Research Winery

The Research Winery is based at the Marlborough Research Centre.

The BRI Research Winery is the Southern Hemisphere’s most technically advanced winery. In this facility, we:

• Conduct industry research and commercial trials

• Provide an innovation hub for industry, with industry meetings held throughout the year in the winery boardroom

• Host events and workshops for wine industry and researchers

• Connect educators and students to science and the wine industry through our proximity to Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT). 

Designed and built by Crown Sheetmetal, our custom fermentation tanks can hold 200 litres and be used for a single fermentation, or have four smaller (17-litre) tanks inserted to house four temperature-controlled fermentations. This is an important aspect of the tank design, reducing variability between fermentations and providing greater validity to results in trials. Once fermentation is completed, the inserts can be removed, and the tank returns to a 200-litre capacity vessel, suitable for another trial, blending or storage of larger volumes if required.

Both the 200-litre and the 17-litre tanks have been designed to ferment either white or red wine, allowing further adaptability. When the 17-litre tanks are fermenting white wine, they have an agitator insert in place, and when fermenting red wine this is replaced with a plunger. All tanks have automated temperature probes connected to glycol chilling and heating, allowing us to maintain optimal temperature control and real-time data analysis.

Bring your ideas to life

The BRI Research Winery has an experienced team that understands the needs of commercial wineries and growers. Harvest is the busiest time of year, and often in-house wine trials are overlooked or underestimated in terms of time to implement and interpret.

Our team will take the time to understand the purpose for your research and co-design a trial with you to meets yourneeds and budget.

When it comes to running a trial, there's no minimum involvement from our clients required - other than having an initial idea or question you'd like answered. Once your trial is complete we'll deliver your bottled wines, analysis and research reports to back the findings. We're also on hand to help interpret findings and analysis in order to help with the real-world application of results.

Demonstrate your support for research and innovation in the New Zealand wine industry

We are delighted to continue working alongside organisations that share our commitment to advancing New Zealand wine through science, innovation, and collaboration. Our new sponsorship packages create further opportunities for partners to contribute to and engage with research, innovation, and capability development across the sector.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a BRI Industry Partner Sponsor, please contact winery@bri.co.nz.

Sustainablity features of our winery

As a model for sustainable wineries, the Research Winery is the first building in the Marlborough region, and the first winery in New Zealand to receive a 5 Green Star NZ Built rating. Central to the design is an efficient Building Management System, an integrated automated technology system that monitors energy, heating, lighting, along with water and air quality. As demands for these alter, it allows modifications to take place so that the building meets the needs of its research activities and adds to the comfort of staff working inside.

• It was planned from the start to meet Green Star building standards, including the following features:

• a rainwater harvesting system that provides water for all the fixtures in the building, relying on the town water supply only as a backup during dry spells

• installation of a 15KW solar panel system to produce up to 30% of the building’s total energy needs

• natural ventilation based on CO2 control maintaining internal air quality (winemaking produces excess CO2 through fermentation).

• optimisation of fermentation temperature control through VinWizard to aid efficient energy use