Prime Minister Rt. Hon Jacinda Ardern unveils the plaque at the official opening of the New Zealand Wine Centre - Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa in Marlborough.
The New Zealand Wine Centre - Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa – was officially opened in Marlborough by Prime Minister Rt. Hon Jacinda Ardern.
Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, designed by Jerram Tocker Architects.
The Marlborough Research Centre (MRC) has led the development of the NZ Wine Centre with key partners Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology NMIT/ Te Pukenga, MBIE via Kānoa, Plant & Food Research, Wine Marlborough, Marlborough District Council and New Zealand Winegrowers through the Bragato Research Institute (BRI) and Sustainable Winegrowing NZ.
The NZ Wine Centre sits on NMIT Marlborough’s Budge St campus alongside the wine and viticulture teaching and research facilities of NMIT, Plant & Food Research and the Bragato Institute. The new centre provides offices, meeting rooms and co-shared space for wine growers and companies to meet and work with wine researchers from around New Zealand and across the world.
The Prime Minister also announced an agreement between MRC, Plant & Food Research and NMIT to develop an Experimental Future Vineyard adjoining the new Wine Centre. This Plant & Food Research facility will be built and used in partnership with NMIT. It features a large greenhouse to allow innovation to improve productivity, climate adaptation and resilience while restoring healthier soils and biodiverse ecosystems. It’s projected to cost $3.3 million including $770,000 reallocated from the Government’s earlier Provincial Growth Fund loan to the Marlborough Research Centre.
The Experimental Future Vineyard at the Marlborough Research Centre
Bernie Rowe, chair of the Marlborough Research Centre Trust, told today’s opening that once the Experimental Research Vineyard is built alongside the Bragato Research Institute and NZ Wine Centre, a total of $20m will have been invested.
“With the completion of the NZ Wine Centre we have created an integrated Hub that will be more than capable of taking the wine industry into the future – and accelerating new opportunities for New Zealand,” said Mr Rowe. “Today is a fitting precursor to the celebration of 50 years for the modern Marlborough wine industry in 2023. “
At the New Zealand Wine Centre opening from left to right Edwin Pitts and Ivan Sutherland, MRC Trustees with MRC Trust Chair Bernie Rowe, Simon Hall and Karl Vercoe, architects of Jerram Tocker Barron
NMIT chair Tracy Johnston said the new centre is more than a superb building and facility. “It’s a place where the brains trust of viticulture and wine education, research, innovation, industry and sector agencies can thrive in one space.”
More than 140 guests attended the opening. Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa was built at a cost of $6 million, with $3m contributed from the Marlborough Research Centre matched with funding from Kanoa’s Provincial Growth Fund.
Architects Jerram Tocker Barron designed the building which features eucalypt timber, reflecting MRC’s support in establishing a hardwood industry in NZ which began as a way to provide an alternative to treated timber posts for the wine industry.
Read the Stuff article about the opening here.
Contacts: Gerald Hope, CE, Marlborough Research Centre 027 433 1059 or Brendon Burns, Communications Adviser 0274 305501