The Women Behind NZ Wine's Scientific Future
From genetic researchers and bioinformaticians to plant pathologists and data scientists, Emma Jenkins talks to some of the women helping shape the future of New Zealand wine.
The wine industry in Aotearoa has readily adopted Māori place names as a way of expressing the uniqueness of our country and our culture. There is nowhere else on earth like Aotearoa – you only have to ask one of the 3.5 million-plus tourists who visit our shores each year to understand that we have something totally unique. One challenge we have is to teach them to pronounce our names correctly. You need look no further than the navigation app on your phone to discover how difficult this can be: Towellwronger is apparently a city in the western Bay of Plenty, Taugh poe is a large lake in the mid North Island, the Ka Warrah is a river near Queenstown, and don’t get me started on Ngaruawahia.
We have spent considerable time, effort and money protecting our place names, much the same as the famous appellations of Europe have done for decades. It stands to reason that we should celebrate these unique names with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Appellations such as Kumeu, Waiheke or Te Mata carry perceptions of geographic location but also of wine style, quality and in many cases price. Some names are easier to pronounce than others, and it only takes a conversation with a wine export manager to understand how challenging names such as Ngaruroro, Ngatarawa or even Kaikōura can be in international markets.
For some the roots lie in the way we say and hear vowel sounds. Having taught basic Level 1 Reo it seems those whose mother tongue is not English can often do quite well. An interesting observation is that languages that share similar vowel sounds such as the Scandinavian and Baltic languages have a natural advantage. I have friends from the Netherlands who have a label called Ruru – no one in their native country has a problem pronouncing that. But I sympathise with those having to promote names such as Ngakiriri to a buyer in Western Virginia, Toronto or Birmingham.
So maybe, as a nod to Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, we work on learning, and more importantly communicating, our unique names to each other and our customers. There are literally hundreds of basic courses you can take in person or online. I started with a basic REAP programme – a free weekly night class that provided a gentle introduction to this beautiful, lyrical language. Then as you gain in confidence and develop a thirst for knowledge you can progress through the different levels of the NZQA system. If you’re anything like my own kids you can literally end up with a doctorate in this, “fun-filled, singy-songy language”, as my son says. As someone much wiser than me once said, we learn our language from our children.
