Growing Longevity

Growing Longevity 

Mark Allen’s viticulture legacy 

This story was written by Tessa Nicholson, for the December 2023 edition of Winepress Magazine.

Mark Allen accepting his Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award at the Marlborough Wine Show, sponsored by QuayConnect. Photo Richard Briggs 

“WHAT WILL your vineyard look like in 10 years with no intervention?” That’s the question Mark Allen likes to ask vineyard owners, given the risks of trunk disease and virus, and the opportunities of replanting. “Marlborough is in a huge transitional phase at the moment,” says Mark, who was awarded a Wine Marlborough Lifetime Achievement Award in late October, recognising his relentless commitment to viticulture over the past 35 years. “Now is the time to think about the future.” 

Mark began his career in kiwifruit in Tauranga but was lured over to grape vines when his good friend and neighbour Morton Brown established Morton Estate Vineyards. His kiwifruit skillsets served him well in his new field, with soils and vines and canopy management key to the success of both crops, he says. 

In 2003 Mark moved to Marlborough and established Mark Allen Vineyard Advisory, taking on vineyard developments in a rapidly expanding industry, and by 2011 he was the face of mechanical shaking, managing a three-year trial focused on thinning crops. The project expanded into seven years of trials after the research unexpectedly revealed that the shaking could also help reduce botrytis infections. “Botrytis was always a major problem in Hawke’s Bay, so this was an amazing breakthrough,” says Mark. “It was a non-chemical way of attacking one of our most limiting diseases.” 

It isn’t the only passionate call Mark has made to growers over the years, also championing subsurface irrigation and increased pruning mechanisation through adopting Sauvignon Blanc longspur pruning. Now, two decades after his arrival in Marlborough, having walked the majority of the region’s vineyards, he is focused on protecting – and optimising - growers’ interests in terms of vineyard longevity. That means guarding against trunk disease and virus, developing a replanting plan where required, and future proofing with clonal diversity and vineyard design. “The Sauvignon Blanc industry is not robust, given it is built on a single clone,” he says. “If something hits that clone, the industry is in real danger.” 

That’s why he sees such opportunity in this “transitional phase”, through which growers can assess clonal alternatives, canopy management and vineyard spacing. “Trunk disease is a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity, because it gives you a chance to replant.” 

The status quo is not viable for the next quarter century, he adds. “We need to be getting 35 to 40 years of viability from a vineyard, not the 25 we are currently facing.” 

As well as better vineyard design, there’s a need for better management, to keep trunk disease and virus spread at a minimum, which is “fundamentally all about maintaining as high a vine health status as possible”, Mark says.

More than three decades after he left kiwifruit country in Tauranga, Mark has returned to the region, for his own transition to ‘retirement’. That includes a week in Marlborough every month, ensuring the best outcomes for his clients. “The big thing about the Marlborough wine industry is that nobody planned it. It was largely about luck and serendipity over time,” says Mark. “Now at the end of my career, I want people to hang on to it carefully.”