Winepress - May 2016

Issue No. 258 / May 2016

Vintage 2016

Trucking On

China Trademarks

Biosecurity Watch

Photo: Jim Tannock

@marlboroughwine

The Official Magazine of

www.wine-marlborough.co.nz

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In this issue...

Regulars

3

Editorial

4

9

From the Board Simon Bishell

6

Tasman Crop Met Report

22

Gen Y-ine Edwin Massey

26

Features

The Block Ashmore Vineyards

27

ANZ Wine Happenings

28

Industry News

Editor: Sophie Preece T: 027 308 4455 E: sophie@sophiepreece.co.nz Printed by: Blenheim Print Ltd. T: 03 578 1322 Winepress is printed with vegetable oil based inks on elemental chlorine free paper which is sourced 100% from well managed forests and manufactured under ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems.

A Full Tank Big yields meant tank space was in high demand over Marlborough’s harvest, with some companies shipping stable juice to wineries in other regions, and others working hard to optimise every inch of space.

10 Vintage Vibes

p4

Winepress talks to players throughout the industry about the highs and lows of harvest 2016.

13 Grape Travels

Marlborough’s grape harvest is a unique trucking challenge and big vintages like 2016 add to the complexity.

14 Trade marks in China

Companies planning to trade in China should not delay in getting trade marks registered, according to Anton Blijlevens and John Hackett, patent attorneys from AJ Park. The men spoke to a group of Marlborough business people about the value of trade marks.

p10

16 Angel’s Share

Naked Wines (UK) has 150,000 Angels funding 300 wines from 15 countries. Six of its 98 winemakers are from New Zealand, and four from Marlborough. Claudia and Bill Small from Small and Small talk about their Naked journey.

p14 WINEPRESS May 2016 | 1

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For Advertising contact: Ph: 03 577 9299 Web: www.wine-marlborough.co.nz harriet@wine-marlborough.co.nz Produced by: Wine Marlborough Free to all levy paying members Associate Members: $77 +GST

Wine Marlborough Board Clive Jones: cjones@nautilusestate.com Ben Ensor: ben.lisa@clear.net.nz Callum Linklater: callumandsarah@xtra.co.nz Jack Glover: jack.glover@accolade-wines.co.nz Jason Yank: jason@astrolabewines.co.nz Nick Entwistle: nick@wairauriverwines.co.nz Rhyan Wardman: rhyan@giesen.co.nz Samantha Wickham: samantha@ormondnurseries.co.nz Simon Bishell: simon@caythorpe.nz

From the Editor Most of the people reading Winepress will have an insider’s view of vintage.You may have spent it in a harvester, a tractor or a truck, driving to and fro and to and fro, at dawn and daytime, at dusk and during the night.You may have spent it picking fruit, as part of vintage’s vital army, or in the clamouring buzz of a busy winery, at the beck and call of all that juice. Or perhaps you managed a multitude of people, tractors, trucks or vineyards, as the Sauvignon surge came on. Wherever you were, whatever you did, it’s likely the business of wine absorbed your many waking hours and guaranteed you far fewer sleeping ones.

But most of us in Marlborough have an outsider’s view of vintage, with mere glimpses of the work behind the wine. We’ll see the night sky lit by 24-hour wineries, and the glow of massive harvesters moving through black vineyards. We see contract gangs carted here and there, an influx of international workers, endless trucks of grapes, and enough high vis gear to sink a ship.

We’ve often got friends made solo parents for the duration of the harvest, many accustomed these days to the long weeks of vintage. We smell the grapes on the air, see the grit on the roads, and sense the buzz of an industry at its climax.

I love the way harvest transforms Marlborough, and makes even those of us looking in from the outside feel like we’re part of something spectacular. And I love the moment it ends, and the roads clear of vintage trucks, leaving the odd gritty roundabout in their wake. Then the vines change faster than a catwalk model, replacing verdant green with a wardrobe of autumn shades.

As the dust settles on Vintage 2016, Winepress takes a look at the drama of large crops, drought fears and botrytis risk, all largely allayed by the Indian Summer that brought harvest to its conclusion. That’s no surprise to Astrolabe winemaker Simon Waghorn, who has spent 20 years learning just how good Marlborough’s wine industry has it. With topography and weather that ensure most seasons are good to very good, it’s “just a fantastically lucky place”.

The vines change faster than a catwalk model, replacing verdant green with a wardrobe of autumn shades.

Stuart Dudley: stuartd@villamaria.co.nz Tom Trolove: tom.trolove@framingham.co.nz

SOPHIE PREECE sophie@sophiepreece.co.nz

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 3

From the Board Grower profitability this year will be the highest since 2008.

SIMON BISHELL By the time you read this, another vintage will be complete. It seems each season provides a unique set of circumstances that requires growers and winemakers alike to adapt and adjust.

With two major frosts in November through to an elongated harvest, 2016 has been no exception.

The last time I wrote this column was off the back of a record grape intake in 2014. Fast forward two years and I feel a sense of déjà vu. Fortunately, the vintage of 2015 was significantly lower, which brought about a balancing of inventories. Along with exchange rate relief, balanced inventories have allowed wineries to consolidate pricing and grow market value. Growth has increased demand for raw materials and that has flowed through to growers, with improved prices and some lifting of yield caps. Grower profitability this year will be the highest since 2008.

It feels great to be part of a buoyant industry again and we must work hard to ensure this continues. It is also pleasing to hear that growers are now more accepting of harvesting excess fruit to the ground as a means of doing their bit for “the big picture”.

Growers play a crucial role in winery profitability – one that I think is still under-estimated by many. Supplying quality fruit allows wineries to be competitive in the market with higher margin value-added wines, and growers are remunerated accordingly.

As a farmer I look to other primary industries and compare their situations with ours. Dairy has some challenges ahead with a global milk powder surplus, and how they go about solving

4 | WINEPRESS May 2016

these issues will be intriguing.

Fonterra is a supply-led commodity trader (price taker), and with current low returns farmers are looking to increase production – more milk – which in turn contributes to the surplus. At the opposing end is Tatua, a smaller Waikato based producer that focuses on value-add products (price maker). It only accepts milk from farms in a small radius of the processing plant and by doing so, tightly controls supply and quality. Farmer suppliers enjoy a greater return than that of their Fonterra counterparts. Realistically, the only way out for our dairy comrades is a lift in global demand, but until this occurs the Fonterra suppliers are being hit hardest and some level of attrition is to be expected.

On the back of our bumper harvest we should be a little cautious of the future.

Inventories are now well stocked and the marketers will be working overtime.

Moving forward we need to be market led with our cropping levels for 2017.

We need to follow the Tatua approach and closely match supply with demand.

Listen to the needs of your winery and respect them. As long as we don’t push the envelope too far then we can expect to continue to enjoy the fruits of a profitable industry. The choice is ours, so let’s make the right decision.

High yielding years tend to deliver greater variations in wine styles and

quality. Don’t be afraid to ask your winery for the opportunity to taste your juice once it has been made into wine (but before blending) so you get an appreciation of the finished style from the fruit you have supplied. Then ask to taste wine from low and higher yielding blocks as a comparison. I think you will find it a valuable experience and most wineries will be enthused to show you if it is logistically possible.

Yield management for 2017 starts at pruning – so before you plan your postharvest getaway, put some thought into appropriate cropping levels and consider the requirements of your winery. On that note, you should mark Tuesday May 10 in your diary. In conjunction with the Viticulture Taskforce we are holding our annual pruning workshop, but this year for the first time we are focusing solely on growers. Some of the best practical minds in the industry will be there, so come prepared to learn and have your questions answered – I hope to see you there.

Table 1: Blenheim Weather Data – April 2016

April April 201

2016 compared

to LTA GDD’s for: 116.1 106% Month - Max/Min1 123.3 109% Month – Mean2 Growing Degree Days Total Jul 15 - Apr 16 – Max/Min 1406.7 107% Jul 15 - Apr 16 – Mean 1446.2 107% Mean Maximum (°C) 19.7 +0.7°C Mean Minimum (°C) 8.0 Equal Mean Temp (°C) 13.9 +0.5°C Grass Frosts (<= -1.0°C) 1 Equal Air Frosts (<0.0°C) 0 - Sunshine hours 238.3 127% Sunshine hours – lowest Sunshine hours – highest Sunshine hours total – 2016 1001.9 112% Rainfall (mm) 25.6 48% Rainfall (mm) – lowest Rainfall (mm) – highest Rainfall total (mm) – 2016 159.6 85% Evapotranspiration – mm 68.7 109% Avg. Daily Windrun (km) 211.3 95% Mean soil temp – 10cm 12.4 +0.4°C Mean soil temp – 30cm 15.4 +0.9°C

April 2016 was very sunny, dry and warm April LTA

Period of LTA

April 2015

109.9 (1996-2015) 128.4 113.3 (1996-2015) 130.0 1317.5 1350.5 18.8 8.0 13.4 1.2 0.2 186.7 92.1 238.5 895.4 53.2 0.6 173.0 187.8 62.8 222.8 12.0 14.5

(1996-2015) (1996-2015) (1986-2015) (1986-2015) (1986-2015) (1986-2015) (1986-2015) (1930-2015) 1938 1958 (1930-2015) (1930-2015) 1992 1962 (1930-2015) (1996-2015) (1996-2015) (1986-2015) (1986-2015)

1367.0 1412.8 19.2 9.1 14.2 1 0 162.5

968.6 52.0

109.0 64.0 213.7 13.0 15.7

GDD’s Max/Min are calculated from absolute daily maximum and minimum temperatures 2 GDD’s Mean are calculated from average hourly temperatures 1

Table 2: Weekly temperatures in Blenheim during April 2016

Mean Mean

Maximum Minimum 1 – 7 April 20.6 9.1 8 – 14 April 20.0 10.4 15 – 21 April 19.0 5.6 22 – 28 April 19.3 8.0 29 – 30 April (2 days) 18.9 4.5 April 2016 Average 19.7 +0.9°C 8.0 Equal Long-term average 1986-2015 18.8°C 8.0°C

Mean Deviation 14.9 +1.5°C 15.2 +1.8°C 12.3 -1.1°C 13.7 +0.3°C 11.9 -1.5°C 13.9 +0.5°C 13.4°C

Temperature April 2016 was a month of two distinct halves with regard to temperatures (Table 2). The first two weeks of April 2016 were very warm, with both warm day-time and night-time temperatures.

With the arrival of the third week of the month the overnight minimum temperatures plummeted. However, the daily maximum temperatures stayed above average.

While the mean temperature for April 2016 at 13.9°C, was 0.5°C above average, it was cooler than in any of the previous three years; April 2015 – 14.2°C, April 2014 – 14.5°C, April 2013 – 14.7°C. Coldest and Hottest days during April The coldest minimum temperatures were recorded on the morning of 21 April, with an air minimum of 2.9°C and a grass minimum (ground frost) of -1.5°C. This was the only ground frost during April. The hottest day was 3 April with a maximum temperature of 25.7°C. Sunshine April recorded 238.3 hours sunshine; 127% of the long-term average for April of 187 hours (1930-2015). This high sunshine total was in marked contrast with the two previous years when April 2015 recorded 162.5 hours and April 2014 recorded 123.7 hours sunshine; i.e. April 2016 recorded nearly double the sunshine hours of April 2014.

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 5

April 2015 is now the second sunniest April on record for Blenheim for the period 1930-2016. Second only to 1958 which recorded 238.5 hours sunshine.

Total sunshine from January to April 2016 is 1001.9 hours. This is also the second sunniest first four months of the year on record for Blenheim. The sunniest January to April is 1994, with 1008.6 hours sunshine.

Table 4: Rainfall summary for Blenheim for the last four seasons compared with the lowest seasonal totals on record Season Long-term 15-16 14-15 13-14 12-13 00-01 72-73 33-34 97-98 average Rain (mm) 390.5 240.2 220.8 462.4 319.9 176.6 190.6 191.8 242.5 Rank (1930-2015) 5th 4th 66th 20th 1st 2nd 3rd 6th

Rainfall April’s rainfall total of 25.6 mm was 48% of the long-term average.

April 2015 rainfall was 52.0 mm.

April 2014 rainfall was 149.8 mm. 4th highest rainfall total for April April 2013 rainfall was 102.5 mm.

April 2016 recorded rain on four days during the month. However, 1 April recorded 23.6 mm, or 92% of the month’s rainfall. The other three days only recorded a total of 2.0 mm.

This was a similar pattern to March 2016, when virtually the entire month’s rainfall total was recorded on the 23rd March. As nearly all April’s rainfall fell on the 1st of the month it meant that

April was very dry from 2nd to 30th.

For the second year in a row Blenheim recorded a very low seasonal rainfall total (Table 4). The 2015-16 rainfall total was only slightly higher than in the previous year (2014-15), and these two seasons are the fourth and fifth lowest on record for the period 1930-2016.

Table 5 indicates that the last four seasons have all recorded a well above average mean temperature. We have to Season Weather Summary go back to 2011-12 to find a season (September 2015 to April 2016) with a below average mean temperature.

The following tables summarize the Figure 1 plots the accumulation of weather data for the 2015-16 season growing degree days throughout and in some cases contrast it with the season. This allows you to see previous seasons. For those of you when periods of cooler or warmer who are required to write seasonal temperatures occurred in any particular summaries for your wine company, season. The GDD line for the 2015hopefully these tables will prove useful.

16 season was close to average in If you require further daily data or September and October. There was a monthly summaries for the Blenheim period of hot weather at the end of weather station you will find it on the Marlborough Research Centre website: November and very early December 2015. This hot weather coincided with www.mrc.org.nz flowering in the central Rapaura area and helps to Table 3: Monthly weather summary for Blenheim, for the 2015-16 growing season in explain the very comparison to the long-term average good fruit set and

LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 LTA 15/16 high yields that

Rain Rain Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean GDD GDD ET ET Sun Sun many vineyards Max Max Min Min experienced

mm mm °C °C °C °C °C °C mm mm hours hours this year. Most Sep 51.2 54.4 16.2 14.7 5.9 4.8 11.1 9.7 56.9 28 72.0 71.1 193.4 225.3 of December 2015 recorded Oct 56.6 6.0 18.3 19.4 7.8 8.0 13.1 13.7 101.1 116.2 101.1 123.8 227.1 271.4 below average Nov 46.8 2.8 19.9 20.7 9.4 9.2 14.6 14.9 143.1 152.1 123.1 137.9 239.6 280.4 temperatures, Dec 48.1 17.4 21.9 21.3 11.6 10.6 16.8 15.9 215.4 184.3 139.0 147.7 246.2 294.8 as indicated by Jan 48.1 69.2 23.4 23.3 12.6 14.2 18.0 18.8 246.8 272.4 140.3 140.4 261.9 232.4 the downwards Feb 43.1 18.0 23.1 25.6 12.3 14.5 17.7 20.0 220.8 290.9 109.8 142.9 226.9 289.3 progress of Mar 43.4 46.8 21.5 22.4 10.4 11.6 16.0 17.0 195.6 217.3 100.0 106.2 219.9 241.9 the GDD line.

Apr 53.2 25.6 18.8 19.7 8.0 8.0 13.4 13.9 109.9 116.1 62.8 68.7 186.7 238.3 The cooler Total 390.5 240.2 1289.6 1377.3 848.1 938.7 1801.7 2074.0 temperatures Mean 20.4 20.9 9.8 10.1 15.1 15.5 came to an or deviation 62% +0.5°C +0.3°C +0.4°C 107% 111% 115% abrupt end in early to midTable 5: Temperature summary for Blenheim for the last five seasons compared with the January 2016. warmest five seasons on record From that point Season Long-term 15-16 14-15 13-14 12-13 11-12 34-35 74-75 89-90 80-81 97-98 onwards right average through until Mean Temp 14.99 15.49 15.55 15.59 15.34 14.62 16.28 16.16 16.11 16.00 15.99 mid-April, (°C) temperatures Rank (1930-2015) 19th = 14th 12th 25th 60th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th were generally 6 | WINEPRESS May 2016

Figure 1: Normalized Growing degree days for Blenheim: days above (+) or below (-) the long-term average for the period 1 September to 30 April

well above average. Given that many vineyards had well above average yields in 2016, the warm temperatures were ideal for assisting the ripening of the 2016 crop. 2016 experienced the warmest ripening period from véraison to harvest since 1998. Had temperatures been cool from January to April 2016, harvest 2016 would have been significantly later than it was, and some vineyards with higher yields may have

struggled to ripen high crop loads.

Table 6 is reproduced from VineFacts Issue 31 – 28 April 2016. This table summarizes data from 12 subregional vineyard weather stations in Marlborough, and compares the growing degree days and rainfall recorded in each sub-region with the main Blenheim weather station. The coolest sub-region is the Upper Awatere at the top end of Marama Road, which

is 25 km from the coast at an elevation of 205 m above sea level (ASL). This station recorded 247 GDD less than Blenheim, or 82% of the Blenheim total. This site also recorded close to double Blenheim’s rainfall (193%).

The sub-region with the highest rainfall is the Upper Wairau Valley, with 258% of Blenheim’s total. However, although this site is 56 km inland from the coast and at an elevation of 240 m ASL, it still recorded 94% of the Blenheim GDD total, and a very similar GDD total to some of the other locations on the central Wairau plains.

Rob Agnew Plant & Food Research / Marlborough Research Centre

Table 6: Marlborough sub-regional weather stations; growing degree days and rainfall from 1 September 2015 to 26 April 2016 Location Total GDD GDDs as % Total Rainfall Rainfall as %

Blenheim of Blenheim Awatere – Dashwood 1302.4 95.2% 366.0 152.4% Awatere – Seaview 1229.7 89.9% 232.4 96.8% Awatere – Upper 1121.3 81.9% 463.6 193.0% Rarangi 1367.1 99.9% 315.6 131.4% Blenheim 1368.5 240.2 Brancott 1239.1 90.5% 307.5 128.0% Woodbourne 1276.5 93.3% 393.1 163.7% Matthews Lane 1314.6 96.1% 308.9 128.6% Stoneleigh 1303.4 95.2% 354.4 147.5% Pauls Road 1376.6 100.6% 409.8 170.6% Oyster Bay 1339.6 97.9% 445 185.3% Waihopai Valley 1239.9 90.6% 380.6 158.5% Upper Wairau Valley 1280.9 93.6% 620.2 258.2% WINEPRESS May 2016 | 7

Vintage Snapshot Clockwise from top: Astrolabe harvest; Early morning harvest for Wairau River on Giffords Road; A lot of love in a Te Whare Ra Pinot Noir fermenter; Taking a tank sample for juice analysis at Astrolabe

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Dave Pearce at Vinlink

A Full Tank Tank space is tight in Marlborough following the bumper 2016 crop.

SOPHIE PREECE Marlborough’s cup did runneth over in Vintage 2016, with big yields leaving little tank space in wineries across the province.

That saw Vinlink send more than two million litres of juice across the Cook Strait to affiliate wineries in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, says Managing Director Dave Pearce.

Dave says the vintage has been a “magnificent” one, with good yields of excellent fruit. However, “the tyranny of big numbers” has meant that yields 10% above expectation could, for example, add 30,000 tonnes to a 300,000 tonne harvest. “That’s a very, very big winery that people don’t have sitting in a field somewhere.”

Vinlink is owned by LINKS winery in Hawke’s Bay and GisVin in Gisborne, so when space runs low at the Riverlands facility it is “natural” for them to send juice north. “We have a second and a third cup”, he says of the overflow. “It’s one of the offerings we’ve got that makes it easier for our clients.”

He says larger than expected yields were seen across the board this year. “In

that last decent rain, berry weights went up by about 10%. So, if you’re planning on bringing in 10,000 tonnes, you can be embarrassed by 1000 tonnes.”

The partnering North Island wineries had progressed far enough through their vintage that they were able to make space as the Marlborough vintage hit its peak.

Despite the increased numbers, Dave says it has been one of the best vintages of the past decade. “The crops are there, there’s no doubt about that. But the grapes are absolutely beautiful.”

TIL Freight Blenheim Branch Manager Dennis McKinley says there’s been a big call for the company’s bulk tanker fleet to move stable juice to Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury. “I believe that’s probably been a pretty big logistical nightmare this year. Certainly the calls for tanker fleet have been far greater than previous years.”

Contract winemaking facility Spring Creek Vintners has also been at full capacity for vintage and has turned down a number of spot requests for tank space. Managing Director Ian

Wiffin said space was very tight, and towards the end of harvest they took advantage of good weather to slow the harvest down, so the winemaking team had time to ensure tanks were as full as possible. “We are definitely going to be very full, but we only contract the amount that we can handle …and it’s going really well.”

The numbers made it vital that people didn’t go over their limits during harvest. Logistics are made easier by the fact the facility is so dominated by Sauvignon Blanc, with only 5% in other varieties. Ian says the harvest won’t be as big as 2014, but many growers, including their own, left fruit behind because they had reached their cap.

“Certainly we have had people asking if we have more space, but we’re full.”

Last year’s low yields have been something of a saving grace this year, he says. “Going in to this year we had the least amount of carry-over wine we have ever had. That’s been a big help.”

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 9

Winemaker Simon Waghorn sampling fruit at Little Oasis Vineyard in the Awatere Valley.

Photo by Arabella Waghorn

Vintage Vibes Sophie Preece talks to industry players about the highs and lows of Vintage 2016, and the song lyric that sums it all up.

Jim White; Kenny Rogers After a relatively easy 2015 harvest, vintage 2016 tested the will and skill of many viticulturists and winemakers, says Cloudy Bay viticulturist Jim White.

“The theme of this year’s vintage for me was “hurry up and wait, then run like hell”, he says, cueing Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler: “You gotta know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em, know when to walk away, know when to run….”

Speaking about the region in general, he says big crops saw significant yield reduction undertaken by many, in order to improve quality potential. “A lot has been learnt after the big 2014 harvest, when many blocks with high yields ripened slowly and suffered, due to continued rainfall in mid-April.”

The Southern Valleys were lucky to escape the Southern Valley Irrigation Scheme being shut in late December, because January rains helped stabilise river flows, while also contributing to large yield potential. The region was also lucky there was no rain after the two rain events on March 25 and April 1, because another significant one may

10 | WINEPRESS May 2016

have caused significant crop loss to botrytis. “Luckily the sun stayed and botrytis levels were manageable.”

Jim says one of the striking aspects of the vintage was that Chardonnay ripening patterns were “very odd”. In a typical year Chardonnay grapes would be picked before Sauvignon Blanc, but this year the Sauvignon was picked around them, with Chardonnay often picked five to seven days later.

Stephen Bradley; Beyonce Sileni viticuturist Stephen Bradley has stepped out of his usual listening genre to describe Vintage 2016, calling on Beyonce’s Best Thing I Never Had, and the line “I thank God I dodged the bullet”.

The Marlborough industry dodged two major bullets this year, he says. “One of them was that rain at New Year, because we were that close to all the rivers being shut off effectively.” The second bullet was the wet autumn, which posed huge disease risk. “But because the rain came in short dollops it hasn’t been an issue… I always say three strikes you’re out. We never got that third one.”

Sileni’s yields met estimates but “word on the street” is that most people were massively over, he says. The quality on high yielding blocks is good, “but all we needed was that third big weather event and it would have been disastrous.”

Bring on Beyonce.

Matt Mitchell; The Cars Marisco winemaker Matt Mitchell also feels “incredibly lucky” thinking about vintage 2016. The weather put the pressure on early, with heavy dumps of rain leading into the intake period, upping the disease pressure. Subsequent poor weather threatened, but came to nothing. “We felt we had a get-out-ofjail-free card.”

Harvest was late, with lower sugars, but with warm and dry weather in mid to late April, Marisco cashed in on the luxury of bringing in some fruit, and leaving some to hang longer. “The weather has cut us a break.”

He says once the dust settles, the most remarkable aspect of this vintage will be the lack of separation between the harvest of early varieties and Sauvignon Blanc. Marisco’s final days of picking

included Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, which created a huge amount of extra work for winery staff.

“Normally Pinot is one variety that we get out of our hair before we move on to the big green wave.”

The consequence of the overlap was constant cleaning, he says. “It’s really caused some issues with scheduling for the poor cellar staff in the winery.” With that in mind, and in testament to the musical influences of his youth, Matt’s vintage vibe is All Mixed Up, by The Cars.

Anna Flowerday; The Black Seeds A warmer than average summer and a very dry growing season resulted in even flowering and set, says Anna Flowerday of Te Whare Ra. “A couple of rain events in January were welcomed, and made sure that our canopies stayed healthy and active and were able to ripen the grapes fully, and with great concentration of flavour.”

She says the second half of the summer presented some challenges, but extra efforts early on, with lots of crop thinning and “meticulous canopy management”, meant fruit was picked in pristine condition with no disease pressure.

Anna says they are “thrilled” with the quality across the board this year, in reds and whites. “All the wines have lovely, ripe fleshiness with juicy acid and great length.” She doesn’t have a song lyric to sum it up but says the Te Whare Ra vintage sounds have been The Black Seeds, Six60 and Fat Freddy’s – “something chilled and cruisy”.

Aaron Jay; MC Hammer Aaron Jay of Hortus has employed between 150 and 160 vineyard workers this vintage, and says he could have done with another 50. On the last picking day of the season it takes him just seconds to find the lyric that sums it all up for him: “It’s Hammer time.”

He says the season has been “flat out”.

Now, with pruning just around the corner, he’s keen to see everyone take a breather before they kick into gear all over again. Aaron says the workers

who come in to New Zealand on the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme (RSE) are vital to the harvest.

“We would not be able to operate without them and to be honest we could of have done with another 50 people.

They are so hard working and always looking to ensure the quality is there for our clients. They take a huge amount of pride in hand harvest, as it’s the result of a long six months away from family and friends back in Vanuatu.”

Simon Waghorn; Willie Nelson Over the past 20 years, Astrolabe winemaker Simon Waghorn has seen just how good Marlborough’s wine industry has it.

With topography and weather that ensure most seasons are good to very good, it’s “just a fantastically lucky place”, he says in the wake of Vintage 16.

Harvest here is occasionally challenging, never devastating and, in years like this, “really easy”, he says. “It’s been a bit of a cruise right from the start, punctuated by a little bit of excitement when we had all that rain.”

Fruit from the Awatere Valley, Kekerengu and Wairau Valley was picked when it was ready, with no decisions forced by the weather or disease pressure. He’s anticipating an elegant, brighter style of Pinot Noir, due to larger than normal berries. The Pinot Gris also looks very good, along with Chardonnay, which had “lovely numbers maturity wise” along with good flavour. The Sauvignon Blanc is “looking pretty aromatic” and he

Anna Flowerday and Hugo hand sorting Gewurztraminer for Te Whare Ra Toru

expects it to lean towards thiol flavours, due to larger berries with less phenolics, and the warm season reducing methoxypyrazines. “There are no weak varieties and I’m pretty excited by how it’s all going to turn out.”

Like the others, he remarked on a bit of a “roller coaster” when it came to the weather, with the threat of prolonged drought. “Just when it started looking critical we got freshes in the river and some big rains.” The Awatere Valley had some problems with flooding in the river, which impacted on the purity of the water and stopped some growers irrigating for a period.

“By and large, on an average viewpoint, the rains we did get meant the canopies were in good health and able to sustain the ripening of an above average crop.”

To sum it up, he calls on Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald and Irving Berlin: “Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see…”

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 11

The Grape Escape Road cleaning crews were a common sight over Vintage 2016.

SOPHIE PREECE A large harvest and inexperienced drivers are being blamed for an increase in grape spills this vintage.

Senior Constable Paul McKenzie says there were around 40 spills in Marlborough over harvest, and police charged nine drivers with insecure loading, usually giving them a $600 instant fine. He says it is likely HEB, the roading contractor tasked with cleaning the spills, will also look to recoup their costs, which can be hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on the scale.

Those contractors come in as soon as an incident is reported, sweeping and vacuuming the road before laying down grit. “It’s very slippery,” says Paul. “It can cause vehicles to lose control, because it’s like driving on ice.”

The number of spills is well up on last year, partly due to the larger harvest seeing more grapes being moved throughout the province, and partly due to inexperienced drivers with a difficult load, he says.

“You can liken it to carting a couple of swimming pools full of water in the back of your truck and trying to move them.You’ll see good drivers 12 | WINEPRESS May 2016

travelling down Alabama Rd gingerly and carefully, like they are carrying crystal on the back of their truck. They take their time and that’s what we want them to do. The drivers who drive well know how to do it. Those who don’t will generally come to grief. “If they come in too fast and are too heavy on the brakes, the load just moves.

And the green wave comes over the windscreen and over the road. That’s the first indication - a green mist of grapes.

Then of course they come out the side and everywhere else.”

Many of the spills happen at night or in the early hours of the morning, when there is more chance of getting away with it. However, he emphasises that a lot of companies are very good, and instruct their drivers to report spills and stay with their vehicles.

TIL Freight Blenheim Branch Manager Dennis McKinley says all their drivers go through an induction, which emphasises the difficulty of the load, due to “surge” movement.

The company stresses the need for contractors to drive to conditions and within the law, to maintain a larger than normal braking distance and to

treat all intersections, roundabouts and pedestrian crossings as stop signs.

“Keep speed consistent and steady, do not surge, it is not a race. SLOW DOWN,” the safety procedure reads.

Drivers are instructed to report all spills to Marlborough Roads and to stay at the location with the truck. Drivers agree to those conditions, while truck owners sign documents regarding the compliance of the vehicles.

Paul says as well as the good truck operators, harvester, gondola and tractor drivers have done a “brilliant job” this year. In general compliance has improved over the years, designs have changed to minimise spills and “load slopping”, and the good drivers have simply got better.

Paul was one of two officers to speak to drivers and transport companies at a Wine Marlborough pre-harvest field day in early March, sharing compliance information and safety briefings. They also visited contractors and some of the wineries in the lead up to vintage, as well as talking to trucking companies.

“There is a lot of prevention work prior to the harvest.”

Driving Vintage Getting grapes from A to B isn’t an easy job.

SOPHIE PREECE Marlborough’s grape harvest is a unique trucking challenge, and big vintages like 2016 add to the complexity, says TIL Freight Blenheim Branch Manager Dennis McKinley.

“The grape harvest here in Marlborough is unique in New Zealand. There is nowhere that this volume of product is trucked in such a tight time frame and from so many different pickup and delivery points.”

Then there’s the nature of the cargo, which surges as it moves, and the behaviour of others on the road. “The minute you see the first harvester or gondola for vintage, there appears to be a mind-set by much of the public that ‘it is travelling slow so we need to pass or beat it’.”

TIL Freight had more than 50 trucks in Marlborough for vintage, including company and contractor equipment.

The fleet was comprised of standalone

trucks with 10.5 tonne loads and truck and trailer units carrying 25 tonnes, which together moved more than 110,000 tonnes of grapes. “Most of this fleet worked 24 hours a day, 7 days per week with multiple drivers,” he says.

Two supervisors manage the vintage fleet during the day and one during the night, with times and locations constantly updating, due to the fluidity of harvest pressures. “The goalposts are shifting all the time,” says Dennis. “At no time when the trucks are working in the grape harvest is there not a supervisor who is in contact.” They also run two 0800 numbers so clients and

TIL Harvest Supervisor Martin Truscott updates the ever changing trucking schedule for the harvest fleet.

drivers can get in touch at any stage.

TNL, one of TIL’s brands, has been part of the grape harvest in Marlborough since 1976, when it moved small wooden crates for Montana’s first handpick off Brancott Estate. “That was the start of our grape cartage,” says Dennis. “Since then we have added to our client base and expanded our operations, as the Marlborough wine industry has grown. And we’re still growing.”

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WINEPRESS May 2016 | 13

™ China Wine companies are being urged to protect their intellectual property in a rapidly changing China.

SOPHIE PREECE Intellectual property strategy is a vital aspect of doing business in China, says patent attorney Anton Blijlevens.

He and fellow AJ Park partner John Hackett spoke to a group of Marlborough business people in April, talking through the laws surrounding trade marks for New Zealand brands in China.

Anton said China was once the place IP rights went to die, but it is no longer the “wild west” and has IP laws that are reasonably well respected. “China has seen that if they don’t want to remain purely as a factory for the rest of the world, they have to invest in innovation and encourage innovation and encourage foreign direct investment. To do that requires intellectual property laws.”

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Trade marks are recognised in China through registration, not use, and John warned of the proliferation of

squatters, who take a trade mark before the legitimate owner is able to. Some businesses have had their trade mark

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registered by a potential distributor they have spoken to, or by an opportunist who saw the product for sale in China.

“One of my clients lost his trade mark there last year because someone saw it online in China and thought it was a good idea and they’d register the name.”

Squatters are trawling the internet constantly, and he suggested people act fast. “If you take one thing away from today, if you are intending to go to China, don’t talk to anybody.

Before it’s even a dream, go and register your brand over there, because first to register gets the rights.”

To add fuel to their argument, the men raised examples of brands that have paid millions to get their trade mark back or, as in the case of New Balance, have been fined millions for using a translation of their trade mark in China, where the name had already been registered. New laws were introduced in 2014, which mean if the trade mark’s registered owner can be shown to have acted on bad faith, the legitimate owner can take action against a squatter.

However, the men urged companies to spend the few thousand dollars required for a Chinese trade mark, rather than face the potential cost of being beaten to it.

In another example, John spoke of Australian wine company Penfolds, who registered their English name in China,

but not a Chinese version of it. When it tried to then register Ben Fu, that name had already been registered by a notorious trade mark squatter. That is “seriously impacting” on the company’s ability to do business in China, said John.

When applying for a trade mark in China, businesses need to register the English words in a transliteration, a more meaningful translation, and the

“Before it’s even a dream, go and register your brand over there, because first to register gets the rights.” John Hackett Chinese characters depicting that. “It can’t just be any Chinese translation…

It needs to get recognition from the purchaser.”

New Zealand Trade & Enterprise customer manager Mike Brown has first-hand experience of the process, having worked at Kono when Tohu Wines was registered in China. Their route was made far simpler because tohu in Chinese meant “tranquil lake”. However, he spoke of other well-known brands choosing phonetic

translations that were meaningless, such as “wax tadpole”.

There were few wine industry representatives at the mid-vintage talk, but for Lindsay Parkinson of Wairau River Wines, the session was food for thought. “We don’t have Wairau River trade marked in China, but I think after listening to the seminar we should consider it a bit more seriously…It appears they are moving forward a lot in terms of IP laws.”

He already works with AJ Park and will review Wairau River Wines’ trade marks across the world, including in China.

Having listened to some of the possible pitfalls, he said he would run potential Chinese names past a number of people, to make sure the brand’s name was not lost in translation.

“One thing I did pick up on was you should ask a few different people what that might be, and get a pool of words that you then choose from.”

The Madrid Protocol System, a centralised system administered by World Patent Office in Switzerland, is legally binding in China. However, John said it was not always practical in real terms, because people in business there recognise the Chinese certificate of registration. “If you need to urgently prove ownership of your trade mark, you should register in China.”

Counterfeit Wine China is the fifth largest wine consuming country in the world, but it’s possible that between 50% and 70% of wines sold there are fake.

Intellectual property experts from AJ Park told a Marlborough business group that plenty of bottles of “Penfoids” are sold in lieu of Penfolds, and an empty bottle of Château Lafite can be sold for $1000 to someone planning to refill with counterfeit wine. John Hackett said reports confirmed that half of all the Château Lafite sold in China is counterfeit, but he believes it is likely much higher. “People are not really going to be aware they’ve been sold a fake, and they’re not going to complain about it.”

However, Anton Blijlevens said the Chinese government was trying to be seen to do the right thing. It has launched an initiative called Protected Eco-Origin Product (PEOP), and works with wine producers in the scheme to authenticate wine with a PEOP label, which includes visible and invisible codes. One of them is a QR code, which consumers can check on their smart phones.

They said some wine producers had also introduced tamper-proof caps, bottle buyback programs, tagging of bottles, and barcode marking systems. However, the first step is to build brand protection and awareness in China, so consumers can easily recognise a trade mark and specific features of a label.

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 15

The Angel’s Share Going Naked has had fantastic outcomes for a Marlborough winemaking couple.

SOPHIE PREECE It’s no small thing to set up an independent wine company in the middle of a downturn. But if you’re Small and Small and have Angels smiling down on you, it’s not such a big thing either.

That’s what Bill and Claudia Small found seven years ago, when Bill came across information about Naked Wines

Naked Wines Naked Wines (UK) has 150,000 Angels funding 300 wines from 15 countries. Six of its 98 winemakers are from New Zealand, and four from Marlborough. Naked Wines began in the UK, but the model now operates in Australia and the United States as well.

16 | WINEPRESS May 2016

and asked the UK business if they’d like to add a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to their list.

The Naked people said yes and promised money from Angel investors, allowing Bill to leave his winemaking job and focus on their own label.

For the Smalls that meant all the benefits of being their own bosses, without the stress of funding and selling their own wine. For UK Angels like Jerry and Julie Young, now great fans of Small and Small, it meant helping another independent wine producer develop their products, while getting good value for money in return. (see sidebox) Naked Wines is a customer funded business model that uses money from its

subscribers, otherwise known as Angels, to fund independent winemakers around the world. The 150,000 UK Angels, including Archangels, then spend their investment on the results, choosing from up to 300 wines from 15 countries.

Bill says when they started out there was a lot of trust on both sides - from the Smalls, who knew Naked Wines almost sounded too good to be true, and from the UK company, which put faith in their abilities. “When they got the first vintage, they must have thought ‘thank goodness’.”

That trust has been rewarded. Claudia, a viticulturist, says the excess of grapes in 2010 meant they had access to some of the region’s best vineyards, and were able to forge lasting relationships with great growers. For their seventh vintage, just finished, the Smalls processed 400 tonnes from eight select growers from the Awatere and Wairau Valleys, up from 30 tonnes in their first year.

They produce seven different wines, including an Awatere Valley Sauvignon Blanc named Sylvia (see sidebox), a Sauvignon Blanc from Awatere and Wairau Valley fruit, and a Pinot Noir from the Southern

Valleys. And they have 11,881 followers on Naked Wines, along with more than 100,000 ratings. “It doesn’t seem like a lot of risk now,” says Claudia. “It’s gone really well.”

The Smalls had two-year-old Ted and baby Sylvia when they first touched base with Naked Wines, and now have wee Penny as well. Small and Small has allowed them to spend a lot more time with their children, while making their own decisions about the wine. There’s little stylistic pressure from Naked Wines, but “there’s an implication that if you are making Marlborough Sauvignon, it will taste like Marlborough Sauvignon,” says Bill.

They also react to consumer feedback, reading and responding to the tens of thousands of reviews on the Naked Wines website. It’s a job that keeps them in touch with their market, which they say is made up largely of people who like wine, but are not obsessed by it - more interested in peer reviews than wine awards and critics.

“It’s very disruptive,” says Claudia, comparing it to the standard wine market. “You get a lot of stuff around wine that isn’t really necessary. Through Naked we can just be ourselves.”

Some Angels turn up on their Severne St doorstep, generally by appointment but occasionally out of the blue. “The people who come and look you up are lovely,” she says. “You’ll have a chat and give them recommendations around the place.”

Apart from those visits and the replies to online forums, the only sales work they need to think about is in an annual trip to the UK, for which they take turns. Claudia says the whirlwind tour is good fun and devoid of pretension. “They put 40 wine makers from around the world on a bus and drive us to ten cities in the UK. We do big consumer tastings with 400 to 800 people in each - it’s insane. By the end of it you can’t talk.”

Angelic Talk UK Angels Julie and Jerry Young have been with Naked Wines since 2014, when they started investing £20 every month into their “piggy bank”. Now they buy most of their wine through Naked, where they are influenced not by awards but by the overall Angel ratings and occasionally the comments of an individual.

They say the model works because it makes them feel they are part of something special, by giving independent wine producers the opportunity to develop their products, and getting good value for money in return.

They also feel like they’re effectively part of a club of people with similar interests. “As such, we didn’t feel at all awkward about contacting Bill and Claudia when we knew that we would be visiting their region in New Zealand…They turned out to be very welcoming, enthusiastic and lovely people - just as we expected.”

Claudia and Bill were both studying at the University of Adelaide when they met in the mid-1990s. They moved to Marlborough in 2004 to take up jobs with large wine companies, and say shedding those roles to go Naked has been a refreshing and rewarding change.

“We control it all,” says Claudia. “We know the implications of the decisions we make. It’s more stressful obviously, having your own label, but it’s also a lot less stressful because you know why you made those decisions and you live with them.

It’s a pretty nice way to operate.”

Angelic Accolades Angels may not care about wine awards, but they’ve got them nonetheless. Last year the Small and Small Sylvia Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2014 took out the International Trophy Sauvignon Blanc under £15 in the Decanter World Wine Awards. The Angels loved the result, because they’d already picked it as a great wine, says Claudia. The Sylvia, made from fruit grown south of the Awatere River, was praised for its “textbook expression of the grape”. Named for their daughter, who was just 2 months old when the Smalls went Naked, Sylvia is not just a hit with Angels and judges. “They’re great teacher presents,” Claudia laughs.

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WINEPRESS May 2016 | 17

Gen Y-Ine Biosecurity is a key part of the New Zealand wine industry’s sustainability story, says New Zealand Winegrowers Biosecurity Manager Edwin Massey.

SOPHIE PREECE Edwin Massey’s first day working in biosecurity was also the first day of the 2012 fruit fly response in Auckland. In something of a baptism of fire, the freshly minted Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Plant and Environment Response Team Manager was suddenly collecting information and providing advice on how to swat the Queensland Fruit Fly from New Zealand shores.

“It was a very steep learning curve,” says Edwin from his new office at the Marlborough Research Centre, where he has taken up the role of Biosecurity Manager for New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW).

In the years that followed, Edwin held key roles in the MPI response teams dealing with three more fruit fly detections in the upper North Island, including the major response in Grey Lynn last year. It was work that reiterated the fact that as well as offshore protections and border controls, New Zealand’s biosecurity system relies on a “readiness and response capability that’s trained and ready to go at a moment’s notice”, he says.

His work at MPI included the role of principal advisor in the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) implementation team, working to create alliances between industry sectors and government in the biosecurity battle.

Now with his young family settled in Marlborough and his feet under a

18 | WINEPRESS May 2016

NZW desk, he’s focussing on a GIA for the wine industry. “There’s a great opportunity to make some real progress in biosecurity by going down that path.

That will be a focus in my role this year. To try and get a mandate for our members to ensure they think GIA is a good idea.”

Edwin says there are three key benefits to members. Firstly, the partnership gives New Zealand Winegrowers a seat at the table, to help make decisions around initiating a biosecurity response and be part of the response governance team. “That’s pretty big, because prior to that, government made those decisions by themselves.”

Industry involvement offers knowledge and resource, as well as more “socially legitimate” outcomes, he says. The 2015 fruit fly response in Grey Lynn saw chemical and movement controls in place for months on end, so biosecurity had a real impact on people’s lives and it was vital they bought in to the process. “Working with industry and having a seat at the table, makes it more legitimate.”

The second advantage is in readiness, with industry and government resources aligned and ready to respond, “so we are good to go should a risk emerge”.

That includes pathway analysis, looking at how and when threats could breach the system. “It could be something as

simple as developing a response plan for key priority organisms, and getting people aware of what risks are. There is a whole lot of readiness work that has the potential to be done.”

The third advantage is having more influence on how the biosecurity system is set up, before, at and beyond the border.

Edwin says the risks to Marlborough’s wine industry include specific grapevine threats, which would most likely come in on a new variety of grapevine, as well as a generalist risk, such as a bug or bacterial disease that could impact on a wide range of plants including grapes. The former would most likely be picked up by New Zealand’s robust post entry quarantine system, but the latter could come on or in containers, through people’s luggage, or some other pathway. “That risk is harder to manage.”

He says biosecurity is a greater challenge now than ever before, thanks to several factors. In the past New Zealand’s geographic isolation meant it sidestepped the full range of threats facing countries with common land borders and greater flows of people and materials.

However, the amount of imports, visitors and pathways for pests to get into New Zealand has “mushroomed”

over the past decade, and will continue to grow into the future.

“There are going to be lots more containers. There are going to be lots more cruise ships. There are going to be lots more jets landing and more online shopping. There’s going to be that full range of pathways, potentially exposing us to risk.”

Add to that the impact of global warming, which exposes the country to a greater range of pests, as well as the move to monoculture in many areas, and it’s clear why vigilance is vital.

That vigilance needs to be across the board, he says. “You have to think of biosecurity as a system. It’s not just a case of making an intervention at one particular part and saying ‘we’ve done that’.”

And its everyone’s responsibility, he says. “Part of my role is to make sure our members are really up to speed with what they can do, and educated around looking at things that are unusual.”

Edwin has always had a passion for natural resources. “As a youngster I was always interested in fishing, forests, farming, and how people who owned a resource or owned access to that resource ensured that their management strategies were long term.”

The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro struck a chord with him, and sustainability has been an aspect of his study and work ever since. In 2005 he graduated with a PhD in geography from the University of Auckland, where his thesis examined ways to overcome barriers to ecological information transfer in fisheries management.

He was concerned that scientific information on how fishing was affecting the aquatic environment wasn’t being reflected rapidly in policy development, so investigated ways to better integrate scientists and their work into government networks.

“The nexus between science and management is critical in fisheries management as it is in biosecurity,” he says.

After university he worked at MFish then MPI in fisheries management, before moving on to the biosecurity role. Just like science, sustainability is vital to both fields, he says.

“Biosecurity is a key part of the sustainability story. It’s absolutely critical to do our best to ensure the biosecurity risk is managed. It is essential to being able to do what we want to do, and what growers want to do, in 50 years, in 100 years, in 1000 years.”

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Contact us today Edwin will be writing a regular column for Winepress, informing industry about the GIA, seasonal biosecurity risks and other issues. If you have any questions about the government partnership or another matter, you can contact him on 03 265 4057, 021 1924 924 or at Edwin.massey@nzwine. com. If you see something unusual and suspect it may be a pest or disease worth investigation, call the Biosecurity Hotline on 0800 809 966.

info@damit.co.nz Hamish Blackwell

Matt Broughan

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WINEPRESS May 2016 | 19

Bright Young Things Three interns have helped progress the science around Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

Xiaoqing (Sabrina) Xu, left, Rebecca Wiepz and Lucas Herrmann

SOPHIE PREECE Interns bring more than just good ideas and fresh expertise to Marlborough, says Damian Martin of Plant & Food Research (PFR). “From our perspective it provides bright young enthusiastic people who help energise the team and bring in not only specific expertise that they might have, but also culturally enrich us.”

Over two months of summer Xiaoqing (Sabrina) Xu worked on a project with PFR, looking at concentrations of green leaf volatiles and sulphides in juice, and their influence on the thiols of Sauvignon Blanc wines. “We haven’t got analytical results on the thiols, but we think we can smell them on some of the treatments, which is very exciting to us,” she said just weeks before flying back to Beijing, where she is nearing the end of her PhD at China Agricultural University.

The Marlborough project was a

20 | WINEPRESS May 2016

happy bonus to her studies, which are focused on the evaluation of aroma compounds, including green leaf volatiles, responsible for the green notes of grapes and wine. “Personally I am very interested in flavour and especially volatiles,” she says. “There are hundreds of chemical compounds and they are complex and complicatedly interactive with each other.”

Before Sabrina left for China two other interns had arrived at the PFR, with Germany’s Lucas Herrmann in Marlborough to complete his master’s degree thesis, and Rebecca Wiepz, from Wisconsin in the United States, working to get a better understanding of grapes.

Rebecca has a bachelor’s degree in horticulture, and is hoping to start studying for her PhD in the coming year or two. The young intern is interested in fruit crops in general, and

worked in Blenheim until late April. “I don’t know that much about wine, but came to learn as much as I could.” That learning saw her work with numerous vineyard field trials and also in the organisation’s winery over vintage.

Lucas, who is here until mid-June, is doing his master’s in viticulture and oenology, and has been working on a Marlborough project looking to improve micro-vinification winemaking processes, “especially on the effect of juice turbidity on the aroma production of the yeasts during fermentation”.

Damian says PFR Marlborough tries to bring in two or three overseas interns each year, to help develop their skills, as well as invigorate the research team.

“They are very capable of picking us up on things and asking the right questions.”

A Helping Hand A career in the wine industry is far more than swirling a glass or picking a grape.

ANNABELLE LATZ Zac Floyd dragged his first hose at Indevin in 2011, learning entry level winery skills through the Skills for Industry Cellarhand partnership. Five years on, he is a permanent member of the winery’s cellar team and is working towards an engineering apprenticeship.

“I have realised that everything breaks at some point,” he says, at the tailend of a 12-hour night shift, where his primary job is to fix and maintain equipment through harvest.

Zac is one of 58 people to complete the Cellarhand course since it was established in 2011, with 91% of students continuing on to permanent full-time work. Jill Harris, Community Liaison Advisor at the Ministry of Social Development, says the partnership between wine growers, Work and Income and NMIT has been advantageous for the industry as a whole. “I think it’s a great industry from any aspect, for young people direct from school, or those coming through a Work and Income referral.”

The programme offers education in a classroom environment and at a winery,

resulting in a NMIT completion certificate, including unit standards relating to health and safety, teamwork, food safety, care and timeliness, and problem solving.

Zac had previous experience working in vineyards, but winery work was appealing due to its variety and potential avenues. “It’s all so different, there are so many different areas to work in,” he says. When he arrived for vintage work at 7pm each evening, he never knew where his skills would be needed. Meanwhile, he has had to find the time to study and keep up with the ins and outs of new equipment arriving at Indevin.

Zac says more awareness of the wine industry at schools would be a good thing. “There’s no harm in starting in a winery when you are 18, because everyone has a chance to prove themselves. If you work hard and are good at what you do, it usually works out.” Geoff Beavis, logistics and production planner at Indevin, took Zac under his wing when he first started. “He has just taken to it with

Zac Floyd

open arms, and run with it,” he says.

Zac’s co-worker Bo Wood, who also has previous experience in vineyards, has just completed his first winery vintage. “You just don’t quite realise how involved it is, when the fruit comes in,” he says. His work history also includes sommelier work in Wellington, so gaining an appreciation for how the product gets in the bottle has been massive for Bo, and he can’t wait to continue on this pathway. “The people I have worked with have been nothing but fantastic.”

Bo worked on RDV this vintage, and is looking forward to seeing how different areas of the winery operate. “It’s a real career opportunity for everyone. There is a lot more involved in a winery than just tanks, and I would say ‘give it a go’ to anyone.”

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 21

The Block – Ashmore Ten years after Nigel Sowman discovered the sense of organic grape growing, he’s more convinced than ever. Ashmore Vineyards’ viticulturist talks of quality fruit, diverse eco systems and future proofing an industry.

SOPHIE PREECE As his vines transform to shades of autumn, Nigel Sowman is thinking about sheep.

He’s spent the past six weeks selectively harvesting Ashmore’s rich patchwork of vines – a slice of Chardonnay here, a segment of Sauvignon there – until 130 parcels serving 14 clients were taken from nearly 300 hectares. “There are bits and pieces of everything under the sun,” he says, looking over Dog Point vines.

Now the last of the grapes are finally in, and the gates will soon open to more than 2000 store lambs, bought to fatten up on tender grass between the rows over winter. They’ll be followed by 1800 old ewes tasked with eating the “hard tucker” left behind.

They too will be gone by bud burst, when all that remains is to send the under vine weeder through to finish it off, says Nigel. “I struggle to understand how people can do organics without sheep. To me it’s such an integral part of how we run the property. They come in, spend the winter grazing, turning grass into manure, which fertilises the block.”

Ashmore is the largest organic vineyard in New Zealand, with 155.7ha on the home vineyard and another 108.3ha of organic satellite blocks. That’s more 22 | WINEPRESS May 2016

than a quarter of Marlborough’s combined 1045ha of certified organic vineyard area and more than 10% of New Zealand’s total.

It began in the late 1970s, when Ivan and Margaret Sutherland planted Ashmore Vineyard around their home, growing high quality grapes for various wine companies, including Cloudy Bay, where Ivan was viticulturist. They bought the Dog Point farm across the road in 1991 and in 2002 established the Dog Point Vineyard winery with James and Wendy Healy.

Nigel started as Ashmore’s viticulturist just a few months earlier, and over the past 14 years has grown with the company, working to convert its established vineyards to organics, develop new blocks and replant old ones, always with the farm’s diversity in mind. “One of the great things I love about working here is everyone says ‘when will you plant there?’ and we say, ‘we need it for sheep and cattle’.”

In addition to the viticultural role they play, the fattened sheep are a good earner that harks back to this land’s

Nigel Sowman at Ashmore Vineyard’s Dog Point site

history. Each year more than 3000 of them are shorn in the Dog Point woolshed, which dates back to 1906, then sent off to the works.

As well as its winter weeders, the farm has a constant flock of around 40 sheep, as well as a pine nut plantation, apricot orchard, thousands of olive trees and of natives, a large staff vegetable garden and a picturesque dell, where frostfighting choppers land come spring.

“It takes a day to mow our parks and reserves, as we call it,” says Nigel.

The diversity is integral to the company’s philosophy, and ensures these vineyards feel like an island amid Marlborough’s sea of grapes. They are also testimony to the viability of large scale organics.

On the day we meet, and as harvest winds up, Nigel has spent the morning with a team of Lincoln students, sharing

with them his knowledge of organic viticulture, and his belief in its future.

Some were sceptical, which he believes comes from a lack of knowledge. “They said to me, ‘I hear the crops are really low’ and I said ‘every year I fruit thin and shoot thin 90% of my vineyard.

Would I be doing that if I don’t get enough crop?’”

Dropping fruit is an expensive exercise, but he doesn’t want to be growing 15 tonnes to the hectare. “We want to be known as a grower of quality fruit…We want to be at that upper echelon.”

Nigel got his own taste for organics at a two-day seminar in 2006. “That was a big turning point for me. The fact that I understood why I was doing things, rather than doing them because of ‘what if ’ questions.” Chemical reps and chemical companies often ask the question: “What if this happens?” followed by the just-in-case solution of spraying, he says. “But that’s such a bad way to look at it. It’s such a negative way to do anything.”

Ivan told him that there were years during his time at Cloudy Bay that he only sprayed sulphur, and Nigel began to question why he was using a systemic fungicide if sulphur could do the same job. “As it turns out, it does exactly the same job.”

He began dropping more sprays from his regime, and in 2008, when Ivan asked how far they were from organics, the answer was a single spray and the purchase of some under vine weeders.

Nigel began to suggest trial blocks they could start with, but Ivan insisted they do the whole 150ha of producing vineyard. It was a bold move, and even BioGro questioned the extent of the conversion, suggesting they start with a few hectares.

But Nigel says the decision was typical of Ivan’s long term vision. “It was a stroke of genius…If you do 4ha amongst 40, then that 4ha is a hugely annoying piece because you have to treat if differently. Instead it went to being the norm.”

After the first year there was “full and total buy-in” from staff, he says. The biggest paradigm shift was the messy

underfloor in lieu of clean, neat lines, free of weeds. “But we would say, ‘if it’s growing there, the ground is alive’.”

Two years after the conversion of established vineyards, they moved into their hillside blocks.

The company now has 20ha going through conversion and another 20ha of conventional blocks, which will eventually go the same way.

Among the redevelopment plans is a newly acquired vineyard that neighbours the Dog Point site.

Nigel says there’s great potential “up on the hill” and he plans to tap into it, with 3.2m wide rows replanted at 2.2x1.2m.

Ashmore works on the basis of converting healthy producing vineyards, rather than developing organic vineyards from scratch. However, all the canopy work is certified organic, and the philosophy of the conventional blocks leans more towards “future farming”.

The 2016 harvest was the first in which all the Dog Point fruit going through the winery was fully certified. But a very small percentage of Ashmore’s grapes actually go into organic wine, says Nigel, emphasising that the primary reason for their organic choices is quality not marketing. It is also about “future proofing” the business and industry, he says, talking of the increase in resistance issues with chemicals, and the decrease in residue limits allowed.

He has learned a lot over the years, and

Nigel Sowman - photo

by Jim Tannock

Ashmore grows for Kevin Judd’s Greywacke label.

is happy to share those lessons with others, because “it’s to the benefit of the whole industry”. That has long been Ivan’s ethos, and it has rubbed off on Ashmore and Dog Point staff, he says. “If someone asks for advice you give it to them, because it’s benefitting Marlborough as a region, and anything that can benefit Marlborough and New Zealand benefits us as well.”

There will be issues in organic vineyards, as in conventional, but Ashmore looks to find reasons for problems, and site-specific solutions beyond sprays. Nigel says he loves the diversity of the vineyards, the philosophy behind them, and the unique challenge of every vintage.

“I find it stimulating and it keeps me interested and excited about the organic grape growing industry here in Marlborough.”

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 23

The Benchmark More growers are using financial benchmarking to help improve their business SOPHIE PREECE A new online benchmarking process means more grapegrowers can see how their business stacks up, says Fruition’s Greg Dryden. “It’s the old thing that you don’t know what you don’t know, and you need data to be able to manage effectively.”

Gross Margin Financial Benchmarking was introduced to Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough through a pilot project last year, and this year expands into Gisborne and the Wairarapa.

Greg, who runs the Viticulture Financial Benchmarking Programme for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW), says growers in those four regions have until May 31 to add basic data through a simple portal on the NZW website. In return, they will receive information back, comparing them to similar, but unnamed, operations.

The Gross Margin process provides benchmarking across a specific grape variety rather than an entire vineyard, with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir the varieties included for 2016. Greg says growers often begin the process feeling satisfied with their cost structure,

yield and price profile. “But when they see it compared with other similar growers, they see there’s opportunity to improve.”

The Gross Margin project will add a wider range of data to the current Return on Investment model, which includes detailed production, income and vineyard working and fixed expenses. That model has been operating since 2004 and last year expanded from 25 to 30 vineyards in Marlborough, with plans to expand to 50 vineyards over the next three years.

Both projects provide valuable data for the NZW/MPI Viticulture Financial Monitoring report, and also allow growers and wineries the opportunity to benchmark the physical and financial performance of their vineyard against others.

Sileni Estate has been part of the full benchmarking scheme for three years.

Group Viticulturist Stephen Bradley says it allows him to step out of the silo and judge how the company lines up against others in a similar situation, both in terms of financials and yields.

“I can compare and contrast different vineyards that are effectively under the

Greg Dryden.

Photo Bridget Chalmers

same management.” Doing the same comparisons within his own stable of vineyards offers less useful data because they are effectively under the “same flavour of management”, he says. “It’s good to be able to see outside that, and see if you are doing a good job.”

The data collection in both projects is completely confidential, with no direct costs to growers. Greg says the appeal of the new project for many is that it is not onerous or overly time consuming. “When we started in 2004, computer accountancy packages were in their infancy, but now, with the likes of Xero and MYOB, the data capture is relatively straight forward, and it can be a 10-15 minute process for a small grower, or half an hour for a medium one.”

For more information on the process go to the resources tab in the members section of the NZW site www.nzwine.com.

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Export News – February 2016 Key Points • Moving Annual Total (MAT) February 2016 export value is $1.561 billion, up 14% on the previous year.

• MAT February 2016 exports are 213.7 m. litres, up 8% on the previous year; packaged exports are +10% for the period and other exports are up 4%.

• Average value MAT February 2016 is $7.25 per litre, up 6% on the previous year; packaged export value is $8.68 per litre up 6% on the previous year.

Total Export Volume & Value • MAT February 2016 total value of exports is $1.561 billion, up 14% on the previous year.

• Total value of year to date(YTD) February 2016 exports is $1.089 billion up 14% on February 2015.

• Total value of February 2016 exports was $136.4 m. up 34% on February 2015.

• MAT February 2016 exports are 213.7m. litres, up 8% (16.2 m. litres) on the previous year.

• YTD February 2016 exports are 149.5 m. litres, up 6% (8.3 m. litres) on the previous year.

• February 2016 exports were 19.2 m. litres up 26% (4.0 m. litres) on February 2015.

Export Value per Litre All wines • February 2016 average value was $6.98 per litre, up 15% from February 2015.

• YTD February 2016 average value is $7.26 per litre.

• MAT February 2016 average price is $7.25 per litre, up 6% on MAT February 2015.

Packaged wines • Excluding unpackaged wine from the data, the February 2016 average value was $8.75 per litre, up $0.45 per litre (5%) on February 2015.

• YTD February 2016 average value is $8.87 per litre.

• MAT February 2016 the average

price is $8.68 per litre, up $0.45 per litre (6%) on MAT February 2015.

• MAT February 2016 prices are up 13% to the USA, 9% to UK, and 2% to Canada but are down 1% to Australia.

• YTD February 2016 non-packaged shipments are 53.8 m. litres, down 0.4% on the previous year.

• February 2016 non-packaged shipments were 8.1 m. litres, up 38% on February 2015.

Export Volume by Country of Destination • In December, for the major markets, exports were up 85% to the UK and 69% to the USA but were down 30% to Australia. Canada was up 1% for the month, while performance of other markets was mixed, with Ireland and Germany performing very strongly.

• YTD December exports are up 24% to the USA and 2% to the UK, but are down 10% to Australia.

Canada is up 13% for period, while performance of other markets is mixed, with the best performer being Germany.

• MAT February 2016 growth is led by the USA +18%, with UK +7% but Australia is -6%. Canada shipments are +14% for the year. Performance of other tracked markets is generally positive with Germany the strongest performer +59%.

Exports by Variety/Style • In February 2016 Sauvignon Blanc exports were 16.8 m. litres, up 27% from the previous year, accounting for 87.5% of export volume. Of the Sauvignon Blanc exported in February, 15.8 m litres (94%) was from Vintage 2015.

• Performance of other styles was generally positive in February with the best performers being Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon & Pinot Gris.

• YTD February 2016, Sauvignon Blanc shipments are 129.0 m. litres up 4% from the previous year. Performance of other styles is generally positive.

• MAT February 2016, Sauvignon Blanc shipments are 182.9 m. litres up 7% from the previous year. Performance of other styles is generally positive with Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris the strongest performers.

• Production of Sauvignon Blanc in 2015 is estimated to have been 162 m. litres, 30% down on the previous year. Export shipments of vintage 2015 Sauvignon Blanc since release are 91.0 m. litres or 56.1% of estimated production.

Volume by Packaging Type • Exports of packaged wines MAT February 2016 are 143.5m. litres up 10% (13.3 m. litres) on the previous year and are 67.1% of total export volume.

• MAT February 2016 packaged exports are led by USA & Canada both +18%.

• YTD February 2016 packaged exports are 95.7 m. litres, up 10% on February 2015.

• February 2016 packaged exports were 11.0 m. litres, up 19% on February 2015.

• Other (non-packaged) wine shipments MAT February 2016 are 70.2 m. litres up 4% (32.9% of export volume). Non-packaged shipments growth is led by USA (+19%).

Exports by Winery Category • February 2016 export growth was led by the medium wineries +33% with the large wineries+29%, and small wineries +7%.

• YTD February 2016 small wineries are +2% with the medium and large wineries both +7% for the period.

• MAT February 2016 the small and medium wineries are both +8% and the large wineries +9% for the period.

WINEPRESS May 2016 | 25

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9/2013 WINEPRESS

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Wine Happenings A monthly list of events within the New Zealand wine industry.

To have your event included in next month’s calendar please email details to sophie@sophiepreece.co.nz

MAY 2016 10:

Viticultural Taskforce/Wine Marlborough Pruning Workshop - 160 Paynters Road, Blenheim

14:

Saint Clair Half Marathon - Marlborough

18:

Lunch function on Drugs and Alcohol in the workplace - Blenheim (register at iod.org.nz)

18:

Wine Marlborough Cellar Door Debrief - Marlborough

20:

Wine Marlborough Health and Safety Workshop - Marlborough Research Centre (free)

26 – 28: International Cool Climate Wine Symposium - England 31:

Bayer Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year Education Day

JUNE 2016 3:

Applications close for the Bayer Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year Competition

14:

Open evening for Marlborough’s regional Tonnellerie de Mercurey New Zealand Young Winemaker Competition - Scotch Bar from 5:30pm.

20:

Applications close for Marlborough’s regional Tonnellerie de Mercurey New Zealand Young Winemaker Competition

22:

New Zealand Winegrowers Grape Days - Marlborough (www.grapedays.co.nz)

24:

Bayer Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year Competition 2016

JULY 2016 8:

Tonnellerie de Mercurey New Zealand Young Winemaker - Marlborough

AUGUST 2016 24-26:

Romeo Bragato Conference - Marlborough

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WINEPRESS May 2016 | 27

Industry News Real Estate Update Interest in Marlborough viticulture land is still strong, but few sales have been reported in the past two months as harvest has been taking priority.

PGG Wrightson sales manager Joe Blakiston says across the Wairau Plain, grape blocks are still achieving interest at figures around $180,000 per hectare, with one 21ha vineyard the only significant “on market” sale this year.

A number of post-harvest blocks are likely to be marketed in the coming months, with local and national interest and Auckland investors expected to be particularly active, says Joe. “As always bare land for grape development is attracting interest with available land still at a premium.”

Time To Enter Applications for the Bayer Marlborough Young Viticulturist of the Year Competition close on June 3, and organisers are urging more people to enter. “We hope that now harvest is over, more young viticulturists will take the time to consider this fantastic opportunity,” says Samantha Young.

The team is running an education day on May 31, with national sponsors coming in to give presentations to a gathering of potential entrants and their employers. Marlborough’s regional competition will be held on June 24, and the winner will go on to compete at the national final at the 2016 Bragato conference in Marlborough.

At that event the country’s top young viticulturists will compete for a chance to represent at the national Young Horticulturist of the Year competition.

Local entrants must be 30 years of age or under on December 31, 2016, be working full time in the viticulture industry and have worked in a handson position for the past two years. For

more information check out www. wine-marlborough.co.nz

Cover Shot The cover image, supplied by Jim Tannock, is of Judah Woyo, an RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme) worker with Hortus. Vintage 2016 was Judah’s third visit to New Zealand, and the money earned has enabled him to pay school fees for his children and build a house. Judah comes from Mota Lava Island, among Vanuatu’s Banks Islands.

Young Winemakers Organisers expect a post-vintage rush of entries to the Marlborough regional Tonnellerie de Mercurey New Zealand Young Winemaker competition.

“Harvest seems to reinvigorate people so they’re keen to test themselves against their peers,” says organiser Samantha Young. The winners from each wine region go on to compete at the national final at the Bragato Conference in Marlborough in August.

An open evening for Marlborough’s regional competition will be held at Scotch Bar from 5:30pm on Tuesday June 14, and applications close on Monday June 20. For more information email: sophie.matthews@gmail.com.

Grape Days The Grape Days workshop in Marlborough on June 22 will look at key issues from 2015 and what the research programme can deliver to the industry. Philip Gregan will give a Vintage 2016 update, followed by sessions on fungus fighting and water fundamentals. Online registration is now open. For more information, go to www.grapedays.co.nz.

Top Drop The Wairau River Reserve Pinot Noir 2014 has taken out the top spot in the latest Cuisine Magazine Pinot Noir tasting, with the Wairau River Estate Pinot Noir 2014 coming in at number eight. In the past three years the top position has been taken by Central Otago wineries, but this year five out of the top ten wines awarded came from Marlborough. Wairau River winemakers Nick Entwistle and Sam Rose (pictured) say the 2014 Pinot Noirs’ outstanding quality is due to a combination of factors, including mature vines, dry, settled weather during ripening, gentle handling in the winery and traditional techniques.

Nick says the vineyard team did an exceptional job. “When the fruit quality is that good, the winemaking is simple.”

The Auntsfield Single Vineyard Pinot Noir received the number two placing in the Cuisine Tasting.

Disclaimer: The views and articles that are expressed and appear in Winepress are entirely those of contributors and in no way reflect the policy of the Marlborough Winegrowers. Any advice given, implied or suggested should be considered on its merits, and no responsibility can be taken for problems arising from the use of such information.

28 | WINEPRESS May 2016

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