50 Years 1970s

Marlborough’s Wine industry turns 50 this year, so we look back at some of the major challenges and monumental achievements over the past half century. To kick things off, BRENDON BURNS checks out the start of it all, with an overview of the 1970s.

“THERE DOES not appear to be any likelihood of vineyards starting up in Marlborough in the foreseeable future”. That comment from Marlborough County Council Livestock Instructor, S.G.C. Newdick in 1972, citing the glut of grapes in New Zealand, was swiftly proved short-sighted.

In 1973, having been thwarted in plans to buy several farms in Hawke’s Bay, Montana Wine’s Frank Yukich engaged land agent John Marris to purchase nine farms in 10 days at Brancott, Woodbourne and Renwick. Frank took the punt on the expert advice of viticulturist Wayne Thomas, and paid twice the going rate of $250 an acre, setting in motion the transformation of a region. Fifty years on, Marlborough has nearly 30,000 hectares of grapes, accounting for 71% of New Zealand’s vineyard plantings.

One of Marlborough’s driest summers followed, and water-cart irrigation of the plantings of mostly MüllerThurgau and Cabernet Sauvignon was not enough to get by, so that many vines had to be replanted. Undeterred, Frank trialled other plantings in 1975, including Sauvignon Blanc.

John Marris had meanwhile teamed up with Dutch migrant and energetic berry fruit grower Henk Ruesink to develop their own vineyards using trickle irrigation Henk had pioneered. By 1976, Montana had seen Ruesink-Marris vines harvesting spectacular yields compared to its average crops and began to trickle irrigate as well.

John was now Montana’s operations manager and sought contract growers. Among them were Judy and Neal Ibbotson, Chris and Phil Rose, Pat and Don Cromarty, Philippa and Neville McCallum, Kaye and Errol Hadfield, Marita and Max Gifford, David Dew, and John Lundon.

In April 1977, Montana’s winery was opened by Prime Minister Rob Muldoon and the same year the Grape Growers Association, later Marlborough Winegrowers Association and Wine Marlborough, was established.

In 1978 after battling some major objections around land use, Phil and Chris Rose finally gained consent and started establishing their vineyards. Then in 1979, Te Whare Ra was established on 4 ha at Renwick by Alan and Joyce Hogan as the first boutique Marlborough winery, with Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay. Ivan Sutherland planted his first grapes and the same year Ernie Hunter acquired land for $3,000 a hectare on Rapaura Road.

While Montana Wines got it rolling, planting grapes in Marlborough was being discussed some years earlier. Te Mata’s John Buck was invited to speak to the Blenheim Travel Club in the late 1960s. Asked if vines could grow in Marlborough, he said if table grapes did ok, wine grapes could be grown on the Wither Hills. The Marlborough Express reportedly endorsed the idea in an editorial and John got a scolding letter from David Corban of the winemaking dynasty saying grapes would never work here.

Frank Yukich placing a silver coin in the hole as the traditional token of good fortune for the new vine. Marlborough Heritage Trust - Marlborough Archives

Those damn cones and other early stories BRENDON BURNS

When Phil Sutherland returned to his hometown of Blenheim in 1973, he was already confident the wine industry had a future.

In 1972 he and his new wife Lorraine had asked his aunt, Jean Rowberry, whether they could lease a few acres of her Dillons Point farm to grow grapes. “We even looked at borrowing some money to do it.” But Auntie Jean wasn’t keen, and little more than a year later, Montana was looking for people to develop its first Marlborough vineyards, changing the region forever.

Phil had hands-on knowledge of viticulture, having worked in Corbans vineyards in Auckland to get practical experience while doing his diploma in horticulture at Lincoln University. John Marris employed him in one of the three teams of around six people working at the Fairhall, Woodbourne and Brancott farms purchased for Montana. Allan Scott, who later founded Allan Scott Wines, acted as foreman for the Fairhall site where Phil was based. “We were basically wrecking the farms, stripping fences, trees and sheepyards,” says Phil, 50 years on.

A Ford 5000 tractor disced, ripped and rotary hoed the hundreds of acres before straight planting lines were established. “A guy with a rifle stood on a tractor with telescopic sights. He would line up the row, waving with flags to signal to the tractor at the other end.”

A wire was then stretched, sometimes as far as 500 metres, with tags to mark it. Then 40 or more people would take 10 vine cuttings at a time off a tractor tray to plant. Earth was mound around the plants and a wax covered cone was installed, to protect against rabbits and hares as well as retain moisture, says Phil. “That was all good until it blew like hell one night and the fences at Brancott were just thick with the cones. We had to pick them all up.”

Irrigating the vines involved a tank on a tractor with a 15mm hose. As the vines grew, teams banged in vine posts supplemented by thousands of hardwood stakes imported from Malaysia. A compressor was adapted to put in three at a time across each of two rows. “It was very much seat of the pants and as the need arose, something was made.”

Wire was rolled out with six spinning jennies being used at once, “so you couldn’t dare make a mess of it”, says Phil. Weeds were controlled by cultivation, supplemented by grazing. Phil helped drive a mob of 30,000 sheep from the A&P saleyards to Hawksbury.

After a couple of years, Phil got a job with the Department of Agriculture in Motueka. He still lives in the Tasman region, working as a horticulture tutor at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, Te Pūkenga, but has never worked again in the grape industry. “Other things became more important.”

His aunt’s farm has long since become vineyards, and he occasionally thinks about what might have been, but with no regrets. “Today it’s all in grapes and it was great to be there at the start.”