. It can’t be grown in an agar plate.” A key piece of the puzzle was unravelled this year by Rob Beresford and Peter Wright’s team from Plant & Food Research. “Their testing for fungicide resistance in powdery mildew samples from vineyards in Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough gave the industry improved understanding of the efficacy of some key fungicides. The industry now knows one group of powdery mildew fungicides is no longer effective and another group has reduced efficacy. As a result, guidelines for the use of powdery mildew fungicides have been revised. This puts the New Zealand industry in a much better

place to manage powdery mildew. It’s also a good demonstration of the application of science for the benefit of industry.” The mainstay of powdery mildew control is sulphur and Lupton’s work for New Zealand Winegrowers this year focusses on identifying the optimum rate of sulphur to use and whether sulphur’s activity is improved with the addition of a spreader. “It is possible to manage vineyards with a high level of powdery mildew infection in the previous season and achieve low levels of infection at harvest the following year. Powdery mildew can be managed, but growers have to ensure that chemical choice, timing, application rates and spray coverage are all effective. “I think the industry in now in a better space. “We understand some of the reasons why powdery mildew has been harder to control in recent years and with this knowledge we should be able to more easily manage the disease” Lupton finds his work highly rewarding. “When I see growers having problems, I want to understand why. If I can use science to solve these problems and get the information out to the people who need it, then that’s worthwhile.” In addition to field trials focussing on the control of fungal diseases in grapes, Lupton conducts research into kiwifruit, persimmons, citrus, sweetcorn, avocado and residue trials. As a consultant, he is involved in property evaluation, financial forecasts, and crop selection including gross margins, analyses of annual crops, economic analyses of permanent crops, technical and management advice, and assistance with horticultural valuations undertaken by Lewis Wright Valuation & Consultancy Ltd. justine.tyerman@clear.net.nz ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 69

WINE SHOW

FIFTEEN YEARS OF SHOWS JOELLE THOMSON

erlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris may occupy the greatest vineyard area in Hawke’s Bay but a quirky range of experimental reds and the show’s museum class made their presence at this year’s Hawke’s Bay A&P Bayley’s Wine Awards. This year is the 15th consecutive one for the annual show, which was held in late September at the Eastern Institute of Technology in the Bay. The chair of judges was winemaker Rod McDonald, who will hand over the reins to fellow winemaker Rod Easthope for 2016. This year’s show highlighted the strength of the region’s best quality Chardonnays, Merlotdominant reds and Syrahs (which remain relatively small in quantity) but it also contained seven lesser known grape varieties this year in the Other Red Varietals class and pin pointed other top strengths for the region, such as outstanding Chenin Blanc, a high quality Verdelho and the potential

of Semillon in Hawke’s Bay. The museum class this year featured 20 wines in total, including Tempranillo, Grenache, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Montepulciano, Marzemino, Sangiovese and a trio of unidentified blends. “Malbec and Cabernet Franc are an established part of the landscape in the Bay, which winemakers here know how to make and have experience with over several years,” said senior judge and panel leader, Rod Easthope. The other grapes in this class remain relatively obscure in the Bay, despite being made for several years now. These included Marzemino and Grenache, which chair of judges Rod McDonald

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describes as “very fringy”. Despite which, the lone Marzemino at this year’s competition was awarded a silver medal for its outstanding fruit characters, its pronounced smooth tannins and an accentuated fresh spice character. The Hawke’s Bay A&P Bayley’s Wine Awards is the only show in this country to have a museum class, which contained 18 wines this year. Show rules stipulate that wines must be at least four years old to qualify for entry in the museum class. They can be entered from two sources. Firstly, winemakers in the region are encouraged to enter older wines independently (as they would enter the

show with other mainstream categories). And secondly, the A&P show organisers purchase a case of wines that win in the museum class. These wines are then reentered in the show in future years. “There is no other opportunity or forum to see Hawke’s Bay wines together like this and the potential is there to drill down on styles,” says McDonald, who is keen to see the show help those in the region develop a regional language for the Hawke’s Bay wine industry. Master of Wine Steve Smith, one of the original judges from the region’s first annual show, was also back judging this year. joellethomson@vodafone.co.nz ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

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REGIONS HAWKE’S BAY

A REGIONAL BOOK MARY SHANAHAN

new book, launched in style with a Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers’ function held at the Mission, salutes the vineyards, wineries and people that make up the 166year history of the region’s people, vineyards and wineries. Written by Napier-born Mark Sweet, Wine Stories from Hawke’s Bay has very much been a local enterprise. The project originated with and was championed by the publisher of the Hawke’s Bay magazine Bay Buzz, Tom Belford, and was seed-funded by Tim Nowell-Usticke and Wine Works. The book includes a “Winemaker’s View” in a chapter by

Peter Cowley of Te Mata Estate and the contemporary images are by local photographer Tim Whittaker. One of 12 speakers at the luncheon, Alwyn Corban of Ngatarawa Wines took the opportunity to lament the lack of comment on Hawke’s Bay’s long winemaking history in a recent New Zealand Winegrowers publication, New Zealand Wine: Certification Programme, which includes a translation in Mandarin for the Chinese market. “With the history of New Zealand, there is not one mention of Hawke’s Bay,” Corban said. “The industry is not recognising its

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history. Hawke’s Bay is a great wine region, and we were all hoping for a little line in the Winegrowers’ publication on Hawke’s Bay to show the history of New Zealand winegrowing.” Wine Stories from Hawke’s Bay divides the region’s winemaking history into four periods - “The Beginning” (1836-1920), which includes the planting of Hawke’s Bay’s first vineyard at Pakowhai, south of

Napier, by French missionaries in 1851, “The Dark Ages” (19201975), “The Renaissance” (1975- 1995) and “The Flourishing” (1995 up until the present time). Lavishly Mark Sweet illustrated, the hard-cover book includes many archival photographs and records the 71 wineries which currently operate in Hawke’s Bay. maryshanahan173@gmail.com ■

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REGIONS GISBORNE

A WEEKEND OF WINE AND FOOD JUSTINE TYERMAN

isborne’s rebranded Weekend of Wine and Food at Labour Weekend was a brilliant success for the wineries that were fortunate to have regular bus services but disappointing for those who did not, participants say. Organiser Prue Younger said overall, everyone was very happy with the event but there were problems with transportation around the 10 sites. Instead of wineries gathering at a single-venue, the format in the past few years, organisers returned to the traditional “cellar door” concept which had proved a winner in the earlier era of the Gisborne Wine and Food Festival. This year for the first time, the event was held over two days with a number of other associated wine and food-themed activities. Issues with the bus service were directly related to a flurry of last-minute ticket buying, says Younger. When people woke up to find the cool, wet Saturday had

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morphed overnight to a warm, sunny Sunday, ticket sales doubled to 800 which made the logistics difficult to manage. Gisborne Winegrowers’ marketing sub-committee chairman Andrew Vette agreed. “There was pressure on transport as many people bought last minute tickets making planning extremely difficult, but such problems are all resolvable through earlier ticket sales,” said Vette. “A huge amount of credit must go to Prue Younger for re-scoping the project when our community

funding fell through at the last minute, and returning the format to the cellar doors,” he said. Vette thanked everybody involved for their time and energy, and called on community funders to “get back behind this iconic Labour Weekend event again so we can deliver the truly worldclass regional showcase that we are capable of”. Gisborne Winegrowers’ president Al Knight said everyone he talked to was “incredibly happy with the two-day event. Each venue had its own unique atmos-

phere. It’s gone back to its roots where great wines meet great food. I believe this is the way forward and I’m sure with a bit of fine tuning, an even better event can be delivered in 2016,” said Knight. The Weekend of Wine and Food, which has seen a number of incarnations since it began as the Gisborne Wine and Food Festival in 1997, was given an enthusiastic thumbs-up by a wide range of people who attended, many from out of town and in the older age bracket. justine.tyerman@clear.net.nz ■

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72 //

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

REGIONS CENTRAL OTAGO

COWA’S FIRST GM A

chieving world renown in less than three decades, is something everyone involved in the Central Otago wine industry is justifiably proud of. Especially as that renown has come on the back of not only superb wines, but also a dedicated team of volunteers. But the time has come for Central Otago Winegrowers Association (COWA) to take their reputation to another level. Hence the appointment of the organisation’s first General Manager. COWA President James Dicey says they have appointed Glenys Coughlan to the GM position. She comes with a wealth of experience, including having been the CEO of Positively Wellington Venues for the past five years. Dicey said Central Otago winegrowers and makers had always been characterised by their passion for making exceptionally good wine and a pioneering spirit that defined them as a wine region. “We’ve been blessed with a willing team of volunteers who’ve worked incredibly hard to establish and promote Central Otago’s wine brand and we now own a premium position in the market that

“This opportunity to return to my roots and do something where I know can make a real difference for the region and for COWA members is about as good as it gets!” we are justifiably proud of. However, the industry doesn’t stand still so we need to keep working to retain and enhance the strength of our brand. “Earlier this year we reached a point where we wanted to ramp up our efforts on behalf of our members and fund a new role within COWA to enable us to take COWA and our region to a new level. “We’re delighted to confirm that we’ve appointed Glenys, who we’re very confident will take COWA to the next level in its development.” Glenys was born and educated in Dunedin and spent many family holidays and university field trips in Central Otago. She’s held a number of senior business roles with Air New Zealand in Auckland and Saatchi and Saatchi in Wellington, and was CEO of the New Zealand Tourism Industry Association for five highly transformative years.

Glenys was a shareholder in public relations consultancy the Acumen Group for ten years, where she was responsible for the New Zealand Winegrowers PR and Air New Zealand Wine Awards accounts. In her most recent role, Glenys is credited with taking Positively Wellington Venues from a council-subsidised business to being recognised as one of the best venue management companies in New Zealand. “This is a big but great change for me,” said Glenys. “I’ve always wanted to spend time in Central Otago and build

something there. This opportunity to return to my roots and do something where I know can make a real difference for the region and for COWA members is about as good as it gets!” She will take up her new role in February. ■

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Ph 0800 476 868 NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 73

INDUSTRY NEWS

TAILORED WINE SALES A

new form of wine sales has hit the New Zealand market, backed by two well known wine affici-

nados. WineFriend is New Zealand’s first and only online wine retailer to deliver curated cases of wine matched to individual customer preferences. The brainchild of wine expert and Thirsty Work presenter Yvonne Lorkin and wine industry veteran Debbie Sutton, WineFriend takes the hassle and guesswork out of enjoying a great bottle of wine at a reasonable price. WineFriend uses a simple eight question taste survey that gives insights in to a customer’s thresholds for sweet, sour, bitterness and intensity of flavour. It then creates a profile which enables it

to select wines that are tailored to the individual customer’s tastes and deliver them to their door for around the same price as what they currently spend at the supermarket. The taste profile also allows Chief Tasting Officer (CTO) Yvonne Lorkin to include a ‘wild card’ wine in every delivery to extend customers’ wine tasting experiences. It could be a new variety, style, region or producer that they probably haven’t tried before but all with the framework of their individual taste preferences. “If 85 per cent of people are buying their wine in the supermarket, much of it on promotion, then the traditional model of buying wine is broken. It’s time for a shake up,” Lorkin says. “We saw the way Airbnb and

The brains behind WineFriend – Yvonne Lorkin (left) and Debbie Sutton.

74 //

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

Uber have disrupted the accommodation and transport sectors by turning industry models on their heads and giving the power and convenience back to consumers. We thought it was about time someone did that for wine.” According to Sutton wine is the largest choice space in the modern grocery store. “It’s 10 times richer in terms of the number of options than breakfast cereals, the number two area, and much more complex. Wine buyers have never had it better in

terms of the number of choices available from around the world. And they’ve never had it worse regarding the possibility of confusion and the pressure to find the perfect wine. It’s the ‘age of anxiety’ for wine.” “It’s no wonder people leave the supermarket with the same old thing they always get, or they panic and take a total punt,” Lorkin says. “The truth is that most people could use some help connecting with wines they can truly love.” Customers are encouraged to rate their wines on the WineFriend website to refine their profile and ensure better matches. “Our taste survey is simply the starting point of the customer relationship. Deeper understanding of the styles of wine they like, and dislike, come with feedback. “It’s about encouraging an ongoing collaboration in order to fine-tune each customer’s profile. The more feedback we get, the better we get to know them and the better their wine matches are.” WineFriend offers three levels of subscriptions - Easy Everyday ($99), Treat Yourself ($149) and Icons and Innovators ($249) - on a monthly or two-monthly basis. Each case contains 6 different bottles of wine sourced from local and international producers and delivery is free. ■

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he title says it all when it comes to this latest offering from Joelle Thomson. The book is indeed little, (in size not information), it is black and it very much is an insider’s guide. Thomson is well known in wine circles, having already written a number of wine books. She is a regular contributor to magazines and papers, including NZ Winegrower, so she knows what she’s talking about. But the really lovely thing about this book, is that it isn’t pretentious. There are no drawn out descriptors that will have you scratching your head. Instead, she attempts to de mystify the world of wine, in a way that is easy to comprehend while providing knowledge at the same time. The book is broken into seven concise chapters; Wine Words, What’s In My Wine?, Become A Wine Expert, Buying Wine, Joelle’s Buyer Guide, Wine Cellaring and Glassware. I was impressed to see the Buying Wine chapter. After all if you are looking to become more involved in the world of drinking wine, then having some insider knowledge on where the best wine shops are, is a very welcome addition. All in all this is a perfect gift for someone who is keen on wine, but not sure where to begin. A perfect gift in time for Christmas. ■

*Contact our sales team today for more information

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 75

MARKETING NEWS

BE DISCOVERED IN CANADA W

ith top sommeliers, media and Liquor Board buyers in attendance, New Zealand Winegrower’s ‘New Zealand in a Glass’ events, to be held May next year, are a must for any winery wanting to gain a foothold in the Canadian market.

Canada is currently the number four export market for New Zealand wine, showing strong growth and offering higher than average export prices, a trend that is expected to continue.

‘New Zealand in a Glass’ 2016 will put a spotlight on varietal diversity with:

Kim Giesbrecht-BCLS Buyer, DJ Kearney – media, Tim Pausey – media, and Guest.

Regional Varietal Counters for Sauvignon Blanc: following Sauvignon 2016 Celebration Masterclasses on Sauvignon Blanc: held in both Toronto and Vancouver, and self-pour seminars held in Ottawa. Exciting NEW highlights for ‘New Zealand in a Glass’ 2016: Regional Counters hosted by New Zealand Winegrowers: offering wineries from different regions the opportunity to showcase wines without having to travel to market. Consignment/private order desk: trade and consumers will be able to place orders, which are then forwarded to agencies with payment details. Booth branding: wineries and agents can submit proposals requiring assistance from New Zealand Winegrowers to make booths stand out – this is self-funded (e.g. celebrity chef, Maori performers). Speed dating with key market

trade: travelling principals will be given the opportunity to showcase up to three wines in fifteen minute interviews with key media, private wine stores and/or liquor board buyers.

Dates of ‘New Zealand in a Glass’ events: New Zealand in a Glass Vancouver: 5 May 2016 New Zealand in a Glass Ottawa: 9 May 2016 New Zealand in a Glass Toronto: 11 May 2016 Other events such as a Winemaker’s Dinner and a Sauvignon Blanc Day will be offered as added value for travelling principals in collaboration with Visa Infinite Dinner Series! Register for ‘New Zealand in a Glass’ via www.nzwinemarketing. com

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

MARKETING NEWS

NEW FERN MARK LICENCE PROGRAMME N

ew Zealand Story, a government initiative to develop and grow New Zealand’s international marketing brand, has launched the new FernMark Programme for New Zealand exporters. The FernMark is the government’s official trademarked silver fern developed for exporters. Through the Fernmark Licence Programme businesses that meet the eligibility criteria will be able to use the FernMark on their products. Rebecca Smith, Director of New Zealand Story, says the mark gives companies a com-

petitive advantage overseas by giving products a n i m m e d i a te connection to the story of New Zealand and its associated reputation and credibility. “It’s vital for our economic growth that New Zealand’s products demand a premium overseas – that’s one of the ways we’re going to reach the Business Growth Agenda’s target of increasing the ratio of exports

to GDP to 40 per cent by 2025. “Carrying the FernMark on products is a simple way for internationalising businesses to leverage the value of New Zealand. From Chinese consumers looking for food products they trust, through to European distributors wanting to partner with resourceful and innovative businesses, we know New Zealand has the poten-

tial to do better if they actively call out their New Zealandness at the point of purchase,” says Smith. In order to carry the FernMark exporters must meet the licence criteria. It requires a business to be connected to New Zealand from a financial, regulatory, governance and personnel perspective. The company’s products must also meet minimum requirements for being considered as made, grown or designed in New Zealand. New Zealand businesses will pay between $1,500 and $5,000 per annum for a FernMark licence – regardless of the number of products that are licenced. ■

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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 77

NOT ON THE LABEL LEGAL MATTERS WITH BELL GULLY ANDREW PETERSEN SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND KRISTIN WILSON, SENIOR SOLICITOR

Ministers Block Overseas Purchase Of Lochinver Station – What It Means For Overseas Investors The decision by Government Ministers Paula Bennett and Louise Upston to decline consent to the NZ$88 million bid by Chineseowned Pure 100 Farm Ltd (Pure) to buy the Lochinver Station made national headlines in September. Decisions to decline consent are very rare. Particularly notable in this case, the Ministers’ decision went against the recommendation from the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) (although the OIO’s recommendation was finely balanced).

In the Ministers’ view, the key difference between their approach and the OIO’s was the relative weight that they gave to the “benefit to New Zealand” factors. Their approach to the relative weight of the factors could well have a significant bearing on how the OIO assesses future Overseas Investment Act applications.

Counterfactual test The benefits claimed by Pure were assessed by reference to the counterfactual test, which is now an entrenched part of the overseas investment application process. The test requires an investor to demonstrate benefits to New Zealand that are greater than the

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situation without the investor’s acquisition (i.e. acquisition by other New Zealand bidders or the status quo). The counterfactual can have a substantial impact on the outcome of an application (and did in this case). Here, the vendor indicated that, absent the sale to Pure, it would hold on to Lochinver Station until a suitable bidder was found. However, the OIO’s view was that absent the sale to Pure, the land was “unlikely to remain in its present state”. It based its assessment of evidence from an economist and the vendor’s statements about other indicative bids (including two from New Zealand parties). Accordingly, rather than

a counterfactual of the status quo (against which the benefits claims would be clearer) the OIO assessed the application against a purchase by a hypothetical New Zealand bidder.

“Substantial and identifiable” benefits The OIO and the Ministers found that Pure would undertake certain development only on a small proportion of the land which would not be undertaken in the counterfactual. The key question then was whether this development was likely to result in a “substantial and identifiable benefit” to New Zealand. A key aspect of the decision

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that will be relevant in future cases is how the Ministers applied the “substantial and identifiable” test. In particular: In the case of investment in the land itself, the Ministers were quick to dismiss benefits as not substantial due to the small size of the land to be developed relative to the total size of land (379ha out of a total 13,843ha); and In the case of benefits to the New Zealand economy via increased export receipts and greater productivity, the Ministers’ view was that due to the small size of the land and the relatively large size of the dairy and meat sectors as a whole, the benefits are unlikely to be substantial. The second point above could have significant ramifications for all future applications involving non-urban land exceeding 5 hectares (as the “substantial and identifiable” test applies to

acquisitions of such land). The Ministers’ application of the “substantial” test appears to impose an impossible threshold in relation to any overseas investment in any fragmented industry.

The ramifications of the Lochinver Station decision Daking New Zealand Farm Group’s (Daking) (55% owned by Shanghai Pengxin) recent decision to withdraw its proposed NZ$42.7 million acquisition of farm land in Northland shows the first real impact of the Lochinver Station decision. The deal for 10 farms covering almost 3300ha of land in the Bay of Islands’ Mangakahia Valley was struck in January this year and OIO consent was sought in April. Daking’s Chief Executive has been quoted stating that “we simply are not confident enough of a favour-

able outcome to warrant putting the Northland vendors through a similar experience [to Lochinver]”. In addition to highlighting the immediate negative effect of the Lochinver Station decision, Daking’s decision to discontinue its purchase, demonstrates the concerns over the timing of the OIO’s process. The OIO does not have any obligation in relation to timing and instead aims to reach 90% of its decisions within: 50 working days of active consideration for ‘Category 2’ applications (which includes investments in significant business assets and sensitive land); and 70 working days of active consideration for ‘Category 3’ applications (which covers applications where there is foreshore, sea bed, river bed or lake bed involved). OIO statistics show that in the period from July 2015 to Septem-

ber 2015 decisions in only 56% of “Category 2” applications and 50% of “Category 3” application were met within these self-imposed deadlines. However, the statistics also show that the OIO is currently considering a higher than usual number of applications. Andrew Petersen Partner DDI: +64 9 916 533 Mob: +21 684 533 andrew.petersen@bellgully.com Glenn Shewan Senior Associate DDI: +64 9 916 8726 Mob: +21 828 926 glenn.shewan@bellgully.com Bell Gully’s team of over 200 lawyers combines market-leading corporate, commercial, financial services, tax, property and dispute resolution capability with a wide array of specialist skills. ■

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 79

The New Zealand Winegrowers Global Marketing and Events Programme was released at the beginning of July. It outlines the levy-funded global marketing activities and user-pays global events planned for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 in two handy booklets. To view digital versions of these booklets, please visit the Members section of nzwine.com and click through to the Marketing section. Alternatively, if you would like hard copy versions, or wish to speak to one of the team, please contact: Global Marketing Programme Felicity Johnston | Global Marketing Executive | P: +64 9 306 5645 | E: felicity@nzwine.com Global Events Programme Angela Willis | Manager – Global Events | P: +64 9 306 5642 | E: angela@nzwine.com

MARKET

EVENT

EVENT DATE

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

Singapore

NZ Wine Fair

January 14

ASAP

USA

NZ Wine Fair - San Francisco

March 7

ASAP

USA

NZ Wine Fair - New York

March 10

ASAP

USA

NZ Wine Tasting - Los Angeles

April

Febuary 5

Canada

NZ in a Glass – Vancouver

May 5

November 20

Canada

NZ in a Glass - Ottawa

May 10

November 20

Canada

NZ in a Glass - Toronto

May 12

November 20

China

NZ Wine Fair - Shanghai

May 16

February 5

China

NZ Wine Fair - Beijing

May 18

February 5

Hong Kong

VinExpo Asia Pacific

May 26-28

December 18

80 //

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

CALENDAR DECEMBER 1: Regional Tasting Air New Zealand Wine Awards – Marlborough

Regional Tasting Air New Zealand Wine Awards – Hawke’s Bay

The South Island Wine and Food Festival – Hagley Park – Christchurch

29 – Jan 1:

Rhythm and Vines – Gisborne

JANUARY

27: The Dog Point/Logan Brown Classic Kiwi Picnic – Dog Point Vineyard – Marlborough

MARCH 2: Cromwell Wine and Food Festival – Cromwell

23:

Bridge Pa Wine Festival – Hawke’s Bay

31 – Feb 1: NZSVO 2016 Sauvignon Blanc Workshop. Details www.nzsvo.org.nz

FEBRUARY 1-3: International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration 2016 – Marlborough

4-5:

Chardonnay and Sparkling Symposium

12:

– Gisborne

Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival

13:

Marlborough Wine and Food Festival 2016 – Brancott Vineyard - Marlborough

19-20:

Wellington Wine & Food Festival – Waitangi Park – Wellington

21:

Brightwater Wine and Food Festival – Grey’s Vineyard – Nelson

– The Cliffs – Wairarapa

13-15: ProWein

– Dusseldorf – Germany

19:

Gibbston Wine and Food Festival – Queenstown Gardens – Queenstown

27:

Clyde Wine and Food Festival Clyde

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015-JANUARY 2016 // 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

Country

MAJOR VARIETIES IN MAJOR AREAS 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

24.6

2.1

100

1914.6

19.1

Hawke’s Bay

260

4774.3

18.4

118

1122.3

9.5

Marlborough

1014

22,907.0

22.6

Waipara

1254.5

19.6

Canterbury

193.0

8.4

Wellington/Wairarapa

119

995.1

9.1

Otago

213

1931.8

17.4

2046

35,510.1

17.4

National

// NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

Growth Decline Litres %

Growth Decline FOB %

58,781

366,557

11%

USA

56,172

402,443

12%

22%

Australia

55,135

358,751

-3%

Canada

9,670

96,954

19%

Netherlands

7,006

43,736

44%

35%

Denmark

1,002

7,006

-2%

Ireland

2,660

18,224

27%

19%

Japan

1,180

13,934

13%

Germany

1,929

9,764

-27%

-31%

China

1,938

29,167

11%

24%

Hong Kong

1,356

17,354

-1%

Singapore

1,584

21,134

Finland

0,331

2,730

26%

19%

Norway

0,266

2,031

-27%

-32%

Sweden

1,633

13,176

Others

7,911

68,946

29%

21%

208,583,768

1,471,914,812

11%

3.5

Gisborne

Nelson

$ FOB

594.8 36,547.3

AVERAGE VINEYARD SIZE Region

Litres (m)

2017 forecast

20,029.4

Riesling

Exports for the year to date to the end of September 2015 (Moving Annual Total)

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.

Pests and Disease

Sustainability/Organics

Grapevine Trunk Disease; young vine ecology, diagnostics and preventative treatments New Zealand Viticulture Nursery Association Incorporated (VINA) Nick Hoskins

Effects of undervine vegetation management on grape quality, vine performance, grape composition, and soil properties Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) Mark Krasnow

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.

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

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

Developing Powdery Mildew Best Practise (Year Two) Lewis Wright Valuation & Consultancy Ltd Trevor Lupton

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 83

PROGRESS REPORTS

A review of leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough vineyards Vaughn Bell1§, Jim Walker1, Dan Cohen2, Nick Hoskins3 The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited, Havelock North2 & Auckland2, Vine Managers Limited, Masterton3 Corresponding author: Vaughn Bell; email: Vaughn.Bell@plantandfood.co.nz 14-106 Introduction Grapevine leafroll disease (GLD) is recognised in all countries that grow grapes. A number of phloem-limited Closteoviridae viruses are associated with GLD. One of these, Grapevine leafrollassociated virus 3 (leafroll virus), is widely recognised as the most economically important causal agent for GLD in New Zealand. Among infected vines, leafroll virus adversely alters yield, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and anthocyanins, which combined can delay fruit ripening and lower wine quality. Currently, there is no ‘cure’ for vines infected with leafroll virus. Thus, an active management approach is recommended to reduce the introduction and spread of the virus. Firstly, the introduction of leafroll virus to vineyards is minimised by using nursery vines certified to New Zealand Winegrowers’ Grafted Grapevine Standard. To meet the standard, the rootstock and scion sources from which vines are produced must be tested for and found to be free of leafroll virus. Secondly, when red berry varieties are leafroll virus-infected, vine foliage undergoes distinctive changes in colour and form (in white berry varieties, foliar changes are unreliable predictors of leafroll virus). When supported by training, vineyard personnel

84 //

can use late-season foliar symptoms to identify infected red berry vines visually, thereby enabling their removal in a process known as roguing. Thirdly, the risk of leafroll virus spread within vineyards can be further reduced by monitoring and controlling the insect vectors that acquire the virus and transmit it to healthy vines. In New Zealand vineyards, the most common insect vectors of leafroll virus are the citrophilus and longtailed mealybugs. Where mealybug insecticides are not applied, or they are applied ineffectively, populations can increase substantially in the vine canopy,

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

especially late in the growing season. Consequently, the dispersal of mealybugs carrying the virus will result in virus transmission to healthy vines, which is a scenario with potential to undermine the benefits of vine certification. Here, we summarise the results of leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring undertaken in Marlborough vineyard study blocks between 2012 and 2015. Full details of this research are available on the members-only website (www. nzwine.com) and are included in the report “Virus-free vineyards: replants and beyond NZW12100PF, Hawke’s Bay and Marlbor-

ough. Final report, August 2015.”

Methods and materials In 2012, Marlborough vineyard selection was initially limited to eight separate study blocks: four planted in Sauvignon Blanc vines and four in Pinot Noir (Table 1). These ‘long-term’ study blocks are identified as A-M, B-M ... to H-M (the ‘M’ denoting Marlborough). In 2014, a further nine Marlborough study blocks were added to the project, with these identified as I-M, J-M ... to Q-M (Table 1). In the Sauvignon Blanc study blocks, visual symptom identification could not be reliably used

Table 1. Marlborough vineyard study blocks and the details of the grape variety, clone and rootstock, vine planting date, the pruning regime (spur or cane), and the total number of vines in each block at the commencement of the study.

Year planted

Pruning

No. of Vines per block§

Block

Grape Variety

Clone (Rootstock)

A-M

Sauvignon Blanc

MS (Schwarzmann)

1990

Cane

500

B-M

Sauvignon Blanc

MS (SO4)

1980s

Cane

500

C-M

Sauvignon Blanc

MS (5C)

1999

Cane

500

D-M

Sauvignon Blanc

MS (Mixed)

Pre-2000

Cane

500

E-M

Pinor Noir

UCD 5 & 6 (Mixed

2004

Spur

1448

F-M

Pinot Noir

UCD 6 (Schwarzmann)

1998

Cane

1839

G-M

Pinot Noir

UCD 5 (Schwarzmann; 101-14)

2001

Spur

1679

H-M

Pinot Noir

667 (3309)

2003

Cane

871

I-M

Pinot Noir

667 (RG)

2007

‡—

1200

J-M

Pinot Noir

C15/777 (101-14)

2002

—

1000

K-M

Pinot Noir

115 (Schwarzmann)

2000

—

705

L-M

Pinot Noir

UCD6 (3309)

1999

—

680

M-M

Pinot Meunier

MS (3309)

1991

Spur

978

N-M

Pinot Noir

UCD 5 (RG)

1998

—

848

O-M

Pinot Noir

10/5 (SO4)

2001

–

990

P-M

Pinot Noir

AM 10/5 (3309)

1997

—

772

Q-M

Pinot Noir

115 (Schwarzmann)

1999

—

1010

§ Numbers of vines before roguing commenced in the Pinot study blocks (no roguing in the Sauvignon Blanc study blocks). ‡ Information not available.

infection. Mealybug assessments were timed for mid-March 2013 and 2015, and mid-February 2014 (because of an anticipated early harvest). In each study block, a single leaf was taken from each of 400 vines per block per year. In the laboratory, every leaf was inspected under a dissecting microscope and all mealybug life stages, including the crawlers (c. 0.5 mm in length), were counted.

Results and Discussion The three-year duration of leafroll virus (Tables 2 and 3) and mealybug monitoring (Table 4) in Marlborough provided important insights into virus incidence, spread and control outcomes in blocks planted in Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot noir vines. In the Sauvignon Blanc study blocks, ELISA testing measured

virus incidence in March 2013 and March 2015 (Table 2). The most substantial change to virus incidence between years was recorded in block B-M. In March 2013, the virus was detected in 121 of the 500 vines tested (24.2%); by March 2015, the virus was detected in another 42 vines, meaning a total of 163 vines (33%) were infected

S D F D O V O D F D S

with leafroll virus. During this three-year period, annual monitoring in block B-M revealed an average of 10 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected (Table 4). Given this relatively high abundance of mealybugs in a block where virus incidence was already high, and where there was no roguing, it was inevitable that

➜

to identify vines infected with leafroll virus. Instead, we used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect leafroll virus (n=500 vines tested per block in March 2013 and March 2015). In the Pinot study blocks in 2014, visual assessments for symptoms of leafroll virus were undertaken in mid-February and again in mid-March. In 2015, visual assessments were undertaken in early March and again on 13 and 14 April. Vines surrounding a virusinfected vine were known as ‘nearest neighbours’ (Figure 1). Collectively, ‘nearest neighbours’ included a combination of withinrow (‘first’ and ‘second’; n=4) and across-row (‘opposite’ and ‘diagonal’; n=6) vines. Any new infection detected that was not one of the four ‘nearest neighbour’ categories was referred to as a ‘random’

Figure 1. A diagrammatic view of three vine rows showing the position of the 10 ‘nearest neighbour’ vines relative to a Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3)symptomatic vine (V). ‘Nearest neighbour’ vines comprised four categories: Within-row ‘first’ (F) and ‘second’ (S) vines (n=4); acrossrow ‘opposite’ (O) and ‘diagonal’ (D) vines (n=6). The black arrow denotes row direction.

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 85

Table 2. Number of Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (leafroll virus) infected vines and leafroll virus incidence recorded in the 17 Marlborough vineyard study blocks, 2012 to 2015. In Sauvignon Blanc in 2013 and 2015, leafroll virus incidence was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing (n=500 vines per block per year); in the Pinot blocks, virus incidence was assessed by visual symptom identification in all years. Note: in all blocks, data from the first year of assessment will have included vines that acquired leafroll virus during the interval between planting and the start of this study. Blocks I-M to Q-M were added to the study in 2014.

Virus-Infected Vines (n) ID

Variety

Virus Incidence (%)

2012

2013

2014

2015

2012

2013

2014 7.4

2015

A-M

Sauvignon Blanc

—§

37‡

—

7.4

7.6

B-M

Sauvignon Blanc

—

121‡

—

163

—

24.2

32.6

C-M

Sauvignon Blanc

—

3‡

—

0.6

0.8

D-M

Sauvignon Blanc

—

15‡

—

3.0

2.9

E-M

Pinot Noir

—

149‡

189‡

196†

—

10.3

13.1

13.6

F-M

Pinot Noir

8‡

1.0

0.4

0.6

G-M

Pinot Noir

126

6‡

7.5

2.0

0.4

0.5

H-M

Pinot Noir

142

16.3

5.2

1.0

0.0

I-M

Pinot Noir

—

0.0

J-M

Pinot Noir

—

0.0

K-M

Pinot Noir

—

116

—

15.3

9.9

L-M

Pinot Noir

—

46‡

175

—

6.7

25.4

M-M

Pinot Meunier

—

3‡

—

0.3

0.4

N-M

Pinot Noir

—

9‡

—

1.0

1.2

O-M

Pinot Noir

—

73‡

119

—

7.4

12.1

P-M

Pinot Noir

—

3‡

—

0.4

Q-M

Pinot Noir

—

8‡

—

0.8

0.9

§ No assessments. In blocks planted in Sauvignon Blanc vines, leafroll virus incidence was based on ELISA testing undertaken in 2013 and 2015. ‡ Vines not rogued or roguing was incomplete (O-M). † Visual symptom identification was prevented for a second occasion in 2015 because of frost damage to the vine foliage.

virus spread would occur between 2013 and 2015. In terms of mealybug management in block B-M, we noted that the single buprofezin application at 250 L/ha in 2012 and another at 300 L/ha applied in 2013, were well below label recommendations of 1000 L/ha, and were therefore unlikely to control mealybugs adequately. If the remaining healthy vines are to continue to be virus-free, the mealybug insecticide programme must change to better reflect best practice recommendations. In the remaining three longterm Sauvignon Blanc sites, virus

86 //

incidence altered by no more than 0.2% between 2013 and 2015. In the long-term Pinot Noir study blocks (E-M to H-M), visual symptom identification undertaken in 2012 confirmed virus incidence ranged from 1.0 to 16.3% (Table 2). In all except block E-M, annual virus incidence reduced by 2015, ranging from 0.0 to 0.6%. Achieving this result was undoubtedly supported by an effective roguing programme and the improved mealybug management, particularly in blocks F-M and H-M (Table 4). In block G-M, however, we suggest that the continuation of low virus incidence

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

will in future need to be accompanied by sustained reductions to the numbers of mealybugs found in the vine canopy (24 and 36 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected in 2014 and 2015, respectively). In the fourth Pinot noir block (E-M), an additional 47 virusinfected vines were identified in 2014 and 2015 (note: a second round of visual symptom identification in April 2015 could not be undertaken because of frost damage to the vine foliage). When these vines were added to the 149 symptomatic vines visually identified in 2013, none of which

was rogued, a total of 196 virusinfected vines were present in 2015 (13.6% incidence). In respect of the mealybug insecticide programme in block E-M, there was poor adherence to industry best practice guidelines. In 2012, no insecticides were applied, while in 2013 and 2014, a single pre-flowering buprofezin (not two, as recommended) was applied at a water rate of 350 L/ha, which was low relative to the label recommendation of 1000 L/ha. Consequently, late-season monitoring in 2014 confirmed the presence of 31 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected (Table 4). Mealy-

bug numbers like these are considered unacceptable, and when annual roguing does not occur, the problems surrounding leafroll virus are simply made worse. Hence, prospects for maintaining the virus-free status of the remaining healthy vines in block E-M will inevitably rely on the adoption of an integrated management plan that includes improved mealybug control and the commencement of roguing. Among a small number of the other Pinot study blocks, the effectiveness of the virus management undertaken to date remains uncertain. In particular, we noted the absence of roguing in block L-M, where the continued presence of an increasing number of infected vines was likely to have placed healthy vines at an increased risk of virus infection. Similarly, in block O-M, a significant number of new infections were found in 2015 (n=46) compared with the numbers observed in 2014 (73). Moreover, it appears that a large proportion of the vines visually identified in this block in 2014 were not rogued. By contrast, the risks of leafroll virus were readily apparent to the owner of block K-M, where the 116 infected vines identified visually in 2014 were rogued a few months later. In respect of blocks L-M and O-M, the position around virus management outcomes remains uncertain. Hence, while vine

leaf assessments in 2015 in both blocks indicated mealybug pressure was relatively low (fewer than 6 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected), the failure to reduce the number of infected vines adequately in each block meant there was an increased risk of the virus spreading to healthy vines. In another six Pinot study blocks, the influence of leafroll virus was either non-existent (I-M, J-M) or very low (≤1%; F-M, M-M, P-M, and Q-M) during this study. In the Sauvignon Blanc study block B-M, the ELISA testing undertaken in 2013 and 2015 enabled an assessment of the patterns of virus spread. Of the 42 new

infections detected in 2015, 36 vines (86%) were identified as one of the four ‘nearest neighbour’ categories around vines that tested positive for the virus in 2013; just six infections (14%) were ‘random’. The most likely pathway for virus spread was within the rows to ‘first’ (n=24) and ‘second’ vines (5), which represented 81% of the total ‘nearest neighbour’ infections detected in 2015. This result was almost inevitability linked to viruliferous (infected) mealybugs moving from un-rogued infected vines from 2013 to the neighbouring healthy vines. Virus spread across rows to ‘opposite’ (5) and ‘diagonal’ (2) vines, was relatively

rare. In Pinot Noir, assessments of the patterns of virus spread were limited to the four long-term study blocks (E-M, F-M, G-M, and H-M) where data were collected over three seasons. While a general reduction to leafroll virus incidence was noted, we also observed a progressive decline in virus incidence among the ‘nearest neighbour’ and ‘random’ categories (Table 3). For example, of all the ‘nearest neighbour’ categories, ‘first’ vines were most at risk of acquiring leafroll virus but over time, that risk continued to reduce: in 2013, an average of 9.2% of ‘first’ vines were found

Table 3. Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (leafroll virus) incidence among the ‘nearest neighbour’ and ‘random’ categories for pooled data collected from the four long-term Marlborough Pinot Noir study blocks, 2013 to 2015 (blocks F-M, G-M, and H-M in 2013-2015; block E-M in 2014 and 2015).

Leafroll virus incidence observed amongst ‘nearest neighbour’ and ‘random’ vines as a percentage of grapevines in each category per year (n vines) Year

First

Second

Opposite

Diagonal

Random

2013

9.2‡ (30)

2.9 (7)

5.3 (16)

2.9 (9)

0.6 (17)

2014

3.4 (18)

1.8 (8)

1.6 (8)

1.2 (7)

0.7 (23)

2015

1.2 (7)

0.4 (2)

0.2 (1)

0.0 (0)

0.06 (2)

‡ In 2013 in three of the long-term study blocks, a total of 79 vines were visually identified with leafroll virus. Of these, 30 ‘first’ vines were infected, or 9.2% of the total number of vines categorised as ‘first’ (n = 325 vines)

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 87

Table 4. Assessments for mealybugs found per 100 vine leaves inspected in the Marlborough vineyard study blocks, 2013 to 2015 (n=400 vine leaves inspected per block per year).

Number of mealybugs found per 100 vine leaves inspected Block ID

2013

2014

2015

A-M

B-M

C-M

D-M

E-M

F-M

G-M

H-M

I-M

-§

J-M

—

K-M

—

L-M

—

M-M

—

N-M

—

O-M

—

P-M

—

Q-M

—

§ Blocks added to the study in 2014

with visual symptoms of leafroll virus but by 2015, just 1.2% of vines were symptomatic. In other words, on average, around 99% of ‘first’ vines could be assumed to be virus-free and therefore they should be retained. As was shown in Hawke’s Bay (data not presented here), dispersing viruliferous mealybugs were more likely to transmit leafroll virus to a ‘first’ vine than to any other vine, independent of its position within the Marlborough vineyards. Hence, the clear message from this result was that as the numbers of mealybug and infected vines reduced, so too did the risk of virus spread. As we worked to better understand mealybug presence in vineyards and their regional dis-

88 //

tribution, a wide-ranging monitoring programme was undertaken in Marlborough. In 2013, citrophilus and longtailed mealybug pheromonebaited traps confirmed the presence of one or both mealybug species in 101 of the 105 (96%) vineyard blocks accessed. In 2014, monitoring in the 17 study blocks included a programme of pre-harvest vine leaf assessments (Table 4). In 14 of those, we also established citrophilus and longtailed mealybug pheromone-baited traps. In addition to this monitoring, pheromone-baited traps were established in another 19 vineyard blocks to determine citrophilus and longtailed mealybug presence (pheromone trap catch data are

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

not presented in this article). Of the 36 blocks in which there was at least one form of mealybug monitoring, we confirmed the presence of the longtailed or citrophilus mealybugs, or in some instances, both species, in 34 (or 94%) blocks. In 2015, mealybug monitoring was limited to vine leaf assessments undertaken in the 17 study blocks. In six of those (A-M, C-M, I-M, J-M, N-M, and Q-M), no mealybugs were found on the vine leaves collected for at least two of the last three years. In contrast, in blocks B-M, G-M, and P-M, the numbers of mealybugs found in the vine canopy were potentially problematic (range: 21 to 36 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected), although only in block B-M was there an enhanced risk of virus spread because of the presence of a persistent and widely distributed population of virusinfected vines (33% incidence). In the remaining eight study blocks, mealybug numbers in the vine canopy were generally low (≤6 mealybugs per 100 vine leaves inspected). Over a period of three years, the mealybug monitoring confirmed that the citrophilus and

longtailed mealybugs were present in many of the Marlborough vineyards visited, and that populations were widely distributed across the region. Hence, with mealybugs coexisting with leafroll virus in many vineyards, it is important that owners and managers refer to and implement the recommended management plan highlighted in New Zealand Winegrowers online resources (www.nzwine.com). A review of mealybug and leafroll virus management recommendations can also be found in the Research Supplement of the New Zealand Winegrower magazine published in October/November 2015 (Recommendations for managing grapevine leafroll disease in red berry varieties).

Acknowledgements Funding for the ‘Virus Elimination’ project was provided by New Zealand Winegrowers, the Ministry for Primary Industries under the Sustainable Farming Fund, the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers’ Association and the Marlborough Winegrowers’ Association. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the many vineyard owners and their staff.

VineFacts for free – but hurry! As noted in the previous issue, VineFacts is transitioning from its roots as a popular Marlborough newsletter into a national publication provided by New Zealand Winegrowers. This year, new readers outside the Marlborough region have been taking advantage of a special, limited offer and subscribing for free. But time is running out – free subscriptions will close at the end of December, so don’t delay if you’d like to receive information throughout the current growing season. From October to April, VineFacts provides weekly summaries on weather, yield potential, vine phenology and disease risk for Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Waipara and Central Otago – in addition to the Wairau Plains and Awatere Valley in Marlborough. To subscribe, simply email your request to: vinefacts@nzwine.com.

The Research index At one time or another, chances are you have tried to track down older articles related to New Zealand Winegrowers’ research projects – an experience that can be frustrating when a vague recollection doesn’t lead to putting your hands on the right copy when you need it. Enter the ‘Research Index’ for all research-related articles published in a calendar year in New Zealand Winegrower magazine. The index includes not only all the items published in the ‘Research Supplement’, which appears at the end of each issue of the magazine, but also all of the related coverage written by Editor Tessa Nicholson and others throughout the year. The comprehensive listings make it much easier to locate the reference you want, when you want it. In fact, this is actually the third year in a row that the research index has been included in the December/January edition of the magazine. The index can also be accessed online from the Research Supplements posted on nzwine.com under ‘Research/Member Resources’.

Research-related articles published in New Zealand Winegrower in 2015, issues 90 to 95: Vineyard ecosystem programme ...................................................................93:44

90 – February/March 2015 91 – April/May 2015 92 – June/July 2015 93 – August/September 2015 94 – October/November 2015 95 – December 2015/January 2016 Botrytis (also see Pest & Disease Management) Reduced berry size and botrytis tolerance through trauma to the vine [12-106], Mike Trought et al ...90:68-71 Shaken not dropped ...................92:12-15 Blown away by shaking ........... 95: 12-13

Events Romeo Bragato 2015 ...................... 92:42 Romeo Bragato Conference 2015 .............................................................93:74-79

Managing your understory .... 94:18-19 VineFacts newsletter – coming your way [14-100] ............................... 94:40-41

Grapevine Leafroll Diseases (also see Pest & Disease Management) Leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough vineyards [12-100], Vaughn Bell et al..... 90:65-67

Grapegrowing Grapevine growth stage monitoring for prediction of key phenological events [14-100], Rob Agnew et al. ......................................................... 93:136-137 Pinot noir vine performance and grape and wine composition as affected by soil type and irrigation reduction in the Waipara region [14104], Glen Creasy et al. ........93:138-140 The influence of cane diameter on yield and revenue, Mark Eltom et al. ..........................................................93:141-142 Bridging the gap in pruning management, Andy Kirk ... 93:143-144 Herbicide resistance ............... 93:26-27

Virus diversity in New Zealand grapevines [13-115], Arnaud Blouin et al. ...................................................... 90: 72-74 The effect of grapevine leafrollassociated virus 3 genetic variants on grapevines [12-118], Kar Mun Chooi et al. .............................................................. 91:78 Improving the molecular diagnostic detection of grapevine leafrollassociated virus 3 [12-118], Kar Mun Chooi et al...................................... 91:79-82 Recommendations for managing grapevine leafroll disease in red berry varieties [12-100], Vaughn Bell and Jim Walker .............................. 94:104-106

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 // 89

A cost-effective technique to identify leafroll 3 virus in white varieties: the ‘sentinel graft’ [12-100], Caine Thompson et al. ..................... 94:106-110

Organics and Biodynamics Organic Focus Review [The Organic Focus Vineyard Project]......... 91:48-49

The leafroll 3 ‘toolkit’...................... 94:54 A review of leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough vineyards [NZW 14-106], Vaughn Bell et al................................................. 95: 84-88

Grapevine Trunk Diseases (also see Pest & Disease Management) Protecting grapevines against trunk diseases [13-100], Mark Sosnowski and Dion Mundy.......................... 91:75-76 Protect that wound.................. 93:28-29

Lower Alcohol Wine Lifestyle wines – the market and the opportunity [PGP]............................ 91:77 Aiming for lower alcohol – in the vineyard [PGP]............................ 92:80-81 Retreat from 15% – reducing wine alcohol levels [PGP]............. 93:145-146 Lower alcohol wine potential [PGP] ............................................................. 94:14-16

Mechanical Harvesting/Thinning Reduced berry size and botrytis tolerance through trauma to the vine [12-106], Mike Trought et al.... 90:68-71

Pest & Disease Management Leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough vineyards [12-100], Vaughn Bell at al..... 90:65-67 Reduced berry size and botrytis tolerance through trauma to the vine [12-106], Mike Trought et al.... 90:68-71

Are you on target?.................... 91: 40-41 The fight against powdery mildew................................................... 92:82 Controlling powdery mildew. 93:10-12 Developing powdery mildew best practice [14-101], Trevor Lupton et al. ............................................................94:111-114

Science Profiles

Are you on target?..................... 91:40-41

Damian Martin............................ 90: 22-23

Protecting grapevines against trunk diseases [13-100], Mark Sosnowski and Dion Mundy.......................... 91:75-76

Paul Kilmartin............................... 91:52-53

The fight against powdery mildew ....................................................................92:82

Mark Eltom............................... 93:102-103

Victoria Raw................................ 92:44-45

Dave Jordan................................. 94:85-87

Shaken not dropped.................. 92:12-15 Controlling powdery mildew. 93:10-12 VineFacts newsletter – coming your way [14-100]................................ 94:40-41 Dealing to brown bettles...... 94:42-43 Developing powdery mildew best practice [14-101], Trevor Lupton et al. ............................................................94:111-114

Sustainability & Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) Eco-verifying viticultural production for policy, regulatory & market requirements [14-103], Brent Clothier ................................................................... 91:76

Blown away by shaking........... 95: 12-13

Wine Research

A review of leafroll virus and mealybug monitoring in Marlborough vineyards [NZW 14-106], Vaughn Bell et al..................................................95: 84-88

Influence of juice pH on thiol production [12-108], Claire Grose et al..................................... 92:79-80

Shaken not dropped.................. 92:12-15 Blown away by shaking........... 95: 12-13

Photo: Lime Rock, Hawke’s Bay, supplied by NZ Winegrowers.

90 //

Powdery Mildew (also see Pest & Disease Management)

NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016

Yield Estimation The prospects for 2015 and a bit beyond, Rob Agnew and Mike Trought................................................. 90:8-9

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