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Wairarapa

Wine-growing region in New Zealand; see there.

New Zealand (English New Zealand, Maori Aotearoa) with the capital Wellington covers 269,652 km². The geographically isolated island state in the southern Pacific consists of a North Island (113,729 km², capital Auckland) and a South Island (150,437 km², capital Christchurch), as well as more than 700 smaller islands. The largest are Stewart Island (1,680 km²), Chatham Island (963 km²) and Auckland Island (568 km²). To the west lies AustralienAustralia, to the north the French island of New Caledonia and the island states of Tonga and Fiji, and to the south Antarctica. New Zealand is a kingdom in the "Commonwealth of Nations" (largely former territories of the British Empire) with a democratic constitution. The British monarch is the King of New Zealand, who is represented by the Governor-General of New Zealand.

Neuseeland - Landkarte, Flagge und Wappen

History

The English navigator James Cook (1728-1779) took possession of the country, which consists of two main islands, for England in 1769. In 1819, the Anglican missionary Samuel Marsden (1765-1838) planted the first vines he had brought with him from Australia near Kerikeri on the north-east coast of the North Island. When Charles Darwin (1809-1882) went ashore from the ship Beagle at this very spot in 1835, he "caught sight of healthy vines". James Busby (1802-1871), who had already founded Australian viticulture, planted a vineyard near Waitangi. He produced the first significant quantities of wine and is regarded as the first producer. The wine-growing region around Auckland was created by immigrants from Dalmatia, and Croatian families are still an integral part of New Zealand viticulture today. They were also the founders of Montana Wines and Nobilo, two of New Zealand's largest wineries.

Neuseeland - Central Otago

Bragato Research Institute

The fungal disease powdery mildew was introduced in 1876 and phylloxera in 1895. The Italian oenologist Romeo Bragato (1858-1914) made a special contribution. As a measure, mainly phylloxera-resistant hybrids were planted. As late as 1960, the most common grape variety was the red hybrid Isabella (here called Albany Surprise). Through extensive travel and analyses, Bragato identified the most suitable areas for viticulture. He later became State Director of Viticulture and in this capacity founded the "Bragato Research Institute" (BRI) named after him. This is where the leading New Zealand variety Sauvignon Blanc is researched. A population of 12,000 new varieties of this cultivar is being created and the reaction of the vines to various stress conditions is being analysed.

The aim is to make the New Zealand wine industry more resilient to climate change and other threats by identifying desirable characteristics of this variety. This includes improved yield, as well as resistance to fungi, frost, high temperatures and drought. The New Zealand wine industry has long been committed to sustainability through the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) programme and various organic and biodynamic programmes. Over 96% of the total vineyard area in New Zealand is already certified as sustainable through the SWNZ programme. Around 10% of New Zealand wineries already have organic certification.

Wine-growing regions

The fertile soil is largely of volcanic origin. There is abundant rainfall in summer and autumn. The climate varies greatly between the warmer North Island and the colder but sunnier South Island. Viticulture was restricted to North Island until 1973. In South Island, the southernmost vineyards in the world are located in the Otago region. Due to the proximity of the International Date Line, New Zealand is also the most easterly wine-growing country. The wine-growing regions stretch for around 1,200 kilometres from north to south across the two islands. The hierarchical organisation is Country (New Zealand), Zone (North Island, South Island, East Coast), Region and...

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Dr. Christa Hanten

For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.

Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien

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