Over the next two to three years, an even greater volume of premium Marlborough grapes is on track to be made into the globally successful wine, Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc.
More than 500 ha of Sauvignon Blanc vines are being planted on a vineyard being developed by Oyster Bay’s owner, Delegat. The vineyard represents a substantial addition to Delegat’s existing portfolio of around 3000 ha of vineyards in New Zealand.
Damon Simmons, Civil Engineer and Project Manager with Delegat’s National Viticulture Office, describes the site as the most westerly vineyard in the Wairau Valley to date.
“It’s the last vineyard when heading southwest on State Highway 63 from Blenheim to St Arnaud and about as remote as you can get.”
Formerly forestry and pastural farming land, the vineyard is being developed in two stages. Half was planted in September 2022 and the other half will be planted next September. When complete, 1.2 million vines arranged over three properties will begin their productive life to support the ongoing growth of the Oyster Bay label. A 700,000 m³ reservoir provides irrigation water via reticulation systems from the dam to each block.
The sheer scale of this vineyard development brings its own challenges. These are familiar to Damon and his Delegat colleagues, but the remoteness of this location has added another consideration.
Damon explains: “The site was chosen as it offers the type and scale of land that we wanted and the available water. The remoteness is a challenge, but it’s the large scale of the vineyard that is probably the biggest challenge. Everything’s on that large scale and that impacts the time it takes for every aspect of vineyard development to be completed.
Frost is another consideration. With other vineyards in the vicinity, the Delegat team are aware of the climatic conditions experienced in this part of the valley and have lined up the installation of more than 100 frost fans.
No matter the size and location of a new vineyard, the development process requires input from many parts of the Delegat organisation.
“While we were designing this vineyard, we were talking with our viticulturists and vineyard operations team to work out the best place for buildings to go, where irrigation is needed and so on, so we consider operational requirements from the outset. Our development team are in the same part of the company as those who will manage the vineyard. There will be a whole new team onsite to run this vineyard and we’ll do a hand over to the vineyard manager when the development aspects are complete.”
Damon continues: “With developments of this scale, you need to plan a long way ahead and can’t just organise requirements at the last minute. We develop a programme that starts on the day we want to be planting and works back from there to when we need to start construction, installing irrigation, and having our materials delivered to site.”
One example is the trellis infrastructure. With the volume of wire and clips needed for 1.2 million vines, orders are placed up to 12 months in advance so Delegat can be assured of supply. Posts and young vine orders can be up to five years ahead of construction.
“You can’t have that all delivered in the last few weeks before installation starts either. Deliveries are also planned over several months to allow onsite storage to be readied and the posts available for the installation team. Interestingly, the site is not so remote for posts as it is for most supplies. There’s a Goldpine plant in Golden Downs, between Lake Rotoiti and Nelson, and they’ve been delivering posts for well over a year.”
Phil Dasler, a Key Account Manager for Fruitfed Supplies, is one of the suppliers working with Damon and Ryan Glover, National Vineyards Manager, to source numerous components needed for the vineyard development such as grass seed, vine guards, bamboo canes, wire, clips, fasteners and consumables for vine training. Phil has worked with Delegat for all 18 years that he’s been with Fruitfed Supplies and, prior to that, he worked for Delegat at Oyster Bay.
Damon says there are several benefits of working with Phil. “We can order well ahead so that we know we’re going to have the required items on site when needed to avoid any last minute shortages of materials. It’s also helpful being able to be deal with one point of contact who goes out to other suppliers to sort these various components for us. That saves us having to deal with all those suppliers ourselves. Once the vines are planted, the Fruitfed Supplies team also provides many of our operational supplies for day-to-day vineyard management.”
This vineyard development is one of several developments for Delegat in Marlborough and Hawke’s Bay. These are in varying states of progress, ranging from early consent and design, through to vines in the ground and setting up the vineyard management team.
“We rely heavily on local contractors here in Marlborough and work hard to develop ongoing and long lasting relationships which benefit both parties. Our suppliers are an important aspect of our new developments as well as our existing vineyards.”
