Waipā’s Monavale orchard is toasting success borne out of disaster.
GOLD MEDAL: Cambridge family business Monavale Blueberries’ flagship organic Blueberry Wine has taken home the Gold Medal and Trophy, as New Zealand’s best table fruit wine, at the national 2024 Fruit Wine and Mead awards ceremony in Nelson.
Just over two years after a budding crop was almost obliterated by an unseasonable October frost which hit both production and employment, Monavale has reinvented itself as a champion winery.
Its blueberry wine was named the country’s best table fruit wine at the national Fruit Wine and Mead awards in Nelson
General manager Marco de Groot says the recognition has been a welcome boost to morale.
Marco de Groot, pictured with son Oliver, has produced a gin in response to the frost which decimated Monavale’s blueberry crop – and they say it goes well with the cheeses they also produce.
“In any horticulture – especially organic – you are at the mercy of the elements. The frost wiped out our fresh produce market opportunities in 2022 and significantly impacted our production of our secondary products,” he said.
In October 2022 Monavale told The News it had been planning to harvest five tonnes of berries a day from January to March 2023 but in the wake of the frost – and before further damage from Cyclone Gabrielle – it was looking at just 100kg.
But the orchard was back in The News in early 2023, using what fruit it had to produce a gin – Blue 2022 – in batches of eight.
A little under two years on, as the latest berries ripen, it’s a wine that’s drawing praise. The fruit wine and cider awards it won at drew almost 130 entries.
De Groot said recovery in the blueberry orchard was slow but in line with expectations. Blueberry bushes will take a few more years to reach full cropping volumes after the damage from the frost.
“Last year, we had some modest production, and we are ramping up gradually. We expect to be able to be back to our full capacity as a local employer in a couple of years.”
“We would normally have 150-300 people employed over the season, which brings a lot of new people into Cambridge, and we are looking forward to getting back to that.”
He said there would be plenty of fruit available for its café and Cambridge and Hamilton markets.
See: Into the blue …
See: Gin and bear it
See: The cost of a killer frost
See: Orchard feeling blue
The steel and plastic from the tunnel house destroyed several of Monavale’s blueberry rows.
The wreckage of the storm
