Tough vintage calls for help from abroad

Image United Contract Services

2022 was a difficult year in the NSW wine industry. The weather patterns, which included significant rainfall that La Nina generated planted so much rain in the Hunter Valley and Mudgee wine regions that it broke records across the board.

If that wasn’t enough, with employment levels continuing to be quite average thanks to COVID, qualified and proficient Harvest operators have been hard to come by.

Statistically, due mostly to the adverse weather events, there was a 30 per cent reduction in crop yield for grapes in wine production in the 21/22 season but this reduction has not meant a downturn in demand. Australians are more in love with their wine than ever before.

Mudgee and Upper Hunter Valley located Contract Grape Harvesting business, United Contract Services, who maintain vineyards across these regions put the call out on their social media pages and through employment websites such as seek in September 2022 advertising for harvest operators for the impending 2023 vintage season.

Without enough local interest or more importantly, the specific skills to fulfil the positions, the power of social media revealed two operators, Micael and Theo, who have travelled from France and New Zealand respectively to keep up with this demand.

Arriving in Australia on 6 January, they have been straight to work completing critical harvester maintenance in anticipation for the mid-January start to the Vintage in the Lower Hunter regions of Broke and Pokolbin.

In Bordeaux, Micael works for a company who owns and operates 45 Pellenc harvesters servicing the extensive regions of France. Leaving France in the middle of winter, Micael has quickly acclimatised to the Australian heat, and language, even if both have been hard to overcome at times.

Theo, who hails from Raetihi on the North Island of New Zealand, has grown up on farms and has operated tractors since he could walk. Having moved into the viticulture industry in the last few years and having the ability to drive heavy vehicles suitable to transport grapes, he has been a welcomed asset to the company also.

United Contract Services Managing Director, Kurt Hamilton, was grateful to Micael and Theo.

“It would not have been an easy decision to travel all the way over to Australia to work for a company in the industries critical period, not knowing the vineyards yet, the people, or for Micael, the language, all to help the Australian wine industry maintain their stellar reputation for quality wine production,” Hamilton said.

Starting this year’s vintage in Broke, the regions viticulturists are pleasantly surprised with the quality of the grapes despite the previous stages of the season being jeopardised by the weather so dramatically, with some vineyards unable to be accessed adequately during the spray season throughout the year as it has been so wet.

 

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