Latest / Best of Business / Dr Juliet Ansell: NZ Winegrowers Research Centre CEO on the new research programme designed to boost NZ wine output

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Dr Juliet Ansell: NZ Winegrowers Research Centre CEO on the new research programme designed to boost NZ wine output · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: The government is partnering with New Zealand wine growers to
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  Speaker 2: essentially redesign our vineyards. The goal is to get more
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  Speaker 2: sunlight on the violence because more sunlight means more grapes
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  Speaker 2: and that would mean higher yields and the changes could
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  Speaker 2: boost vineyard productivity by twenty two thousand dollars a hec
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  Speaker 2: there CEO of the Wine Growers' Research Center, Doctor Juliet Ensel,
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  Speaker 2: is with us this evening. Hi Juliet, how is this
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  Speaker 2: going to work? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: Hi Jack?
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, Basically, the vineyard profitability has been in a
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  Speaker 3: bit of a decline and it's many due to increasing
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  Speaker 3: costs of production. And I think everything that can be
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  Speaker 3: done has been done so far. It's been a let
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  Speaker 3: incremental changes. But this new research program is really a
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  Speaker 3: step change in productivity and it's potentially about doubling production
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  Speaker 3: but not compromising on quality. And it is actually coming
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  Speaker 3: at a really good time as well. We've got lots
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  Speaker 3: of replant thing. About twenty thousand hectares will be due
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  Speaker 3: to be replanted in the next ten to twenty years.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's really exciting.
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  Speaker 2: And so in practical terms, what kind of difference does
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  Speaker 2: it mean on a vineyard? What changes?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, good question. It's really a redesign of the
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  Speaker 3: canopy management. So it's setting up the grape vine system,
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  Speaker 3: the training system, and the plantings and really, as you
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  Speaker 3: mentioned in the intro, enabling the vines to capture as
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  Speaker 3: much sunlight as they can and encourage that sunlight to
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  Speaker 3: be transformed into fruits rather than leaves or vegetative growth.
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  Speaker 3: So it's a new training system. They'll be larger, they'll
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  Speaker 3: be wider and higher, they'll carry more nodes, more shoots,
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  Speaker 3: and you'll grow a much larger but less dense canopy.
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  Speaker 3: So getting light to the right place, what does.
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  Speaker 2: It do to the taste of the wine?
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  Speaker 3: So with this is absolutely one of the criteria that
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  Speaker 3: it must not compromise on taste or quality of the wine.
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  Speaker 3: So it's very early early days about to start this
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  Speaker 3: research in ernest, but you know, we've done a bit
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  Speaker 3: of pilot's work over the last year and we're really
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  Speaker 3: confident that it's not going to compromise on quality.
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  Speaker 2: Fantastic. Oh sounds really interesting. Thanks, Juliet let Is doctor
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  Speaker 2: Julian Ansel, who is the CEO of the Brigato Institute,
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand Wine Growers Research Center.
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