ROMEO BRAGATO

In 1895, just a few years after Feraud had left the region, Yugoslav born and Italian and Bordeaux trained wine expert and visionary Romeo Bragato, Consultant Viticulturist to the NZ Government, visited the region and reported that Central Otago was an ideal site for growing wine grapes: - "There is no better country on the face of the earth for the production of Burgundy grapes than Central Otago..." he reported. But while Bragato was enthusiastic about the potential for growing wine grapes in Central Otago and other regions of New Zealand, he failed to convince New Zealanders that wine making would bring both economic and social gain.

Bragato concluded that Central was anything but marginal. No where in Central was sufficiently cold, he enthused ''to preclude the cultivation of the vine'. The apparently poor soils condemned by grass lands and cropping farmers as inferior to elsewhere in New Zealand, were perfectly adequate for viticulture to his experienced eye familiar with the dry lands of the Mediterranean and inland Victoria. Even in Queenstown he noted that ''I never before, in any part of the world that it has been my good fortune to visit, saw fruit trees so heavily laden, or with better quality fruit than here'. He believed that Cromwell and Bannockburn were ''pre-eminently suitable' for wine growing. Indeed the grapes he inspected in Cromwell on 25 February 1895 were ''perfectly ripe'. (Farmer magazines such as The New Zealand Farmer and the New Zealand Country Journal suggest that the 1890s produced several very hot summers and long droughts in case anybody out there is wondering about such early ripening). Little wonder, therefore, that he added these grapes would reach even higher levels of quality with irrigation. Grapes he viewed at Clyde were ''almost ripe' and grapes at Conroy's Gully near Alexandra ''quite ripe'. Even Roxburgh received his stamp of approval, especially as grapes would hold land sluiced for gold better than anything else, and would thereby prove an national asset in combating erosion.

Overall Bragato seemed as enthusiastic about Central and its ''bright future' as the other areas he highlighted as best suited for grape production-the Christchurch hinterland, the Moutere Hills near Nelson, the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay and pockets in North Auckland and the Waikato (he was never shown Marlborough and makes no mention of its potential).

Bragato then tried to convince New Zealanders, who generally knew little about ''the value and importance' of ''these lucrative industries', that wine making would bring both economic and social gain..What grapes did he recommend? Shiraz most amongst the reds and Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Tokay and White Hermitage amongst the whites. Overall he seemed to favour the varieties of Bordeaux, the Rhone and Germany with which he was most familiar rather than those of Burgundy. In this case he probably misjudged the future but recent experiments with Pinot Gris and Voignier may prove him partially right.

Bragato returned to NZ in 1902 as chief viticulturist of the Department of Agriculture and set up the experimental station at Te Kauwhata. He promoted wine with energy and enthusiasm, produced vintages of good quality, and brought in train loads of visitors before resigning in despair in 1909 at the lack of adequate government funding and support. It seemed the Department of Agriculture had become fixated on grassland farming and cows and sheep at the expense of every other way of using the land.

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