Pioneering Awatere Valley grape grower Richard Bowling, has invested in a new New Holland Braud SB58 grape harvesting machine. The six cylinder, 105hp machine straddles the vine rows and shakes each vine so that the ripe grapes fall off into collection baskets which in turn convey the grapes into a stainless steel collection tank, and it is capable of harvesting almost one hectare per hour.
Richard was one of the first initial grape growers in Dashwood, and is viticultural manager for The Crossings, a public company growing sauvignon blanc and pinot noir grapevines which are spread from Brackenfield up to Medway in the Awatere Valley. The Crossings provide a different and enhancing perspective to the sauvignon blanc grapes for which the entire Marlborough region is famous.
This year marks the debut harvest for their first vintage that has been five years in the making, with 80 hectares currently in production. "Years like this, there is a small window of opportunity to maximise flavours," Richard said. "We have been training on the young vines and looking forward to a good harvest and we are all very pleased with the machine and looking forward to the advance in quality that this machine can supply to us."
After carefully considering three brands of grape harvesters on the market, they settled on the Braud SB58 because of the high level of design competence and technical expertise providing an improved quality of harvest. "The purchase was followed up with four days of factory training in Coex, France and that further established in our minds that we had make the correct choice. We went over the machine from the ground to ceiling gaining a total understanding of what the machine is about, it's a very high quality machine, and it's certainly what suits us here," Richard affirmed.
Richard also spoke of the long association with Williams Service Center, and how being the agents for New Holland Braud gave them further comfort knowing the great service they have had in the past would continue. The excellent technical backup from Braud itself has included visits from the head of sales, the chief engineer and their technical advisor Claude Richards from France, who was on site last week commissioning the machine for the commencement of the harvest. Claude had been flown over for three weeks to provide assistance to the 12 other owners of the Braud machines nationwide, a job he was clearly enjoying.
And this years harvest is looking very good according to Richard, "it's rapidly ripening, and that's one of the advantages of having good quality machinery that can pick quite quickly. We'll be able to get the fruit off at the right time, when you get warm temperature such as this, you can lose that moment to get the fruit at the optimum flavour spectrum that we are looking for so all of those things play a role."
