Most of us think about what goes into making wine. Very few of us think about what comes out.

Behind the scenes, every winery is managing significant waste streams — grape skins, fermentation lees, and large volumes of water used to clean tanks and equipment throughout the process. For years, this wastewater was one of the wine industry's less glamorous challenges. At Rose Family Estate in Marlborough, that has changed.

In this episode of Progress in Practice, host Nick Morrison sits down with Nick Entwistle, Chief Winemaker at Rose Family Estate, for a fascinating conversation about water, waste, and what it means to genuinely commit to sustainability in a primary industry business. Rose Family Estate is home to the globally renowned Wairau River Wines. The business is proudly family-owned, with 15 vineyards covering around 500 hectares. Phil and Chris Rose have been farming this land since 1978 — and the third generation is now entering the business. This is intergenerational thinking in action. Nick Entwistle has been with the Rose family for 17 years. He is the kind of Chief Winemaker who gets genuinely excited about fermenting things — including, as it turns out, the microbes in a wastewater bioreactor.

In this episode, Nick M and Nick E cover:

• Why winemaking generates significant wastewater and what's actually in it
• The difference between the old system and the new return activated sludge (RAS) system — and why it's a game-changer during vintage peaks of 120,000 litres per day
• The $1.5 million investment, the green loan from ANZ, and what the payback picture looks like over a 40 to 50 year horizon
• How the wastewater plant became a hub for wider sustainability initiatives across the estate
• The green spreading of grape marc returning 4.5 tonnes of potassium to their soils last year — nutrients that would otherwise have been imported as synthetic fertiliser
• The Marlborough Circular Wine Group and the BRAGATO project targeting diversion of 6,000 tonnes of winery waste from landfill every year
• Native plantings across the estate — and how they once saved a vineyard from slipping into the river after the Kaikōura earthquake

What makes this conversation special is the scope of it. This is not a single initiative — it is an entire philosophy of land stewardship, expressed through practical action at every level of the business.

For more on Rose Family Estate and Wairau River Wines, visit the links below. https://rosefamilyestate.com/pages/sustainability

For more on Go Well Consulting, visit the Go Well Consulting website via the link below. https://gowellconsulting.co.nz