industry insights
Launch of major Sauvignon Blanc research programme Late last year, Bragato Research Institute and New Zealand Winegrowers were thrilled to announce a very exciting project kicking off for the New Zealand wine industry – The Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme. Bragato Research Institute (BRI) has begun work on the research programme that will develop new variants of New Zealand’s premier wine varietal, Sauvignon Blanc, to make the wine industry both more resilient and more sustainable. More resilient by identifying traits such as drought and frost resistance, and more sustainable by seeking natural resistance to pests and diseases. While the New Zealand wine industry is already known to be a collaborative bunch, in the past coming together to create large R&D projects for the benefit of the industry overall, this is the first national grapevine improvement programme in the country. BRI has designed an accelerated seven-year research programme that will apply the latest genome sequencing technology, after using established tissue culture techniques. This will allow BRI to create up to 20,000 entirely new variants of contemporary New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and then screen them to identify plants that exhibit the most useful traits selected by the wine industry. The new partnership investment includes the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) through the Sustainable Food and
Amber Silvester Communications Manager, New Zealand Winegrowers
Fibre Futures fund, New Zealand Winegrowers, and more than 20 wine sector companies. The programme’s partners will invest $18.7 million over seven years, making this the industry’s largest research project ever. Most of New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc vines are of the same variant. This means that a new pest, disease or environmental change that affects one Sauvignon Blanc vine could affect every one of them. Sauvignon Blanc provides 87% of the export revenue of New Zealand’s $1.9 billion wine industry. “This innovative programme builds sustainability for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Growing a huge number of vines – each very subtly different – will allow us to select traits to accommodate a changing environment, capture market opportunities, and fend off biosecurity threats” said Jeffrey Clarke, BRI CEO. “Selected new variants will have enhancements that will boost sustainability and industry resilience, while producing wines that still possess all the distinctive characteristics our local and international wine consumers have grown to love.”
Eyeing up green… with envy Hospitality operators and their teams need to be commended for their rapid adoption of COVID restrictions and the new Protection ‘traffic light’ Framework. These are undoubtedly challenging times when you have to completely change your business model, pivot to a new service structure, and absorb the costs of doing so. But for many, not being able to trade or the financial impact of reduced patronage and rising costs has meant that their doors have had to close forever. Before COVID-19, our hospitality industry had 22,800 businesses, created 173,000 jobs and generated $14 billion in spending. We all look back on those days fondly – our utopia. It seems a lifetime ago. Without international travellers and with restrictions on the domestic tourism market, the tough times remain. It is not just the lack of trade that makes recovery a challenge for our hospitality industry – they are faced with other significant pressures: the closed border has led to skilled labour shortages, wages have increased, costs of goods have risen, and compliance costs are being hiked. These costs need to be absorbed by the business or passed on to the customer. In this environment, that’s a tough call to make. It’s not just about economic challenges to businesses, but about the challenges to the core purpose of the industry… to
8 THE SHOUT NZ – FEBRUARY 2022
Bridget MacDonald Executive Director, New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council
provide hospitality, manaakitanga, and a safe and social place for friends and family to connect. Local cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs have long been places you used to walk into and get welcomed with a beaming smile – sometimes even a hug or a handshake for regulars. It is a little more challenging with our faces hidden under masks and the clinical, formal process of scanning in and vetting vaccine passes. As I write this, the uncertainty of 2022 is the only certainty we have. We’ll all keep doing the right thing and doing what we need to do. The closest we will come to utopia is a move to the green traffic light. In the meantime, the best thing we can all do is continue supporting our local hospitality businesses. A little bit of love will go a long way to keeping the dream alive. Till we see the green traffic light, I’ll just think of the possibilities it holds with envy.
