New Zealand Growers Get Free Climate Tool

A free climate modeling platform launched by New Zealand viticulturist Pete Taylor is giving growers a new way to weigh decisions that can shape vineyards for decades, from what varieties to plant to when to harvest and how to manage heat and water stress.

Taylor introduced Auxein Insights in January after developing the system in 2024 while completing research at Lincoln University on high-resolution, vineyard-specific climate modeling and its effect on Pinot Noir quality in New Zealand. The platform offers regional and subregional climate views across the country’s main wine regions, along with historical data dating to 1986 and future projections through 2100 under three emissions scenarios.

Taylor said the goal was to make climate information easier to use for practical vineyard planning. He said growers are already making long-term choices on site development, irrigation investment and variety selection, often without enough reliable climate intelligence. In his view, that has become more risky as temperature and rainfall patterns continue to shift.

The platform allows users to examine how conditions such as temperature, rainfall and growing season length may change over time. Taylor said that if a grower sees average March temperatures in a subregion have risen by 0.8C over the past 20 years, and the trend is expected to continue, that information can help guide earlier decisions about picking windows, heat management and whether current varieties will still deliver the balance and flavor profile buyers expect.

He is also encouraging growers to connect their own weather stations to Auxein Insights so they can add local readings to their dashboards and improve the broader picture of climate variation within subregions. Taylor said that combining regional data with site-level information can help growers tell whether what they are seeing is a short-term swing or part of a longer pattern.

Later this year, Taylor plans to release Auxein Grow, a subscription app he describes as an end-to-end vineyard management platform with block-level insights. For now, he said the free Insights platform will remain focused on climate modeling for long-term planning.

Taylor holds a Master of Wine & Viticulture from Lincoln University and a Master of Water Resource Management from Canterbury University. He said his work on Auxein grew out of his academic research into how detailed climate modeling can support vineyard decisions in New Zealand’s wine regions.