NZW Fellow
Andy Frost – for service to national research SOPHIE PREECE
ANDY FROST has spent nearly 40 years weaving science and research into the practical business of growing and making wine, with groundbreaking consequences for the wine industry. “The term I have come to really like is ‘the pursuit of technical excellence’,” says the 2021 New Zealand Winegrowers fellow, whose work with Montana and then Pernod Ricard saw him play an integral role in wine research, including the multimillion-dollar Sauvignon Blanc programme that transformed the industry’s understanding of its key export variety. The project “laid the foundation for New Zealand’s reputation as having expertise with scientific knowledge, as well as expertise in growing the grapes and making the wine”, he says. Andy was also involved in the more recent Pinot Noir project - Breaking the quality-
Falcon Conservation Trust and long-time member of the Marlborough Biodiversity Forum. That illustrious and industrious wine journey began in 1982, when the justgraduated plant-ecologist applied for a role as trainee winemaker with Montana in Marlborough, where grapes were still pretty thin on the ground. He swatted up on cool climate winemaking, got the job, and within six years was responsible for the company’s sparkling wines, including the beginning of a “wonderful” association with Deutz. Andy also oversaw the development of Brancott’s ‘Letter’ series of wines and produced a trophy-winning Chardonnay from handharvested and whole bunch pressed grapes, after lobbying for the chance to do so. By the early 1990s Andy was Senior Winemaker in Marlborough, “I got a thrill out of responsible for a engaging with the big chunk of New Zealand’s leading best people.” wine export, Andy Frost Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. productivity seesaw in wine Then in 1997, he was awarded grape production - was a White Winemaker of the Year lead science adviser for the at the International Wine scientific and technical research Challenge in London. programme in the New Zealand In 2001, Andy became Lighter Wines initiative, and Montana’s Research and spent a decade on both the Development and Technical New Zealand Winegrowers Services Manager, as the research committee and the company took a science-based Marlborough Research Centre approach to doing better, board. His drive for better wine allowing him to indulge a science saw him involved in the passion for using knowledge design of the Bragato Research to grow opportunities. Institute research winery and He ’s g ra te f u l to h i s its custom-design micro- “wonderful wife” Bev and fermentation tanks. Meanwhile three kids, who accepted Andy’s passion for conservation that he’d disappear for nearly is at play in the vines as well, four months of every year, as Chair of the Marlborough either through vintage or
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NZ WINEGROWER DECEMBER 2021/JANUARY 2022
Andy Frost
international travel. He’s also “extremely grateful” that Montana, and then Pernod Ricard, adopted an “incredibly generous” approach to research, yielding gains for the company and the wider industry. During the Sauvignon Blanc Project, Pernod Ricard had the “foresight” to realise the research provided a valuable foundation that they could build on, extending the trials and results to grow the company’s understanding, giving them the ability to “dial up and down” flavour in Sauvignon Blanc naturally, says Andy. That came down to tapping into Marlborough’s natural attributes, the impact of viticultural management, the relationship between machine or hand harvesting and thiols, and the importance of yeast management. “We developed an understanding of those four areas and that put Pernod into a highly recognised leadership role in New Zealand and around the world,” he says. Research is expensive, but it’s also an investment, “and you have to think carefully
in advance and engage with people beyond your own circles”, Andy says. “Whatever you do, you will never employ all the brightest people. If you want to do the best, you have to be partnering with the best.” An open mind has been key to the success of New Zealand’s research programmes, along with research relationships around the world, he says. “I got a thrill out of engaging with the best people.” Andy left Pernod Ricard in late 2019, and these days consults to wine companies with a research focus, while spending more time indulging his love of conservation, including on the falcon trust, which breeds and rehabilitates kārearea. Ask Andy his favourite wine, and you’ll likely hear more about what the land was like, how it was managed, and how a conversation with a winemaker he respects revealed all the things they’d like to try next time to make it better. “That is the wine I most enjoy, because it’s about the people and the knowledge and how they bring that together.”