NZ wine hits ‘decisive point’ - Gregan
Thursday 4 November
The New Zealand wine industry has been going through a tough period since the biggest harvest on record in 2008. Oversupply plus an economic crisis signals problems for any industry.
Bulk wine started flowing out of New Zealand, prices fell, buyers own brands popped up at a fiver, brand equity took a beating.
Last week, New Zealand Winegrowers’ CEO Philip Gregan was in parliament to report on the wine industry’s performance. Rather him than me…
“We see ourselves at a fairly decisive point,” said Gregan at a press conference following his report.
“Volume is up 25% and value up 5% last year and that’s the lowest volume growth we have had in the last 15 years.”
Growers has been working with the industry to encourage lower yields, fewer canes per vine eg two or three instead of four, and Gregan is confident that progress is being made with bulk prices up 40% on last year. However, he admitted they’re “not out of the woods yet”.
Looking ahead, it’s hoped that the oversupply situation will be over by 2012. And they’re predicting 30% growth over the next five years to 2016. China will be the number one market for Kiwi red wines in the not too distant future – it’s already their fourth biggest market at the moment. But everyone else wants to be in China too and it’s a bunfight. Every wine producer in the world is seeing China as a silver bullet at the moment but if you look at the figures – 90% of wines consumed in China are Chinese and most people can’t afford to buy imported wines because of high taxes.
And if you’re in the UK, expect to see higher prices and lower volumes of wine. I’ve written a piece in this week’s Harpers Wine & Spirit about Kiwi companies expecting sales to fall as they raise prices to cope with the strength of the New Zealand dollar and falling profitability. If the dollar remains strong against the pound and the US dollar in the next 2-3 years, as predicted by economists, that’s another sticky wicket for them.
In the period to 2016, expect there to be more pain to come, Kiwi wineries going under and more consolidation. The Rugby World Cup may offer some temporary respite, but it’s not going to be a golden ticket.
Drink Seresin wines; win a free wine course
Wednesday 20 October
Have you booked a place on my Introduction to Wine course yet? If not, why not? It kicks off on 13 November at Longroom, Ponsonby. For those readers outside of New Zealand, it might be a wee bit far to come but if you are in the land of the long white cloud, you can win a free place on the 13 November course. Here’s how…
If you buy a case of wine from the lovely people at Seresin Estate in Marlborough, you’ll be entered in the draw to win a free ticket. It’s as simple as that. It helps that Seresin’s wines are bloody tasty too. I particularly like their 2009 Memento RIesling for summer at just 10% alcohol plus their 2009 Sauvignon Blanc has lovely restraint and texture.
Click here to go to their website and buy a case of wine and be in with the chance to come and spend five hours with me tasting your way around the world of wine and having a delicious lunch.
I’ve never been lucky in prize draws although I did once win an INXS album at a tombola when I was eight. I was more a Kylie and Jason fan at the time though.
If you’re luck’s not in, you can always come along to my course with a limited offer of buy one get the second half price. Go to this link to access the special offer page for the 13 November course and for the 4 December course
New Zealand Pinot Noir comes in for criticism
Monday 11 October
The New Zealand wine industry has got its knickers in a twist over Jancis Robinson’s remarks about the country’s beloved Pinot Noir in a recent blind tasting.
She didn’t like them too much and was ‘disappointed’.
‘Bright and breezy, the wines were rarely subtle,’ she said, ‘even though there were representatives from the Kiwi Pinot aristocracy such as Ata Rangi, Dog Point, Fromm and Felton Road,’ she said in her column in the Financial Times.
The Kiwis aren’t too happy since they are trying to carve a niche for themselves as the New World’s best Pinot specialist. Oregon whipped New Zealand’s butt and it’s major news in New Zealand wine circles.
So, the timing of a blind tasting of New Zealand Pinot Noirs yesterday couldn’t have been better. Media, MW students, winemakers and sommeliers trooped down to a wet and windy Wellington to taste and rate Kiwi Pinots.
While there were a handful of crackers including (unsuprisingly) Ata Rangi, the Kiwi wines were all beaten by two Burgundies that they’d slipped in sneakily. In general, we were all rather underwhelmed by the standard despite some of the respected names like Seresin’s Sun & Moon, Bell Hill, Pyramid Valley, Neudorf Moutere Home Block and Felton Road’s Block 5 taking part. When you can’t see the bottles and there are no preconceptions, they were suddenly getting low marks.
Did we find much ‘terroir’? Well, the Central Otago flight (we didn’t know it was a Central flight at the time) was dark in colour but that was about all the sense of place I got. John Saker, Cuisine magazine’s wine writer claimed the ‘deep, dark fruit’ was ‘a true expression of what Central does effortlessly’ whereas others saw them as ego wines. The expression of winemaker seemed to be more obvious in the wines than any sense of ‘this is Marlborough, this is Martinborough’ and so on.
However, Larry McKenna, dubbed the ‘Prince of Pinot’ argued: ‘When we see what district is what then perhaps we can find a thread through each of the flights and I think there is enough comment to find that the last flight was Central Otago.’
He added: ‘There’s one more point to make that at the moment all New Zealand districts do varietal character in abundance but in 20, 30, 50 years’ time, you will see more presence of place than expression of varietal.’
But are we trying to find terroir too soon in New Zealand? It’s still relatively young and these things take time. In addition, when you think about Marlborough or Central Otago, these regions are enormous compared to say the Cote D’Or in Burgundy. There are different climates in different valleys, different soils, vine ages, different clones and no appellation laws to help make the wines seem more ‘Pommard’ like.
Personally, I’d like to see a lot of winemakers lay off the new French oak. Many wines don’t have the fruit content to handle all these new barrels. I don’t want a Pinot to taste of lime toast or coffee and I certainly don’t want it to look like a Merlot.
I’ll put some of my tasting notes up and marks up in the next blog with the wine revealed afterwards.
From L&P to wine
Wednesday 6 October
Rocco, resident dog at Murdoch James
New Zealand is still a bit shaky with another aftershock in Christchurch yesterday. So, you can understand why I felt a little uneasy walking through the vineyards of Murdoch James Estate after being told the estate sits on a fault line.
Unlike many of Martinborough’s vineyards, Murdoch James at 17ha is not an allotment-sized plot in the centre of Martinborough. It sits 7km outside the rural town and some of the vines are even planted… on a hill! They really are living outside the box as well as on two tectonic plates.
Nicola Belsham, sales and marketing manager, says: ‘I guess Martinborough is very small. The vineyards all concentrated on the square and it’s only in the last 10 years people have moved out of Martinborough because of land prices.’ Indeed, owner Roger Fraser bought his first six acres of land in central Martinborough for $36,000 in 1986 and sold it for $1.3 million. Not a bad return on investment.
Roger comes from Paeroa (as in the drink Lemon & Paeroa…mmm, I lurve the dry L&P) but his beverage of choice is certainly not a carbonated drink. He was the first to plant Syrah in Martinborough and people thought he was mad but the proof is in the pudding. The 2008 Saleyards Syrah is lean and delicate with just 13% alchol and a peppery spice to the fruit.
While the wines all show a delicacy and balance, the star of the tasting is the 2001 Cabernet Franc. Their take on the Loire’s red variety is exceptional with jalapeno pepper, herbal notes and HB pencil lead aromas. It is still incredibly youthful and dances lightly across the palate with ripe structured tannins. It’s a great example proving New World wines aren’t just for drinking young.
Kiwis face up to challenges
Thursday 26 August
It’s good to see the New Zealand wine industry facing up to the challenges it faces rather than bury its head in the sand or, worse still, deny things aren’t smelling of roses.
So, at today’s Romeo Bragato conference in Marlborough, Stuart Smith, chair of New Zealand Winegrowers, made a balanced and wise speech.
Falling profitability, oversupply, and the strength of the NZ dollar have been the crux of the problems the industry now faces, leading to Kiwi wine companies struggling or going out of business. Winegrowers also called for another harvest of 265,000 tonnes after two record harvests of 285,000 tonnes in 2008 and 2009.
Having spent seven months in New Zealand I don’t profess to be an expert but there are things I have noticed on my way round the country’s wine regions that have surprised me. I believe there’s naivety among the smaller players of the trade. No doubt, that occurs in many other wine producing countries. Consulting for an independent wine merchant in the UK for the past seven months and looking for new wines for its portfolio, there’s a lack of awareness of what’s going on outside New Zealand. Poor branding (or lack of it), dated labels, and an unwillingness to negotiate on ex-cellar prices makes you wonder if they’ve ever been to the UK, US or Australia to look at what’s on the shelves and the competition they’re up against. Obviously, many New Zealand producers are on the ball but many smaller wineries are making wine for themselves.
Here’s some snapshots from Smith’s address, offering another insider’s insight into the industry:-
After two decades of sustained growth, we are all now experiencing the worst trading conditions since the mid-1980’s. The global recession and markets trading down combined with issues specific to our own sector have seen grape and land prices fall sharply, bulk exports lift, in-market wine prices down, the NZ dollar is high against the UK pound and the US$ … times are tough, very tough indeed.
He later added: “Falling profitability is the major issue for growers and wineries right now. It is the issue that must be addressed – but it in turn is a function of a number of different issues. Supply and demand, the value of the NZ$, tax rates, compliance costs - these are all issues affecting profitability, so we need to have a range of strategies to address these issues as far as we can.
“...So going forward we must continue to be market led, harvesting no more grapes, making no more wine than the market can profitably absorb.
In that vein, we have been asked frequently in recent weeks ‘What is the demand for New Zealand wine out of the 2011 vintage?. Our assessment at this stage based on information from our wineries and looking at market trends is that a vintage of 265,000 tonnes which is the same size as 2010, would be sufficient to meet demand for NZ branded wine in the next year.”
