Winepress - June 2022

Collaborative Effort

Marlborough Cooperative celebrates a decade of growing

TONY SKINNER

AS IT approaches its 10th anniversary, Marlborough’s cooperative of grape growers is confident it’s well positioned to grow its model in the decades to come. The Marlborough Grape Growers Cooperative (MGGC) produces wines for overseas clients, regarding itself as a B2B company rather than being overtly consumer-facing.

Chief Executive Mike Brown says the collective, which was incorporated in October 2012, offered a beneficial option for growers wanting to own their own wine company. “This is a very different structure. A co-op has elements of both a family company and a corporation. But the one thing is the growers own it, and that’s our defining difference - our growers own the wine company.”

The MGGC is travelling a well-trodden road, in New Zealand at least, with more than 18% of the country’s GDP generated in co-op structures. By contrast, a little over 1% of Australia’s GDP is generated through co-ops. “It’s a structure that suits Kiwis really well, for a couple of reasons. There is that history of collaboration within New Zealand. But also, given our size, the need to scale,” Mike explains.

“Any decent-sized wine region around the world probably has a co-op structure of some kind. So if you look through the French regions, they’ve all got co-ops. I think we’ve probably got a lot to learn from some of those co-ops as well, because they’ve been doing it in some cases for 100 years.”

For growers, one significant difference between belonging to MGGC and being a contract grape grower is that profits from trading are returned to the co-op members. MGGC Chair Ben McLauchlan, who is also a grower for the co-op, highlights the importance of the ownership structure aspect of supplying the co-op. “The traditional model, and Marlborough has been very much about this, is that you have a relationship with your winery. But in this case, for our growers, the winery is actually ours. That’s really cool, and it brings a lot of pride as well.”

In developing wines for its clients, the MGGC can also offer the full breadth of taste profiles of Marlborough grapes, ranging from Wairau to Awatere. For example, the highest vineyard is at 203 metres and the lowest at sea level, providing early and late ripening areas with a span of at least a month.

Led by head winemaker Drew Ellis, the MGGC works directly with clients to develop the best flavour profile for their customers. The finished product is then shipped in 24,000-litre Flexitanks to be bottled at the end destination. As an illustration, the wine from the co-op’s 2021 vintage was sold in 12 different blends to eight separate clients. Revenue from customer contracts totalled $27.7 million for 2021, with around half of that coming from clients based in the US, followed by Europe (around 35%) and Australia (15%).

In some cases, MGGC has been doing business with the client for many years. “The amazing thing is Drew, who’s been with the co-op since the beginning, understands the terroir of all the individual sites, and can blend and make a wine that the client wants,” Ben says. “And that’s a really unique aspect. When clients go to other companies, they get what they get. When they work with us, they become part of our business and get to utilise Drew’s expertise.”

Moreover, some of the MGGC’s owners have grown grapes in Marlborough for over 25 years, offering a vast amount of experience and knowledge to other members. Ben also oversees the Innovation Vineyard Project, which explores new management systems and technologies for the benefit of cooperative members. The cooperative organises technical workshops and social occasions to further foster a sense of community within the collective.

Family and friends of MGGC growers may also be treated to a glass of The Acorn, which is produced by the cooperative as a limited release. Mike says it’s “a bit of a mark of prestige” to have grapes included in The Acorn for growers. There’s a good reason behind the name, Ben adds, because “from small beginnings, great things will grow”.

Drew Ellis