Business Beat: Marlborough wines infused with France

FRANK NELSON

The stellar reputation of New Zealand wines in general – and Marlborough wines in particular – owes much to an unassuming little company based in Blenheim.

Fine Wine Supplies, owned by Frenchman Emilien Remond and his Kiwi wife, Anna, does pretty much what it says on the tin: supplying a myriad of tiny additives that winemakers use to help produce this country’s fine wines.

These ingredients – mainly yeast and yeast nutrients, but also various enzymes, tannins and proteins – are vital keys in the chemistry of winemaking, added and discarded at different stages as the wine gains flavour, aromas and other distinct characteristics.

The Remonds started the company more than 10 years ago and today supply about 75 percent of Marlborough wineries. They bring all their supplies from France and, in another strand of the business, also import French oak barrels.

The Blenheim hub of Te Piki Oranga (TPO), which provides a range of Maori health services across the top of the South Island, has taken up a 10-year lease on new offices on the ground floor of the former library on Arthur Street.

From next Monday (22 June), the agency’s staff are expected to have left the Health Hub and moved almost directly across Arthur Street into 770 square metres of freshly renovated space in the Council-owned building.

TPO has been occupying offices on the first floor of the Health Hub for the past six years, but manager Ricky Carr says the needs of the 30 to 40 staff working at any one time had prompted the shift into larger premises.

Furneaux Lodge, one of the accommodation and hospitality jewels in the Marlborough Sounds, is undergoing some significant refurbishment. The work started in April and is expected to be finished by October, in time for the summer season.

Owned by Marlborough Tour Company, Furneaux sits at the head of Endeavour Inlet and has become a popular choice for food and a night’s rest among those walking the famed Queen Charlotte Track.

The old homestead, housing the restaurant and bar, dates back more than 100 years, and the owners say the current upgrade was carefully designed to maintain the building’s original footprint, character and historic significance.

Blenheim is in line for a second Night ‘n Day convenience store. There’s one at 60 Main Street, on the highway south of town, and now the brand owners are launching a second inside the Redwoodtown NPD service station on Alabama Road.

Night ‘n Day is a Dunedin-based family company which currently runs a national franchise network of more than 50 stores. General Manager Matthew Lane said the latest Blenheim opportunity had sparked considerable attention, and the company is now in discussions with one of the interested parties to take over the Redwoodtown store franchise.

A tip of the hat to Reagan Millar, business manager at the Briscoes homeware store in Blenheim, who won the national Rising Star Award at the company’s recent business group annual conference in Auckland.

Millar, who has been with Briscoes for nine years, the previous three in Nelson, made the move to Marlborough last September.

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