NZ company wins Canadian winery construction contract

Apollo Projects has been awarded the contract to supply and install all the winery componentry for a 120-tonne premium winery in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

As well as overseeing the fabrication and shipping of the specialist tanks, catwalks, plant modules, and plant/refrigeration/cooling systems, Apollo Projects is also supplying a project manager and two service supervisors to complete the contract.
Paul Lloyd, chief executive officer for Apollo Projects, said that they were first approached by Tantalus Winery through their relationship with a winemaker in Marlborough, on the back of the Yealands Estate Winery recently completed and their extensive expertise in the field.

Apollo Projects was established in 2001 and has offices in Christchurch and Hamilton, as well as staff based around New Zealand.

“The client visited us in New Zealand and toured around some of the projects we have completed to better understand the current trends. Although we are not building the physical shell of the winery in Canada our scope covers the process services design, equipment layouts, and all specialist equipment.

“The big attraction for Tantalus Winery is that Marlborough, where we have undertaken much of our work, is similar in climate to Kelowna. These are cold climate wineries compared with what you would get in California and Australia,” Paul Lloyd said.

Tantalus Vineyards is one of the oldest continuously producing vineyards in British Columbia. Originally known as Pioneer Vineyards, the site was first planted in grapes in 1927. Today, Riesling vines planted in 1978 and Pinot Noir planted in 1983 make up the backbone of the vineyard.

“With our experience in both the wine and cold storage sectors in New Zealand, one of our key attributes is our specialist understanding of sustainable, energy efficient winery services and process systems.

“Tantalus is dedicated to growing and vinifying limited quantities of exceptional Riesling, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and they wanted to be assured that the processes they were introducing were leading edge,” he said.

As well as the stainless steel catwalks and tanks, Apollo Projects also designed the in-floor slot drains, the heating and cooling of the barrel hall, finished good store and tank hall, temperature control of glycol for the wine tank heating and cooling jackets, electrical design for the plant room process power and controls, and the electrical and pneumatic design for the tank control systems.

“Installation will take about six weeks. For the design and New Zealand prefabrication component we use local companies with whom we have existing relationships, while for the installation onsite we will use Canadian tradesmen working under our supervision.”

The components were shipped to Canada in a “well fitted” container to restrict costs, while payment is in New Zealand dollars to overcome currency fluctuations.
“The wine industry in Canada is generally based around a large number of smaller wineries, but if we can prefabricate and modulise, then even small projects work well,” Paul Lloyd said.