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Three frosts in four nights last week have caused headaches for local vineyards and vegetable growers in the Wanaka area, with grapes and produce succumbing to the unseasonal cold. According to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, the grass minimum temperature hovered around zero degrees from Saturday to Tuesday. Sunday morning had the coldest temperature, a grass minimum of -3.9 degrees Celsius. James Dicey, president of the Central Otago Winegrowers Association, said while late frosts were not rare in the region, “a frost that causes this level of damage and to have it spread this far and wide is unusual.” Vines were affected in Alexandra, the Gibbston Valley, the Cromwell Basin and in Wanaka. “There is nowhere in Central that is 100 percent frost free,” James said. At Mount Maude Wines in the Maungawera Valley, winemaker Dan Dineen said that, while frosts were “always a risk this time of year”, the recent cold weather had been particularly damaging.
photo: wanaka.tv
He said his father-in-law, Terry Wilson, who founded the vineyard, believed the frosts were the worst he’d experienced in 18 years. The vineyard lost two-thirds of its Riesling crop, which in general is adequately protected by the slopes of Mount Maude. Ket Hazeldine of Hazledine Brothers wine on Ballantyne Road, a small vineyard
of just under one acre which produces about 2300 bottles of wine per year, said she lost nearly 50 percent of her grapes (planted half and half with pinot and chardonnay), to the frost. “Normally, we’re okay,” she said, due to the sloping terrain of the vineyard and a pond at the bottom. She was hopeful warm weather in the coming months might
mitigate the recent losses. “If we get a really good summer, the secondary buds might be okay,” she said. Richard and Diana Sommerville of Two Degrees, located between Wanaka and Cromwell, were overseas, but were optimistic their sloping vineyard would have escaped any major damage. Nick Mills of Rippon vineyard said their vines were affected by the frosts but it is too early in the season to say how much of the crop was ‘lost’. “We’re not even flowering yet so we really can’t say what the crop is yet. This [heavy frosts in November] happened in 2009 and that was one of our best years,” he said. “We remain optimistic.” Local gardening expert Ben Elms, also known as Dr Compost, said while such major frosts didn’t happen often at this time of year, they weren’t unheard of. He hadn’t lost any vegetables in the cold weather, but said some growers even had produce growing in tunnel houses damaged. At Mount Barker, organic gardener Dom Stayne lost apricots and new growth on walnut trees. “We can get these late frosts, it’s just part of it,” he said.