organic matters
In this issue
By Nick Paulin
From the vice chair
This year started off with a whirlwind of activity for OWNZ. Submissions on the Gene Technology Bill and pulling together another great conference have been the focus; the former has serious implications across many industries in New Zealand. Our voice is not alone in concerns raised around trade and market access, with many other primary industries submitting on the lack of cost analysis associated with the potential loss of trade. The process of the current bill is ongoing and we continue to engage with OANZ and New Zealand Winegrowers as to what the next steps will be.
The issue of gene technology as a whole is something very complex. It definitely warranted more than a seven-week submission period, and will continue to generate robust discussions throughout all primary industries. We as organic growers can provide alternative solutions to the so-called ‘silver bullets’ that gene technology is hoped to offer – disease resistance, drought tolerance and
nutrient density. It’s up to us to sing those praises more loudly and be heard. The solutions offered through organic farming are not exclusive to those certified.
In amongst the many emails and Zoom calls, the vines and plants within our vineyards have been working away, removing CO2 from the atmosphere, sequestering it in the soil and providing us with the pleasure of creating world class wines. Nature is a wonderful thing, and we must work with it rather than against it to provide the solutions that will stand up to the test of time.
We look forward to joining together with as many of you as possible at the conference in June. If you haven’t yet secured your tickets, they are available through the conference website, www. organicwineconference.com. Many thanks go to the conference committee and Naomi for all of their hard work creating a great programme and gathering of the community.
Nick Paulin Vice chair, OWNZ
A ConferenCe to Bridge e
The organic and biodynamic winegrowing event of the year returns to Marlborough this June.
The Organic & Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference is returning to the ASB Theatre and Marlborough Events Centre from 16-18 June 2025.
This year’s guiding theme is ‘Ki raro, ki runga, ki te rangi – Under the earth, above the ground and into the sky’. The threeday conference will focus on vital topics such as climate change, water ecology, biodiversity, soil health, biodynamics, regenerative viticulture and much more.
Bringing together leading industry experts and speakers from across Aotearoa and the globe, the conference is designed for all wine industry producers – from the certified organic to the curious. The focus is on innovation, knowledge-sharing and networking to inspire the future of winegrowing. OWNZ encourages vineyard
practitioners and managers, viticulturists, winemakers, exporters and wine marketers to attend.
Included with every conference pass is the opportunity to explore some of New Zealand’s best organic wines, poured by their producers, at the Aotearoa Organic Tasting on the first night of the conference.
Also on offer is an evening dedicated to reflection, celebration and connection through exceptional food, delicious wine and meaningful conversation: the Matariki Organic Feast on the second night. This year’s theme, ‘A Touch of Sparkle,’ is inspired by the stars of the Matariki constellation. A separate ticketed event that sells out each year, the feast promises to be a memorable experience.
Photo: Jessica Jones
Above: MC Nicholas Brown moderates a Q&A session for guest speakers Nick Paulin (far left), Ruud Kleinpaste and Robyn O’Brien at the Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference in 2019.
eArth And Sky
The conference concludes with the final ticketed evening event – the international organic tasting, Mai Tawhiti / From a Distance. Attendees will taste iconic international organic wines, riverside, with light bites and ambient tunes.
A sampling of conference presentations includes:
• Organic farming at scale: Benefits and challenges in practice | Joseph Brinkley, Bonterra
• From soil to soul: Why purpose-driven winegrowing matters more than ever | Rajat Parr, Phelan Farms
• The living vineyard: Viti-forestry, mycelium networks and the awakening of vine consciousness | Katia Nussbaum, San Polino
• Functional biodiversity and native insectaries: Practical examples | Dr Mary Retallack, Retallack Viticulture
• Enablers and challenges for organic viticulture: A Central Otago study | Olaf Schelezki, Lincoln University
• Organic viticulture financial benchmarking | Jim Bowskill, Hunter’s Wines
• Every drop counts: Bringing water footprint to the forefront of wine’s impact | Cristina Crava, Porto Protocol
• New Zealand’s freshwater crisis – our Faustian bargain? | Dr Mike Joy, Victoria University of Wellington
• The new culture of drinking: Meeting the moment with meaning, not margin | Cassandra Charlick, Wine writer and communicator
• The economic landscape of organics: Data, challenges and the road ahead | Tiffany Tompkins, Organics Aotearoa New Zealand
• Packaging futures: Where is New Zealand wine heading? | Panel discussion
... and much more!
For more information, including the full programme, speaker bios, conference passes and evening event tickets, visit www. organicwineconference.com. And for a deeper introduction to some of our international speakers, see the following pages in this magazine.
The process of putting together this massive event is being spearheaded again this year by OWNZ Marketing and Events Coordinator Naomi Galvin, with a dedicated volunteer
conference committee of organic winegrowers guiding the program. Asked what they are looking forward to most about the event, some conference committee members responded:
Bart Arnst: “Reconnecting with the industry legends.”
Amy Hopkinson-Styles: “I am looking forward to being inspired by this year’s speakers and catching up with our amazing Aotearoa organic and biodynamic wine community.”
Erica Crawford: “The Organic & Biodynamic Conference is now the MUST DO conference for New Zealand wine and grape growers. Content is a good balance of relevance and inspiration. I particularly look forward to hearing Cristina Crava of the Porto Protocol talking about water stewardship, as well as Cassandra Charlick talking consumer preference. Many delegates leave the conference inspired and implement better practices. It’s a lovely vibe, plus the Organic Feast of course is not to be missed!”
Anika Willner: “I’m especially looking forward to hearing Katia Nussbaum speak at this year’s conference. Few voices in the world of wine carry the depth, clarity and quiet conviction that she does. Her understanding is both scientific and soulful, grounded in practice and elevated by a vision that sees the vineyard as a living, breathing whole. She invites us to consider not just how we farm, but why.”
Delegates took over Raupo in Blenheim for the conference’s optional international organic wine tasting in 2023.
Photo: Lisa Duncan
Anika continues: “I’ve donated my time to help bring the conference to life because I believe the conversations we’re gathering for are not optional – they are essential. At a time when the earth is asking us to listen more closely, this community of growers, makers and thinkers is doing just that. We are not perfect. But we are trying, together, to do better by the land, by each other, and by the wines that carry our philosophies out into the world.”
About our chef
Kia Kanuta will be the guest chef creating the Matariki Organic Feast at this year’s conference. Recently named Auckland’s Outstanding Chef for 2024 at the Lewisham Awards, Kia Kanuta’s journey into cooking was a tempestuous one, but one that ultimately saved his life and determined his future.
Kia grew up on the poverty line, and when he was 14, both of his parents tragically died. This left him struggling with anger and pain which led him to drop out of school as soon as he could.
Kia’s first kitchen gig was washing dishes at the Avondale RSA.
After being nurtured by two welcoming, warm and accepting head chefs in the kitchen, Kia worked his way up in some of New Zealand’s top restaurants, including Prego, Café Hanoi, Mudbrick and Pici. He was most recently head chef at Ada Restaurant.
Kia’s passion for food and time spent cooking has been a healing process for him. Kia says, “The kitchen saved my life in so many ways. Feeding people is a love language for me, and a sense of belonging is what keeps me there.”
Kia loves creating Māori-inspired menus and brings a modern twist to traditional Māori cooking methods.
Horticentre scholarship recipients
One of the conference whakatauki is ‘Te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tipu o te rākau – The way in which the young sapling is nurtured determines how the tree will grow’. In keeping with that, OWNZ continues to work with the Horticentre Charitable Trust, who are sponsoring emerging winegrowers and winemakers to attend.
This year’s talented scholarship recipients are:
• Ceri Richardson, Central Otago
• Ria Knasiak, Central Otago
• Tucker Mattern, Central Otago
• Nina Downer, Central Otago
• Jacqueline Jubel, Dunedin
• William Lyons-Bowman, North Canterbury
• Georgia Mehlhopt, North Canterbury
• Annabelle Koopman, Hawke’s Bay
• Haidee Johnson, Wairarapa/Wellington
• Nick Otto, Waiheke Island/Auckland
• Lauren Yap, Nelson
• Lan Zhang, Marlborough
• Harrison Eaton, Marlborough
The conference committee extends its appreciation to all who applied. “We received an overwhelming number of applications, which was inspiring to see. It’s exciting to witness such passion within our industry. The high calibre of applicants made the selection process incredibly difficult,” said Nick Pett, conference committee co-chair.
Above: Auckland’s ‘Outstanding Chef’ for 2024, Kia Kanuta will create the Matariki Organic Feast at this year’s conference. Below: Delegates at the 2024 conference feast pause for entertainment between courses.
Photo: Lisa Duncan
BiodiverSity of WiSdom
This year’s conference will bring together a deeply experienced, diverse roster of presenters from Aotearoa and far beyond. This year’s international speakers include:
Rajat Parr
Phelan Farms | California, USA
Rajat Parr has cultivated a varied and distinguished career in wine. His first chapter was as a sommelier and wine director, culminating as wine director for the Michael Mina group, where he was in charge of the wine programs in over 20 restaurants across the USA. During this time, he began to sow the seeds for his second chapter, as winemaker.
Already a celebrated wine taster and explorer, Parr began to collaborate with other winemakers to create his own small brand of wines.
In recent years, Parr has continued to trace this trajectory to its natural terminus, becoming a winegrower himself. In recent years, he founded Phelan Farms of Cambria, California to farm and make the wine from their vineyards, focusing on regenerative agriculture and natural winemaking.
Dr André Leu
Regeneration International Daintree, Australia
Dr André Leu, D.Sc., has been the international director of Regeneration International since 2017. Regeneration International has 600 partners in 80 countries across every arable continent. It embraces various agricultural systems, including agroecology, organic farming, biodynamic agriculture, permaculture, ecological farming, holistic planned grazing, biological agriculture and agroforestry. From 2011 to 2017, André served as the President of IFOAMOrganics International, the only worldwide representative organisation for the organic sector.
André is an expert in nature-based ecological agricultural systems, having spent over 50 years as a regenerative organic farmer focused on agroecology. He has worked in and visited countries developing food and farming systems
across Asia, the Pacific, Europe, North America, South America and Africa.
Katia Nussbaum
San Polino Montalcino Tuscany, Italy
In 1990, London-born Katia Nussbaum and her husband, Luigi, reclaimed a rustic farmhouse in southern Tuscany where they now produce their premium wine, San Polino Brunello di Montalcino.
A fervent believer in the power of regenerative viticulture, Katia uses her earlier training in social anthropology to critique our contemporary ways of seeing. Using her beloved vitiforestry project as a metaphor for the complexity of an interconnected universe, San Polino wines become pieces for performance art: unique expressions of territory in the context of time, nature and culture. Her dream is to be a drop in an ocean of positive change.
Cristina Crava Porto Protocol | Portugal
Cristina Crava is an environmental engineer with a background in business management, safety and training. Rooted in the Vinhos Verdes region, she blends a generational winemaking legacy with a career focused on sustainability. After over a decade leading executive training at the Catholic University of Porto, she joined the Porto Protocol Foundation’s management team, where she drives international collaboration and climate action in viticulture through knowledge sharing and project development.
New Zealand Winegrowers is sponsoring Cristina’s visit.
For more international speakers, see the following pages.
Thank you to our gold partners Horticentre Group, and to all of our valued trade partners, for enabling us to put on another world-class conference.
Rajat Parr
Katia Nussbaum
André Leu
Big on regenerative
A more in-depth introduction to some of our international keynote speakers for the 2025 Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference.
Joseph Brinkley is director of regenerative organic farming at Bonterra, one of California’s largest organic winegrowing companies. Here he shares insights on what it means to be certified ‘regenerative organic’, cover cropping, tillage – and sheep.
Interviews
by
OWNZ coordinator Rebecca Reider
With a degree in horticulture, another in economics, and over 20 years in the field, Joseph Brinkley specialises in soil health, farming efficiencies, compost, cover crops, biodynamic farming and viticulture. He is committed to regenerative organic agriculture as a path towards increased vitality and resilience on the farm, as well as a means to climate change mitigation through carbon reintegration. He is currently Senior Director of Regenerative Organic Farming at Bonterra Organic Estates.
Joseph was making biodynamic preparations at the Josephine Porter Institute in the USA when he met winegrower Ivo Jeramaz of Grgich Hills. Ivo invited Joseph to move to the famed Napa region of California to run a biodynamic program on the vineyard. Joseph was already well steeped in the world of compost, but that was his first introduction to the practice of winegrowing. From there Joseph’s path led to Bonterra, one of the bigger organic wine producers in the US. He has been with Bonterra since 2013.
Of the transition to working at scale, Joseph says:
“I started in Napa. Napa for some is the culmination, right? It’s like you strive to go to Napa because of the high end. And not to discredit Napa, they do amazing things. But what really attracted me to Bonterra was that in Napa, we were farming biodynamically, but really at a price point that some can afford but many can’t; you’re talking multiple zeros behind a bottle of wine.
“And what Bonterra did, which I was appreciative of and attracted to, is the scale and the capacity to grow a $10 bottle of wine. The $10 bottle was only organic, but at the $20 or $30 price point at that time, it was certified biodynamic. So for me, I was really attracted to how can we apply these principles at scale – because a lot of the criticism you may be aware of is like, ‘You can only do if it’s your backyard, five acres, or backed with a
foundation’. That commercial applicability of that scale is what I was most attracted to at Bonterra.”
What follows is a transcript of a conversation we had via Zoom about what’s happening in Bonterra’s regenerative organic vineyards, what ‘regenerative organic’ means in the world of certification… and of course some chats about what Joseph and his colleagues have learned through experience around tillage, cover crops and sheep.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Joseph Brinkley
Above: A biodiverse cover crop grows in one of Bonterra’s regenerative organic vineyards, Mendocino County, California.
Rebecca Reider, OWNZ: Here in New Zealand, we have more and more organic producers, and also, the median organic vineyard size is definitely on the smaller side.
So first of all, what scale are you doing it on? And what are some of the principles to scaling it up?
Joseph Brinkley: Right now we’re around 850 acres [344 hectares]. That’s undervine. The whole land-holding is many more than that, but undervine cultivated acres is about 850.
It’s not all contiguous; we have multiple vineyard sites throughout Mendocino County.
I’ve done some consulting work in the past, and I think one of the most critical components is the site selection. If you have the wrong site, you’re just asking for troubles and a bunch of headaches and probably a failed project at the end of the day. So though I’m a big advocate for regenerative organic biodynamic farming, I do think that at the end of the day we have to recognise our place. And does it work in this place or not? I’m from
Virginia. If people want to be biodynamic there, well, grow cows then, let’s do something that works.
The North Coast California Mediterraneantype climate is an ideal climate for wine grape growing. So I’d say that’s really crucial.
“I was really attracted to how can we apply these principles at scale.”
Another piece that is incredibly important though is [although] I’m typically the face and I get all the credit, it’s really not me; there’s an incredibly solid team behind all this work that doesn’t get the credit or publicity, but these are the folks that really make it happen. We’ve got long-term employees that know our land, know our vineyards, have been for decades on these properties. So that is incredibly critical.
And I really saw this in the consulting work as well: If you don’t have the buy-in at both the top level of ownership or upper management… and the ones actually doing the work… it doesn’t really work right. The way it works is that you have the agreement and the buy-in. I always used to ask for just the capacity to suspend disbelief – ‘I’m not asking you to drink the Kool-Aid, I’m not asking you to believe it; just give it a moment and just be open to the possibility that this crazysounding stuff might actually work’.
I think those are the fundamentals that are pretty necessary for things to work. And then there’s all the practices; in my mind, the practices are the easy part.
We could talk about some of the practices then.
I don’t know in New Zealand if you’re familiar with sheep [laughs].
The animal integration piece I think is really critical. And we use them seasonally. For us, it’s late winter / early springtime, with the cover crop having a sufficient forage to carry a flock. So they’ll come in. I try to get two to three rotations,
Photos courtesy of
Bonterra
if I can, on any given block before bud break. Come bud break, then they’ve got to go. Otherwise, they’re problems.
So sheep are a really critical part. And a cover crop mix, really trying to maintain some degree of cover, living roots and living cover for some amount of time through the growing season.
We’ve gone back and forth on no-till, minimum till, some degree of tillage.
I think cover crops are so important in this interaction of creating and growing soil health and organic matter. The plants grow the soil. And certainly compost, utilising compost as an amendment.
And then with the undervine management and the canopy management, I think that the timing is so critical. I mean, timing is critical in all farming, but especially on the organic side where you don’t have heavy chemistry to cover up or clean up your mistakes. It’s all proactive – how can we maintain a healthy condition before things get off balance? Because then it’s a challenge.
So those are kind of the overarching buckets.
And it’s more of a philosophy, but [we are] really looking at how can we invest in this land for the long term. It’s tough if you’re tied up against a quarterly short-term profit-earning need; this is the long game. For one, it’s ag; for two, it’s a perennial agricultural crop. We’re in it for the long haul. So understanding that it might not always pencil out from one year to the next, but we’re looking at how are we investing in the land for the long term.
Sometimes that’s just a mind piece. As creatures, we’re not very smart, and we’re really short-sighted. So how do we overcome our own mental blocks?
That’s a great list. I’m interested to go back to the cover crops.
The cover crop piece, for me, there’s trying to find that balance between a nice mix, a sufficiently biodiverse mix without 40 or 50 species or something in it – I’m exaggerating, but just too many. Where is the right number or the right mix? I don’t know if I would necessarily say I have that nailed. But I try to categorise into understanding: What is our objective and
Above: Preparing the soil for interrow cover crops, Bonterra Estates.
what are we solving for?
For me, I’m solving for a handful of things. I want varied leaf and flower form and timing – various leaf forms and various flower forms really intercepting the maximum light. If we conceive of the sun blessing us with its energy in planes versus in lines – if we think of light coming at us within planes, so the different leaf forms are able to capture different planes of light… how much of that light can we capture or utilise? How can we increase our photosynthetic capacity? That’s kind of a dry terminology, a bit materialistic, but how can we increase the light utilisation? If it’s all just barley or oat or something, then there’s a lot of light that’s hitting the ground. But if you add some clover, and then you add some brassica, and you add a few other things, you’re really capturing the most light possible.
And then with all those plants, they have a different flower form and a different flower time. And for us, it’s important because – it’s terrible terminology, the ‘beneficials’, as if some insects aren’t beneficial – but the so-called ‘beneficials’ that are balancing the pests, a lot of those really need nectar. So we’re maintaining this ecosystem of food for all the little flying creatures that maybe we don’t recognise or appreciate. So [we sow] a couple categories – maybe a small grain, a brassica, clover and then another kind
of flowering plant. In my mind that’s how I approach it. And then what species and how much into each category then is kind of site-specific. In an overarching approach, that’s how I try to look at the cover crop piece.
And then we use sheep, with a professional sheep herder, a sheepgrowing family, because we grow wine grapes, and wine grapes and sheep are really, really different. I also take their input on what is good or not good for sheep, so we’ve shifted our blend, trying to make sure that it’s sheep-friendly.
That’s amazing that you have that partnership with someone who has enough sheep to graze that area at the right time. Does that work out?
Yeah, it does. It’s amazing. It’s great both for them and us.
They’re straight-up modern day shepherds, trucking sheep many miles up and down the state. For us, it really works out because I don’t know what I would do with this many sheep for six or eight months out of the year. The last handful of years, it’s been about 3000 sheep a year, because we want a pretty intensive graze; graze down, let it regrow, graze it down, regrow. And then they’re out. We have utilised them for some fire suppression on some of the wild lands.
We’ve got a couple of big reservoirs, so we have to maintain the dam face. So instead of having people on weed whackers, we can use the sheep there. Through the years now, we’ve found a handful of other uses for the sheep too, but the primary is the early-season cover crop.
We hope that we get two or three rotations of the sheep coming in, going back, coming in, going back. And then depending on the season, when the rain stops, essentially [based on] moisture and temperature, we may have to mow a couple of times again, depending on the cultivation approach and the season.
I would say for sure it saves us at least one undervine pass, maybe more, and probably one to two mowing passes. And then if we do cultivate, then come fall, basically post-harvest, we’ll drill in the next round of cover crop.
“As creatures, we’re not very smart, and we’re really short-sighted. So how do we overcome our own mental blocks?”
So you are letting the cover crops grow up and flower again during the season?
That’s right. We’ll let them grow up again, depending on what’s in there. I’ve got a handful of pictures where it’s been grazed down a few times, and then we still had a nice stand of phacelia and clover and some of the small grain, still fruiting wire-high. We have to be careful of frost of course, and there’s wind, and trying to get air and light. There’s a handful of things to manage. But they do get an opportunity to continue to grow and flower.
One more technical question. You mentioned trying no-till and I’m curious if you think there’s a place for no-till organic.
Tillage sometimes is kind of a controversial, hot-button topic; you can get kind of heated about it all. I’m not totally convinced one way or the other on it. I think it’s an incredibly important tool. I think it can be overused. I think over-tillage is not conducive to life. But it is a tool.
I prefer to stay in my lane as far as my own experiences. I do understand that there’s some detriment from tillage; there’s some oxidation, we’re losing some of the carbon that we’ve worked so hard to reintegrate. So I definitely understand the challenges.
I will say too that in a practical approach, there’s also some good reasons to till. I think a conscious approach to tillage, understanding it’s a tool, understanding when and how to use it… We are kind of reevaluating some of those pieces. I try to approach it in a less dogmatic way – what’s the needs of the vineyard today and tomorrow? And how can we best approach it given our current situation and resource?
There’s some people that are saying amazing things and
seeming to get great results with a real straight no-till approach. I think that’s wonderful for them. I’ve seen tillage be quite beneficial in some zones that hadn’t been tilled in forever – you just need some shakes in there, you need to rip that thing up, and the vines respond. I think agriculture, like life, it’s not so black and white. It’s so complex, right?
Let’s talk about the regenerative organic certification. That’s something that we haven’t heard a huge amount about here in New Zealand. Is all of your area certified ‘regenerative organic’? And what does that mean in terms of the practices?
All of the estate vineyards here are certified regenerative organic. A handful of years ago we started hearing this term ‘regenerative’. And our approach has been, over many years, that if we’re going to make a claim, given our size and distribution… for us, our scale and our distribution, we want the claim to be third-party verified, backed up.
We found regenerative organic [certification] is really kind of the gold standard in regenerative, with a baseline of organic which already aligns with our approach, our philosophy. And there’s a pretty stringent process to certify. We started with organic [certification], moved into the biodynamic thing on some properties back in the ’90s, others in the 2000s. The biodynamic piece brings so much as far as an approach to farming. However, on the commercial side, you might have 30 seconds, 90 seconds to talk to somebody about what you’re doing. Trying to explain biodynamics in a three-day course is hard enough, but in 30 seconds or two minutes? Articulating that message is a little challenging… commercially, it wasn’t a selling point, necessarily.
However, with the regenerative piece, we can talk about sheep, we can talk about cover crops, we can talk about just good farming practices; we don’t have to get esoteric. And the other piece that the regenerative organic certification brings is the conversation about farm workers. And I think that’s a piece that’s
Below: Visiting sheep are valued members of the Bonterra vineyard team, grazing down the vineyards in the spring.
been missing for so long in our conversation on sustainable agriculture, organic and biodynamic, right? We always talk about how well we treat the soil, but nobody ever talks about, do your farm workers get paid? Do they have shade? Do they have water? Are you exploiting them? You’re not exploiting the soil, but what about the people? Are you exploiting them? I’m not saying that biodynamic farmers are; I’m just saying it was not a part of the conversation.
This certification definitely makes that one of the pillars – how are you treating the soil, and the animals, and the people as far as the farm workers? For us, I think that’s a really important component. Because none of us are going to be farming without farm workers, right?
I would confidently say our practices [under regenerative organic certification] really haven’t changed, other than some experimenting in the no-till. We were already integrating animals, compost, organic, all those things.
So, it’s another whole process, more paperwork, more auditing. There’s more of a direct focus on some of the soil testing, so you do some in-field soil testing every year as a part of the certification, and then every three years, some laboratory soil testing to track your organic matter and how things have improved. There’s a few spreadsheets looking at tracking biodiversity and such. CCOF does it too; that’s our organic certifier.
There may be some minor differences, but I’d say the major one is really [the certifier] having interviews with workers, so it’s not my word. The auditor comes and they don’t ask me; they go to the workers themselves without any supervisor or management present, so it can be as real talk as possible. And then they also audit the pay, the benefits, all those pieces as well. So it’s another level of verification.
The [wage] rates are a little challenging. The certification requires a living wage plus 10%. MIT does a living wage calculator based on your zip code, what it would take. Our market rate is probably like $18 or so an hour. And the living wage calculator is at $26 or something an hour for our region. So it’s a significant difference.
And are you finding that regenerative organic certification has a good reception in the marketplace?
You know, this is probably where this interview should be a marketer instead, because I just can’t help you. I would love to say yes. The regenerative organic certified brands have really exploded as far as how many are in the program.
There’s some pockets and demographics and geographies that care. And then sometimes it opens up one of the gatekeepers, whether it’s the distributor or the retailer: ‘Oh, you’re doing that?’ Maybe that gets us an extra meeting and maybe that gets us an in where we wouldn’t have otherwise had an in. I think there is certainly some benefit to it.
Horticentre Group: Supporting Organic & Biodynamic Winegrowing
HORTICENTRE GROUP are proud sponsors of the Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference. As a leading supplier of viticultural solutions, we provide quality products and expert advice to growers across New Zealand.
Horticentre Group provide a comprehensive range of BIOGRO certified input products including:
WUXAL AMINO, a liquid organic amino acid biostimulant for quick revitalisation of plants suffering from stress, contains organically fixed nitrogen which is completely available to plants, as well as amino acids and polypeptides.
ECOCARB, a contact fungicide containing activated food-grade potassium bicarbonate, specially formulated to make it biologically active against fungal diseases, particularly powdery mildew.
BIOTA NITRO 2021, a nitrogen fertiliser in organic form that feeds both the plant and the soil life. The nitrogen consists of peptides and amino acids, essential for plant growth. Derived from plant residue, these amino acids are readily available to plants.
GRANULAR KMAG, a balanced potassium, magnesium and sulphur solution essential for strong vine growth, improved fruit development and enhanced stress resistance.
BIOTA IRON POWDER, a watersoluble iron micronutrient
powder that supports chlorophyll production and prevents deficiencies.
And coming soon...
BIOTA MOLYB, a concentrated molybdenum micronutrient essential for plant growth. It enables enzyme formation, regulating protein production and nitrogen absorption from the atmosphere.
BIOTA MANGA, a manganese micronutrient complex that improves photosynthesis, strengthens cellular walls, and increases resistance against fungal diseases. It should be used preventatively for optimal growth and curatively when manganese deficiency occurs.
BIOTA ZINC, a concentrated zinc micronutrient complexed with lignosulphonic acid which
is especially important for emerging crops providing a healthy stimulation of root growth (auxins).
Beyond supplying products, our experienced technical field advisors collaborate with growers to navigate challenges such as pest and disease management, plant nutrition and climate variability.
HORTICENTRE GROUP are the major sponsors of the HORTICENTRE CHARITABLE TRUST who are proudly sponsoring 13 young wine growers/makers to attend the Organic & Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference. Visit us at the conference or contact us at one of our branches.
GROWING BETTER CROPS TOGETHER.
Partnering with nature Conference
When it comes to vineyard biodiversity, Dr Mary Retallack is a powerhouse of knowledge and practice – and she’s been seeding change across Australia’s vineyard landscape for decades.
Mary is the managing director of Retallack Viticulture Pty Ltd and the founder/manager of the EcoVineyards program, which promotes practical ecological solutions for a broad range of production systems. Her pioneering work on native insectary plants and associated fauna has been showcased on the ABC’s Gardening Australia program.
As an experienced board director, agricultural scientist, agroecologist and third-generation viticulturist, Mary holds a wide range of skills and experience from practical, research, teaching and consultancy roles. She is recognised internationally as a Chartered Agriculturalist (CAg). She has gathered these skills over the past 30 years, along with a PhD in viticulture and plant protection and tertiary qualifications in conservation and park management, natural resource management, education, viticulture and arbitration.
Ahead of her visit to Aotearoa to speak at the Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference in June, she answered some questions for OWNZ about her work.
OWNZ: Tell us about the EcoVineyards program. What are some of the key ecological innovations you’ve seen growers take up through your work there?
The EcoVineyards program was founded and is delivered by Retallack Viticulture Pty Ltd (also trading as Retallack Ecology). It is an ongoing partnership between more than 160 collaborating businesses, including 75 wine grape growers called EcoGrowers who contribute cash and in-kind time to demonstrate a range of ecological practices on their properties.
We write these insights up as case studies so that everyone benefits and can learn in real time. We run events twice per year in each of the participating wine regions located throughout Australia and have regional on-ground coordinators (ROCs) that can help growers in the field. All of our information is freely available to all on the EcoVineyards website to ensure maximum reach and accelerate practice change.
Over the past three years we have focused on soil health; ground covers (including cover crops) and functional biodiversity.
Functional biodiversity encompasses all the flora (plants) and fauna (animal life) found in association, including predatory arthropods (insects and spiders); microbats, which can eat up to half their body weight in insects each night, including moths and other grapevine insect pests; and insectivorous and raptor birds of prey.
We have published more than 1,750 pages of practical extension materials, including case studies, fact sheets, plant community lists and a series of best practice management guides on soil health, ground covers and functional biodiversity, which we call the ladybird series. (The ladybird beetle is our EcoVineyards mascot).
Wine grape growers are leading the way internationally with their approach to ecologically based farming practices, by
Dr Mary Retallack
Photo:
Brad Griffin Photography
nature in the vineyard
objectively assessing plant health via leaf sap analysis; growing a diversity of supplementary plants, which increases the functional biodiversity of vineyards; focusing on the microbiology and living elements of the soil to maximise soil and plant health; improving water infiltration; growing and cycling soil carbon; covering bare earth; and understanding the connections between soil and plant health, insectary plants and the predators found in association.
There is a much greater understanding about the soil microbiome and capacity to influence vine health and the nutrient integrity of wine grapes, flavour profiles and potentially fruit quality. We have the capacity to produce grapevines that are healthier and less likely to be subject to insect attack and fungal pathogens, resulting in a better buffered production. I urge all growers to learn more about plant nutrient integrity and the plant health pyramid produced by Advancing Eco Agriculture. It is a game changer and will underpin how we grow commercial crops in the future.
Winegrowers are looking for longer term solutions to conserve water and reduce chemical and synthetic fertiliser inputs which often have unintended consequences, which can be summed up by this quote:
“When we kill off the natural enemies of a pest, we inherit their work.”
– Dr Carl Huffaker University of California, Berkeley
We are mindful of the urgency to create meaningful practice change to grow resilience and future-proof vineyard production in response to climate change and increasing extreme weather events, and to address the breakdown in function of natural systems. Functional biodiversity
underpins the capacity to create better buffered production systems and is the engine room of ecosystem services (the free services that nature provides).
The national EcoVineyards program aims to accelerate adoption and practice change outcomes specified in Wine Australia’s strategic plan for 2020-25, specifically:
• to increase the land area dedicated to enhancing functional biodiversity by 10% (so far, we have seen a change of about 25% since 2021), and
• to increase the use of vineyard cover crops and soil remediation practices by 10%. We don’t have readily available metrics for soil remediation practices, but the use of ground covers has changed by about 35% over the same period based on reported metrics for land area.
We are very pleased to see progress in each of these areas, but there is much work to do to regenerate our production systems for future generations.
Achievements
Over the past five years, the EcoVineyards program has:
• Raised more than $2.75M for the environment and to support winegrowers
• Planted more than 100,000 native insectary seedlings in and around vineyards
• Brought together more than 160 program collaborators with a common purpose of fostering environmental stewardship
• Run more than 100 educational events in wine regions to share information
• Shared new information at conferences in Australia, overseas and to the general public via ABC’s Gardening Australia program
Above: A native insectary planting in Bondar Vineyard, McLaren Vale, South Australia.
Photo: Mary Retallack
• Created a searchable knowledge hub which presents more than 1,750 pages of practical resources for wine grape growers, including articles, fact sheets, bird guides, case studies, grower insights, EcoGrower profiles, ground cover ready reckoner, videos, podcasts and posters and regional native insectary plant lists
• Established 76 demonstration sites in 14 wine regions across Australia (installed photo points, raptor perches developed by Ocloc by Ocvitti and 240 microbat boxes produced by volunteers at Seaford Rotary)
• Demonstrated new agtech solutions, including hydroseeding in the undervine area with a diverse range of native and introduced low-growing ground cover plants with a specialised hydroviner unit
• Highlighted the benefits of native grasses and forbs in the midrow pre- or post-vineyard establishment to generate additional income via the production of seed with soil health benefits
• Trialled new solutions including specialised pheromone and lure application technology (SPLAT) for LBAM control
• Helped create new career pathway information and awareness of agroecology, entomology and viticulture for school students
• Accelerated the adoption of ecological practices by 6,251 winegrowers and 2,361 winemakers who collectively manage 146,244 hectares of wine grapes throughout Australia.
The current EcoVineyards program funding cycle concludes in June 2025, and we are actively seeking new funding partners and growers to work with, both within Australia and internationally. The new best practice management guides are available for download via https://ecovineyards.com.au/bpmg/ or for purchase as hard copies.
More information is available on the national EcoVineyards website, https:// ecovineyards.com.au. We invite you to join the EcoVineyards community @EcoVineyards via Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and share ways you are growing in harmony with nature.
What are some of the benefits you’ve seen in vineyards using native Australian plants to support vineyard health? What has your work with growers shown about the most effective ways to do this?
Traditionally cover crops have been planted in the midrow area. We are focusing on perennial native grasses and forbs in this area and expanding the use of native ground covers in the undervine area to move away from a reliance on
herbicides and bare earth to improve the functionality of the system. We also encourage planting of ground covers and shrubs adjacent to strainer posts, in shelter belts and on beetle banks (strips of plants intended to attract beneficial insects).
Cover crops can be used to reboot the system to increase biodiversity in the short term. Longer-term benefits arise when we progress from annual cropping to perennial plants, which only need to be planted once and create more fungaldominated soils, which are also important for perennial crops like grapevines and orchard trees.
More than 90% of Australia’s species of flora and fauna are endemic. Many natural enemies are also endemic and have co-evolved with native plants, so we are likely to find them in association. Native plants are also consistently reported as having low occurrence of pests and high occurrence of natural enemies.
The benefits of ecological restoration through the incorporation of locally adapted, native vegetation are unequivocal but often overlooked or underestimated in a farming context. However, this is changing quickly. Many Aussie native plants are also evergreen, compared to European species that are deciduous and lose their leaves. Deciduous plantings create a resource bottleneck where populations of predatory arthropods may crash without suitable habitat. This is another reason why Australian native plants are so fantastic.
We promote permanent ground covers so there is less disturbance and greater habitat for soil organisms (predators, detritovores, mycorrhizal fungi), and greater capacity to improve organic matter, soil structure and nutrient cycling. Native insectary plants are resilient, versatile, and naturally adapted to Australian conditions and can be showcased as marketing collateral to
EcoGrowers Caroline Smirk, Ianto Ward and Dr Mary Retallack check maturing compost at Juniper Estate, Margaret River, Western Australia.
Photo: Rebecca Archer
differentiate our uniquely Australian products in the crowded international marketplace.
There is likely a complementarity of native insectary plants shared by both Australia and New Zealand, which may provide some insights for New Zealand winegrowers, in addition to the endemic species that are found exclusively locally and provide opportunities to showcase your unique flora to a broader audience of growers and wine consumers.
There’s been some interest in New Zealand in sowing undervine plantings to outcompete weeds without competing with the vines. What progress is there in Australia on that front? Is there anything we can learn from Australian growers about eco-friendly alternatives to undervine cultivation?
We find that low-growing native insectary plants provide a great opportunity for winegrowers in the midrow and undervine areas; they help create long-term relationships with soil biology and create fungal-dominated soils which are important for perennial crops like grapevines. Importantly, they only need to be planted once and can persist in the landscape for many years to decades with very little or no ongoing management.
The seed can also be harvested as a stacked enterprise to generate another source of income.
Native grasses and forbs sown as seed require thorough preparation to establish and are slow-growing. Most of the energy is focused on establishing a shallow root system rather than on vegetative growth in the first 18 months, but once they are established, they provide the capacity to outcompete weedy species that often favour compacted, anaerobic and bacterialdominated soils. In our experience, any drawdown in vine vigour is likely to be a result of weedy species growth during the first year of establishment, and any downside is often overcome by year two or three, with many ecosystem service benefits thereafter.
We advocate for 100% functional ground cover (and root growth), 100% of the time, wherever possible. This is to maximise the photosynthetic potential and ensure exudates are being transferred into the soil to nourish populations of microbes that in turn provide nutrients in a plant-available form, reduce soil pathogens and increase soil structure.
Healthy soils and functioning ecosystems represent a significant opportunity for sequestering and cycling carbon. Recent research by the University of Adelaide found that cover cropmanaged soil undervine sequesters up to 23% more soil organic carbon (SOC) than the traditional herbicide practice over a fiveyear period of growth; and microbial activity increased by more than double in cover-cropped soils.
We have been trialling the use of 20 different species of lowgrowing woody plants in the undervine area using hydroseeding, where specialised equipment is used to combine water, wood fibre, seed and other inputs as the carrier which is sprayed in the undervine area. Vortec Global tailor-made a hydroviner machine for use in vineyards and this was showcased at EcoVineyards events in autumn 2024. The EcoVineyards vineyard hydroseeding Q&A sheet, available on our website, highlights the hydroseeding process, costs and benefits.
Dr Mary Retallack and participants at the EcoVineyards event on soil health discuss macroorganisms found in a surface soil sample at Mt Bera Vineyards, Adelaide Hills, South Australia.
Brendan Pudney and Kerri Thompson assess growth of native shrubs and ground covers on a beetle bank at Skillogalee, Clare Valley, South Australia.
Native insectary tubestock at Bleasdale Vineyard, Langhorne Creek, South Australia.
Photo: Mary Retallack
Photo: Mary Retallack
Photo: Janet Klein
We spread seed from individual species in each panel and then sprayed wood fibre mulch over the top to see how well each species performed. The next step is then combining the top-performing species into regional multispecies blends and scaling up the area covered, which is currently occurring in several EcoGrower demonstration sites. Some of the low-growing (<30 cm) species that have performed well in a very dry growing season include:
Native ground covers
• Atriplex semibaccata, creeping saltbush
• Bothriochloa macra, redgrass
• Chloris truncata, windmill grass
• Dichondra repens, tom thumb
• Linum marginale, native flax
• Microlaena stipoides, weeping grass
• Rytidosperma geniculatum, kneed wallaby grass
• Vittadinia cuneata, fuzzy New Holland daisy
• Vittadinia gracilis, woolly New Holland daisy
Introduced ground covers
• Trifolium subterraneum, subterranean clover
• Lobularia maritima, alyssum
For more information on multispecies cover crop selection and native ground covers please see the ‘EcoVineyards best practice management guide on ground covers in Australian vineyards’ online.
You’ve received an impressive collection
of awards and accolades for your work. What drives you to step forward as a leader? What personal qualities have helped you lead in this space?
There has been a lot of grit and determination involved and a desire to help growers future-proof production while nurturing the environment. I grew up on a fruit block in the late 1980s during the ‘vine pull’, and we lost the property that was farmed by our family for more than 50 years when my dad died suddenly.
Much of my satisfaction comes from empowering growers with the tools and confidence to grow resilience and profitability in their production systems, and observing the ‘lightbulb moment’ when each discovers how much an ecological approach makes sense.
We also discuss culture and foster a polyculture of thought. We wish to move beyond the conditioning that ‘we often do more of the same and expect a different outcome’ and draw from an ecology analogy to reset our aspirations: moving from a monoculture to a polyculture of thought and practice change.
A monoculture (or simple structure) is a fragile and poorly buffered system where problem species often dominate, and regular intervention is required to produce a crop.
Conversely, a polyculture (or complex
structure) with good functional biodiversity, plant nutritional integrity and soil health has greater resilience, can rebound more quickly after disruption (including extreme weather events), is able to self-regulate with less intervention, and can save both time and resources for growers.
I like the following quotes which I have modified from regenerative winegrower Richard Leask from McLaren Vale:
“Have a clear picture of where you want to get to, be open to change, don’t get stuck on ‘this is the only way to do it’, as certainty traps you into that thinking. Be flexible, don’t be afraid to fail or to be wrong and challenge yourself.”
“Beware of the imposters of denial –those that say, ‘That won’t work here, that’s not possible, we can’t do it’... and despair – ‘This is all too hard, where do I start?’... Because they take no effort.”
I am in a privileged position of having the knowledge, skills, and confidence to help lead in the farming revolution that is occurring now and share knowledge from a broad range of practitioners, growers and my personal observations. I will continue to write materials and share practical insights to accelerate practice change. I can grow the EcoVineyards program internationally and crosssectorally.
I have done several leadership programs, and one of the things I learned is how to create luck, which is preparation meeting opportunity. I have spent my career preparing, so I am ready to seize opportunities as they arise. Also, the more you learn, the more you realise you don’t know. But nature has the answers, and through observation and an openness to trialling different techniques, we are learning better ways to farm, while nourishing ourselves and our communities. We are nature, and what we do to nature, we do to ourselves.
My work has also taught me how to respond when things don’t go as expected and the challenges of leading
At left: Demonstration of the Vortex Global hydroviner at Keith Tulloch Wines, Hunter Valley, NSW.
Photo: Mary Retallack
when there are a diverse range of personalities, needs and expectations. Overall, it has helped me become more resilient and understanding that everyone has a different perspective, story to tell and different values, and this informs who they are and how people respond in different situations. It is important to celebrate diversity and be open to different points of view and a diversity of thought.
In challenging times for the wine industry, it can be hard to sway growers to take on new ecological practices. How do you approach that in your work?
There are growers in distress in some regions that are unable to find a market for certain varieties. This provides a great opportunity to diversify into cash crops and maximise the income generated via the production system while complementing existing production, especially in the midrow, which is often underutilised.
We are demonstrating the benefits of stacked enterprises where it is possible to grow native grass seed to boost income from the vineyard while healing the soil. One of our EcoGrowers is producing gin from native lemongrass grown in an insectary area, and another is growing everlasting daisies in the midrow, which not only looks great and provides insectary benefits but provides another source of income via cut flowers.
Growers are coming up with lots of innovative ideas and collaborations that we hadn’t initially envisaged, and service providers are coming to us with solutions like specialised hydroseeding equipment for the vineyard and fish waste products that can be used as biostimulants as a part of a circular ecology where nothing is wasted.
However a grower chooses to manage their vineyard – conventional, minimal input, regenerative, organic or biodynamic – we complement these practices by offering a range of ecological approaches that can be applied incrementally. We start small and then scale up over a larger area as the grower gains confidence and sees the benefits.
We endeavour to remove any roadblocks to adoption and ensure information is practical and science-based and can be readily adopted. Growers are teaching
other growers, and we now have a critical mass of interested growers that just keeps growing. We are sharing information about how to work smarter rather than harder to break the cycle of intervention to achieve longer term solutions, and with the intelligence of nature rather than against it.
I am a third-generation viticulturist and grew up on a fruit block in the Riverland of South Australia. My initial undergraduate and postgraduate training was in ecology. I have six tertiary qualifications, including a postgraduate diploma and PhD in viticulture and plant protection and 30 years of practical viticultural knowledge, and I bring a different perspective.
“We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used to create them.” – Albert Einstein
This accumulated knowledge gives me the confidence to know where there are opportunities to do things differently, applying an agroecology approach. I think it is important to challenge the status quo, especially if our current practices are not providing the desired outcomes. I believe, as Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used to create them.”
I conducted PhD studies focusing on functional biodiversity, native insectary plants and the arthropods found in association. I found that it is possible to boost functional diversity by more than 3x when native insectary plants are incorporated near grapevines, and it is possible to increase the net number of predator morphospecies (visually distinct species) by around 27% when wallaby grasses, Rytidosperma ssp., are planted in combination with grapevines.
Once the system starts to self-heal, there are many benefits that follow, including the capacity of the land to produce highquality crops more consistently with less intervention and a higher profit margin. It may take new thinking and a change in culture, but the potential benefits are significant and long-lasting. There is a
Above: Dr Mary Retallack demonstrates the use of a vacuum sampler to assess arthropods in the midrow at Karanto Vineyard, Langhorne Creek, South Australia.
groundswell of interest from winegrowers, who are arguably leading the way internationally.
It is important to remember that technology provides a range of tools, but it is agroecology that provides the longterm answers we are seeking to combat climate change, sequester more carbon in our soils via the liquid carbon pathway, rebuild the soil water sponge, and feed the world.
The underlying principles of agroecology are complementary to achieving positive outcomes in the vineyard. The living components of soil underpin soil health and our capacity to grow healthy grapevines; this leads to healthy production systems and supports greater resilience.
We work from a position of generosity and kindness and find that if we share, we generate trust and a culture of reciprocity, and everyone benefits.
I look forward to continuing the conversation, sharing lots of practical examples of ways winegrowers can grow in harmony with nature, and learning from New Zealand winegrowers when I visit Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough in June 2025.
Harvest diaries
In the throes of the 2025 harvest, OWNZ regional representatives paused to share their notes in late March.
Waiheke Island/Auckland
Nick Otto, Mudbrick Vineyard
We have had an incredible season here on Waiheke and the wider region. A dry windy early summer has given way since February to a sustained run of settled, hot weather and blue skies. Most growers on the Island completed their harvests before the end of March. I know some organic growers struggled with powdery earlier in the season, but the dry summer ensured no disease pressure right through harvest. Our challenge has been that some blocks have been water-stressed, with most of the Waiheke vineyards without the option to irrigate. Overall, the quality of the fruit arriving at the winery has been exceptional with high sugars, deeply concentrated flavours and good yields. 2025 will produce some very exciting wines!
Gisborne
Geoff Wright, Wrights Vineyard & Winery
Gisborne started the 2025 vintage on 18 February, with sparkling base grapes coming off the vines first. The weather during harvest has been quite warm, with consistent dry days and no cyclones. This has allowed grapes to reach good ripeness. Chardonnay grapes are once again looking amazing from our region, with a lot of smaller growers still leaving these out to maximise flavours and ripeness and balance off the acidity.
Hawke’s Bay
Annabelle Koopman, Hopes Grove & Aard Wine
A very mild winter meant bud burst was early this season; we saw some young vines bursting as early as late July. Spring and early summer were dry – so dry that we never had to crimp the alternating rows which we were letting go to seed and even had thoughts about dusting off the irrigation system which has been sitting unused for over a decade. Luckily some rain made it our way in late December, and we didn’t have to cross that bridge. While most people weren’t stoked with the weather over the holidays, we (and the plants) were celebrating. On the bright side, it was an easy season in terms of mildew pressure, and the fruit is looking very clean, with a heavier crop than last vintage.
Photos this page: Inspecting Pinot Noir at Palliser Estate, Wairarapa. Happy Chardonnay harvest crew at Hopes Grove, Hawke’s Bay. Wendy Hauswith and Takaki Okada of Folium Wines at Fromm Winery, Marlbrough.
Harvest also kicked off insanely early, with our first pick being on February 7 for blanc de blanc. Funny how we manage to continually be surprised by how early things are, year after year. The weather has mostly been kind and steady throughout vintage so far; a couple of quick rain spells have passed through, but overall we’ve been blessed with warm sunny days and cool nighttime temperatures. The 2025 vintage is looking like one to watch out for.
Wairarapa
Ivor Allmand, Palliser Estate
The 2025 vintage at Palliser in Martinborough was a little more challenging than last year, with narrow windows for getting sprays on due to the weather, amplifying disease pressure. Fruit looked great during a warm December; then it went cold and wet over the new year. The weather and fruit picked up mid-January, putting a smile on our faces again and building anticipation for the harvest to come. A small amount of fruit was dropped and some extra sprays applied with the fruit looking fantastic going into veraison, with yields predicted to be up on last year.
We’re seeing some epic looking fruit coming in from the vineyard, making it a really fun and rewarding harvest, and exciting times ahead for the winery team.
Nelson
Stefan Brockley, Neudorf Vineyards
Frost at the start of the season was once more an issue, highlighting changing climate trends. The season was set up for a healthy-sized crop across the boards thanks to a run of hot days during flowering. Most growers talked of above-average yields, with thinning often required to meet quality goals and/ or yield caps. Some rain events caused concern during the second phase of berry growth in mid-February. Despite these pressures, the weather settled down towards the tail end of the season, with benign conditions allowing for a great harvest window. Ripening slowed in many cases, leading to a slightly drawn-out vintage.
Marlborough
Dave Foes, The Coterie
We are currently about a third of the way through our harvest – all our Pinot
Noir, Pinot Gris and a majority of our Chardonnay is in the house. We have had really settled, warm weather, which has allowed us to hang out the Sauvignon Blanc. The slightly larger crop has needed this, as ripening has been a bit slower than most years.
Disease pressure remains relatively low – we have had the odd patch of powdery mildew but nothing a selective handpick can’t fix. Botrytis incidence is fairly low for this time of the season.
Despite the bumper crop in the region, the organic side seems to be less affected and we are seeing only slightly above LTA crop levels. This should lead to a great stylistic differentiation between organics and conventional, and we feel that the quality of the organic wines produced this year should be awesome.
North Canterbury
Pete Chapman
The summer heat arrived early, accelerating vineyard growth and pushing key dates forward by about a week for most varieties. Dry conditions led to early flowering and the rapid drying of cover
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crops. Then, a blast of rain and cold over Christmas and into the new year brought a shift in conditions. Fruit set was reported as strong across the valley, with rainfall during cell expansion contributing to slightly larger-than-ideal berries. By Christmas, most growers were seeing clean, healthy vines. However, a stretch of cloudy days increased powdery mildew pressure, with small amounts appearing a couple of weeks later.
Proactive viticulture – timely canopy management, leaf plucking, and well-executed eradication sprays – helped maintain fruit quality. Véraison arrived about 7-10 days ahead of schedule for most varieties, setting the stage for an early harvest. However, subsequent cooler conditions and some rain have slowed things down. Some growers began picking in March, with fruit looking excellent, but the majority of the harvest is expected in April.
Central Otago
Annabelle Bulk, Felton Road
The 2024-2025 grape growing season in Central Otago experienced a combination of favourable and challenging weather conditions that will shape an interesting vintage. The season kicked off with a cool spring, resulting in a slightly delayed bud burst. Then early November frost hit hard, with some growers losing upwards of 60% of shoots.
With canopies recovering from frost, the warmer temperatures from late November promoted healthy flowering of what was left on the vines. The summer months of December through February brought average GDD, and the season is shaping up to be a typical Central Otago vintage. Powdery mildew has been more of an enemy this season, and higher incidence has been noted across multiple regions. The good flowering following the frost has provided us with good crop levels, but keeping a healthy canopy on the vines, through to the end of harvest, may be challenging.
With the harvest for some growers starting in March, producers noted accelerated sugar development in key varieties. As we head into picking, I am looking forward to the fruit being in and reflecting on the high and lows of an awkward growing season.
Below: Gareth King surveys the harvest at Felton Road, Central Otago.
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Coming events
Down to Earth – Sydney is calling
Down to Earth is a special event series which takes place during Organic Wine Week. Attendees indulge in the largest and finest selection of New Zealand organic wines, while connecting with the passionate producers who pour them.
Following successful events in Aotearoa in 2023 and 2024, the OWNZ team is thrilled to expand Down to Earth to Australia in 2025! In order to focus our energy on the largest cities in both countries, we’ve made the strategic decision to pause Wellington for this year.
Events will take place:
Auckland – Tuesday 16 September 2025
The format for Auckland will remain the same as previous years, with a trade tasting in the afternoon, followed by a public tasting in the early evening. A new Auckland venue will be announced soon.
Sydney – Thursday 18 September 2025
The format for the trade session will be a smaller targeted masterclass in the afternoon. A much larger consumer session will take place in the early evening. We are actively collaborating with key stakeholders, including Mike Bennie and Alex Webster Aranchikov from Meiburg Wine Media, to bring this unforgettable experience to Australia.
We encourage members to factor Down to Earth into your travel plans. These will be events worth being a part of.
All organic member wineries should have received registration details by email. For more information contact Naomi: naomi@ organicwinenz.com.
Save the dates – Organic Wine Week 2025
Organic Wine Week is an annual event set to take place 15-21 September 2025. It celebrates organic wine, highlighting the quality and environmental benefits of organic wine production.
The week features various activities such as wine tastings, special promotions and educational events to raise awareness about organic wines.
It’s an opportunity for both wine enthusiasts and industry professionals to explore the unique flavours and stories behind organic wines and to support wineries that prioritise organic and biodynamic farming methods.
Above: At Down to Earth events held in Wellington and Auckland during Organic Wine Week 2024, OWNZ wineries poured their organic wines for members of the trade and public.
Genetic hazards
OWNZ coordinator Rebecca Reider provides an update on the Government’s proposed Gene Technology
Bill – and explores why organic producers (and all growers) are right to be concerned.
The New Zealand government has proposed a new genetic engineering law, and it’s raising concerns across the primary industries.
While most of us have probably heard about this, most of us also haven’t read every word of the bill. (Fair enough; the full document weighs in at over 160 pages of legalese.) To create OWNZ’s submission on this bill, I was tasked with thinking about this issue a fair bit. So this article is to provide members with some thoughts on what’s being proposed, what’s at stake and where we are now.
In spite of being introduced hastily over the summer holidays, the Gene Technology Bill received over 15,000 submissions.
While objections from organic producers were perhaps predictable, many major agricultural organisations also have raised serious concerns. OWNZ vice chair Nick Paulin and myself spoke on behalf of OWNZ to the Select Committee of MPs considering the bill in March. Many other organic organisations were speaking up with points similar to ours, but it was not only the organic organisations who were voicing concerns.
For example, it was interesting to hear the oral submission of Seafood NZ and the Rock Lobster Industry Council just before us; they expressed familiar concerns about overseas markets being averse to
genetically engineered products, and highlighted the risks to trade and New Zealand’s international reputation if GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are released into our environment.
If the bill passes in its current form, New Zealand would become one of the most permissive countries in the world for GMOs.
New Zealand Winegrowers made a submission in favour of the bill’s premise, saying that they oppose the use of some transgenic organisms but that they want a new legal framework so that New Zealand industries can access a suite of what NZW considers to be ‘lower risk’ GMO technologies. (The bill itself does not make that distinction, however.) Still, NZ Winegrowers likewise noted in their submission that “there remains a tension between uptake of technologies and existing trade and market access arrangements. The Bill lacks sufficient detail on the risk new approved technologies may present to these arrangements and the potential cost.”
What’s at stake
Aotearoa New Zealand has a global reputation for ecologically responsible production. Our strong biosecurity and geographic isolation enable us to guarantee GMO-free products to increasingly discerning global markets. Activism and public outcry around early GMO trials led in the year 2000 to a Royal Commission on Genetic Modification and a moratorium on the use of genetically engineered organisms outside the laboratory. Public pressure then helped to keep the moratorium in place; in 2003, an estimated 35,000 people marched up Queen Street in Auckland in support of the moratorium.
As a result of those efforts, this country has enjoyed de facto GMO-free status for our products in international markets ever since.
The proposed Gene Technology Bill could throw that reputation and market access in the bin. If the bill passes in its current form, New Zealand would become one of the most permissive countries in the world for GMOs.
The proposed legislation lacks any rigorous pre-specified risk management framework. Instead it would give huge decision-making power to a single politically appointed individual, who would be authorised to personally decide whether to even notify the public before genetically engineered organisms were
released into the environment. That individual (the ‘Regulator’) would have a committee of technical advisors but would not be legally bound to follow those advisors’ advice.
The bill would also override local authorities’ ability to regulate GMOs. Currently, multiple regions have their own council-enacted moratoria on GMOs as an added safeguard for local primary industries.
Market risks
This legislation should concern every agricultural producer in this country.
Consumers in many international markets have emphatically rejected GMO products. The EU has zero tolerance for unauthorised GMOs, and acts swiftly to block imports of tainted crops.
That’s a concern for New Zealand, because in countries where farmers engage in open-field GMO production, there have been recurring incidents of contamination of non-GMO farms over the past three decades. Even with regulation, GMO pollen cannot be easily contained.
In numerous high-profile incidents, US farmers have had GMO contamination discovered in their products, leading to shipments being rejected by overseas markets. At one point, in the famous StarLink corn incident, the EU halted all US corn imports. Traces of the StarLink
GMO corn breed, which had not been approved for human consumption, had been found in a shipment to Japan. As a result, US farmers lost hundreds of millions of dollars in rejected shipments.
As a nation trading on our green image, there is an added concern for New Zealand. If GMO contamination were to be discovered in New Zealand products, it wouldn’t be a one-off loss; our market reputation would be permanently altered.
A survey of US organic grain farmers found that one-third of respondents had dealt with GMO contamination on their farms.
The proposed Gene Technology legislation also contains no liability provisions. That is, if an organic producer (or any other New Zealand farmer) suffers financial losses due to GMO contamination, the companies using the GMOs would not be held responsible for the damages suffered by their neighbours.
Impacts on organic producers
The situation is particularly fraught for organic producers, whose organic certification requires their products to
be GMO-free. In the US, in areas with widespread GMO cropping, organic farmers face increased costs due to the need for seed testing, added hygiene requirements around processing plants and equipment, the need for buffer zones and crop losses due to contamination.
In 2014, close to 20 years into the release of commercial GMO crops, a survey of US organic grain farmers assessed how those farmers were faring in the face of GMO contamination risks. The survey found that one-third of those organic grain farmers had dealt with GMO contamination on their farms. The vast majority of organic grain farmers (five out of six) were concerned about GMO contamination. Of those organic farmers in the survey who had harvests rejected, the average loss to the farmer for a rejected load of grain was US$4500. (The survey was conducted by the US organisations Food & Water Watch and Organic Farmers Agency for Relationship Marketing [OFARM]; see “Organic Farmers Pay the Price for GMO Contamination” from Food & Water Watch online.)
While genetically modified grapevines might not pose the same kind of breeding risk to their neighbours, winegrowers are still right to be wary. What happens if someone wants to unleash GMO yeasts in Marlborough wineries? Under the proposed legislation, the Government might not even have to notify the public that this was happening. How would organic producers (and any other producers exporting to the EU) keep such yeasts out of their wines? Yeast lives everywhere around us – evidenced by the fact that some organic producers ferment their wines solely with native yeasts gathered from the air.
The thought of all EU-bound New Zealand wines having to be tested for GMOs – and potentially rejected by markets if contaminated – is a grim one.
There is also the question of what would happen if GMO grasses were released into the New Zealand environment. Currently,
At right: New Zealand’s GMO-free status was hard-won. A crowd of 35,000 marched through Auckland in 2003 to keep the moratorium in place.
GMO ryegrass does not exist in any commercial context, but it’s being developed in the lab by AgResearch. If GMO grasses were sown outdoors commercially and allowed to flower, their pollen would cruise on the breeze. What would happen then to the organic status of any certified organic dairy or meat producers whose pastures became seeded with GMO grass? What would happen if an organic vineyard’s cover crops cross-pollinated with GMO grasses? What would happen to the market status of any sheep that grazed in that vineyard?
While this legislation is being pushed quickly, the consequences could be intergenerational. If GMO pollen or microorganisms get into the environment, they stay there.
Next steps
This legislation is moving quickly, but it’s not a done deal – yet. The Health Select Committee is expected to report back on its assessment of public submissions by June or July. At that point, the Gene Technology Bill will return to Parliament for its second reading and potential amendments.
The Government has expressed its intention to pass this legislation and appoint a regulator to spearhead its implementation by the end of the year. (Consider in contrast how long it’s taking them to implement the new organic production regulations. The Organic Production and Products Act passed in April 2023 and is not expected to be implemented until perhaps next year. Priorities...)
OANZ (Organics Aotearoa New Zealand), the organic sector body, has been among the organisations leading the charge to mobilise opposition to the bill. It’s worth following them online to stay updated. An activation kit is available on the OANZ website at www.oanz.org, with letter templates, talking points and other resources to share online.
A petition has also been circulating asking Parliament to slow down the process and set up a commission of inquiry. Even New Zealand Winegrowers expressed frustration with the speed of the process in their submission: “Extended timeframes should have been considered for complex legislation that may have
Above: A guide to lobbying MPs is part of the activation toolkit on the OANZ website.
generational impacts on New Zealanders’ way of life.”
Possible safeguards?
While OANZ opposes the bill in full, they have also suggested concrete ways that it should be amended. These include:
• Civil liability provisions to ensure that those responsible for GMO contamination bear the costs, not organic farmers.
• Mandatory traceability for all GMOs, including labelling, to protect organic certification and market access.
• Robust coexistence measures to prevent GMO contamination and preserve New Zealand’s organic sector.
• An independent regulator outside of ministerial control to determine exemptions, to avoid conflicts of interest and ensure science-based decisions.
This is an issue that will affect all primary producers, regardless of organic status. If you’re concerned, now is the time to let your MP know about it.
Japan organic market access challenges
By Jared White, BioGro Audit Manager / OWNZ executive member
The Japan organic regulations (Japan Agricultural Standard, or JAS) were amended in 2023 to include alcoholic beverages, with a two-year implementation period. From 1 October 2025, wine for retail sale in Japan must display the JAS organic logo. This has been flagged to producers by the organic certifiers.
Under the current Official Organic Assurance Programme (OOAP) administered by the Ministry of
Primary Industries (MPI), wine grapes can already be certified under ‘OOAP-Japan’. However, organic wine was not part of the original agreement with Japan MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) so is not included in the MPI Japan Organic OMAR (Overseas Market Access Requirement).
In 2023, MPI started negotiating with Japan MAFF to have organic wine added to the scope of the Japan Organic OMAR. This would enable organic wine certified under the OMAR to gain equivalency with JAS. However, the organic certifiers have recently been informed by MPI that
this negotiation has been suspended until the New Zealand national organic standard is fully implemented (expected to happen by 2026).
Currently, the only way to have wine certified organic for the Japan market is to gain direct JAS certification. In New Zealand, only BioGro NZ offers this service. It is charged separately from other certifications, and follows the process required by Japan MAFF. The winemaker, bottling company and brand owner/exporter must all be certified. Contact BioGro for more information on fees and process.
Member news
Wrights Vineyard – When the boys stepped up amidst the storm
The 2025 harvest at Wrights Vineyard and Winery began not with the usual hum of machinery or the steady rhythm of seasoned hands – but with a jolt. Just weeks before vintage, Geoff Wright, the heart and helm of the family-run organic vineyard, faced a crushing setback: a serious accident left him with a broken leg in multiple places. Surgery, hospital stays and a strict doctor’s order followed – no driving, no machinery, no vineyard work for up to three months. For any winegrower, this would be a devastating blow. But for Geoff, standing on the cusp of his 25th harvest, it felt almost cruel.
With a team of just two, the weight of the season suddenly seemed too heavy to carry. Their grapes, carefully tended for months, were ripening fast under the late summer sun – but without hands to pick and process them, all their efforts risked falling to the ground, unharvested. They tried selling their certified organic Gisborne grapes, but interest was limited. The dream of another vintage was slipping away.
But sometimes, when the storm seems darkest, light comes from unexpected places.
A teachers-only day offered a glimmer of hope – a rare window of free time for Geoff’s three young sons, Noah, Eli and Luke. Alongside family friend Steve Parkes, they rallied. What began as a predicament became a family mission. The boys rolled up their sleeves, mucked in, cleared the vineyard, removed nets, cleaned the winery and prepared to do what once seemed impossible: bring in the harvest.
It wasn’t without hurdles. Machinery breakdowns, long hours and the weight of responsibility hung over them. At times, Geoff admitted, it felt like the universe itself was conspiring against
them. But with a director’s chair in place of his usual spot on the tractor, Geoff coached from the sidelines while his boys did the mahi.
Together, they managed to pick an impressive 11 tonnes of Pinot Gris and three tonnes of Chardonnay, destined for a skin-fermented Fumé Blanc-style wine – a vintage shaped not just by nature, but by grit, resilience and family love.
“These boys,” Geoff said, “worked tirelessly from 8am to 9pm that day. They were exhausted, but they didn’t give up. I’m beyond proud – how lucky am I to have such talented, hardworking boys. We made sure they were trained up, went over every hazard and kept a close eye on them. They carried this harvest.”
Geoff also extended heartfelt thanks to those who backed them along the way, including their patient harvesters, Davies Contracting; the technicians at Fenn Refrigeration and SE Systems, who stepped in when the machinery faltered; and Maggie, Garry and Linda from the Gisborne Farmers Market, whose encouragement kept him going.
Not wanting their later-ripening varieties to go to waste, the Wrights leaned into a little French ingenuity and launched a ‘Pick Your Own Grapes’ weekend, inviting the local community to join the harvest. The initiative was met with enthusiasm, echoing a tradition common in French wine villages, where community spirit is as much a part of the vintage as the grapes themselves.
Their prized Grand Cru Chardonnay from Ormond Valley was harvested by their friends at Odyssey Wines. Geoff’s eyes light up when he speaks of that Chardonnay – low-yielding, organically grown and simply stunning.
The 2025 vintage at Wrights Vineyard will not just be remembered for the wines it produced – but for the resilience, teamwork and aroha that carried it through.
the sidelines.
Above: The Wright boys muck in on harvest jobs, while dad Geoff looks on from
New OWNZ members
The OWNZ team welcomes the following vineyards and wineries to our community of organic-producing members:
• Auntsfield (organic winery)
• Andahlane (organic vineyard)
• Huntress (making wine from certified organic grapes)
• Eaton / Melange Wines (making wine from certified organic grapes)
Mount Edward goes ‘outside the box’ with eco-packaging
Central Otago organic winery Mount Edward is forging a new path in lowfootprint wine packaging. Their recently introduced Big Ted line features a cylindrical carton with a liner and plastic tap. “We have been researching and developing this concept for a few years now and finally got what we were after,” says Duncan Forsyth, winemaker and general manager at Mount Edward.
“Essentially, new technology bags now allow this style of delivery to be sustainable (packaging-wise) and deliver premium wine,” says Duncan. “Oxygen transmission is a quarter of what it used to be, allowing great shelf life. Opened we are seeing these pour well even after six weeks and over a year.”
All this allows for a 100% recyclable product, a much lower carbon footprint and no wastage of wine. “As drinking habits have changed, buyers can have a glass every third day and still be drinking good wine, instead of throwing it away or thinking you have to finish the bottle,” Duncan points out.
Mount Edward is aiming “to elevate perception and deliver quality in the format,” Duncan explains. The cylindrical package represents literally “thinking outside the box”, and “allows people the licence to see it as the quality product it is, gives them some style to associate with, removes historical references to the box and also alludes to higher end packaging.”
Mount Edward say they are following Dicey and their Dice box (with whom they share bagging equipment) and are also proud to do this work alongside Fugitive of Marlborough, all aligned in their quest for ecologically responsible packaging.
Te Kano
honoured for biodiversity efforts
Te Kano Estate was thrilled to be shortlisted for the Drinks Business Green Awards 2024 in the special Amorim Biodiversity category.
Established in 2010, the Green Awards celebrate excellence in sustainability across the global drinks industry. The Amorim Biodiversity category specifically honours businesses that have made significant strides in enhancing biodiversity – not only within their own land but, where possible, beyond their boundaries as well.
With sustainability experts and industry leaders doing the judging, competition was fierce. The field was narrowed down to just five outstanding finalists: Emiliana Organic Vineyards, Familia Torres, Sogrape, Te Kano Estate and Vergelegen Estate. Congratulations to Vergelegen Estate for taking home the top honour.
Zephyr Gewürztraminer wins
The single-vineyard Zephyr Gewürztraminer 2024 took home the Laffort Trophy for Champion Gewürztraminer and the Everyday Wine Trophy for Champion Organic Wine at the National Wine Awards late last year.
For the Glover family, Gewürztraminer has been a labour of love. Over 20 years ago, Owen and Wendy Glover planted just four rows of this aromatic variety at their Brawn Vineyard on Dillons Point Road, a decision that has since blossomed into a truly distinctive expression of place.
“We are continuing Zephyr’s journey to express the true ethereal, aromatic and structural flair of the Dillons Point sub-region in Marlborough, all the while having an emphasis on winegrowing through soil health, biodiversity, single vineyard expression, hands-off winemaking, and ultimately mindful consumption,” says Ben Glover, Zephyr’s owner, winemaker and self-proclaimed janitor.
Photos this page: Te Kano, honoured for biodiversity efforts; Mount Edward’s Big Ted wine vessel; the Zephyr team celebrates their wins.
Churton founders consider cooperative future
After nearly 30 years of business, respected Marlborough organic winery Churton is up for sale.
Sam and Mandy Weaver set up Churton nearly 30 years ago with a strong vision and high ideals to produce characterful authentic wines that respect the personality of place. Now they are ready to retire from active involvement in the business, and exploring creative ideas to keep the Churton ethos alive.
The Weavers are considering several options, ranging from selling the company outright to retaining some interest. Their preferred option is to transform Churton into a cooperative venture, under the ownership of a group of like-minded individuals in which the Weaver family would still have some ownership interest.
As innovators, the Weavers have always swum against the tide. They planted their vineyard on a hill when everything else in Marlborough was on the flat. They regarded 200m elevation as a positive advantage, whilst the bulk of vineyards were at or around sea level. They planted at high density with narrow rows rather than John Deere-width rows. The idea was to develop vines with deep roots rather than shallow surface roots dependent on irrigation.
The result was a 22.4 ha close-planted vineyard with 17 different blocks to take advantage of the hillside’s aspect. The vineyard now consists of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Viognier and Petit Manseng. Churton was an early adopter of a strongly ecological approach and converted to organic certification in 2009. And since 2006 the vineyard has been run with a biodynamic philosophy. The Weavers see the importance of the whole farm of 52 ha contributing to the overall character and vitality of the wines produced from the property. And that character and individuality has been well recognised both locally and globally through strong and loyal distribution for wines and customers for grapes.
“We have always maintained a strong ethical focus in our business,” says Sam Weaver. “This starts with the way we work with our environment and leads through to the distinctly different style of the wines, as well as our relationships with the Churton community of customers.”
While the Weavers prepare to sell the business that they have put so much love into, their values still prevail. Mandy Weaver says, “Ideally we would like to set the business up as a cooperative.” Sam adds: “We see the cooperative ideal as providing an ethical structure that benefits all shareholders equally, and all shareholders have the same voting rights. We want to see the business continue with the same environmental and social ethics on which we originally set it up.”
In these times when the whole wine industry is struggling, Sam sees the importance of vineyards and wine companies that can represent another side of the wine business. “From my experience in the international wine industry, when regions run into major market problems (think Beaujolais, Chablis, Austria), it is the small, ultrahigh quality, innovative producers who lead the renaissance of those regions.”
Is a Churton ecological cooperative the first step on this track? Expressions of interest and thoughts are welcome at Churton. Contact sam@churtonwines.co.nz.
Above: Churton founders Mandy and Sam Weaver are inviting expressions of interest for the future of their longtime organic vineyard.
OWNZ happenings
Organic producers join forces to showcase wines for visitors
By Naomi Galvin, OWNZ Marketing & Events Coordinator
Off the Beaten Track
Like the rest of the New Zealand wine industry, February was a whirlwind month for Organic Winegrowers NZ. One of the highlights was a user-pays Marlborough tasting, aptly named ‘Off the Beaten Track’, for two groups of very distinguished media and sommeliers who were visiting the region as part of Pinot 2025 celebrations.
True to its name, the tasting showcased unexpected varieties, unconventional wine styles and diverse formats, painting a dynamic picture of Marlborough’s organic wine scene beyond the familiar.
The tasting took place at Seresin’s picturesque Raupo Creek vineyard. Spanning 82 hectares, the site is a living, breathing ecosystem, encompassing vineyards, olive groves, pastureland, livestock, honeybees, vegetable gardens, orchards and pockets of native bush. It was the perfect stage for an exploration of organic Marlborough wines.
Guests were warmly welcomed by OWNZ’s Bart Arnst, Dave Foes and Daniel Ah-Loy, alongside Michael Seresin himself and Seresin’s Tamra Kelly-Washington and Cameron Vawter. The media group included renowned names such as Rebecca Gibb MW, Sarah Neish, Christina Pickard, Max Allen and Betsy Andrews, guided by Catherine Wansink, New Zealand Winegrowers marketing consultant for Australia.
The sommelier contingent featured Tom Fahey, Amber Rill, Jenna Isaacs, Christopher Sealy, Yang Lyu MS, Bungo Matsunaga, Liinaa Berry and Cyndal Petty, and was led by Chris Stroud, NZ Winegrowers marketing manager for the UK and Europe.
This tasting was more than just an event; it was a rare and invaluable opportunity for collaboration, a moment to share Marlborough’s organic evolution with some of the world’s most discerning palates.
LCBO visit
Also in February, LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) buyers Abhay Garg, VP of Merchandising, and Marie Cundari, Senior Director of New World Wines, embarked on a ten-day tour of New Zealand’s wine regions. Their journey took them through Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago before finishing in Christchurch for Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025.
During their time in Marlborough, Organic Winegrowers NZ had the privilege of hosting a focused organic wine tasting, showcasing 11 wines from 11 wineries. The event, held at the
Above: An impressive collection of media and sommeliers met an impressive collection of OWNZ members’ organic wines at Seresin’s Raupo Vineyard in February.
very charming Hans Herzog Estate, was expertly led by OWNZ chair Clive Dougall.
Throughout their visit, Abhay and Marie were accompanied by the New Zealand Winegrowers Canada team, Melissa Stunden and Andrea Backstrom, who guided them through an immersive experience of New Zealand’s diverse, dynamic wine landscape.
The LCBO has already expressed interest in sourcing some of the organic wines tasted.
OWNZ member gatherings
Over the recent summer, some of our OWNZ regional representatives hosted pre-harvest social gatherings – an opportunity to reconnect before vintage and reflect on the season.
On Waiheke Island, Mudbrick set the scene with a fantastic BBQ and a tasting of international organic wines. The entire Mudbrick team attended, joined by staff from Te Motu and Kennedy Point, while Alistair and Karen Noakes from October30 in Matakana made the journey over to join the festivities.
In Gisborne, Wrights Vineyard & Winery enjoyed a great catch-up with their friends from Millton Vineyard, strengthening the bonds of their organic community. Meanwhile, in Hawke’s Bay, a small group gathered by the river at Paritua Vineyard, raising a glass to the season’s work and sharing a few new wines. Annabelle Koopman reflected, “It was a nice chance to chat about the season and take a moment away from the vines for everyone.”
Down in Marlborough, Fromm Vineyard & Winery welcomed 2025 guests for an afternoon of local organic wines and a grazing platter, fostering conversation and camaraderie.
Across the regions, these gatherings were a reminder that vintage is not just about the grapes – it’s about the people, the shared experiences and the collective passion for organic winegrowing.
Photos at right: OWNZ members celebrate the season on Waiheke (top) and at Paritua in Hawke’s Bay (bottom).
Q&A: Amisfield
To help our growing membership keep track of each other, we run a Q&A with a certified organic OWNZ member in each issue of Organic Matters.
In this issue: Ben Leen and George Mackersy of Amisfield
Amisfield vineyard, Central Otago
What’s your position in the business?
Ben: Winemaker
George: Vineyard manager
Where is your vineyard?
In the Pisa sub-region of Central Otago. Nestled between the Pisa Range to the west and Lake Dunstan to the east.
What’s the history of the land?
Purchased in 1988 by the Darby family. The 200-hectare estate was once a prominent high country merino sheep station. It is now one of the largest single vineyard estates in the Central Otago region, with 90 hectares planted and
farmed organically. The first vines were planted in 1999.
What varieties are you growing, and how much of each?
Pinot Noir, 58 hectares
Sauvignon Blanc, 12 ha
Pinot Gris, 10 ha
Chardonnay, 4.4 ha
Riesling, 4.3 ha
Chenin Blanc, 1.2 ha
Pinot Blanc, 0.1 ha
What is the organic certification history of the property?
Organic conversion began in 2013 in
stages. We took a staged approach to observe and understand the vines’ transition under organic management. Vintage 2021 marked the first vintage with 100% of the fruit organic.
What originally motivated the Amisfield team to get into organic production? Legacy and longevity of the land. Grapevine resilience.
Site-expressive wines. Healthy and happy staff.
What are some of the effects of organic production that you’ve noticed in the vineyard?
Photos courtesy of Amisfield
Lower yields and more concentrated flavours. Greater soil health and biodiversity.
The changing cycle the vines go through as they adjust to different practices.
The need to be ahead of the game in terms of managing the site; it requires closer attention and planning. Happy staff.
What are some of the biggest learning curves for you in bringing organic practices to your site?
Like many organic vineyards, challenges include weed management and undervine competition, along with managing powdery mildew pressure. Our main learning is that these challenges take a multi-pronged approach to manage. No two seasons are the same, and we must continue to observe and learn along the way. You need to listen and observe what your site is telling you and farm it based on your specific site; it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.
What are some of your favourite innovations in vineyard practices that you’ve developed along the way to suit your site, soils and climate?
Pioneering the implementation of subsurface midrow irrigation has been a long-term trial with great results, reducing weed competition and allowing us to grow a healthy midrow cover crop. Our trial has now extended to over 20 hectares with subsurface irrigation. It is by no means a silver bullet for managing weeds, as it does take time for the vines to adjust.
With healthy nitrogen-fixing cover crops, we have seen great improvements in the concentration of nitrogen in our grape must.
Do you believe organic production influences the character of your wines? How so?
Yes. 100%.
Naturally lower yields from vines being more in balance with their environment. This plays out in wines with more energy, character and a truly unique expression of place and time. Differences between blocks are more apparent and reflect the microclimate they’re grown in.
Tell us a bit about your winemaking philosophy and practices. Patient, considered and honest.
What are your observations of consumer and trade interest in your experience selling organic wines?
There is a lot of positivity regarding organics from our visitors to the restaurant and cellar door. The challenge and opportunity is to continue the education piece so that our audience understands the benefits of a more future-focused and thoughtful approach to farming.
There needs to be more than just saying you are organic. It must be an integrated approach to telling the story around sustainability and regenerative farming. It’s the whole story that needs to be told to educate your customer.
What are some of your goals or visions for the future of Amisfield?
Environmental stewardship will continue to be a focus for the future of Amisfield. We will continue to ask ourselves how we can
Above: Clover cover crops in the vineyard; winemaker Ben Leen; George inspects fruit quality during harvest.
be better custodians of our land. We will look to explore a holistic approach to farming with intent. This will include regenerative agricultural and biodynamic practices.
Gaining a better understanding our carbon impact will allow us to explore technological and ecological opportunities to improve our position.
Anything else to add?
We are exceptionally proud to be farming organically.
Organic Winegrowers New Zealand is a grower-led organisation. We provide education, networking and advocacy for organic producers and other interested members of the New Zealand wine industry.
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