New Zealand Wine Centre Scientific Research Conference

Monday 9th June 2025

The New Zealand Wine Centre is excited to announce the 2025 Scientific Research Conference. Join us to explore cutting-edge research, network with industry leaders, and contribute to the future of New Zealand’s wine industry. Whether you’re a scientist, viticulturist, winemaker, or student, this is your opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions and collaborations. Mark your calendars and get ready to be part of this event!

Tickets

Get your tickets email Stewart Field (Note the price is quoted excluding GST. The full price including GST is $100 for the conference and $100 for the Gala Dinner).

Presenters

Mango Parker (key note speaker) - Lingering flavours, nasty and nice. Glycosides, flavour release-in-mouth and retronasal odour perception, how it’s important to understanding nasty smoke taint and how we can use glycosides to boost nice flavours in wine.

Paul Epee - Vine balance metrics for cane-pruned NZ Sauvignon blanc and possible management implications

Kirsty Harkness - Don’t Judge a Crop by its Cover – Evaluating the Potential of Industrial Hemp to Sequester Carbon in Vineyard Soils

Chandre Honeth - Characterising Albariño as a potential Cool Climate White Varietal in New Zealand

Annabel Whibley - Genomes within genomes:  unpicking grapevine clonal variation and structural diversity in organelle genomes

Junqi Zhu – Functional structural fruit crop models

Sarah Manners - Volatile Sulfur Compounds in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc: An Inter-regional Survey

Dharmik Patel – Harnessing the Symbiotic Relationship Between Yeast and Lactic Acid Bacteria for Innovative Winemaking

Jonathan Guild - The effect of berry size on wine quality in Pinot noir

Josie Mainwaring - Characterising and inhibiting the laccases from New Zealand isolates of Botrytis cinerea.

J.D Habito – Enhanced field efficacy of nanosulfur in suppressing grapevine powdery mildew: effects on yield and grapevine health.

Michelle Thompson - EPG analysis of Citrophilus mealybug, Pseudococcus calceolariae (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), feeding behaviours on Sauvignon blanc plants

Vaughn Bell - The New Zealand response to grapevine leafroll disease

Daphne Latu – Unravelling biogeographic patterns of parasitic nematodes in New Zealand vineyards, using molecular methods

Dion Mundy - Commercial scale proximal sensing of Grapevine Trunk Disease in Vineyards

Justine Larrouy - Horticulture is at an inflection point where gains in disease control must work with nature and not be derived through agrichemicals. Globally, this future vision includes functional gains from the microbiome.