It's hard to keep up with the rate of vineyard expansion in the Central Otago region but one person who has a good idea what's going on and who's behind it is Robin Dicey.

He's been described as a "craggy, eloquent South African flanker..." and since arriving in Central Otago more than 10 years ago he's had a major influence in the development of the wine region here, especially in the Cromwell area. Robin Dicey and his wife Margaret were on a South Island skiing holiday in 1988, when, during a hovercraft trip across Lake Wanaka, Robin spied the spectacular grape plantings at Rippon Vineyard. With a background in horticulture (kiwifruit, pears and apricots), viticulture and oenology (winemaking), Robin was quick to recognise the potential for grape growing in Central Otago, and bought land in Felton Road, Bannockburn, in 1990 to develop his own vineyard.

Robin was born in South Africa, trained at Stellenbosch University near Capetown, and moved to New Zealand in 1977 to establish vineyards on the east coast of the North Island for Corbans. He was then involved in setting up Morton Estate Vineyard in the Bay of Plenty before he moved into the kiwifruit industry. When he moved to Central Otago he called his new vineyard Full Circle - the name referring to where he'd come to in his career: growing grapes to kiwifruit and back to grapes.

Now a partner in Mt Difficulty Wines his own 13ha vineyard is just one of many that Robin has established in the Cromwell and Gibbston Valley areas since then. In fact, he will soon have been consultant in establishing and managing about 400ha of vines in the region.(In 2001 the entire Central Otago region only had 322ha in production). Next season alone he's planting 165ha -almost all of it in Pinot Noir, with just 1% each of Pinot Gris and Riesling. It may not sound grand in terms of Australian or even other New Zealand plantings - but this is Central Otago where the average vineyard size is only 4ha.

"Pinot Noir is a difficult variety to grow and this is one of its natural homes in the world. We don't have any trouble with Pinot Noir - we don't appreciate how lucky we are."

"The minute anyone puts out a cheap Pinot Noir, look for flabbiness."

Robin established his management company, Grape Vision, five years ago and currently employs 64 people. Come harvest time he has up to 170 people working in gangs (almost all of the harvesting here is done by hand). Robin developed all four vineyards growing under the hugely successful Mt Difficulty label, and his son Matt is the winemaker there. Robin says the company was a natural progression. "It came from the realisation that we need critical mass for the US market." Robin had seen the situation where a potential buyer would say they needed five container loads "and we'd say there are only five bottles left." But with exponential increases in the production from this region over the next few years, Robin doesn't see the price for Pinot Noir dropping much.

"Our production costs and yields are such that we require a high price to make it viable."

The Central Otago District Council recently awarded Robin a "2001 Enterprise Award" in recognition of his outstanding business initiatives. The nomination for Robin's enterprise award said that his decision to establish his vineyard, Full Circle Estate, in Central Otago was the catalyst for more entrepreneurial activity in the Bannockburn region and subsequently the whole of the Upper Clutha Catchment. Robin had acted as viticulture adviser to many grapegrowers, and had established the first viticulture course at the Otago Polytechnic. He was president of the Central Otago Winegrowers Association for four years and established Mt Difficulty Wines, one of the fastest growing wine companies in the region. The flow-on effect of viticulture developments on the Central Otago economy were important, it said.

        

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