These days the Babich name is associated with fine wines that emanate from Henderson, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. While the company has been producing wine for 98 years, they have never had a custom built winery – something that has now been remedied with a state of the art facility in Marlborough.
The new winery, commissioned in time for the 2014 vintage, is the biggest investment ever made by his family, Managing Director Joe Babich says.
The design and construction was undertaken by Apollo Projects and was the first greenfield project in the region for four years. Originally when the build began, Babich says the aim was to have a 3000 tonne facility.
“We had consent for 6000 tonne and this year we put through 4820 tonne, so it became a 4000 tonne winery during the build.”
In that sense the winery had to undergo some major expansion, with part of that occurring during vintage itself.
“Stage two was due to start about mid May, but the four tanks we put in, went in during vintage because our estimates were showing that this year was potentially going to be very big,” Babich said. “We started to become a bit nervous about whether we could accommodate all the fruit. So we put in four extra tanks and three of them were filled in the last week of vintage.”
The multi million dollar winery is an indication of the commitment Babich has to the Marlborough region.
“We have investment in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, but we have more money invested in Marlborough than we have in the rest of New Zealand. That is the way the market has gone and we have gone with it.”
The specifications for the winery were to be able to complete harvest in a 20 day window, bringing in 200 tonne a day, working up to a maximum of 300 tonne a day. However the reality was slightly different in this the first year of operation.
“The total intake was 4820 tonnes and we were able to ramp up to 350 tonnes a day, and for two days we did 450 tonne.”
Not all the fruit coming in, came in large tonnages. One of the specifics Babich was adamant about was the ability to continue to make artisan wines, from small batches of fruit. While at the front of the winery there are four presses catering for up to 400 tonnes a day, at the rear, there is a small crusher and press (for whole bunch pressing) that deals with just three to four tonnes of fruit.
Given Babich was the company winemaker for 35 years, he must be marvelling at the new technology available and wishing he could be hands on once again.
“Put it this way, I am just happy to direct it.”
But his experience has played a large part in the development of the facility.
“I learnt a lot in those 35 years and it was very nice to be able to put all of my experience into this winery, knowing exactly what we wanted.”
And it might not finish here, especially given the expansion that occurred during vintage 2014. With 1.6ha of land at the Cloudy Bay Industrial Park site, Babich is not ruling out further expansion in the future, but only if it is managed properly.
“We have the scope to expand, but the thing is we are a family company and we have no ideas or reason to expand for expansion’s sake. We have not set the company up for sale, we are not selling it!,” he said adamantly. “We are setting the company up for the next generation.”
With Joe and brother Peter the second generation, the third is already represented by Peter’s son David who is now the general manager.
So would his dad Josip who began the dynasty, be proud?
“I think he would think we were mad. My father had real sound principals of winemaking, but when you have enough, why go further? I am not like that. To me, business is the game and I like it. So to me it is a business progression. I have no interest in growing it to make more money, but you do have to go forward or backwards. We are not in the business to go backwards, but I do not necessarily want to go forward just to get bigger and make a million cases. That doesn’t appeal to me. I just want to make better wine and hand it on to the next generation.” ν
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A family affair, Peter (left),
Joe and David Babich.
