The 2013 Romeo Bragato Conference kicked off today in Blenheim.

We’re (Grant Hagerty, Weston Hazelwood) at the Romeo Bragato Conference in Blenheim, talking all thing viticulture. Really good turnout of industry, growers and wineries with some sessions having more than 300 in the audience.

The theme is “Back to the future –looking back as we move forward”. Alan Clarke took us through the great vine pull of ‘84-87, when we extracted most of the Muller Thurgau. While another speaker reminisced about Lime sulphur, sulphur dust and mechanical weeding. But others showed the future with new Syrah clones, new compliance and new weed problems (glyphosate resistant ryegrass). Weeds to watch for were Amaranthus, Fleabane and Summer grass. Good old Grass grub got an airing as the problem re-emerges.

I learnt the Hermitage (Syrah) clone grown here came from cuttings in the 1890’s from Australia, originally sourced from the missionary Busby’s collections. Now it’s a distinct NZ stand-alone clone Syrah line..

The wine competition tasting was well subscribed, with us having the opportunity to taste all 51 of the Gold medal wines and if wanted the other 450 odd entries. Some excellent product out there for this summer.

I suppose the strongest theme was still “Sustainability” but the definition and implementation was still much debated. Water management, reductions of residue in wine, soil condition, export market pricing, the fashion of Sauvignon Blanc, vineyard ground cover, the grazing of vineyards by sheep, the on-going evolution of the wine schedule, best bottling, filtration systems and on and on…..

I suspect the industry has not been this positive since maybe the very early 00’s and certainly better than during the glut of 2005-06. Even significant buoyancy from the nurseries with plenty of clones of the key varietals.

So that’s the grape industry summed up. Any comments??

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