A new $5 million-plus bottling plant near Blenheim cranks into action on Monday promising new highs in quality for Marlborough clients.
Wine Bottlers Marlborough has set up in the Cloudy Bay Business Park in what used to be the fellmongering site at the PPCS freezing works, near Blenheim.
New Zealand, Australian, andFrench investors have put money into the plant, which makes use of bottling and labelling technology direct from Italy.
For general manager Albie Mason, who has worked at a couple of other bottling operations in the region, next week's crank up is the culmination of a three-year dream.
"I ran the bottling operations for (winemaker) John Belsham (who founded Vintech) and picked his brains during that time. Since then I've had a real passion for bottling."
The company's fully automated bottling line would be able to fill, label, and package wine at a top rate of 8000 bottles an hour, though Mr Mason said it would initially kick off at a slower rate.
Technicians from Italy have been fine-tuning the system for the past few weeks and the team has already begun labelling from the latest vintage.
Mr Mason said the plant would employ 11 full-time staff, including three people to make sure the line ran smoothly, three for quality control on the line, and laboratory technicians.
He said the company planned to offer a "flexible" service for clients and had received positive feedback about its methods from people in the wine industry.
"Winemakers are upskilling on the bottling process and are increasingly after better ways of doing things so their product gets to market in the best possible condition."
The plant will fill 94 types of bottles, including 15 with screwcap seals.
Mr Mason said the company hoped to expand the business in the future, but was keeping those plans under his hat for now.
