“That is when I got to start my real research programme. It is a continuum from grape to wine. I wanted to see that continuum and see what happens to the wine when I am doing this stuff in the vineyard.” Following on from his research in Australia with resveratrol, he began looking at botrytis and the impact on grape vine growth and resistance. “Then I segued into more viticulture and vine physiological projects.” Part of his role at Lincoln is to teach students how to go about research. Not all the Vit and Oenology students will end up in the field of wine making or growing – many go on to specialize in wine research. For Creasy it is important they all gain some experience on how to undertake and follow through a research project. The other aspect of his teach-
ing role is to ensure the students have a balanced understanding of winemaking and viticulture. “We don’t separate the two, because it is a continuum. Anybody who’s a winemaker needs to know about how the grapes are grown and what processes influence them to the point when they get to the winery. And vice versa, the grape growers need to know; ‘oh if I do this in the vineyard, what is that going to mean in the winery?’” Creasy not only teaches and researches the wine industry, he is also a member, with a small vineyard of 500 vines. Planted in 2006 with mostly Pinot Noir and a sprinkling of Pinot Meunier the fruit goes into a Sparkling wine, (with some Chardonnay coming in from Waipara.) Wife Kirsten makes the wine, while Creasy says he “keeps his fingers in the dirt, to ensure I walk the walk.”
“I get a lot of satisfaction getting out there in the vineyard because I see what I have done. I know there is going to be an impact of what I have done, whereas if I sit in front of a computer all day and push numbers around, type letters on a keyboard, all I have to show at the end of a day is a couple of files on a computer. You can’t handle that, or see it or really appreciate it as much as you can working in a vineyard.” His own experiences, not only with research but also growing led him to consult in Japan. “What they were doing was trying to take Koshu, a traditional table grape in Japan and transfer that into a wine style that would suit Japanese cuisine. So it is creating a whole new product and working with a grape that people had only ever grown a certain way.” While he describes his work there as challenging, due to having to
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change traditional mindsets, the end result has been more than worth it. There will be many who are reading this article, who recognise Glen Creasy among the words. Over the years he has been lecturing he has taught a new generation of viticulturists and winemakers. He has taken great pride in watching his former students go on to forge wonderful careers for themselves. And he admits the only reason he joined Facebook, was so he could keep up with the comings and goings of all those students who have sat in his lecture halls over the past 18 years. While he is now a long way from the Finger Lakes district of Upstate New York, he can take satisfaction in having had a major influence on the growth of the next generation of New Zealand’s wine industry. ■ tessa.nicholson@me.com