The new board formation follows merger between Yealands and Ager Sectus.

NBR Rich Lister Peter Yealands' wine company merges with Ager Sectus, which is run by his neighbour Peter Cutfield.

The New Zealand Architecture Awards for the Nelson Marlborough region last night recognised various buildings including a “friendly” winery, house with a luxurious spa and a maritime themed bridge.

C Nott Architects’ work on Yealands Winery was awarded in both the commercial architecture and the sustainable architecture categories for its design, which the judges described as confident and straightforward “like its founder” Peter Yealands.

Listed grapegrower Oyster Bay Vineyards has seen the price of its grapes drop by a fifth in its latest deal with sole customer Delegat’s as the oversupply issue continues to push prices down around the country.

The Marlborough grape grower confirmed today that it had completed negotiations with Delegat’s Wine Estate, which had achieved an average price of $1469 per tonne.

That figure was down 20.3% on the previous year, when an average of $1843 a tonne was paid.

With 3500 kilometres of mowing to be done every few weeks at his vineyard, winemaker Peter Yealands has come up with a new and novel way to keep the grass under control: miniature sheep.

With the goal of transforming New Zealand’s largest privately-owned vineyard into the most sustainable in the world, Mr Yealands has frequently gone right outside the box to come up with new sustainability ideas to try out.