Grape to Glass

grapetoglass

Owhanake Bay Estate coowner and manager Mike Taylor is a self-described “classic Kiwi” - he loves the outdoors and doesn’t believe in unsolvable problems, only well-hidden solutions.

After a ten-year career as a lawyer, Taylor and his wife founded the now Owhanake Bay Estate in 2005. Despite not knowing anything about growing grapes, the pair loved wine and new challenges, so the already planted young vineyard was very appealing.

Now, 16 years later, the winery has produced 15 vintages and is a well-established producer of high-quality Syrah. The genesis of Taylor’s philosophy began after a special day in Africa, when he and his friends celebrated with a bottle of aged port.

This is what inspired him to go to to create what the Taylors describe as “a little bottle of happiness”. Owhanake Bay Estate is buffeted by strong gusts of wind that lift sheets of salt from the sea and deposit them over the vineyard, the are is also flanked by banks of manuka trees. “These two unique characters lead to a slight sea salt character and milk manuka flavour in our wine that sets it apart from others,” Taylor commented.

In the beginning, Taylor and his wife sold their wine online, but in 2019 they built The Harvest Shed – a custom-built wine tasting, and off-license sales outlet nestled in the centre of their flower farm, a stones throw from the vineyard.

“By that stage we had built up a reputation for quality and were building the Nourish Gardens flower brand. We figured selling both side by side was a winning formula.” The most important thing, Taylor said, is producing the best quality grapes they can, and then producing top quality wine.

“I always have the end product of the wine in my mind while making decisions through the season.” Owhanake Bay Estate produces a smaller yield in order to concentrate on high flavour fruit, creating a balance of oak and fruit which is softer than other Syrah and Shiraz wines.

“We aim for a long, lingering, and smooth finish, like the difference between touching cotton and touching velvet.”

Taylor explained that because their vineyard is so small, they are able to devote more personal attention to each vine. All the fruit is inspected closely through the season and any green late ripening or sub-standard fruit is removed.

“This process is borne from a love for fine wine and is simply not practical in larger operations.”

Owhanake winery is also a registered Sustainable Winegrowing vineyard. “We try to minimise our footprint in many ways. We double mow each row so the clippings all end up under the vines for both mulch and to minimise under the vine weed spraying. We also work closely with Waiheke High School, providing free lessons onsite in the year and again at harvest.”

Taylor can talk wine all day long and loves to share his passion for all things viticulture. “Grapes are unlike any other fruit because they react to absolutely everything and continue to develop within the bottle,” he expressed.

“I love explaining and showing people the impact on the tastebuds and in their nose, the whole experience.” Whilst also having collected an array of awards, Taylor said the winery’s greatest achievement was winning the trophy for the International Wine Challenge in London, in 2013.

Taylor put this win down to the one thing he believes makes good wine – love. “From the pruning stage right through to the time it is opened, wine must be cared for like a growing child. The more you invest, the better it will turn out.”

For young viticulturists, his advice is to feed off the passion and always ask because the more you learn the more you will want to learn. Speaking of learning, Taylor would like the public to understand how much work goes into boutique wines and would like to encourage people to visit wineries, meet the owners, the growers, and the winemakers.

In the meantime, he is content to continue looking for ways to make the perfect wine, because, “There can always be improvements.”

DO THE RIGHT THING FOR THE LONG TERM

While the world grapples with the COVID19 pandemic, the other global crises of our time climate change and environmental pollution have not diminished in importance. For governments, communities and businesses the imperative to focus on sustainable practices remains crucial and urgent.

By Sara Tucker External Relations Director Lion New Zealand

As a leading brewer and manufacturer of adult beverages, at Lion we know our success hinges on our ability to operate ethically within our communities while looking after our environment. Despite the extraordinary disruption of the past year, we have maintained a focus on our sustainability ambitions.

We recently released our latest Sustainability Report and I am delighted to share the highlights of our work over the past year. There is much to be proud of, but we acknowledge there is much more to do.

Our three areas of strategic focus are Environment, Community and Responsibility. Our material topics are safety, health and wellbeing, supporting our communities, diversity and inclusion, packaging waste, climate change, water security and quality, responsible consumption, sustainable procurement and human rights, and transparent labelling.

REDUCING OUR FOOTPRINT

Climate Change

• Lion’s Carbon Neutral

Strategy is ambitious, with a clear pathway to progressively decarbonise our business. We have committed to a Science

Based Target for carbon reduction of 55 percent by 2030 and a net zero value chain by 2050. This year we reported a 28 percent reduction in our carbon footprint since 2015, and in early 2021 we became the first large-scale beverage manufacturer in NZ to be Toitū certified Carbon Zero.

Water

• Clean water is the key ingredient in our products, and we are committed to implementing best practice water stewardship in our supply chain. This includes improving efficiency levels for water use within our breweries, and the quality of waste-water we discharge. Our targets include a global best practice and ambitious water efficiency target of <2.4 L/L by 2025.

Packaging

• Packaging is an area of significant concern for consumers and a crucial area of focus for Lion.

Our targets include:

• Increasing recycled content to at least 50 percent by 2025. • 100 percent of Lion’s packaging materials to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

We are making good progress towards these targets with results at around 49 percent and over 95 percent respectively. In addition, we have recently announced our commitment to transition away from plastic labels on all Lion brands by 2030.

BE SOCIABLE LIVE WELL

Lion is committed to having a positive impact on the community in which we operate. Guided by our core purpose of championing sociability and helping people to live well, we engage with our people, customers, consumers, suppliers and community partners to make a difference where we can.

Key focus areas for us are the Safety Health & Wellbeing of our people, Inclusion & Diversity and supporting our Communities.

RESPONSIBLE PRODUCER

Acting responsibly as an alcohol producer, in line with our values and leadership principles, guides how we produce, market and label our products. We have a strong focus on ensuring best practice and compliance with all labelling requirements and marketing codes.

Our procurement policy supported by our Responsible Sourcing Code and our Modern Slavery Statement sets expectations for ethical and sustainable sourcing practices and protects human rights in our supply chain.

Lion’s Alcohol&Me education program gives New Zealanders tools and information to help them stay safe and sociable when they choose to drink alcohol. We launched this online learning programme seven years ago free to the public.

In 2020 the website had 107,000 unique users, and 38,700 modules were completed. The Alcohol&Me website was a finalist in the 2020 ‘Public Good’ section at the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards for design excellence.

BRAND POWER FOR GOOD

Lion is the owner and custodian of many iconic Kiwi brands. With this comes an opportunity to amplify our messages and aspirations through those brands. Just as Steinlager is supporting the climate change message, Speight’s has partnered with Million Metres to champion cleaning up New Zealand’s waterways.

Speight’s also partners with Movember to promote men’s health while Corona supports Sustainable Coastlines and Havana Coffee champions Realtrade. Our Alcohol&Me message is amplified through partnership campaigns involving our major brands.

As consumers increasingly look not just to governments to act on the issues that concern them but to business, the opportunity for companies and brands to lead the conversations to make a difference will only grow.

Read about Lion’s three areas of strategic focus (Environment, Community and Responsibility) in depth online.