New winery set for 2013 vintage

Marlborough will have the capacity to produce about 10 million litres more wine next vintage with a new contract winery proposed for the Riverlands Industrial Estate, near Blenheim.

The company behind the project is VinLinks Marlborough, a joint venture between Gisborne-based winery and vineyard GisVin, and Napier-based winery Links Winery.

The proposed site at 33 Liverpool St houses Taylors Engineering, which is to be re-fitted and expanded for VinLink winery.

VinLink Marlborough director Robert Goodwin said his company prefers to "fly under the radar, out of respect to our customer base", but after a few years of "depressed conditions" was optimistic.

"I think the fact we are doing the development speaks for itself really. Everyone in the industry is starting to feel a bit more positive," he said.

"A return to profitability for the grower is the imperative; without it New Zealand's wine industry wouldn't stand up."

The 14,000-square-metre winery will have initial processing capacity of 13,000 tonnes of grapes and would be up and running in time for the 2013 vintage, Mr Goodwin said.

Taylors Engineering plans to move its wine tanks and equipment production business up the road to 6 Liverpool St.

It has submitted a building consent to the Marlborough District Council to build the new 1620sqm workshop on the empty site.

A Taylors Engineering spokesman said it will be flat out installing tanks and equipment in the new winery, and building and relocating to their new premises.

"It will be a tight schedule with fitting this place out as a winery and re-establishing down the road, but it is great to have the work on," he said.

Blenheim-based architects Smart Alliances are the design engineers for the project and lodged the building consent with the council on behalf of VinLink last month.

The building consent is for additions to the existing workshop for a total 4652sqm of floor area, and the building work is valued at $180,000.

Blenheim-based T&D Construction has been contracted to build the winery and Taylors Engineering new workshop.

T&D managing director Geoff Morgan has helped build 34 wineries during his career and, although new developments had virtually stopped during the past four years, existing wineries have been continuing to expand.

Mr Morgan said he was feeling positive about the building industry in Marlborough.

"We have seen a resurgence of interest in building work this year, things are very positive ... Blenheim's in a good position at the moment."