Vineyards face crunch harvest | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

CLOSURE threatens for some Wairarapa vineyards after suffering up to 80 per cent losses in what could be the worst harvest on record.

"Financially a lot of vineyards are hurting right now," Lindsay Cunningham, of Alana Estate, said. "If next year is a poor harvest (for some), I hate to think what might happen."

Mr Cunningham said there were "a number of rumours flying around ? that (some vineyards) are examining their future".

He said winemakers were "in the game where Mother Nature rules, and if you can't handle that you get out ? it must be extremely tough".

Mr Cunningham said Martinborough has "got the ability to produce amazing wines. But it's a tough game".

Independent viticulturist Nick Hoskins said if growers or winemakers can't supply customers, "they go backwards in the market a bit".

Mr Hoskins said a few vineyards had "picked almost nothing at all".

He said next year was "very important", and if it was another bad season, "there'd have to be some pretty drastic decisions".

Peter Wilkins, viticulturist for Martinborough Vineyard, said Wairarapa-wide the harvest was down 60 to 80 per cent.

Jeff Barber, chairman of Wellington Regional Winegrowers Association, said he and others were down as much as 60 per cent. "This is the worst fruit-set in Martinborough's history," Mr Barber said. "I know some guys (for whom) I think this year is really the crunch."

Mr Barber said the growers had known at Christmas that the harvest would be small. He said all growers "will be a bit tight," and "we'll just have less to sell in '07".

"If we have a really bad '08 we might just have to rip it up," Mr Barber said. "We'd just get into something else, like truffles. If it happens again ? but I can't imagine another year like this."

Mr Barber said when vineyards "get bad seasons back to back", there were real problems, "even for those with really deep pockets".

But he said 2006 had been "a great year", and "I think a lot of guys have got a lot of wine" left over from that vintage.

Mr Barber said the major thing for winemakers is quality, and this year's was good. "People will be saying this is a good vintage. We might even get some awards for it."

Mr Wilkins also said that though the harvest was light, "fruit quality was good". "We've had an amazing autumn. There wouldn't be anybody out there in a rush to get their grapes in because of the weather."

The grapes had had "good hang time". "We've had no rain, which is good for us, but not so good for farmers," Mr Wilkins said.

Christine Kernohan, owner-manager of Gladstone Vineyard, said the main difficulty with a smaller harvest was "managing your growth and looking after your key customers".

"It's a bit of a juggling act. The white wines are just coming on-stream now. You've got to start rolling them out in the wintertime."

Red wines, such as pinot noir, are more flexible, as they age in barrels.

"They don't start rolling out until this time next year," Ms Kernohan said.

"You plan your allocation. You stretch '06 as far as you can, and you make '07 as short as you can."

Winemaker Peter Caldwell, of Te Kairanga wines, said the quality of the grapes was a bright side to the poor harvest.

"The lower yields have given the wines a lot of concentration and a lot of power ? so there's a flipside."

Mr Caldwell said late frosts last season "probably did catch some people out", and would act like a "final warning" of the need to be prepared. "I don't know if anyone would not put frost protection in now."