The final results of a groundbreaking three-year national organic grapegrowing trial are in – and the organic vines have come out shining. In the Organic Focus Vineyard Project, three vineyard teams transitioned half of their grapevines to organic production, while a team of scientists monitored the results and their wine industry peers looked on. For […]
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Final seminars: Numbers, reflections… and wines to taste!
Please join us for the final public events of the Organic Focus Vineyard Project. The themes are: Numbers, Reflections… and Wine! Marlborough: Friday, 21st Nov 2014, 1pm, at Wither Hills Winery Central Otago: Friday, 28th Nov 2014, 1pm, at the Yacht Club, Cromwell Hawkes Bay: Wednesday, 3rd Dec, 2014, 2pm, at Mission Estate Winery For […]
Cultivation, cost, irrigation: A tour of organic conversions in Central Otago
By Max Marriott Assistant Vineyard Manager, Vinewise Viticulture On the 20th of February, the Organic Focus Vineyard field day was held in Central Otago as part of a larger Organic Winegrowers field day. In 37deg heat, winegrowers gathered in Bendigo to first have a walk through the biodynamic Quartz Reef vineyard under the tutelage of […]
Foliar nutrition notes
In field days at all of our Organic Focus Vineyard sites this November, Andrew Naylor, National Viticulturist for Pernod Ricard Winemakers, gave a featured talk on his corporate perspective on foliar nutrition for vines. Organic Focus Vineyard project viticultural advisor Bart Arnst also discussed how he advises his organic clients on foliar nutrition. Their approaches […]
Project results in the news
We will soon be releasing our annual report, with full results from the focus vineyards’ 2012-13 growing season. In the meantime, here are a few recent news articles about the project, including the vineyard managers’ reflections on the results they’ve seen in the vineyard: From Hawkes Bay: “Organic study killing off many perceptions” From Marlborough: […]
Botrytis and what to do about it
Notes from a talk by Rob Agnew of Plant and Food Research at the Wither Hills Organic Focus Field Day Feb 14, 2013 with thanks to Ben Burridge, Wither Hills for these notes Botrytis and what to do about it Substantial amount of botrytis in Pinot Gris Org Focus Vineyard last year (Central Otago). Organic […]
Field day notes: Organic soil management
Dr Tim Jenkins is conducting field-based soil monitoring on the focus vineyards, looking at physical and biological measures of soil health, including earthworm numbers and species, bulk density, water infiltration, soil compaction and soil structure. He is monitoring how all of these parameters change over time in both conventional and organic vineyard blocks. […]
Advisor’s spring observations: differences are slight
By Bart Arnst, Viticultural Consultant Bart Arnst is advising the focus vineyards on organic management and visits the sites throughout the season. Marlborough. With a cool dry start to spring, there were fears that we would see the same slow growth experienced last season in the organic Pinot Noir portion of the Focus Vineyard. Although […]
Pre-harvest field days throughout the regions
By Bart Arnst, Viticultural Consultant The third set of Focus Vineyard field days has recently been completed, with the variation between regions and sites becoming clearer. All regions had approximately 50 attendees, with both Marlborough and Central Otago dodging showers as a cool weather front moved up the country. Wither Hills was fortunate that members of the […]
Midsummer advisor’s report
By Bart Arnst, Viticultural Consultant December field visit observations The second set of four field days at the Organic Focus Vineyards were completed in what was a very busy lead into Xmas. Once again we had strong participation in both Central Otago and Marlborough, with attendees in Hawkes Bay being down on previous field days. The Wither […]
