Millions of litres of Marlborough wine was lost in the Kaikoura quake
Some Marlborough wineries face big repair bills after November’s quake.
In the aftermath of the powerful Kaikoura earthquake, which struck just after midnight on November 14, most wineries reported any damage as “minor”, according to New Zealand Winegrowers. But Giesen’s Rhyan Wardman, who chairs Wine Marlborough, says most producers chose to keep quiet about wine losses and damage to their tanks to avoid worrying their overseas markets.
The earthquake’s epicentre was close to Culverden, north of the Waipara wine district in North Canterbury. However, the largest amount of energy released by the quake was near Seddon, in a far bigger winegrowing sub-region – the Awatere Valley of Marlborough.
When the final picture emerged, the impact was far from “minor”. The earthquake damaged about 20% of Marlborough’s wine tanks and about 2% of the region’s wine output from the bumper 2016 harvest was lost. That doesn’t sound much – but it’s equivalent to 6.7 million bottles.
Marlborough’s winegrowers are still counting their blessings that the quake hit at midnight rather than midday. Its impact was highly variable. The local industry magazine, Winepress, reported “talk of a single wine glass broken at one cellar door, while a neighbouring winery was seriously shaken”.
Yealands, the biggest winery in the Awatere Valley, suffered “notable” internal damage. In the Wairau
Valley, catwalks collapsed and tanks tilted 45 degrees. Insurance policies against natural disaster in Marlborough typically carry excesses ranging from 2.5-5%, leaving some wineries with big repair bills.
With the 2017 grape harvest looming – and likely to be of at least average size – the most urgent issue facing wineries is ensuring adequate tank capacity. The earthquake damaged older-style tanks on legs – some of which hopped several centimetres – much more severely than new, larger tanks, mounted on concrete plinths.
Hard-hit wineries have freed up space by sending unbottled wine out of the region for storage elsewhere. “There’ll be temporary fixes applied to some tanks, there’ll be new tanks built and there’ll be temporary storage facilities,” says Philip Gregan, chief executive of New Zealand Winegrowers.
Further south, Waipara’s winegrowers reported no “major” damage. At Black Estate, the tanks were all undamaged, but in its popular restaurant, some bottles and glasses were broken.