Business South November 2021

10 | “The new winery is designed as a large format processing facility, designed for quick turnaround with low labour input, which is a complementary service to the current winery.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT NZ Wineries T T to page 12 New winery lifts processing capacity T T Kim Newth The new winery at Kendrick Rd, sited behind NZW’s existing winery, is designed to process large volumes efficiently at lower cost and with fewer staff. W elcome news for Marlborough’s Sau- vignon Blanc sector is NZ Wineries (NZW) addition of a new $15.2m winery that will significantly boost processing capacity in the region starting from vintage 2022. The new winery at Kendrick Rd, sited behind NZW’s existing winery, is designed to process large volumes efficiently at lower cost and with fewer staff. Wine can be moved between the two wineries – located 100 metres apart - via a cleverly designed pipe bridge. “We recognised there was potentially a looming shortfall in grape processing in Marlborough and that we had outgrown our current site to assist the industry in providing additional processing capacity,” says NZ Win - eries CEO Louise Miller. “Our intention is to have the winery online for vintage 2022. We gave ourselves lots of time to build the winery and get it fully com- missioned before processing any grapes. “The new winery is designed as a large format processing facility, designed for quick turnaround with low labour input, which is a complementary service to the current winery.” Processing capacity at the new winery is being stepped up in stages, from 4500 tonnes for vintage 2022 to 8000 tonnes for 2023, and with further stages ready to be added as required. Fully built, the winery will have a processing capacity of 25,000 tonnes. “We are using equipment that works contin - uously so it needs a constant supply of grapes to get the benefits,” says NZ Wineries Chief Operating Officer Alistair McIntosh. “That means clients with large blocks of grapes harvested as one will get the most benefit. Any smaller blocks can flow into our current winery, which means we can provide a service to all size blocks.” Sauvignon Blanc growers are likely to be the main users of this new winery, which can process any type of white grape. (Red grape processing is already well catered for within the existing winery). Building the new winery has been a big investment for NZW with extensive ground- works required due to seismic risks in the region. Earthquake resilience has been a key consideration in the winery design. “The tanks have a rf rating of 1.0 which is the highest rating you can get for earthquake at this point and we have also used two dif - ferent earthquake anchoring systems for the tanks,” says Alister. COMPLEX CHALLENGES. SEAMLESS SOLUTIONS. Delivering engineering solutions to wineries and other industries throughout New Zealand. TOGETHER AS ONE. kotahistudio.co.nz Canterbury Hawke’s Bay Marlborough