All going well, with six issues a year, the 200th issue will delivered by robot to you in 2032. What will we be doing then? How will our vineyards, wineries and wine regions look at that stage? Will climate change have any impact. What will the machinery we depend on within the vineyard look like. We spoke to experts in their field and asked them to look forward to 2032.
Viticulture – with Dr Glen Creasy from Lincoln University
This is a very exciting time because we are on the cusp of robotics going mainstream and being able to do all sorts of things we could never have imagined five years ago. Thinking ahead to 2032, I see huge changes around remote sensing robots, which will displace a lot of people. I can see robots going in and doing all the canopy management that is necessary plus doing all the pruning that is necessary in the vineyards.
I talk to my students about how we will have sensors that will allow us to monitor plant water status and soil’s water status in real time. We will have sensors imbedded in the plants that again will tell us in real time what kind of stress that plant is under. We will have irrigation systems that will be able to deliver water to individual vines so we can regulate the amount of water and the amount of nutrients that vine gets. It means we will be able to micro manage our vineyard on a vine by vine basis. We will be able to stand in front of a vine and access all the relevant information about it.
The other thing is with access to all that information, and we will be able to gather huge amounts, we will have to be able to translate it into something we can interpret and use to make management decisions. That is where we are going to find another big leap somewhere in the future.
We will be able to see what the sensors are saying about the vine, so we know what we need to do in order to get the crop quality that we want. That in combination with having enough sensors and enough knowledge we will be able to predict what the fruit is going to be like, what wine style is going to be made from that fruit at harvest, some weeks or maybe months out from that. It will help us to make the style of wine that is needed, in the quantities we need, rather than blending for individual countries.
So by 2032 there will be big changes. A lot of that will be the technology, the rest will be around data, analysis and then decision making systems based on all
that information.
Wineries – Paul Lloyd, CEO Apollo Group Projects
The focus in winery projects in the last 10 years has been the move to larger, high quality but very efficient facilities which have cut the cost of production significantly. I see this trend continuing with changes perhaps happening more in how the fruit is harvested and thus how it is received into the winery.
With the vast majority of grapes in Marlborough being white and Sauvignon Blanc, the ability to not only destem but to also crush in the vineyard is a serious option. This means less fruit to transport leading to lower costs and a more sustainable approach to wine making (lower emissions through transport etc – a 10,000t winery for example which transports fruit on average 25km (50km return) would save more than 5,000km of truck movements). This change will dramatically affect the receival end of a winery with the potential to do away with both receival bins and destemmers and also almost remove marc from the winery as well.
The thinking is certainly happening with winemakers at present but there are significant obstacles to be overcome with current harvesters as well as trucks and also receival processes all needing to be reviewed – but nothing that can’t be overcome.
Will there be new technology within the winery?
When Apollo began in the wine industry a lot of technology wasn’t new per se, it was just new to the wine industry. When we built Wairau River Wines almost 15 years ago we asked a simple question as to why the glycol pipework was stainless steel – the answer … because that’s what we have always done – a common answer in the early days. It is probably worth noting that change is the only constant and now with the very low cost of nickel, pipework in many instances has reverted to stainless steel!
Wairau River set a new benchmark and in the first six months over 50 wineries visited the new winery. The refrigeration system, pipework, catwalks etc were all new. This cross pollination between food related industries will continue as we move forward with new technology being shared at ever increasing rates.
Looking at the crystal ball all we can really say about wineries is in general they will continue to get bigger with larger tanks and even more efficient use of capital. Cost of production will remain the focus. The other area that will change will be the focus on safety in the winery – not just during construction but in operation and maintenance. Safety will be designed and built in – it will not just be done with process. As directors and senior managers begin to understand their responsibilities (and liabilities) under the new act, safety will be the number one requirement. In the past this has not always been the case.
Marketing with Chris Yorke – Global Marketing Director NZW
Marketing in the future is going to be about being able to speak to your customers directly. But it’s hard to see just what form that will take. Even the smart phones we have now, are probably going to be something completely different in 16 years’ time. I have no idea what that will be though, will it be virtual reality?
I think you will find the ability to speak to your customers in an almost one on one level will be occurring. Being able to project your brand to them in that way will be very exciting.
In terms of which markets will be important to the New Zealand wine industry, it is hard to tell. We are in the top 25 percent of the world wine market and our role is to chase the money. If you look at it over the last 20 years, firstly it was in the UK, then it was Australia and then the US, China, Russia. It will be very interesting to see where that money is in the future.
And given we will be constrained by the amount of production we have during that time, we will be looking to sell into the most profitable markets around the world.
Sustainability – Gwyn Williams, Chair of the NZW Sustainability Committee
I have a vision that all the best practice activities (within the SWNZ programme) will be base line practice in 20 years or ideally less. Best practice must be the way we always do things. It will take time, the frame work is important and our job is to help people set that direction.
Consumers want more and they want credibility. That is why we have to record what we do and justify it. There are many things we should be doing – like being better than compliant, take no more than we need, do no harm. Guiding principles such as these and others are what we need to weave into the sustainability programme, so people start thinking that way and doing it that way. My vision for a vineyard, is that it can look after itself as much as possible. I am not out there all day, because the plants are healthy, the soil is healthy, insects are flying around and the fruit is clean. It could be that our vineyards in the future look more like a collection of other plants that live in harmony, being beneficial for each other. We have to have that dream.
So how do we move forward, how do we create higher attributes, while keeping it simple, relevant and practical while taking into account the demands of the productive sector now and in the future? How do we demonstrate to our consumers and customers that we are constantly working and improving what we do? For some time the industry under SWNZ has been working with, listening to and consulting with members and above is what has been drafted.
On the left is the base line, this is what we are doing now. I appreciate that many members are doing more than the baseline, but this is where the SWNZ scorecard is taking us at the moment.
On the right are the aspiration goals. These goals are high and present a big challenge.
In the middle is the “playpen” for the future, we have best practice and pathways that work toward the aspiration goals. Behind all this is a huge amount of information. We can resource best practice and the pathways to aspiration goals. This is the area we want to encourage and motivate our members to work in, forging ahead of the baseline. Members can choose what they want to do, set their own objectives and work at their pace. The Continuous Improvement Model is still in DRAFT form. It is not finalised. As time passes it will keep changing and growing.
SWNZ will assist with the technical support for best pathways and practice. The base line will however, be incrementally increased. We can’t just sit on the baseline wanting people to improve.
Having aspiration goals, we believe, will make this the only programme in the world like it. There are many things we can do better now. We can make it easier for members to identify and adopt best practice for themselves.
Always keep pushing the boundaries.
Search out techniques and practices from other production systems, like organic or BioGro, look at them, adopt where it suits.
Share more amongst ourselves about what we learn, and share with other industries and learn from them.
