Haere Mai Matariki
With the stars of Matariki to rise in June, Jeff Sinnott, a member of the Tuku Māori Winemakers Collective, looks at their relevance to our grape and wine community.
The symposium is important for New Zealand wine producers... on many levels - to see and hear world class researchers, academics, and wine professionals deliver their research results and insights firsthand, and to interact with those people at a personal level, establishing new relationships and meeting up with colleagues you may not have seen for a while. As well as the academic line up, there is a fantastic array of interactive workshops, field trips, tastings and events conjoined to the programme.
The theme is... 'Pure Innovation - Sustainable Development in Wine'. New Zealand has always been renowned for innovation, be it in viticulture, winemaking, wine business management or marketing. Our world leading Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand programme, now in its 30th year, will feature strongly, particularly our work with the United Nations Sustainable Development goals.
The workshops... provide an opportunity to dig into the detail. Some are quite hands on, particularly the tastings. Past symposia have included high quality discussion between presenters and participants, often leading to meaningful change in the way we can operate. Obviously, I'm super keen to chair the IT and Robotics workshop, as we are at the absolute tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI in this industry. But if I can sneak away to the Sparkling, Chardonnay or Sauvignon tastings, I'll definitely allocate time.
I'm looking forward to hearing about... the latest in plant breeding and genetics from Germany. As a bonafide Pinot nut I'm looking forward to hearing from our Oregon colleagues about their journey. There's just so much in the programme at the cutting edge in wine research and development. Plus, there are the poster sessions where new work is being reported on, often for the first time. I distinctly remember one paper from the 2016 Symposium that literally changed my thinking on Pinot Noir aromatics. There's always something there you don't see coming that can provide a real light bulb moment.
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