XAN HARDING
WITHIN the wine industry I've been banging on about the looming risks around water for a while now. They're real. But what about the opportunities? There's a massive one on our back doorstep. Ruataniwha.
Want to double the Hawke's Bay wine industry? Ruataniwha.
Want to expand your production with lower land prices? Ruataniwha.
Want large scale greenfields sites? Ruataniwha.
Want to fill up that 10,000T winery that you've just built? Ruataniwha.
Want to replant your Heretaunga Plains vineyards with optimum varieties but keep your existing categories? Ruataniwha.
Want to future-proof against a warming climate? Ruataniwha.
When HBRC first championed the idea of the Ruataniwha Dam, the wine industry was in crisis. The GFC and overproduction removed any thought of planting more vineyards, wineries and growers were in survival mode.
HBRC was in the conflicted position of being both regulator and investor in the dam. The wine industry was concerned about downstream impact of intensification.
Things have changed. Wine industry confidence has returned, planting is taking off again. HBRC/HBRIC have a better balance and more transparency around the investment.
Public understanding of the project is improved. Concern rightly remains around managing intensification but improved knowledge is highlighting that intensification can continue if there is balanced land use and smarter land practices.
Ruataniwha needs wine and wine needs Ruataniwha. Where else can HB Wine achieve the levels of production growth and wine quality that we need to keep our industry growing and bring back the vitality that years of struggle against tough market conditions have beaten out of us?
What else can deliver CHB the same combination of low-impact intensification, employment, progress and excitement that the wine industry can? Imagine Blenheim without the wine industry. Imagine Martinborough without it. Imagine Central Otago without it. Now imagine Waipawa with a thriving wine industry.
There's 25,000ha of irrigable land in CHB. That's 5x the size of the HB wine industry. Much of it is light soils perfect for quality grapegrowing. There are great examples already of just how good CHB wine can be. Think Lime Rock. Think Junction Wines. Think Pukeora Estate. Sure, not all of CHB is warm enough. Sure, its windy (but no more so than Marlborough's Wairau Plains). Sure, landowners haven't been clamouring to plant grapes and previous wine industry overtures have been rebuffed by landowners and local politicians alike. But that was then, this is now.
Water, market conditions and the new regulatory environment are game changers for wine in CHB. Water will defeat frost and sustain vine growth. Improved market conditions are driving wineries to expand production and increase prices. Environmental regulation makes the wine industry an attractive offset partner for high-emission players like dairying.
Wine companies need to start beating a track to CHB. They need to talk publicly about the opportunity and the benefits it can bring.
They need to talk privately to landowners thinking of intensifying or thinking of retiring. They need to engage with HBRIC to extract from them all the climatic and geographic data available.
They need to look seriously at the option of just buying some scheme water as an investment to buy some time. They need to do it now before the opportunity evaporates, either because the scheme fails due to lack of uptake and/or political support or because all the scheme water gets bought up by farmers from drought zones in the South Island or Australia.
There is no doubt that the Ruataniwha Dam can work. The Board of Inquiry put that question to bed. Uptake is the key.
The legal wrangle goes on but the dam has a resource consent and the Board of Inquiry is bound to ensure that it remains workable.
The wine industry has been a huge benefit to the Heretaunga Plains and it could be transformational for CHB.
Let's grab the opportunity.
Xan Harding grows grapes at Haumoana and Bridge Pa and has been Deputy Chairman of Hawke's Bay Winegrowers' Association Inc and its spokesman on Resource Management since 2006.
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