After the meeting formalities our speaker Tim Creagh, viticulturist from the E.I.T. in Hawkes Bay gave us a wonderful history of the grape vine and some of the functions of different parts of the plant. Interestingly the species would have died out many centuries ago but for man who propagated it for his own benefit. We learnt of different growth hormones that are activated in parts of the plant depending on the mount of available light. With this knowledge viticulturists design training systems which give the best quality from the crop so that wine quality is the best possible.

Gordon won the meat raffle. No medals were awarded for wine entries in the monthly competition but Brian won Bronze for his Pilsner.