Seasonal Update

Fruitful flowering a relief to industry

SOPHIE PREECE

MARLBOROUGH GROWERS are welcoming more abundant crop counts this summer, following the 21% drop in yields last vintage.

Lawson’s Dry Hills general manager Sion Barnsley says crops have bounced back after the “dreadful” 2021 harvest, with Sauvignon Blanc slightly above the long-term average. “So, we’re certainly in a good position to fulfil the shortfall of the last vintage. Whether we can do that in just this vintage we will wait and see, but certainly the potential is there.”

Sion says the changing climate has increased disease pressure, and while Lawson’s vines are in good health, the risk of tropical cyclones bringing a weather bomb is on growers’ minds this season. However, “prudent” pruning means they are comfortable with the “sensible yields” on their vineyards.

The labour situation is okay for the winery this vintage, if all remains on an even keel. “But not if we are faced with any staff having to go into self isolation, whether it be seven days or 10 days.” Despite best efforts with rostering, separate shifts and hygiene protocols, Omicron poses a major threat, given how contagious it is, he says. Reports that it may peak mid-March are alarming, he adds. “That’s the real concern and dread hanging over us at the moment. But everything else is looking very positive.”

Accolade Wines New Zealand viticulture manager Tracy Taylor says flowering was good in Marlborough, with no rain, and warm and consistent temperatures. She is seeing light to average crops in Sauvignon Blanc, with bunches that “aren’t that big”, but has had reports of more

fruitful yields in some subregions. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are laden in comparison, she adds. “They will be the heavy croppers this year.”

Looking beyond the 2022 vintage, Tracy says conditions for the 2023 fruit initiation were “perfect”, with “super-hot dry days and warm nights”. When it comes to the rest of this season, the La Niña weather pattern brings tropical cyclones this way “and predictions are for us to expect more than usual”, says Tracy. “So, we need to prepare as much as we can for wet and humid conditions around harvest time.”

The season’s challenges include “extreme powdery mildew and downy mildew conditions leading up to Christmas”, says Tracy. “Everything we do in the early part of the season dictates what we will get at the end, so if people have cut corners it will show … especially if the prediction around cyclones becomes a reality.”

When it comes to labour, Accolade has long and loyal relationships with its contractors, “so we have been well looked after in these trying times”, she says. “We all have to be flexible and go with the flow to a large extent. There is always more than one way of doing things, so you just have to be a bit lateral in your thinking and ‘cut your cloth to fit’, to achieve the same end result.”

Mahi’s Brian Bicknell expects to start harvest around March 10, and believes his crop is normal to 5% above normal, with bunches, and “especially Sauvignon bunches”, very consistent. There was some rain over flowering, but it doesn’t seem to have affected fruit set greatly, says Brian. “The growing season has been phenomenal and I think the

growth rates caught everyone out a bit as a lot of wire lifting needed to be done pre-Christmas, prior to trimming,” he says, noting the complicating combination of strong growth and a lack of labour in the region. Rainfall has been below the long term average, “but it seems to have come in decent amounts that have really soaked into the soil and many inter-rows are still green,” says Brian in mid-January. Mahi is highly reliant on on-premise sales, but lockdown impacts have been softened by the range of countries they export to. “England still seems to be flying, whereas Australia has gone down again, says Brian. “I suppose having the spread of markets for a company like us has been really important.”

They have also increased their sales through independent retailers to take up some of the slack from restaurant sales. And he notes that the shortage of Marlborough wine – through both booming demand and the short 2021 vintage – is broadening the interest in Marlborough, in terms of different styles, “which I haven’t seen for a while”. There’s “serious interest” in Mahi’s single vineyard wild barrel fermented Sauvignons, for example. “We can’t make enough of those… I think the limited supply has made people look a little more widely.”

Big berries build crop load

The Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc prediction model assumed bunch numbers would be down this year, based on temperatures in late 2020, at bunch initiation. However, Plant & Food Research scientist Rob Agnew, who writes the monthly Winepress Met Report, says the first berry samples of Pinot Noir have revealed large berries, with those from the Awatere Valley double the size they were at the same time last year, which is likely to mitigate the bunch numbers. “It looks to be on track to be one of the biggest berry sizes we’ve seen in the last eight to 10 years.”

Rob says good soil moisture just after flowering often leads to big berries, and with the first two weeks of December “very wet” the large berries are understandable. “If that carries through to Sauvignon Blanc, hopefully we will see bigger berries there as well.” In Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, berry sizes are also looking to be well up on last year, he says.

There is a risk that big berries and higher than average berry number per bunch can result in tight bunches, “and that can have a downside if you get wet weather later on”, says Rob. “But I don’t think growers will be complaining if yields are above average this year.”

Looking ahead, Rob says bunch numbers should be above average for 2023, because of the warm temperatures in December 2021