Good Bunch Numbers!!

We are excited to say crops are looking good and so are bunch numbers!! We certainly are gearing up for a big harvest, and in fact last year we increased our staff by 20% and for harvest this year we will increase by another 30%. Our expectation is that tonnage will double compared to last year! So…probably ‘excited’ is an understatement!! Let’s just hope there are no issues with disease and the weather plays its part.

Another thing we are excited about, is that there has been a shift in our staff numbers where well over half of our staff are now New Zealanders on average across the year. It used to be the other way around.

So what does this all mean? The roll on affect is not only good for us, but our staff, our clients and the Marlborough region and actually New Zealand wine in general. Did you know Marlborough produces just over 70% of New Zealand’s wine; and they are predicting the ‘wine industry’ will expand by 30% in the next 5 years.

What about the effect of the quakes? A NZ Winegrowers survey showed Marlborough lost around 2% of its wine and had damage to around 20% of its tanks. Due to the prediction of a large 2017 crop, capacity is now the most important issue for many wineries that lost their tanks. It certainly has been a challenging time for the Marlborough wineries and will continue to be for some time, as due to large insurance excesses some wineries are faced to ‘paying’ for all of their losses/damages opposed to making a claim.

If you want to keep updated with the latest that is happening in the Marlborough Wine industry check out the latest Winepress: http://www.wine-marlborough.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Winepress-December-2016.pdf