SERVICES

Four service lines. Most clients take two of them, and the pairing that comes up most often is season-long management with harvest consulting.

Vineyard DEVELOPMENT

Site assessment, block design and the decisions that cannot be undone once the posts are in.

  • Soil pit assessment and drainage evaluation before purchase
  • Rootstock and clone selection matched to site, not to fashion
  • Row orientation, spacing and trellis specification
  • Staged planting programmes for capital-constrained developments
  • Independent review of a development plan drawn up by someone else

Vineyard MANAGEMENT

Season-long oversight of canopy, crop load and vine balance, with a written record of every call.

  • Fortnightly block walks through the growing season
  • Shoot thinning, leaf plucking and wire lifting specifications
  • Crop load adjustment against a target yield and vine capacity
  • Contractor briefing and quality review after each operation
  • Written season report with the following year's recommendations

Viticultural CONSULTING

Ripening assessment and harvest timing, argued from fruit in the hand rather than a spreadsheet.

  • Weekly sampling and analysis through ripening
  • Phenolic and flavour assessment alongside the numbers
  • Pick date recommendation, block by block and pass by pass
  • Coordination with the winery on delivery sequencing
  • Post-harvest debrief against what actually arrived in the tank

Soil & NUTRITION

Petiole and soil testing read as a programme across seasons, not as a single-year prescription.

  • Soil and petiole sampling on a fixed block grid
  • Nutrition programme built around measured deficiency
  • Cover crop selection for structure, nitrogen and competition
  • Compost and organic matter strategy for low-carbon soils
  • Trunk disease survey and remedial pruning specification

HOW WE CHARGE

Season-long management

An annual retainer set on planted area and visit frequency, invoiced monthly across twelve months so that it does not all land in autumn.

Site assessment

A fixed fee covering the visit, the soil pits, the laboratory work and a written report. Quoted before the visit, not after.

Project and review work

Day rate plus travel from Martinborough. Development reviews are usually two to four days including the write-up.

We do not take commission from nurseries, contractors or input suppliers, and we will tell you when a recommendation would earn somebody else a margin.