NZW Fellow
John Clarke - for service to NZW and NZGGC SOPHIE PREECE
DRIVING A tractor up and down a vineyard gives you plenty of time to think, says Gisborne grape grower John Clarke, who’s put that time to good use during 30 years of governance. John helped represent New Zealand’s wine industry throughout periods of major change, including geographical diversification, growing exports, and the “intense” time of Covid-19. “It’s easy to be wise afterwards. But when I think back to March 2020 it was huge,” says the 2021 New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) Fellow, recognised for his service to NZW and the New Zealand Grape Growers Council (NZGGC). Following 12 years as G i s b o r n e M ay o r, Jo h n became President of Gisborne Winegrowers. Five years into that term, in 2007, he joined the executive committee of the NZGGC, of which he was President for the last two years of a seven-year commitment.
get new people into governance then some of us needed to get out.” T h e l a s t p e r i o d wa s “intense”, John says, with Zoom meetings in lieu of a board table, as the wine industry grappled with running vintage as an essential service during a Covid Alert Level 4 lockdown. He recalls two or three phone calls a day with NZW Chief Executive Philip Gregan as the wine regions – and particularly Marlborough – managed the complicated business of a Covid harvest. “By and large” the industry did a great job adjusting their businesses to comply with regulations, “so grapes could be harvested and wine could be made”, he says. Beyond the hard work from individual industry players, “that was part of a huge effort from the NZW team to get information out”, he adds, crediting the wine industry for adapting swiftly, while other primary producers grappled with the challenge. John grew up on a farm in Gisborne, and returned to the region after “When I think back studying agriculture to March 2020 it was at Lincoln, and working five years huge.” John Clarke on farms around the country. He and his wife Barbara He was an alternate member bought a 25-hectare farm in of the NZW board from 2007, 1972, grazing cattle on the becoming a full board member hills and planting crops on in 2012 and Deputy Chair from the flats, until the potential 2013 to 2018, while also Chair of a permanent vineyard crop of the Advocacy Committee. caught his attention. John became NZW Chair John planted his first 4ha in 2018, before stepping down of Müller-Thurgau in 1982, from the board in 2020. “I choosing potted grafted vines decided at that point of time it in lieu of the phylloxerawas time to give that side of the vulnerable sticks being planted world a miss,” he says. “I had by most, “which was a bit of a done my time and I was of the new experience, planting those view that if we were going to in a stinking hot summer”.
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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022
John Clarke
Gisborne was growing as a wine region, with Montana, Corbans and Cooks all in place, and the Clarkes grew for Nobilo, “on a drive to expand their area of Müller-Thurgau”. The vines thrived in the deep Gisborne soils. “The first decent crop we had off the 4ha was 40 tonnes to the hectare, which I think contributed a hell of a lot to what happened then”, he says, referring to the “famous or infamous” vine-pull of 1985, “when the industry got a little bit ahead of itself”. That was “a challenge”, he admits, but unlike many around them, the Clarkes didn’t choose to take the money and pull their vines to replant. Instead, they sold the fruit (“more or less gave it away”) at $250 per tonne, riding out the storm. Then an actual storm hit, with Cyclone Bola tearing through Gisborne in 1988, leaving their vineyard damaged by silt, while their home was written off. In 1989, with a growing vineyard, a new house build, and four young children at home, John satisfied the
“governance gene” lurking within him, becoming Mayor at “a satisfying time to be in local government”, he says, 32 years on. “I wouldn’t want to do it now.” When the mayoralty role ended in 2001, the Clarkes began switching all their vines to Chardonnay, and these days the home vineyard, and an expansion across the road, are dominated by that variety, alongside a small amount of Gewürztraminer. There’ve been plenty of other changes, with Gisborne now a small portion of the New Zealand wine package, and increasing land competition from kiwifruit and apples in the region. Meanwhile, John remains trustee of the Bragato Trust, the Chair of Trust Tairāwhita and a member of several other Gisborne boards, including one for a group of Kiwifruit investors. “Although, I’m conscious that it’s probably time to be spending a little bit less time on the tractor thinking about governance, and more downtime with our eight grandchildren.”