NIAB has planted and established a new trials vineyard at East Malling as part of its trials services for horticultural crops. The vineyard, which comprises Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in 24 rows (60 vines/row), is available for use by NIAB’s trials team as part of their offering to the horticultural industry, providing bespoke trials, technical innovation, independent evaluation, and commercial demonstration for private companies seeking to develop new products and services for the horticultural industry. The vineyard will be of particular use to agrochemical companies, who are evaluating new crop protection chemistry for subsequent sale into the viticulture sector.
Adrian Harris, NIAB Horticultural Trials Co-ordinator at East Malling, commented, “Our new trials vineyard will be a very valuable resource for the industry. It offers the opportunity to undertake trials, which require crop destruction where new and emerging material is being assessed. With no grapes being harvested for sale or for juice, it is thought to be the only vineyard of its kind in the UK. We have already used the opportunity to assess a root treatment during the establishment phase of the trials vineyard.”
The new vineyard complements NIAB’s expanding viticulture research platform, which already includes a planting of the red grape variety Divico, and a dedicated R&D vineyard to refine growing systems to the UK climate and soils, coupled with a brand-new winery and oenology centre which make up its new Wine Innovation Centre. The new centre is part-funded by the East Malling Viticulture R&D Consortium that includes four major wine producers, Chapel Down, Gusbourne, MDCV and Nyetimber, along with Netafim UK Ltd, and several associate members including Yara UK Ltd, Hutchinsons, Hampton Steel Ltd and OvinAlp.
Scott Raffle, NIAB Knowledge Exchange manager at East Malling is very excited by the expanding viticulture activities at the Kent site. “The UK viticulture industry has expanded rapidly in recent years and NIAB scientists are becoming increasingly engaged with vineyard growers and wine producers, with the intention of applying the skills we have developed in other horticulture sectors to the viticulture industry. Our aim is to help to improve grape yields and juice quality, whilst using resources responsibly and sustainably in ways that can be implemented in the UK’s cool-climate commercial vineyards. Our new trials vineyard will allow us to work with agrochemical and technological companies to further support production and crop protection processes.”
Anyone interested in working with NIAB to utilise the facilities the new vineyard offers, should contact NIAB Horticultural Trials Co-ordinator Adrian Harris at: Adrian.harris@niab.com