Overall 96.09% of the member vote and 99.81% of the levy vote supported joining the GIA. Joining GIA is a key objective of the NZW biosecurity strategy. The strength of this mandate sends a clear message to government regarding the importance members place on having a seat at the table in making biosecurity decisions to safe-guard the long-term sustainability of the industry. The next step will be for NZW to develop and submit a proposal to join GIA to the Minister of Primary Industries. NZW aims to complete the proposal by the end of 2016.
High health vines: better product, better biosecurity, everyone wins!
In June this year New Zealand Winegrowers released Version 3.0 of the Grafted Grapevine Standard (GGS), which was originally released in 2006. The release of Version 3 concludes a two year review, incorporating advice from a wide range of technical experts and industry stakeholders. The GGS seeks to provide assurance to growers, viticulturists, winemakers and other stakeholders and consumers, that certified grafted grapevines, can be described as “high health” vines.
Benefits of “high health” vines
New Zealand Winegrowers encourages all our members to only use vines that are certified under the GGS as there are both customer specific and industry-wide benefits associated with doing so.
For the individual customer these benefits include:
Trueness to type – To produce a top quality wine and to build its reputation you need confidence that the grapes you use are true to type. To sell certified grapevines, nurseries must demonstrate an unbroken chain of custody from the original mother plants verified as true to type grafted grapevines.
Minimal risk of GLRaV-3 – This virus is economically one of the most important and widespread grape diseases that impacts on the winemaker’s options and ultimately on the quality of the wine produced. To sell certified grapevines nurseries must be able to demonstrate that these vines have been subjected to an intense testing program to minimize the presence of virus. Meeting this threshold helps to ensure healthy vines growing quality grapes producing high quality wines and the longevity of the vineyard.
Physical Specifications – the GGS has stringent guidelines in place about the size, shape and quality of the vine that is sold under the certification. This ensures that the vines you order should all meet the minimum requirements for size, number of buds, amount of roots and strength of callus and rootstocks.
Vine Health – Version 3 contains a new section on overall vine health in an effort to ensure that vines certified under the GGS have taken all practical steps to reduce the chance of spreading wood diseases. The NZ GGS is the first standard worldwide to try to incorporate nursery management practices that reduce the spread of trunk diseases.
For the wider industry benefits include:
Enhanced reputation - Using high health vines that have been subject to the world’s only independently audited “whole vine” certification system helps promote New Zealand’s reputation for exceptional wines. Put simply, it provides both the viticulturist and the final consumer of the wine with more confidence that they have purchased a premium product.
Biosecurity – Using high health vines provides a double edged biosecurity benefit:
High health vines are more robust and more likely to survive the impact of other pests and diseases that they may be exposed to;
High health vines are fully traceable – so if a vine is diagnosed as being infected by a specific pest or disease that vine can be traced to a specific batch from a specific nursery, making it easier to identify where other potentially infected vines have been distributed to.
Vine Industry Nursery Association members include:
• Riversun Nursery Ltd
• Ormond Nurseries Ltd
• Stanmore Farms Ltd
• Misty Valley Nursery Ltd
• Vineyard Plants Ltd
• Vine Nursery New Zealand Ltd
• Corbans Nurseries Ltdν
New Zealand Winegrowers has recently produced a fact sheet that provides a more detailed summary of the Grafted Grape Vine Standard. To find out more go to:
http://www.nzwine.com/members/sustainability/in-the-vineyard/grafted-grapevine-standard-3
