Establish and Build a Research Institute

Research at Bragato Research Institute will explore every part of the value chain – from vineyard to bottle and from marketing to distribution – to achieve outcomes that are in the best interests of “New Zealand Wine Inc.”

With industry collaboration, Bragato Research Institute has identified issues that are highly technical in nature, require in-depth scientific analysis, and long-term research strategies, including:

• Increasing scale
• Vineyard sustainability and longevityImpacts from pests, diseases and a changing climate
• Changing consumer preferences
• Distribution networks.

Bragato Research Institute will work with a range of local and international research organisations, including commercial providers and established international bodies such as the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI). It will have a project-based focus, and will use a mix of employed and seconded personnel specific to each work plan.

Funding for Bragato Research Institute will come from a mix of public and private sources:

• Establishment support from MBIE
• Contestable research grants
• Commercial income for research services provided
• Direct and indirect contributions from commercial winegrowers
• Ongoing support from the Marlborough District Council.

The vision is that all relevant grape and wine research will be driven through Bragato Research Institute, which will also serve as the repository for industry knowledge developed from the research.

In addition to driving industry growth, Bragato Research Institute presents opportunities for the Marlborough region and New Zealand as a whole, through increased investment in viticultural and wine science and the associated educational and economic benefits.

As New Zealand Winegrowers’ (NZW) research arm, Bragato Research Institute (BRI) drives New Zealand’s grape and wine research, innovation & extension so industry can make better business decisions and ensure New Zealand remains renowned for its wine. BRI focuses its research on the short- and long-term priority areas identified by our members and then drives industry uptake of research outcomes.

In its initial four years of operation, BRI has established governance and management, put in place effective systems and infrastructure, and attracted top science capability. It has made strong progress in working to secure its financial sustainability.

BRI’s Research Winery in Blenheim – a facility unique in the Southern Hemisphere – opened in February 2020, providing new capability to deliver impact and science excellence. The New Zealand Green Building Council awarded the Research Winery a ‘5 Green Star Built’ rating, becoming the first building in Marlborough, and New Zealand’s first winery, to receive the certification.

New BRI Strategy

This year, BRI adopted a new strategy covering the period FY23-FY28. The strategy defines BRI’s vision - to be at the heart of an evolving, sophisticated wine innovation system. BRI has clarified its areas of focus under the new strategy with four strategic pillars:

• Engagement: BRI prioritises engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders to set targets and achieve impact for the New Zealand wine industry
• Research: BRI focuses on and delivers research that fills knowledge gaps specific to New Zealand’s current and future grape growing and winemaking needs
• Knowledge translation and extension: BRI creates impact by effectively transferring new knowledge and translating knowledge from elsewhere to New Zealand conditions
• Business culture: BRI’s business model captures value from research and grows leadership to ensure financial sustainability and reinvestment in New Zealand wine research

Together with specific, measurable goals, and a suite of strategic actions to define the path to achieving those goals, BRI is moving into a more mature, sophisticated stage of growth.

Science

Over the past year, BRI has worked with industry and our research partners to progress research aligned to our strategic goals, with a total of 35 grape and wine research projects underway or committed, some of which are described below.

BRI’s research in the Pinot Noir Programme addresses increasing scale, seeking to break the yield/quality trade-off which is the accepted wisdom for that grape variety. This research is undertaken with the University of Auckland, Plant & Food Research, and Lincoln University.

Vineyard sustainability and longevity remain a focus for BRI. The soil health programme has supported growers, as has BRI-led research into buffering the effect of herbicides in the under-vine area. Progress continues with the final year of the Vineyard Ecosystems Programme, a seven-year project which compares current vineyard management with a reduced agrichemical alternative with the University of Auckland and Plant & Food Research.

In December 2021, BRI launched a major research programme to protect and enhance New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. The Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme aims to make New Zealand’s wine industry more resilient to a changing climate and other threats by rapidly identifying desirable traits among variants, such as improved yield, tolerance to pests and diseases, frost, and drought, while maintaining the characteristic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wine flavour and aroma.

Changing consumer preferences were explored in a joint research programme with Beef+Lamb NZ, researching how consumers in key export markets viewed regenerative agriculture. The report released in October 2021 showed a significant opportunity for New Zealand producers to capture the value of regenerative agriculture in the marketplace.

External funding

Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme

The Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme is the industry’s largest research project ever. The programme’s partners are investing $18.7 million over seven years. The government, through the Ministry for Primary Industries, is investing $7.5 million, NZW up to $6 million in levy funds, plus cash and in-kind contributions of $5.2 million directly from 28 participating New Zealand wine companies.

To deliver this programme, BRI established a new Grapevine Improvement Laboratory at Lincoln University. The Laboratory was completed this year with the installation of the first high-throughput third-generation sequencer in New Zealand. The ‘PromethION’ sequencer, supplied by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, rapidly generates long-read data that is critical for understanding genetic differences among grapevines. BRI offers the sequencer as a service and has begun working with collaborators across New Zealand to bring this enabling technology to diverse research challenges.

Commercial Services

BRI now offers a growing range of commercial services that are specific to the wine industry. These include winery trials and sensory services at the Research Winery, soil consulting, and molecular genomic testing at the Grapevine Improvement Laboratory.

This year, BRI also began a pilot offering of commercial viticultural trial design and delivery services, leveraging the capabilities and connections of the viticulture and extension team.

Future Winegrowing Programme

An important focus for BRI this year has been contracting and commencing the MBIE-funded Future Winegrowing Programme. The Future Winegrowing Programme is vital to BRI’s drive to grow its mana and reputation for science excellence. The programme provides $5m of funding for programmes over two years to help secure BRI’s financial sustainability and build research capability.

Capability Development

A key rationale for establishing BRI was to grow the industry’s research capability. Over the reporting period, there were new appointees in the Extension Team, Grapevine Improvement laboratory and Research Winery to support new programmes.

BRI now employs 15 staff, including 12 scientific or technical staff: Principal Research Scientist, Research Technician – Grapevine Improvement, Research Winery Manager/Winemaker, Assistant Winemaker, Viticulture Extension/Research Manager, Extension Specialist, Viticulture Research Technician, Data Co-ordinator, two Research Programme Managers, Project Manager, and a Science Strategy Manager.

Central to the new Future Winegrowing programme is expanding BRI’s science capability. Additional science and technical staff are currently being recruited, including a General Manager – Research & Innovation.

Four studies that BRI researchers co-authored with researchers from other organisations were published over the reporting year and a fifth paper is awaiting submission. The articles were published in in silico Plants, July 2021 and August 2021, Analytical Chimica Acta, August 2021, and Oeno One, June 2022.

One of the other ways BRI is investing in capability is by funding scholarships. BRI is currently funding four PhD scholarships with BRI’s Research Winery Manager as supervisor; three at the University of Canterbury, and one at the University of Auckland.

Science Excellence

Vintage 2022 was the third year of operation for BRI’s Research Winery. The winery was busy with its own research projects, and trials for 22 domestic and international clients. The winery undertook 193 ferments and processed 7.8 tonnes of fruit, an increase of 45% from vintage 2021. The ferments provided winemakers with cost-effectively produced trial wines made under tightly controlled conditions. The feedback from commercial customers continues to be very positive.

BRI missed its KPI target of 4 peer-reviewed publications authored by BRI researchers, achieving publication of one paper in genomics. Another paper is nearly complete and two further papers are due before the end of 2022. The challenges of COVID-19 on available resources, as well as a delay in analysis of samples, contributed.

BRI receives valuable guidance from an External Science Panel of Prof Dr Astrid Forneck, (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna) and Dr Andrew Waterhouse (Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Research, UC Davis). The External Science Panel met in May and June 2022 via a series of video conferences with project managers to discuss progress, challenges, and opportunities.

Science impact

BRI’s Extension team communicates research to members, ensuring information and tools delivered by research programmes are adopted to deliver benefits to the wine industry. This has included organising workshops and webinars, creating and updating factsheets, contributing to magazines and case studies, and other communication tools. The main industry research conference, Grape Days, was held in June 2022 and attracted 900 attendees over three regions. The output from the Extension team in the past year is summarised here:

Extension Output Report [PDF 124KB] (external link)

Vision Mātauranga

BRI recognises the need to continuously improve its efforts to incorporate Mātauranga Māori in shaping and conducting its research. At a governance level, BRI continues to benefit from Māori representation on the Research Advisory Committee from Jeff Sinnott, the President of the New Zealand Society for Viticulture & Oenology.

BRI project managers are focused on the importance of incorporating Māori perspectives into research planning and delivery, and three staff members participated in training this year. Projects that have been developed over the past year have a stronger focus on ensuring Māori engagement, such as the Awatere Wētā project, the forthcoming Soils Regenerative Agriculture project, and the Shared Vision for Land Use in Marlborough projects.

Governance

Two BRI board members have been confirmed for further three-year terms, bringing stability to BRI’s governance. Bruce Campbell has been confirmed from 1 July 2022 – 30 June 2025, and Simon Towns has been confirmed from 1 October 2022 – 30 September 2025. The Board has also appointed Danette Olsen as Board Observer for one year, starting 1 March 2022. Ms Olsen was formerly Manager Strategic Investments at MBIE, so brings a wealth of relevant experience.

Financial sustainability

With BRI’s establishment phase coming to an end, BRI’s financial sustainability continues to be a singular focus for BRI’s Board and management. During the reporting period, BRI’s key financial sustainability achievements include:

• achieving its first material net profit,
• adoption of new BRI FY23-FY29 strategy and business sustainability goals,
• commencing delivery of the $5 million Future Winegrowing Programme,
• commencing the $18.7 million Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme,
• reforming financial management systems and support,
• repricing services and increasing margin.

Industry support for BRI’s activities remains very strong. In the 2021 NZW members survey, 80% of respondents rated Research as 'important or very important'. Despite the New Zealand wine industry facing multiple challenges over the past two years, NZW agreed to increase its annual levy funding for BRI by $400k in both FY22 and FY2

As New Zealand Winegrowers’ research arm, Bragato Research Institute’s (BRI) vision is to transform the New Zealand grape and wine industry through research, innovation and extension. BRI focusses its research on the short- and long-term priority areas identified by our members, and then drives industry uptake of research outcomes. 

In its initial three years of operation BRI has established strong governance and management, put in place effective systems and infrastructure, and attracted top science capability.  BRI’s national Research Winery in Blenheim – a facility unique in the Southern Hemisphere – opened in February 2020, providing new capability to deliver impact and science excellence.

Science

Over the past year, BRI has worked with industry and our research partners to progress research aligned to our strategic goals, with a total of 35 grape and wine research projects underway or committed, some of which are described below.

With wine exports for the year to October 2020 topping $2 billion for the first time, finding ways to sustainably increase the scale and profitability of the industry is pressing. BRI’s research contributed to that via the Pinot Noir Programme, which seeks to break the yield/quality trade-off which is the accepted wisdom for that grape variety. This research is undertaken with the University of Auckland, Plant & Food Research, and Lincoln University. Other research sought to minimise cost and increase profitability through technology, with work to develop a Grape Yield Analyser, in conjunction with Lincoln Agritech.

Vineyard sustainability and longevity remain a key focus for BRI. The soil health programme has supported growers, as has BRI-led research into buffering the effect of herbicides in the under-vine area. Progress continues with the final year in the field of the Vineyard Ecosystems Programme, a seven-year project which compares current vineyard management with a reduced agrichemical alternative. These complex ecosystem relationships are explored with the University of Auckland and Plant & Food Research. This year also saw investigation into optimisation of irrigation, including sub-surface.

Mitigating the impact of pests and diseases is addressed via a comprehensive programme of research and extension. In 2013, research recorded grapevine trunk disease (GTD) in 80% of 20-year-old Sauvignon Blanc grapevines. Research into preventing GTD continued this year with projects on both pruning wound protection and remedial surgery, the latter undertaken with Linnaeus. Improving the outcomes of insecticides on mealybug was progressed with Plant & Food Research, as was a monitoring campaign to track Harlequin ladybird, a potential source of wine taint at harvest. BRI’s research into preventing and treating botrytis was shared with growers.

Two BRI-led projects continued our work on addressing changing climate. Frost events in North Canterbury and Hawkes Bay provided an opportunity to study use of foliar fertiliser for grapevine recovery. Similarly, hail in Nelson allowed for investigation into options for managing the effects of hail events. Research with the University of Auckland into the microbial community and vine responses to increasing temperatures in the New Zealand context continued.

Changing consumer preferences were explored in a joint research programme with Beef+Lamb NZ, researching how consumers in key export markets viewed regenerative agriculture, and what potential that might hold for NZ Wine. The 7-year Lighter Wines programme on lower alcohol products concluded this year, with a final workshop and presentation to industry.

Capability development

A key rationale for establishing BRI was to grow the industry’s research capability. BRI now employs 10 scientific staff: Research Winemaker, Data Co-ordinator, Principal Research Scientist, Viticulture Extension/Research Manager, Soils/Environmental Scientist, Science Strategy Manager, two viticulture research/extension technicians (hired Nov 2020) and Cellar Manager (Oct 2020), plus a new Programme Manager (January 2021) who replaced two senior staff with responsibility for the Vineyard Ecosystems programme and the Pinot Noir programme, which are each approaching their end.

Delays in contracting our next SFFF programme (grapevine improvement) delayed recruitment of several additional science staff, but we expect this to progress before the end of 2021. This programme will also see BRI acquire, and make available to the research community, new-to-New Zealand gene sequencing technology. Negotiations for the appointment of two of our researchers to university teaching positions are underway.

BRI supervises projects for three PhD students, two at the University of Auckland and one at the University of Canterbury. BRI was also pleased to sponsor three University of Canterbury Industrial Design students with an interest in the wine sector. One of these students won first prize in the annual UC Design Awards for her weta guard.

External funding

Although applications for contestable funding from both the Ministry for Primary Industries’ SFFF (soil health) and the Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund (te Reo and terroir) were unsuccessful, BRI did secure approval from SFFF to proceed to contracting a Sauvignon Blanc Grapevine Improvement Programme. This research programme aims to introduce diversity and country-specific resilience into grapevines. Lack of diversity currently limits the industry’s ability to select traits to accommodate a changing environment, market opportunities and biosecurity threats. The programme proposes a total investment of $18.7 million over seven years.

BRI continues to benefit from annual investment of $150k by the Marlborough District Council.  That funding finishes in 2021, and BRI was unsuccessful in seeking replacement funding under the MDC’s next long-term plan.

Science excellence

Vintage 2021 was the second year of operation for BRI’s Research Winery. The winery was busy both with its own research projects and with trials for commercial clients, proving that it catered for a previously unmet need.  For vintage 2021, this meant the winery fermented 186 different wines, up from 67 in 2020. The ferments provided winemakers with cost-effectively produced trial wines made under tightly controlled conditions. Further detail on the Research Winery’s operations over vintage can be found in this Case Study(external link).

BRI missed its KPI target of 4 peer-reviewed publications authored by BRI researchers. Publisher decisions, and a delay in analysis of samples contributed, as did delay in starting the new SFFF programme. Two studies which BRI researchers co-authored were published. These were published in OenoOne, in October and November 2020 (IF 2.831). BRI has had four other papers accepted for publication.

BRI receives guidance from an External Science Panel of Prof Dr Astrid Forneck, (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna) and Dr Andrew Waterhouse (Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Research, UC Davis), who met with project managers to review progress and challenges. According to their report: “[With] research benefitting the NZ Wine producing industry as the main objective, BRI has been successfully managing, developing and completing exciting and highly diverse research projects, with highest scientific standards and realistic resources and funding.”

Science impact

BRI’s Extension team added two new staff this year. The team communicates research to members, ensuring information and tools delivered by research programmes are adopted deliver benefits to industry.  This has included organising workshops and webinars, creating and updating factsheets, devising financial calculators, preparing newsletters, contributing to magazines, case studies(external link), and other communication tools. The main industry research conference, Grape Days, was held in June 2021, and attracted 926 attendees over three regions.

Industry members were welcomed into the Research Winery for BRI’s first Open Day in September, introducing them to BRI’s available technology and services.

Governance

Prof Charles Eason, formerly the Chief Executive of the Cawthron Institute, joined the BRI Board on 1 July 2021, replacing founding director Peter Holley. Eason’s appointment means 3 of the 5 BRI directors now have a strong science background.  In May 2021, the founding BRI CEO resigned and was replaced by Jeffrey Clarke (formerly NZW GM Advocacy & General Counsel) in an interim capacity. Clarke was subsequently confirmed as the permanent CEO from 1 July 2021.

Vision Mātauranga

The full-day Vision Mātauranga workshop held last year resulted in actionable initiatives that are being explored by BRI in its research partnership journey with Iwi and Māori.  This included a focus on building relationships at the local level with mana whenua (initiated by the previous CEO and continued by the new CEO); and BRI and Rangitāne working together to bid into the Vision Mātauranga Capability Fund, looking at te Reo and the expression of Aotearoa New Zealand’s terroir.

A commitment to Vision Mātauranga in education was put into practice with the inaugural Puhoro STEM Academy summer intern spending three months at BRI. The intern presented her experience at Massey University and won the Vision Mātauranga prize for her graphics and poster on grapevine trunk disease.  The programme’s success means BRI will be offering to renew its commitment for this coming summer.

Financial sustainability

With BRI’s establishment phase coming to an end, and almost $11.5 million of its $12.5 million establishment funding now invested, assuring BRI’s ongoing financial sustainability is the top priority for the Board and CEO.

BRI has identified three broad areas of focus to drive BRI’s financial sustainability:

• delivering and managing high quality research for the benefit of winegrowers (including securing contestable funding);
• building and retaining winegrowers’ support though engagement and extension (and securing industry investment); and
• growing and diversifying commercial revenue across the business.

In the past year, BRI launched its commercial services offerings.  In addition to research winery trials, BRI now offers wine sensory services, soil consulting, and molecular genomic testing to paying commercial clients.

The Research Winery has also attracted support from the wider industry, with cash sponsorships by Hill Laboratories, Fermentis, and WineWorks, signed this year, and generous in-kind support (such as donation of grapes and lab equipment) from many others.

Industry support for BRI’s activities remains very strong. In the 2021 NZW members survey, 80% of respondents rated Research as 'important or very important'.  In its FY21 budget, NZW agreed to increase its annual funding of BRI by $400,000 – a 19% increase.  In addition, industry members agreed to invest over $2.1 million of their own cash and $3 million in kind into BRI’s new SFFF grapevine improvement programme.