Winepress - May 2022

Winepress THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF WINE MARLBOROUGH

ISSUE NO. 329 / MAY 2022

VINTAGE REVIEW

SUPPLY CHAIN

INNOVATION INCUBATION

TĀTOU TECH

Photo: Jim Tannock

wine-marlborough.co.nz

10 14

this issue...

REGULARS

FEATURES

3 4 6

10

22 24

Editorial - Sophie Preece From the Board - Jamie Marfell Tasman Crop Met Report Rob Agnew Generation Y-ine - Sarah Fix

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Biosecurity Watch Sophie Badland

26

Industry News

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Wine Happenings

Cover: Tātou makes technology more accessible and improves outcomes for employee and employer, says developer Aimee Jay. Photo by Jim Tannock. See page 18

16

Vintage Review A double whammy of climatic and Covid challenges hit Marlborough wine companies this vintage, with rainfall boosting botrytis while Omicron decimated hand harvest crews.

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Ship Show Markets are eager to get their hands on Marlborough’s 2022 wines, but a messy supply chain means getting the wines under cap, our of port and into global markets is far from simple.

Innovation Incubator Efforts are underway to position Marlborough not just as an exporter of the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc but also as an international incubator of viticulture technology and innovation.

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Winepress May 2022 / 1

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General Manager: Marcus Pickens 03 577 9299 or 021 831 820 marcus@winemarlborough.nz Editor: Sophie Preece 027 308 4455 sophie@sophiepreece.co.nz Marketing and Communications: Sarah Linklater 021 704 733 sarah@winemarlborough.nz Events Manager: Loren Coffey loren@winemarlborough.nz Advocacy Manager: Nicci Armour advocacy@winemarlborough.nz Finance Administrator: Joanna May accounts@winemarlborough.nz Grape Grower Directors: Anna Laugesen anna.laugesen@xtra.co.nz Kirsty Harkness kirsty@mountbase.co.nz Michiel Eradus michiel@eraduswines.co.nz Nigel Sowman nigel@dogpoint.co.nz Tracy Johnston tracy@dayvinleigh.co.nz Wine Company Directors: Beth Forrest beth@forrest.co.nz Damien Yvon damien@closhenri.com Gus Altschwager gus@akwines.net James Macdonald james@hunters.co.nz Jamie Marfell Jamie.Marfell@pernod-ricard.com Designed by: Blenheim Print Ltd 03 578 1322

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.

This document is printed on an environmentally responsible paper, produced using elemental chlorine free (EFC), third party pulp from responsible sources, manufactured under the strict ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and is 100% Recyclable.

From the Editor MARLBOROUGH GROWERS dodged a bullet in vintage 2022, “but not entirely”.

That’s the impression of Plant & Food’s Rob Agnew in this edition’s vintage review, noting that December, February and March rainfall hit some blocks more than others, depending on dates of flowering and ripening. “Timing is so important,” he says on page 10.

That’s true of every season, but in vintage 2022 the timing of Omicron infections overlaid the vagaries of nature, decimating some vineyard and winery crews, and hampering the ability to firefight in the vines and process in the cellars. Wineries already under pressure - with largely inexperienced cellar crews, good yields and eager markets - had to adapt even further if key staff and swathes of cellar hands were taken out of the mix.

“The stories of vintage 2022 are as diverse as the number of vineyard blocks and wineries” “All harvests are different, and this one was more different than most, with disease pressure on two fronts - Covid and botrytis,” says Marlborough Grape Growers Cooperative chief executive Mike Brown, summing up a season of extraordinary challenges.

The stories of vintage 2022 are as diverse as the number of vineyard blocks and wineries, dependent on how vines and virus fared. But there’s a common thread in the extraordinary pressure placed on the people of Marlborough’s wine industry this harvest, and going forward for blending, bottling and the still slippery business of shipping to market (see page 14).

“Wellbeing will be top of the list in conversations across most businesses’ leadership teams as they grapple with the rapidly changing pandemic environment and the challenges of vintage,” says Pernod Ricard Winemakers group winemaker Jamie Marfell in this month’s From the Board.

As well as looking at vintage and supply chains, this edition explores plans to position Marlborough as an international incubator of viticulture technology and innovation. Companies like Tātou, Smart Machine and Cropsy are leading the charge, with exciting solutions for vineyards in Marlborough and around the world. Mark Unwin, Marlborough District Council economic development manager, says it’s about nurturing an ecosystem for start-ups to flourish, “so Marlborough is not just exporting the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc, but we are also exporting that technology and the innovation created around that”.

SOPHIE PREECE

Winepress May 2022 / 3

PROTECT

From the Board Taking care of each other JAMIE MARFELL

“A strict ‘no grapes Sundays’ gave the cellar team respite”

WELLBEING WILL be top of the list in conversations across most businesses’ leadership teams as they grapple with the rapidly changing pandemic environment and the challenges of vintage. Even outside of a pandemic, employee health, safety and wellbeing must be the number one priority in a team as businesses work to ensure a physical and cultural environment that employees feel safe in, knowing the organisation they work for truly cares for them.

Taking Care of Each Other is the name of Pernod Ricard’s global health, safety and wellbeing policy, and it is this approach of ‘wellbeing first’ that really guided the team as we navigated this uniquely complex vintage. The range of touch-points were many, as there is no one easy initiative that will deliver the outcomes you seek.

An across-all-teams six-day-week had fatigue management as the primary driver, ensuring everyone had at least one full day off each week throughout vintage, but there are other benefits to this approach. A strict ‘no grapes Sundays’ gave the cellar team respite, enabling them to catch up on clarification and movements, really relieving any backlog pressure that might have built through the week. Capped hours are reported and tracked to avoid the massive hours that were winemakers’ or viticulturists’ ‘sacrifice’ many years ago.

Sleep - both quantity and quality - is critical to every operation on the site. Without decent sleep you risk errors, accidents and the ability to make good decisions and interact positively with teammates. A good measure of time in vintage inductions is spent on the importance of daily routines of shift work, sleep and nutrition. Our permanent workforce has also been able to access sleep analysis and workshops. Nutrition is supported and, like many wine companies, we provide regular fresh fruit and daily vintage meals.

Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) are invaluable, and as well as offering these services, Pernod Ricard Winemakers has partnered with a local clinical psychologist, giving our employees access to confidential assistance for

Jamie Marfell

4 / Winepress May 2022

any range of concerns, from low mood to stress, fatigue, relationship or alcohol, as we see mental health and skills as a foundation for a safe and well workforce.

Physical safety is a top priority, with the global ambition of zero harm (measured by lost time accidents). This can be a challenging prospect, with many of the traditional ways of working in a winery and vineyard being quite physical. The rebuild following the 2016 earthquake has really allowed for a lot of engineering design for safety, from ground level tanks, fixed lines and swivel hoses. Supporting the injury prevention programme is in-person on the job manual handling training, and access to appointments with a local physiotherapy team, allowing for early intervention for any aches and pains, and a safe return to work.

Isolation of our teams working from home during the Covid-19 red traffic light setting was front of minds.

For Pernod Ricard, as Créateurs de Convivialité, we were very aware of the impacts for those who were no longer at the site daily, not being able to have shared moments and connections. So checking in with our people, whether due to isolation requirements or working from home, became a focus, even on the busiest harvest days. As people are returning slowly, it’s been fantastic to see our teams back.

With the theme for vintage being flexibility and making sure people are okay, we continue to have a flexible approach to individual and team needs.

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Winepress May 2022 / 5

MET REPORT Table 1: Blenheim Weather Data – April 2022 April 2022

April 2022 compared to LTA

GDD’s for: Month - Max/Min¹ 140.9 126% Month – Mean² 138.6 121% Growing Degree Days Total Jul 21 - Apr 22 – Max/Min 1472.0 109% Jul 21 - Apr 22 – Mean 1478.0 107% Mean Maximum (°C) 20.4 +1.5°C Mean Minimum (°C) 9.0 +0.9°C Mean Temp (°C) 14.7 +1.2°C Grass Frosts (<= -1.0°C) 0 1 less Air Frosts (<0.0°C) 0 Sunshine hours 239.6 125% Sunshine hours – lowest Sunshine hours – highest Sunshine hours total – 2022 947.7 103% Rainfall (mm) 9.6 19% Rainfall (mm) – lowest Rainfall (mm) – highest Rainfall total (mm) – 2022 192.6 107% Evapotranspiration – mm 73.4 114% Avg. Daily Windrun (km) 183.7 83% Mean soil temp – 10cm 13.9 +1.8°C Mean soil temp – 30cm 16.0 +1.4°C

April LTA

Period of LTA

April 2021

111.6 114.6

(1996-2021) (1996-2021)

135.4 136.3

1347.0 1378.8 18.9 8.1 13.5 1.11 0.14 192.1 92.1 238.5 917.8 49.7 0.6 173.0 179.6 64.5 220.2 12.1 14.6

(1996-2021) (1996-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021) 1938 1958 (1986-2021) (1986-2021) 1992 1962 (1986-2021) (1996-2021) (1996-2021) (1986-2021) (1986-2021)

1421.1 1443.3 20.2 8.8 14.5 0 0 210.6

average temperatures. The second week was equal to the LTA. The fourth week was close to average.

The coldest mornings in April were on the 14th and 15th with air minimum temperatures of 3.5°C and 3.7°C respectively and grass minimum temperatures of 1.1°C and 0.5°C respectively. There were no ground frosts in April, which is becoming a more common occurrence; e.g. The 23 years 2000 to 2022 recorded an average of 0.74 ground frosts in April.

The 23 years 1977 to 1999 recorded an average of 1.2 ground frosts in April.

The 23 years 1954 to 1976 recorded an average of 2.9 ground frosts in April.

The 22 years 1932 to 1953 recorded an average of 5.8 ground frosts in April.

992.2 7.8

Sunshine

April recorded 239.6 hours sunshine, 125% of the LTA of 192.1 hours. This is the second highest sunshine total on record for April over the 93 years 1930 to 2022. The only year to have recorded a higher April total is 1986 with 240 hours; a mere 0.4 hours, or 24 minutes higher.

117.6 77.3 207.6 13.1 15.1

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

Rainfall

Temperature April’s mean temperature of 14.7°C was 1.2°C above the long-term average (LTA) of 13.5°C. This is the 7th warmest April on record for Blenheim for the 91 years 1932 to 2022. The warmest April since 2010, which recorded 14.9°C. The data in Table 2 indicate that the first and third weeks of April recorded well above

April’s rainfall total of 9.6 mm was only 19% of the LTA for of 49.7 mm. This is the third year in a row when April has recorded well below average rainfall. It is the 8th lowest April rainfall total on record for the 93 years 1930 to 2022.

Table 2: Weekly weather data for Blenheim during April 2022 1 – 7 April 8 – 14 April 15 – 21 April 22 – 28 April 29 – 30 April (2 days) April 2022 Long-term Average 1986-2021 6 / Winepress May 2022

Mean Maximum 22.2 (+3.3) 19.6 (+0.7) 21.5 (+2.6) 19.1 (+0.2) 18.3 (-0.6)

Mean Mean Minimum 11.1 (+3.0) 16.7 (+3.2) 7.5 (-0.6) 13.5 (=) 9.5 (+1.4) 15.5 (+2.0) 8.2 (+0.1) 13.7 (+0.2) 7.1 (-1.0) 12.7 (-0.8)

Rainfall (mm) 0.0 0.2 9.4 0.0 0.0

Sunshine (hours) 54.6 62.6 52.6 54.5 15.3

Wind-run (km) 167.1 218.6 185.6 158.0 203.0 183.7 (83%)

20.4 (+1.5°C)

9.0 (+0.9°C)

14.7 (+1.2°C)

9.6 (19%)

239.6 (125%)

18.9°C

8.1°C

13.5°C

49.7 mm

192.1 hours

220.2 km

Total rainfall from January to April 2022 is 192.6 mm, 107% of the LTA. It is interesting that the rainfall total for the 4-months is above average, especially given the fact that January, March and April all recorded well below average rainfall. The February rainfall total of 153.4 mm was 334% of the LTA (107.5 mm greater than the LTA).

Soil Moisture

Shallow soil moisture (5-35 cm) on 1 April 2022 was 23%. With low rainfall during the month soil moisture fell by 3%, to 20% by 30 April. In contrast the LTA soil moisture value (2003-2021) is 22.5% on 1 April and it increases to 28.2% on 30 April, i.e. normally a 7.5% increase in soil moisture during April. So at the end of April 2022 the shallow soil moisture is 8.2% below the LTA. With low rainfall in both March and April there will have been no moisture recharge further down in the soil profile.

However, there is still plenty of time for soil moisture recharge to occur, as the normal period of recharge is over the 5-months from March to July.

Season Weather Summary (September 2021 to April 2022)

Table 3 summarises the eight months of the growing season, September to April. Further daily data or monthly summaries for the Blenheim and Dashwood weather stations can be found on the Marlborough Research Centre website: www.mrc.org.nz

Table 3: Monthly weather summary for Blenheim, for the 2021-22 growing season in comparison to the long-term average LTA 21/22 LTA 21/22 LTA 21/22 LTA 21/22 LTA 21/22 LTA 21/22 LTA Rain Rain Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean GDD GDD ET ET Sun

Max Max Min Min mm mm °C °C °C °C °C °C mm mm hours hours Sep 52.8 52.6 16.2 15.9 6.0 6.4 11.1 11.1 52.8 52.1 73.0 78.9 196.1 (=) Oct 57.2 70.2 18.4 18.9 7.9 8.8 13.2 13.9 102.2 123.2 102.8 99.5 230.7 (+0.7) Nov 49.6 14.2 20.0 21.0 9.5 11.6 14.8 16.3 144.2 189.6 122.5 126.7 239.3 (+1.5) Dec 48.4 85.8 21.9 22.9 11.8 14.3 16.9 18.6 211.7 265.5 140.2 135.1 249.3 (+1.7) Jan 42.2 12.6 23.6 23.8 12.8 12.9 18.2 18.3 252.2 258.4 144.6 152.5 264.3 (+0.1) Feb 45.9 153.4 23.3 21.2 12.5 13.4 17.9 17.3 223.3 204.5 115.5 86.6 231.5 (-0.6) Mar 41.7 17.0 21.5 21.2 10.6 11.4 16.1 16.3 189.9 195.3 99.7 87.0 229.9 (+0.2) Apr 49.7 9.6 18.9 20.4 8.1 9.0 13.5 14.7 107.0 140.9 64.5 73.4 192.1 (+1.2) Total 387.2 415.4 1283.2 1429.5 862.8 839.7 1833.2 Mean 20.5 20.7 9.9 11.0 15.2 15.8 % of LTA or deviation 107% +0.2°C +1.1 +0.6°C 111% 97% Long-term average (LTA) – 1986-2021 for Rain, Temperature and Sun Long-term average (LTA) – 1996-2021 for Evapotranspiration (ET)

21/22 Sun 223.9 233.7 228.2 201.5 313.8 156.4 238.0 239.6 1835.0 100%

Growing season temperature and growing degree days The 2021-22 growing season started with September recording a mean temperature equal to the LTA. Of the 7-months from October 2021 to April 2022 only February recorded a below average mean temperature. However, the mean temperature data in Table 3 and the growing degree day line for the 2021-22 season (Figure 1 – black line) indicate that some months were well above average, while others were only slightly above average. The 3-months October to December 2021 recorded a mean temperature of 16.2°C, which was 1.2°C above the LTA of 15.0°C. This is the warmest October to December period over the 90 years 1932 to 2021. The 2-months November and December 2021 recorded a mean temperature of 17.4°C, 1.5°C above the LTA of 15.9°C. This is also the warmest November – December period on record. At the end of December 2021 the GDD deviation line for the 2021/22 season (Figure 1) was at a higher point than in any previous season. Up to the end of December 2021 the GDD line had followed a similar path to the 2017/18 season and it appeared that as if it would continue to do so from January to April 2022.

At the start of December 2021 NIWA predicted that there was a 65% chance that the mean temperature for the 3-month period December 2021 to February 2022 would be above average; i.e. they were highly convinced that summer was going to be warm. This was partly based on the fact that the Tasman Sea was experiencing a marine heatwave. The fact that January 2022 was only +0.1°C above average and February 2022 was -0.6°C below average was unexpected. However, the Winepress May 2022 / 7

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

mean temperature for the 3-months December to February was 18.1°C, 0.4°C above the LTA, largely due to the very warm December. So NIWA’s prediction for the 3-month period was technically correct. It is just that January and February temperatures didn’t live up to expectations.

The overall mean temperature for the full 8-month season September 2021 to April 2022, was 0.6°C above the LTA. This is the 11th warmest season on record over the 90 year period 1932-33 to 2021/22. The most recent seasons to have been slightly warmer are 2018/19 which was 0.8°C above the LTA, and 2017/18 which was 1.0°C above the LTA.

Growing season rainfall Figure 2: Blenheim rainfall for the 8-month growing season, September 2021 to April 2022

Total rainfall for the 8-month growing season, September 2021 to April 2022 (Table 3 & Figure 2), was 415.4 mm, 107% of the LTA. Three of the 8-months recorded above average rainfall (October, December and February).

One month recorded average rainfall (September). Four months recorded less than half their average rainfall (November, January, March, April).

Rob Agnew - Plant & Food Research / Marlborough

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NZW Sustainability Report The New Zealand wine industry has rightfully earned its place as one of the most progressive wine producing nations in the world, says Dr Edwin Massey on the release of a new sustainability report.

New Zealand Winegrowers’ (NZW) general manager of sustainability says data from Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) offers a “unique opportunity” to tell New Zealand’s wine sustainability story “at a time when

caring for people and place is so aligned to our customers' values”.

NZW’s 2022 Sustainability Report measures and communicates the New Zealand wine industry’s commitment and progress across six key focus areas of sustainability: climate, water, waste, soil, plant protection, and people. Showcasing data collected from the 1,840 vineyards and 310 wineries certified under the SWNZ programme, the report highlights how sustainability differentiates the New Zealand wine industry on the world stage, says Edwin.

“Over 96% of all vineyard area in New Zealand is now certified as sustainable through the SWNZ programme, with 10% of New Zealand wineries holding organic certification. It’s an achievement we can be proud of, but the real work is ensuring we not only sustain but elevate our position with an enduring commitment to continuous improvement.” nzwine.com/sustainability-report

“The real work is ensuring we not only sustain but elevate our position with an enduring commitment to continuous improvement.”

Dr Edwin Massey

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Winepress May 2022 / 9

PROTECT

Vintage Review Double disease pressure in vintage 2022 SOPHIE PREECE

A DOUBLE whammy of climatic and Covid challenges hit Marlborough’s wine industry this vintage, with rainfall boosting botrytis while Omicron decimated hand harvest and winery crews. “I have never seen anything like it,” says Dog Point general manager Matt Sutherland, who was faced with just four pickers one day, down from the typical 115.

That meant Dog Point’s 21st vintage was its first with a machine harvest, despite hand picking as much as they could. “It was taken out of our hands,” says Matt, who’s seen disease pressure “from every angle” over the years, including not having enough people to move as fast as they’d like to. “But literally having 90% of your pickers out.

That is something that we hopefully never see again.” It also means the company’s 2022 vintage, while high in quality is small on volume, thanks to “ruthless” quality control, says Matt. “But it does come at a cost.”

February rain added pressure to harvest, with bigger berries and botrytis requiring vigilance, says Matt, talking of visiting a healthy block, then returning soon after to find shrivel setting in. “It put a lot of pressure on logistics and getting things off in a timely way.”

With their handpick numbers in rapid decline, Dog Point formed a crew of 20 people from nearby family wine companies, with marketing and administrative staff moving to the vineyard. “I’m really proud that our team kept their cool and could manage it,” Matt says. “Everyone was in a really good space… you have to find a way to work through it.” They handpicked what they could for Dog Point, “but at the end of the day we ended up making a smaller amount to keep the quality”.

With a strong winery team in place, they could have machine harvested a lot more to raise the volumes and help fill the void left by a light 2021 harvest. “The concern of disease pressure jeopardises the quality of what we are doing and what we stand for. And we are not prepared to do that. You look at a balance sheet and that might hurt you on paper. But in everything we have done since we started, quality has been at the forefront,” says Matt. “Yes, we will be down a bit. But hopefully what we see is making really good wine in probably the hardest year you’ll ever see.”

“All harvests are different, and this one was more different than most,” says Mike Brown, chief executive of the Marlborough Grape Growers Cooperative, remarking on 10 / Winepress May 2022

disease pressure on two fronts – Covid and botrytis.

The co-op was keen to start harvesting as soon as it could, not knowing how Omicron would impact on staffing with harvesting and processing teams. “However, with the larger yields in 2022, we had to wait patiently for acid levels to come down and we didn’t truly kick into gear until the last week of March,” he says. “Then it was a matter of working through a sequence of where disease pressure was greatest.”

They saw gains for growers with more open canopies and vigilant spray regimes during the La Niña season. The co-op does not cap owners’ tonnage, “rather encouraging a risk setting around the ability to ripen an agreed tonnage”, he says. “So we took in all acceptable fruit this year as we have markets for it all, especially after a light 2021.” Despite the difficulties of the year, they are pleased with what’s in tank, with some of the late picked fruit from the Awatere in particular, looking “stunning”, he adds.

“Timing is so important,” says Plant & Food Research weather expert Rob Agnew (see sidebox), explaining that December, February and March rainfall impacted some growers more than others, with levels of botrytis and slip skin dependent on

GROW

when blocks flowered and ripened.

Astrolabe owner and winemaker Simon Waghorn agrees, saying the season could have been “a really, really big disaster”, but wasn’t. “It’s a lot better than it may have gone.” Astrolabe (see photos page 10) was “late to the party” in terms of picking Sauvignon Blanc, with only one block harvested before the beginning of April, with its later ripening blocks less susceptible to disease pressure. “We started out with a lot of potential issues, particularly with Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, but the later finer weather kept that in check and meant we could get our fruit to the ripeness levels we were hoping for.”

The company’s final fruit came in from Kēkerengū on April 23, following a beautiful run of weather. “From our point of view, we rode our luck,” says Simon. “It’s making a judgment call on which way you’d rather to go - with cleaner fruit with greener, less ripe flavours, or running the fruit a little bit further trying to get it across the line in terms of flavour profile and hoping the rot didn’t go rampant.

It’s a reasonably difficult judgment call to make… and the weather played ball.”

While a cold and wet February “caught everyone out” and dampened the “powerhouse” ripening period,

“From our point of view, we rode our luck.”

Simon Waghorn

Weather woes could well have been worse Marlborough growers “dodged a bullet” in vintage 2022, “but not entirely”, says Plant & Food Research weather expert Rob Agnew. “Timing is so important.”

December rainfall in the region coincided with flowering, creating latent botrytis infection that typically comes to nothing if it is dry in Marlborough in the ripening period leading up to vintage. However, botrytis managed to bite in 2022, thanks to more than 150mm of rain over the 16 days from February 4 to 19, as some grape crops, including early Sauvignon Blanc, were going through véraison.

Some blocks saw high levels of botrytis bunch rot and slip skin botrytis developing in late March, following subsequent rainfall. But the “very dry” period from February 20 to March 20 was a “godsend” that mitigated the impact, says Rob. “If it had continued to be wet over that four week period it would have been very ugly.”

He notes that a weather forecast on March 19 raised fears of 100mm of rain over the three days from March 21 to 23, so the 16mm that ultimately fell was a relief for many. “If we had had that really high rainfall, it would have made harvest logistics pretty difficult.”

Plant & Food started harvesting research blocks in early March, and found them relatively clean, with little botrytis infection. But the rainfall between March 21 and 24 – while less than predicted - triggered further botrytis infections and caused slip skin botrytis with some blocks assessed as having 50% botrytis crop loss. “We picked grapes in a couple of blocks on 30 and 31 March with some of the most severe botrytis I have ever seen,” says Rob. “Once slip skin botrytis takes hold you can lose quite a bit of crop within a day or two.”

Later maturing blocks in the upper Awatere and upper Wairau valleys, harvested in early April, had less botrytis than those harvested a week earlier, which may be down to a later flowering, less impacted by December rainfall, and with these blocks going through véraison later and therefore being less susceptible to botrytis during the high rainfall in early February, says Rob. Rain was far from the only thing impacting the 2022 vintage, with typical September temperatures followed by a “very warm” October, November and December, with these three months recording the warmest mean temperature on record, says Rob. Marlborough yields were boosted by a good fruit set, with berry numbers per bunch well up on average, as well as high berry weight, says Rob. “Then the wheels fell off the above average temperatures that had been predicted for January and February”, with January hitting average, but February dropping well below average.

The Sauvignon Blanc yield prediction model for Marlborough, based on temperatures at initiation on Plant & Food’s four monitored vineyards, shows that bunch numbers for vintage 2023 should be above average, at between 104% and 111% of long-term average for those sites.

Winepress May 2022 / 11

GROW Dog Point Vineyards

Astrolabe’s fruit reached good flavour profile and skin ripeness before harvest. “Some people had to start picking because they needed to, to get it all in, depending on the scale of the operation,” Simon adds, noting that the season was toughest for those with early ripening blocks and reliant on handpicked fruit.

He’s heard plenty of “battle stories” in wineries too, including having critical staff in isolation when they were needed most. But his own winery experience was little hampered by Omicron, in another stroke of good fortune, says Simon. “All round Astrolabe had one of the luckier outcomes.”

The only concession to a tough season was a block of Pinot Noir destined for table wine that instead went down the Rosé route. “I think that’s the only forced decision we had,” Simon says. And he’s pretty happy with the result.

“You wouldn’t count it as a best year, but it’s a solid year.”

Yields are larger than 2021 but less than they had anticipated, so all the new vintage wine has a “route to market fairly clearly mapped out, and we might be a bit hand to mouth this time next year”, says Simon. With a 2022 release date that is months earlier than is typical for the company, due to markets running out, their target is to have enough Sauvignon to push back the 2023 release date. “We would rather roll it around to September, October, November, but will be more like June, July this year.”

A bumper harvest is putting Pernod Ricard Winemakers back into balance after very light 2021 crops, says group winemaker Jamie Marfell, noting yields were significantly up on the long-term average. “It puts us back where we should be.”

It was an early kick-off for the company, with harvest for Mumm Marlborough and Deutz Méthode Champenoise 12 / Winepress May 2022

beginning on February 16, the earliest yet for the company.

Start dates have been coming forward in recent years, but getting in early was strategically important this vintage, with the looming threat of Covid-19 to staff numbers, including to the hand pickers used for the Sparkling harvest, picking a record 3,000 tonnes over a three-week interval. “We were very wary of the risk of losing a lot of staff,” says Jamie, noting that they called on three contract gangs instead of the typical two, to spread the risk.

The early harvest worked out “really well”, with fruit in the tank in pristine condition before Omicron began to thin out hand harvest and winery crews around the region.

“It was like a dream. We got through with only a few going down,” says Jamie.

“The theme for our vintage was about flexibility,” he adds, talking of taking the season day by day, ready to make changes where necessary. That was about maintaining quality, as well as the health and wellbeing of the workforce and “making sure people are okay”, he adds.

Pernod Ricard would normally pause between hand harvest and the machine harvest of low alcohol wine, and then stop again before the main machine harvest began.

Instead, concerned about the threat of Covid staff losses, they ploughed straight through in 2022, with 24-hour a day machine harvesting, “but at half speed from the start”, Jamie says.

The early start enabled a slower intake and meant inexperienced cellar hands could come up to speed in a “calm and collected” way. It also meant that when staff were lost to Omicron isolation, the rest of the team, and harvest logistics, could bend to take up or offset the pressure.

By mid-March, Omicron started to bite, and they saw “holes” in the winery, with groups of friends and flatmates isolating at once. Losing a supervisor was particularly painful, because “you lose a team of people working efficiently”, Jamie says, noting that three or four casual staff off had less impact.

Each day they would collect information on the available workforce, then make ad hoc decisions, such as closing a shift or slowing machine harvest and grape intake to ensure fruit got to ferment within a 48-hour period, “in pristine condition”, he says.

“We are lucky that we have pieces of equipment that run with hardly any people,” Jamie says, talking of fruit decanters that allow fruit to move directly from crusher to fermentation tanks. “We were able to do half our vintage from a Sauvignon Blanc point of view without having to rely on a lot of staff. It was kind of a saving grace.”

Pernod Ricard plans to have its low alcohol wines and some of its Montana and Stoneleigh labels bottled and on domestic shelves or outgoing ships by mid-May, followed by mainstream bottling in the first week of June. And despite all the Covid and climate challenges of the season, there are “some pretty good stonking wines,” Jamie says.

“Commercially they are looking pretty sharp.”

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Licensed REAA 2008 Winepress May 2022 / 13

GROW Monique Huston at WineWorks

Ship Show The continued challenge of supply lines SOPHIE PREECE

WITH EMPTY pipelines of New Zealand wine, companies are lining up to get the 2022 vintage bottled and shipped to market. But a messy supply chain means getting wines under caps, out of ports and into global markets is far from simple.

WineWorks chief executive officer Peter Crowe says the first 2022 wine was bottled in Marlborough on March 30, but the main volume will hit in the middle of May, with “strong demand” for bottling space for several months.

“We’re really excited about the coming season. It’s good volume coming our way and we’re excited to see it all flowing through again. But there’s no doubt it will come with its challenges.”

The Marlborough bottling plant is seeing demand for May and June up 30% to 40% on previous years. And Peter doesn’t expect a later “lull”, as was experienced in 2021, thanks to the buoyant 2022 harvest. And supply chain issues could yet see the demand peak flattened out, with orders postponed to allow for shipping constraints, he adds.

“I think that’s a very real possibility.”

exacerbated by Shanghai’s Covid-19 lockdown and subsequent backlog at the city’s port.

Shipping wine out is far from the only challenge, with inflationary and supply pressure on glass, cardboard, caps and other materials impacting wine bottlers globally. “There could end up being delivery issues around those items as well, which is just going to add to the issue of getting it out of the country,” says Peter. “We know the supply chain is still pretty messy.”

While WineWorks has been affected by Covid-19 staff absenteeism, “we do seem to be over the worst of it,” says Peter. “And come the middle of May we will be back at full strength.”

“It has certainly been a challenging time to be in the logistics and supply chain industry over the past couple of years,” says QuayConnect general manager Jaron McLeod.

“With significant disruption to moving goods domestically and around the world due to a global pandemic, limited availability of shipping space, rates at levels higher than ever seen before and most recently the war in Ukraine.”

“It has certainly been a challenging time to be in the logistics and supply chain industry over the past couple of years.”

Jaron McLeod The company deals with Port Nelson and its logistics service QuayConnect, which works “exceptionally well”, Peter says. But while there are positive reports of more regular shipping schedules, ports around the country continue to be impacted by supply chain holdups, 14 / Winepress May 2022

With supply chains coming under pressure, and customers looking for smart “out of the box” solutions to the myriad of challenges, QuayConnect has seen a steady increase in queries to help with challenges. It has partnered with new and existing customers to ensure products have

EDUCATE Ramon Santos at WineWorks

continued to flow into and out of New Zealand, unlike many other businesses, he says. “We utilise our warehousing infrastructure, trucking assets and extensive network of vendors to ensure the best supply chain solution is designed to mitigate the challenges our customers face.”

Jaron says there’s positive news around the shipping lines that call to Port Nelson, with Maersk’s Sirius Star service coming in fortnightly and giving connection to the wider Maersk network out of New Zealand through that feeder service. Meanwhile, Pacifica’s coastal service, also calling Nelson fortnightly, has been key to delivering coastal cargo into the region and has given exporters connection to deep sea services out of Auckland and Tauranga, says Jaron.

Swire (Pacifica’s parent company) is committed to growing coastal capacity in New Zealand “and they hope to have a positive announcement regarding a second coastal vessel in 2022”.

Shipping company ANL (part of the CMA CGM group) has now upsized two of its three Trans-Tasman vessels significantly, increasing container capacity on this service.

Plans are also underway for ANL to increase the third vessel on the Trans-Tasman service giving significantly more capacity direct from Nelson to east coast Australia and back and connecting to the CMA CGM network, he says. Finally, Port Nelson’s largest shipping line by container volume, MSC, has seen throughput numbers continue to grow year-

on-year, giving another option from Nelson to Australia and the wider MSC network, says Jaron.

The pip fruit season is the peak of container activity in Nelson, typically running April to June, and this year’s strong fruit harvest will place pressure on container capacity, he adds. “Mitigating this to some extent is the proactive work done by exporters to move fruit in bulk refrigerated vessels. This initiative should take the peak off the period and allow better container coverage for the rest of the fruit crop and for other exports such as wine, MDF and other wood products.”

In its latest Wine Quarterly report, released early April, Rabobank says that since the middle of 2021 at least five aspects of the global wine supply chain – agricultural production, freight, labour, geopolitics, and energy – have started to face significant disruption all at once, causing “headaches” for wineries around the world.

Rabobank global beverages strategist Stephen Rannekleiv says while some of these disruptions were driven by short-term cyclical factors and may see improvements in the near to medium term, others are starting to appear to be more structural in nature. “As wineries grapple with so many disruptions, the immediate responses have been more tactical than strategic. This makes sense because it has not always been clear which challenges were short-term cyclical issues, and which changes were likely more structural in nature,” he says.

“However, we would argue that energy prices and geopolitical factors are more structural in nature, and any ‘solutions’ moving forward should take them into account.

We need to reassess supply chains with a fresh, creative perspective,” he adds. “Old assumptions that have formed the basis of the current operating model – like free trade, cheap fuel, and cheap freight – should be questioned. It is important to rethink how to thrive in a context where the rules of the game are different.”

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A Great Start Marlborough’s technology and innovation ecosystem TONY SKINNER

Smart Machine's Oxin autonomous tractor. Photo Jim Tannock

EFFORTS ARE underway to position Marlborough not just as an exporter of the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc but also as an international incubator of viticulture technology and innovation.

One of the three primary goals of the draft Marlborough Economic Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032, which is currently out for consultation, is for the region to become “a recognised leader in Agritech solutions in Australasia”.

The strategy states Marlborough has “an exciting opportunity to create an ecosystem where technology and innovation can thrive”. The document further calls for the region’s agri-sectors to “propel themselves into the future” by adopting technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and geospatial and sensor systems.

Mark Unwin, the Marlborough District Council’s (MDC’s) economic development manager, says the central aim was to help develop the “eco-system for start-ups to flourish”.

“It has been identified that the region has a number of challenges to focus on, particularly with the region’s primary industry focus; one of the solutions is through applying technology and innovation methodologies,” Mark explains.

Last year, the MDC allocated additional funding to the economic development team to further this objective while several supporting activities are underway.

Joining established stakeholders such as the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce, Marlborough Research Centre, and Bragato Research Institute are newer players like Angel Investors Marlborough, which has invested some $17 million in almost 50 new start-ups since 2017.

Two events centred on start-ups are also being held in Marlborough in the coming weeks.

The Marlborough Innovation Day on May 16 is part of TechWeekNZ (see sidebar), while the Marlborough StartUp Weekend in mid-June offers a 54-hour crash course on what it’s like to launch a start-up. “These are both super fun events to be involved in, super inspiring, and where you can meet like-minded people with really creative stuff going on,” Mark says. “On our calendar, this is part of our activation programme to get more investors, founders, technologists and entrepreneurs interested in our businesses right here in Marlborough.”

He says part of the MDC’s approach is to encourage more conversation so that technology companies can directly engage with industry to ensure their solutions address real-world problems.

Indeed, the strategy goes one step further, recommending further research into the potential for a technology and innovation lab in Blenheim to give start-

Marlborough Innovation Day Focused on the business and investor community in Marlborough, the Marlborough Innovation Day is being held on May 16. With the theme of ‘Productivity, Innovation and Wellbeing’, the event aims to connect technology companies with customers to discuss how innovation can help solve the industry’s challenges and improve wellbeing and sustainability. “The idea is to get the technology companies to come in and talk about their solutions. But more importantly, we’re trying to get the customers to come in and talk about the problems inhibiting their productivity,” Mark Unwin, Marlborough District Council economic development manager explains.

With a keynote speaker line-up that includes John Grant, lead software developer for Smart Machine, who recently relocated from Wellington to work in Marlborough, the event features a “speed dating” session to maximise its networking value.

16 / Winepress May 2022

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ups, the innovation community and activation programmes a “home”.

“These are primary industries, so anything we look to solve here is not unique to Marlborough. That’s one of the reasons why we’re recommending further research into a tech and innovation hub – so that we’ve got a central place

for people to work together and collaborate on those ideas that they can then take out to the world,” Mark explains.

“So Marlborough is not just exporting the world’s best Sauvignon Blanc, but we are also exporting that technology and the innovation created around that.”

Smart Machine prepares for future sales of autonomous Oxin TONY SKINNER Starting a technology company in the heart of Marlborough comes with a range of unique advantages, according to one start-up that’s now further along on its journey. Smart Machine has developed the Oxin autonomous viticultural vehicle from its Blenheim base and is now preparing to move its operation into full production.

Chief executive Andrew Kersley​says their experience since the company’s inception was that starting out in Marlborough had proven to Nick Gledhill, Walter Langlois and Andrew Kersley. Photo by Jim Tannock be a blessing. “We’ve got a lot of grapes, a lot of hectares in a pretty small geographical area, which, now that I’m starting to explore international markets, is unique,” Andrew explains.

“And then you throw things into the mix like NMIT (Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology), Bragato Research Institute, and the fact that the businesses operating in the region are globally connected. It does open up a huge number of opportunities internationally for us, which is great.”

In February, the company was buoyed by an injection of $600,000 from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund.

“That funding has enabled us to focus on the future state. So starting to explore electrification and some of the challenges that come with doing that. And also, that was specifically to explore some new market opportunities within New Zealand, such as adapting for apple canopies.”

Andrew says with more doors now starting to open for the company internationally, the amount of work they carried out in the early days to fully define the positioning of the Oxin felt validated. “That’s one of the challenges. It’s often quite easy to identify opportunities, but you need to understand whether there is a global opportunity for your product or whether the New Zealand domestic market is big enough to justify the R&D investment. You need to define what the challenges are, and what the market opportunities are.”

With the Oxin’s testing phase drawing to a conclusion, and the supporting supply chain beginning to solidify, the company can focus more fully on selling vehicles in the domestic and international market, says Andrew. “We’re really happy with the path that we’ve taken and so this year for us is really exciting. It’s now about actually selling some machines. The continued work we’ve done on the R&D side has put us in a good position and the product’s ready to be rolled out to other customers and to the wider industry.”

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Winepress May 2022 / 17

GROW

Aimee Jay from Tātou with Hortus supervisor Asio Avock

Tātou Tapping in to vineyard labour challenges TONY SKINNER

“Tātou makes technology more accessible, employees don’t need to be good at math or even have good English skills.”

Aimee Jay THE DEVELOPERS of a workforce management app for vineyards are proving the benefits of going digital. Tātou’s software removes the need for workers to use pen and paper during outdoor operations and replaces manually updated spreadsheets back in the office. App founder Aimee Jay says Tātou allows viticulture businesses to track productivity and incentivise good performance.

“Digitising any paper-based process is obviously a win.

But what we focused on is getting out there in the field, observing the reality of the situation, and then designing a tool that allows the person working the plants to track their work with a few taps,” Aimee says. “So, it means that the supervisor can focus on supervising – training people, checking quality, all of those sorts of things. And we’re capturing the data in real-time, so those back in the office can act on the information as well.”

Unlike other crop-focused apps that may provide basic work tracking features, Tātou is designed to manage jobs comprehensively. The app allows growers to schedule tasks, collect digital timesheets, and view progress on individual sites through a configurable management dashboard.

Aimee says one of Tātou’s core offerings is the simple management of hourly, group contract or piece-rate work. The system automatically calculates any top-ups to minimum wage and provides complete visibility of the work carried out for transparency. During a time of labour shortages, growers can increase productivity while workers 18 / Winepress May 2022

can earn more, with the confidence that hard work will be accurately reflected in their pay packets.

According to the draft Marlborough Economic Wellbeing Strategy 2022–2032 (see page 16), before the onset of Covid-19 around 3,000 Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme workers were employed in the winter and 1,000 in the summer to supplement the local workforce and those on the working holiday visa scheme.

These numbers have been dramatically reduced because of Covid, causing significant challenges for the wine industry to perform necessary viticultural work on time. Tātou, which the Wellbeing Strategy describes as “arguably Marlborough’s first and most established technology company”, helps offset labour shortages through new efficiencies.

From pruning to harvest, the tool is aimed at helping growers plan and schedule tasks throughout the growing cycle. Using previous seasons’ data, Tātou users can also predict the number of workers required to complete each job on time.

“One of our key points of difference is the fact that Tātou is easier to use from day one. Instead of employees resisting the new software, they’re eager to use it and a side effect we’ve observed is that more crew members are being promoted to Supervisors.” Aimee explains. “Tātou makes technology more accessible, employees don’t need to be good at math or even have good English skills. As a result

PROTECT

they are being promoted based on their soft skills such as leadership and knowledge of the plant.”

Sidney Mazzi, appointed chief executive of Tātou in 2021, says the company has closed out the year with 350% growth and is currently expanding into Australia and the US, with a pilot programme also underway in the UK. “In Australia, the law has recently changed and

Good Vision

Cropsy technologies has raised $1.5 million in an over-subscribed capital raise, positioning it to commercialise its artificial intelligence enabled crop vision system.

Cropsy uses unique visioning technology that combines mobile, continuous and GPStracked high-definition image capture, with AI-enabled software, to analyse crops and aid decision making for growers.

Attached to a tractor and powered by the tractor battery, the Cropsy vision system enables growers to identify pests and diseases early, for targeted spraying and reduced crop loss, as well as efficiently understanding crop growth and saving time for vineyard and orchard managers. Resulting maps can be accessed online and highlight areas of concern and patterns across the entire crop, so growers know precisely how their crop is performing and changing over time.

Cropsy was founded by Leila Deljkovic and Ali Alomari, who met as engineering students at Auckland University. They were then joined by fellow co-founders Rory Buchanan and Winston Su. Along the way, they have received research and development funding from Callaghan Innovation and AGMARDT, and have received multiple awards, including two Fieldays innovation awards last year. In 2021 Cropsy was accepted into two accelerator programmes – Startmate and Sprout.

They are thrilled to have such strong support from their investors and partners, who share their vision and passion to help take Cropsy’s technology “from Blenheim to Bordeaux, and beyond”, says Leila. “There’s nothing better than seeing our system out there in the field, and creating tech that will be accessible to every grower.”

Ali says it is humbling to be backed by New Zealand’s finest in agritech, and their innovative, early-adopter customers who they couldn’t do their work without. “This capital injection enables us to reach our goal of looking after 10 million vines by the end of 2023.”

Cropsy’s trial partners have included wine industry giants Pernod Ricard Winemakers and Indevin, and more recently Marisco Vineyards in Marlborough. With more customers in the pipeline, 2022 is set to be a year of growth, says Leila.

The capital raise was led by Angel Investors

employers are now required to top up when working on piece rates so they cannot earn less than minimum wage.

They need to collect better data in order to calculate that top-up,” Sidney says. “So there’s a big shift towards digitalisation in Australia as a result and we are very well positioned for that.”

From left, Ali Al-Omari, Rory Buchanan, Leila Deljkovic, Woo Jin Kang and Winston Su.

“The demand from both investors to be part of this journey, and customers to sign up to this world leading technology, is testament to what has already been achieved and their potential for future growth.”

Tracy Atkins Marlborough (AIM) as a strategic investor, given both its wine industry presence in Marlborough as well as significant other interests in agritech, including orchard management and robotics.

AIM lead investor Tracy Atkin says the highly successful seed round, which reached $1.8m in commitments but had to be capped at $1.5m - two months ahead of schedule - reflects the level of interest and confidence in the young agtech company. “The demand from both investors to be part of this journey, and customers to sign up to this world leading technology, is testament to what has already been achieved and their potential for future growth”, says Tracy, who has been appointed as investor director on Cropsy’s new governance board, formed as part of the capital raise.

Winepress May 2022 / 19

EDUCATE

Land handovers Vineyard market remains buoyant SOPHIE PREECE

SHORT SUPPLY and “huge demand” continue to drive viticulture sales in Marlborough, says Bayleys wine industry specialist Mike Poff.

That’s especially true where there’s a short-term grape supply contract or short-term lease in place, ensuring the purchasers have imminent access to fruit amid soaring global demand for Marlborough wine, says Mike. “They know within a year or two they’ll have the fruit.”

As markets continue to increase, the challenge being faced by wine companies is the “longer term ability to secure and have fruit”, says Mike. “So what we have seen is really strong demand at the moment and we anticipate to see that increase.” Buyers include wine companies, investors and iwi, he says. “All sorts looking for what we would call large asset acquisition and somewhere to stick their money.

There is a lot of money out there, so we have a lot of buyers.”

With prices having increased significantly as companies sought to secure fruit over the past year, “the problem is making it stack up for investors and grape growers”, says Mike, noting that the increase in interest rates has resulted in less cash buyers and more conditions needed to be met for banks. “But we know in three to five years it will be really difficult to get any bare land.”

While the central Wairau Valley has historically drawn premium prices, it is being caught up by the outer areas of Marlborough, as long as yields and risk profiles are comparable. “We are seeing values in the Awatere that are

From left, Tania and David Allan, with Val and Vaughan Rose and Tracy Rose-Russell on a vineyard recently bought by Rose Family Vineyards, along with the original Omaka school building on the property.

parallel to values in the Wairau,” he says. Similarly, the upper Wairau Valley has seen “significant” price increases.

“If it’s a good asset and has frost protection and good water… it’s desirable.”

The strong market has also seen a retirement boom from “an aging population of grape growers” tempted by good prices, meaning more properties on the market. “We are having a lot of conversations about succession,” Mike says. “People are beginning to release their assets.”

Meanwhile, larger family viticulture-based businesses are on a growth path, ensuring uptake for those properties.

“A lot of people want to feel good about who they are selling to,” adds Mike, having seen sales made based on a “level of understanding of who the buyer is”, particularly if it’s going to another family. “They see that as an evolution of their property.”

In an example of that family-to-family movement, David and Tania Allan recently sold their 9.3-hectare Hawkesbury Rd block – 8ha of it in grapes – to Rose Family Vineyards.

David says he and Tania were getting tired of working the block, and the strong market provided impetus to sell

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earlier than they had intended. “If we couldn’t get the price we wanted we would have farmed for a few more years.” But with a family-owned company keen to jump in, they were happy to hand the land on, and free up time to spend with their one-year-old grandson, says Tania.

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Tracy Rose-Russell says the purchase of a Brookby block adjoining one of the family’s existing vineyards and very close to another was ideal. They’d been in the bidding for other pieces of vineyard land in recent years, but been outbid, she says. “It’s very, very tough going up against the big guys.”

Meanwhile, the shortfall of fruit amid global demand has seen large tracts of repurposed land from food production into leasehold vineyard, with owners identifying that “they can be landlords in the wine industry”, says Mike, talking of one 140ha block being converted this year, and another 216ha next year, with more to come. “There are multiple people wanting those properties.”

That’s a “sign of the times”, he adds, noting a similar transformation in the upper Wairau Valley. “You have to drive a long way up the valley before you see a big paddock these days.”

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Winepress May 2022 / 21

CELEBRATE

Generation Y-ine Getting her Fix of winery roles KAT DUGGAN

ADAPTING HAS been a regular feature of Sarah Fix’s career. For the past two years, she and her colleagues at Rock Ferry Wines have been adapting their offerings to allow for restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19.

The cellar door and marketing manager added assistant winemaker to her titles list over vintage, but it’s not an unfamiliar role. “I have a background in theatre, arts and arts admin, with an emphasis on events, but I’ve been in the wine industry for 10 years now. This job is kind of combining quite a few things,” she says.

Despite being born and raised in a small United States wine region - Columbia Gorge in Oregon - it wasn’t until Sarah met her now husband that working in the industry piqued her interest.

Coming from Northern California, he was travelling and taking on harvests throughout the world. “That really appealed to me for many reasons,” Sarah says. “Even though I knew about wine, I never knew about these travelling vintage positions. I started dabbling in that, along with everything else and I’m now in my 10th vintage. I never thought it would continue on to that.”

Sarah was looking to move away from the wine industry and back into the events or tourism space when she was convinced to take her role at Rock Ferry, initially as the assistant winemaker for vintage 2020, then as cellar

“It’s about community collaboration.”

Sarah Fix door and marketing manager at the winery. “I kept getting approached by Rock Ferry and I eventually took the job. I’m so happy I did, because two weeks later the first lockdown happened,” she says.

Since then, Sarah has had to draw on her adaptability to help the business roll with the punches of pandemic restrictions. Lockdowns and then visitor number limits inside and outdoors put a strain on the winery, alongside many others, forcing the closure of Rock Ferry’s restaurant in 2020. Throughout the pandemic, the winery has continued to try to offer entertainment for the community through events including yoga, the Mana Wine Festival and a recurring Twilight Market.

Despite disruptions to both the 2021 Mana Wine Festival and some of the Twilight Markets as a result of Covid restrictions, and in some cases rain, yoga has been a

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Alongside many Marlborough wineries, Rock Ferry temporarily closed the cellar door for the 2022 vintage to reduce pressure as they dealt with a workforce shortage. It was set to reopen on May 4, just in time for International Sauvignon Blanc Day on May 6.

Sarah enjoys the buzz harvest brings, thriving on the long hours, but also enjoys having her ‘regular’ job to go back to. With restrictions easing, she hopes to be able to push forward with some Rock Ferry events with more certainty this year.

Photos by Richard Briggs “We’re hoping to do more concerts, and we have a portable stage that constant. “Yoga was originally an idea for the original tasting we haven’t been able to use because everything has been space, it’s so perfect in there surrounded by trees. It’s just a cancelled… we’re looking at teaming up with people in the tranquil spot,” Sarah says. “We also have the gardens, and community to do workshops over the winter as well.” the yoga instructors have the opportunity to go anywhere Rock Ferry will also use international wine day on the grounds that they want to [each session].” celebrations, to showcase what can be achieved within the Connecting with the community through events same variety of wine. “Because we now have four vineyards became especially important after the restaurant closed. “It’s in two growing regions, we have plenty of library stock, about community collaboration,” Sarah says. “It’s looking some dating back to our first vintage of 2005, to share at what’s here in Marlborough and utilising the space, with customers,” she says. “That really can showcase the and what Rock Ferry has to offer, while giving back to the differences in climate effects and soil profiles.” community, which has always supported us.”

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Winepress May 2022 / 23

PROTECT

Biosecurity Watch The importance of reporting the unusal SOPHIE BADLAND

NEW ZEALAND’S biosecurity system does a good job of keeping unwanted organisms out of the country through strict importing rules, offshore agreements and border inspections, but inevitably some things slip through. There are also some pathways which the system can’t control, and we’ve just seen a likely example of this with the arrival of fall armyworm in New Zealand. Fall armyworm is thought to have blown over from Australia during recent wind events. In scenarios like this, the biosecurity system relies on the Aotearoa ‘team of give million’ to report finds of new and unusual organisms to help protect our people, industries, and native flora and fauna from the impacts of new pests and diseases.

Why reporting is important If a new pest or disease has arrived in New Zealand, the sooner it is reported, the sooner a decision can be made to initiate a response and the better the chances will be of successful eradication. The longer the pest or disease

is allowed to remain in place untreated, the greater the chance it will be able to reproduce and spread, increasing the time and resource required to deal with the impacts; any response activity will last longer, cost more and be more disruptive to communities and businesses. If the spread of the organism is too great by the time it is reported, eradication may not be possible and impacted sectors may face ongoing costs to manage and minimise the impacts of the pest or disease long-term.

How to report There are a few options for reporting suspected exotic pests or diseases. In the first instance these should be reported directly to Biosecurity New Zealand, the business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries with responsibility for biosecurity. You can make a report via a hotline number, 0800 80 99 66, or alternatively use the newly established web-based reporting tool at report.mpi.govt.nz/pest.

It’s likely you’ll be asked to provide photos, and/or get a sample and keep it in an enclosed container – if possible this should be done prior to making a report.

Once a report has been made to Biosecurity New Zealand, generally submitters should get a response within 24 hours.

The Find-a-pest app is another easy way to report. App users can submit photos through the app which are geotagged and triaged by industry experts. If they show suspected exotic pests or The invasion curve - early reports of newly arrived species, while population numbers are low, provide the best chance at eradication.

IF YOU SEE ANYTHING UNUSUAL

CATCH IT . SNAP IT . REPORT IT .

Call MPI biosecurity hotline 0800 80 99 66 24 / Winepress May 2022

PROTECT

diseases, these are forwarded to Biosecurity New Zealand and processed in the same way as a call to the hotline. Finda-pest can be downloaded to most smart phones for free from the Apple and Google Play app stores.

New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) members can also make reports of unusual or suspicious pests or pathogen symptoms to the NZW biosecurity team, by emailing biosecurity@nzwine.com or calling Sophie Badland (0277004142) or Jim Herdman (0276448010).

Deciding to report or not A common concern or barrier to reporting is being unsure whether something is exotic or not. If you’re unsure, it’s always best to report it just in case. Biosecurity New Zealand have a process for working through notifications to the hotline or webpage that helps them determine which reports need further investigation, and experts who can usually identify from a photograph whether an organism is cause for concern or not.

Another barrier to reporting is around what might happen if the organism is unwanted and a response occurs.

Where a report is investigated, most result in no further action being needed; very few turn out to be new incursions of harmful organisms. However, if a biosecurity response is warranted, this can involve measures such as restrictions on the movement of goods, vehicles and host material on and off properties, and the treatment or destruction of host material. While this isn’t ideal and may result in shortterm losses, it is often the best way to prevent the situation from worsening, costing more over a longer period of time and affecting more of the industry. Where destruction of property or resulting loss has occurred under direction from Biosecurity New Zealand, those affected may also be eligible for compensation as per the Biosecurity Act 1993.

We’re all in this together NZW encourages member organisations to ensure all staff working in vineyards and wineries are made aware of the Biosecurity NZ 0800 hotline number and online reporting tool, and that there is a process in place if someone discovers something unusual. For those regularly out and about in vineyards, the Find-a-pest app is a handy tool to have on your smartphone – just open the app, take a photo of anything unusual and submit it. If you’re in a remote area out of reception, you can still use the app offline as the photo will upload once you return to service. The earlier a harmful new arrival is discovered and reported, the better the chance of getting rid of it and/or reducing the impacts it may have on our industries.

The NZW biosecurity team is happy to assist with reporting and can provide further guidance and/or liaison with Biosecurity New Zealand if necessary – just get in touch. All reports, images and samples sent through are valued and demonstrate care for the industry, as well as the greater good.

Winepress May 2022 / 25

Industry News Bird Boost Birds New Zealand and Toi Toi Wines have announced a joint sponsorship to support the New Zealand Bird Atlas, a citizen science project aimed at mapping the distribution and relative abundance of all bird species present in New Zealand. “It’s nice to be able to support them and help the groups that help with our ecology,” says Kevin Joyce, founder and owner of Toi Toi Wines. The Atlas project, which began in 2019 and winds up in 2024, builds on the legacy of the previous two Ornithological Society of New Zealand Atlas projects – from 1969 to 1979 and 1999 to 2004 – to provide an up-to-date assessment on the current status of New Zealand’s birds, informing conservation management, policy, and public understanding.

Toi Toi wines’ sponsorship will support six Atlas trips to survey remote areas of the country and gather vital bird observation data, says Kevin. “We expect that this sponsorship will ensure greater coverage of the back country parts of New Zealand, as the project needs complete coverage of the entire country.”

Anyone with an interest in birds can contribute to the project. To get involved, go to ebird.org/atlasnz

Grape Days 2022 From living with insects through agroecology to an alternative approach to pruning Sauvignon Blanc, the 2022 Grape Days event focuses on knowledge sharing and networking for New Zealand’s wine industry. With a theme of Winegrowing in a Changing Environment, the event will include insights from local grower experts and updates from researchers covering topics such as trunk disease, insect pests, vineyard waste and emissions, and managing vines after frost and hail events. Grape Days are provided as part of the research programme funded by the New Zealand Winegrowers’ levy, delivered through Bragato Research Institute. Marlborough Grape Days is on June 15. nzwine.com/grape-days

Bart Arnst Awarded Marlborough viticulturist Bart Arnst, who has championed organic grape growing in the region for 25 years, was named Viticulturist of the Year at the 2022 Gourmet Traveller New Zealand Winemaker of the Year awards. The Organic Winegrowers New Zealand board member, who is a viticulture consultant and co-founder of organic label The Darling, was part of a clean sweep for organic practitioners in the awards, with Nicholas Brown of Black Estate winning Winemaker of the Year, Nick Mills of Rippon taking the leadership award and Sam Rouse, of organic producer Dry River, winning Young Winemaker of the Year.

26 / Winepress May 2022

No Alcohol Red and Riesling Giesen is adding a 0% alcohol Merlot and Riesling to its range, in a New Zealand first. The move comes after the successful launch of the world’s first alcohol-removed New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in 2020, followed by 0% alcohol Pinot Gris and Rosé. “After the release of the alcohol-removed Pinot Gris and Rosé, our consumers were screaming out to us via our social channels for a 0% alcohol Red and a 0% alcohol version of Giesen Wines’ best-selling Riesling,” says Giesen Group chief winemaker Duncan Shouler. “It was really a ‘consumers asked, we listened’ moment.”

International research predicts that global sales of no and low alcohol sales are set to be valued at more than $1.6 billion by 2024. In both the New Zealand grocery channel and retail channel, Giesen 0% alcohol Sauvignon Blanc is the no-alcohol wine by value, and in Australia, Giesen 0% Sauvignon Blanc is the top performing noalcohol white wine in alcohol retailer Dan Murphy’s. It is also the number one New Zealand no alcohol white wine in the United States.

In 2021, Giesen invested over a million dollars into spinning cone technology, which is now working 24/7to keep up with demand.

Advocacy Update NICCI ARMOUR Congratulations to all our members for your resilience in completing vintage 2022 - it was certainly one for the books. While the pointiest stage of the pandemic may be behind us, Wine Marlborough will be proactive in supporting our industry members to navigate the flow-on effects that remain.

May sees an upswing of activity around workforce challenges and planning. Muka Tangata - the newly formed People, Food and Fibre Workforce Development Council - is engaging via a hui to discuss vocational education and training across the country, including in Blenheim on May 6. The Marlborough Regional Skills Leadership Group is finalising the first workforce development plan for the Marlborough region, and Wine Marlborough is aligning with these efforts, facilitating a Workforce Action Plan with the Marlborough wine sector that has a practical focus on the ground.

Pruning is upon us and, alongside New Zealand Ethical Employers, we will keep you up to date on any related issues.

We are hosting the annual Marlborough pruning field day at Matador Estate on May 25, with some excellent insights and practical info shared by industry experts. The Marlborough Labour Governance Group is also assessing our position on the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme cap and what is required in Marlborough.

New Zealand’s immigration settings have seen significant shifts, and what that looks like for our seasonal workforce is yet to be tested. Immigration New Zealand have been active in their outreach and engagement and New Zealand Winegrowers continues to communicate key issues and information, including on the new Accredited Employer Work Visa, via its members’ page.

Please email advocacy@winemarlborough.nz if you have any feedback or issues you would like to discuss.

Nicci Armour is advocacy manager at Wine Marlborough

Safer Spraying Canterbury-based company Landlogic Ltd, which supplies New Zealand’s primary sector with machinery and technology, has introduced a new cab air filtration system to the market in a bid to increase worker safety.

The system is manufactured by Freshfilter, a world-leading manufacturer of cab overpressure systems designed to meet strict European standards. It is the first time the technology has been available in New Zealand.

Landlogic chief executive Alan Cottington says companies are doing the best they can and have been raising concerns about the lack of protection for some time, “but there simply hasn’t been an effective option on the market”.

He says they are aware of four operators who refused to drive spray tractors as they were concerned about the health risks. “It is not uncommon to drive down the road beside vineyards and farms, and smell the spray, and the operators are arriving home each night with their clothes smelling from the chemicals.”

The first company to use the Freshfilter system in New Zealand is Yealands Wines in Marlborough, which has installed the system on all 14 of its spray tractors. Yealands’ vineyard manager Dave Collingwood says operator safety is paramount.

“As far as we are concerned, we want to be sure our staff are working in a safe environment. We can now promise all our operators that they will not spray without a Freshfilter system. The display screen inside the cab is added reassurance, as it constantly monitors the air quality.”

The system can be retrofitted to existing vehicles for approximately $7,000 to $9,500, and uses patented airflow technology that offers the highest protection from contaminants, including agrichemicals, asbestos and dust. A combination of high-grade HEPA and charcoal filters blow purified air into the cab and prevent contaminants from entering.

A digital touch screen provides the operator with real-time information on hydrocarbon, contamination and air pressure inside the cab, and text message alerts can be sent to the site manager if high levels are detected. “There is lot of focus on reducing spray drift to protect the environment and health of neighbouring residents, and rightly so,” says Alan.

“But solutions to protect those most at risk – the spray operators – have been minimal.”

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May - September

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Wine Happenings

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

To have your event included in the January Wine Happenings, please email details to sophie@sophiepreece.co.nz by May 21. Due to uncertainty around Covid-19, there may be changes to some of these events. For more information, please use the contact supplied or email sarah@winemarlborough.nz

MAY 6 7 16 17 17 23-26 25 26 28

International Sauvignon Blanc Day - #SauvBlancDay Saint Clair Vineyard Half (vineyardhalf.com) Marlborough Innovation Day (see page 16) Pinot Gris Day New Zealand Young Viticulturist Education day, Marlborough (nzwine.com/young-vit) Green Wine Future conference (greenwinefuture.com) Marlborough Pruning Field Day Chardonnay Day Webinar: Transforming Recycling - Container Return Scheme (nzwine.com/member)

JUNE 15 Grape Days Marlborough (see page 26) 22 2021 Young Winemaker National Final (nzwine.com/young-winemaker) JULY 1-2 7 7-10

Winetopia Wellington (winetopia.co.nz) Young Viticulturist of the Year Marlborough 2022 Competition and Celebration (nzwine.com/young-vit) Marlborough Book Festival (marlboroughbookfest.co.nz)

AUGUST 26-27 Winetopia Christchurch (winetopia.co.nz)

Sauvignon Blanc Day - May 6

28 / Winepress May 2022

Pruning Field Day - May 25

Grape Days - June 15

Winepress May 2022 / 29

Collaborating, innovating and supporting growers in New Zealand Located within the major horticultural regions, our local and knowledgeable store teams and in-field representatives are available to provide you with the services and inputs you need to grow your business.

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