THE BATTLE OF SPRING

Spring in the vineyards of North Canterbury is a frightening time for growers. We have one of the best climates in the world for growing grapes: dry autumns, low humidity, good airflow. It’s great, except for that one thing – frost. 

This is what literally keeps the entire wine industry up at night throughout spring. 

Right now, the furry little buds start to pop out of the dormant vines. These little babies will grow on throughout summer to help produce our grapes at harvest. But like baby turtles running to the ocean, not every one of these buds will make it. 

Some will be removed by hand as the vineyard teams look to concentrate the vines’ growth in the best areas; this is called bud-rubbing. Whilst others will be frozen off by those hard frosty mornings of September and October. This can drastically reduce our grape volumes as those buds will never develop. 

Grape growers have acquired a myriad of tricks to fight this since time immemorial. In the past, you would have seen burning pots of oil and diesel, but now it’s more likely to be frost fans, helicopters, or even electric heating wires in the vineyard. These are obviously all horrendously expensive, but when your entire year’s work can be destroyed in a couple of hours, it is worth it. 

At Greystone, we use a fine water mist sprayed from many sprinklers. This ingenious technique uses some weird physics. As the water freezes, it releases latent heat, which is enough to save the bud from being destroyed! 

So when our frost alarms go off, our vineyard team rushes out to start the sprinkler system and work all night to protect the vines. 

This can be many nights in a row in cooler springs, hence why our vineyard team usually looks so grumpy this time of year. 

2021 vintage will sadly be remembered across New Zealand for devastating frosts that were so cold few systems could protect the vines. While this is terrible for the vineyards, the low yields and dry summer made the wines incredibly concentrated. So expect glorious wines – but they won’t be cheap as the whole country was affected. 

Please make sure you support your local grape growers right now and enjoy a chance to relax and taste the combination of hard work and mother nature that wine brings together.