A new experimental vineyard will be opened in Marlborough on Friday. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
A new experimental vineyard in Marlborough has been established to allow for more research into wine production - by controlling the environment in which grape vines are grown.
The facility is the newest addition to the New Zealand Wine Centre, based on Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology's (NMIT) Blenheim campus. It is a large greenhouse that will soon be home to almost 50 grape vines.
Plant & Food Research's viticulture and oenology science group leader Damian Martin said grape vines had long been studied, but the experimental vineyard, a living lab, would allow scientists to gain insights into what happened beneath the ground.
"They are essentially vines growing in very large pots, so there's about two cubic metres of soil in each pot and they weigh about four tonnes and that size gives us a volume of soil that is representative of a mature vine's root system.
"We want to understand a lot more about what happens below ground in vineyards and particularly around carbon balance, biodiversity and nutrient fluxes so the experimental facility is targeted at trying to answer those questions."
Damian Martin from Plant & Food Research. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
The new $3.5m facility is owned by the Marlborough Research Centre and will be operated by Plant & Food Research, with the two organisations collaborating on research programmes, and NMIT's students participating in research and learning in a purpose-built teaching space.
Marlborough Research Centre chief executive John Patterson said the organisation had made a significant investment in the experimental vineyard, which also received around $800,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund.
"If we are trying to look at growing our exports internationally, then we need to focus on the production element, improving yields and reducing costs for the industry as well as providing for climate resilience."
Demand for New Zealand's wine offshore continues to grow, with exports reaching a record $2.4 billion in the last year.
The facility is the newest addition to the New Zealand Wine Centre. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Nautilus Wines general manager Clive Jones said research undertaken in the new facility would have a downstream commercial effect for wineries across Aotearoa.
"While some research can be done out in the field, you are still subject to the vagaries of nature. If you want to test the effects of a dry vintage and it rains a lot then you don't get that much opportunity to do that in the season but if you are in an environment where those sort of factors can be controlled, then that allows that sort of research to be done."
In the new facility, scientists would be able to control the soil type, temperature and water availability for the vines.
Jones said the facility would enable viticultural research into disease management, crop manipulation and effective crop load and help the industry to prepare for climate change.
Researchers will be able to study what happens beneath the ground. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
"It fills the gap between quite small-scale research that's done in pot plants and the commercial stuff that's done out in the vineyard - it allows a little bit more realistic conditions within the experimental future vineyard that nevertheless can still be manipulated so you aren't so dependent on whatever the season brings you."
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Te Pūkenga executive director Olivia Hall said around 100 viticulture and winemaking students would directly benefit from the new facility.
"It's an amazing opportunity to do real world, hands-on research alongside researchers and scientists.
"It's a great collection of amazing winemaking and viticulture activity in the heart of sauvignon blanc country in New Zealand."
The facility will be officially opened in Blenheim on Friday by Associate Minister for Agriculture and for Regional Development Mark Patterson.