The future of Sauvignon Blanc
New Zealand has 22% of the world's 90,000 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc so diversification is important, as winemakers James Healy and Brent Marris suggest to Joelle Thomson.
These associated events included the Sommit, Foraging in Waipara, the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration, the WineFlight, and the Chardonnay and Sparkling Symposium in Gisborne.
Warm congratulations to all those who made the events so successful.
The ‘all’ in the above is critically important. Without the ‘all’ – growers, wineries, regional associations, marketers, exporters, sommeliers, writers, suppliers, sponsors, NZ Winegrowers – it would not have been possible to showcase so much depth and detail about the New Zealand wine story.
The benefits of working together in the interests of both the category and individuals have never been clearer.
During the course of the ISBC I was interviewed by an overseas journalist about aspects of the New Zealand industry, and among the questions asked was this one: ‘What is the biggest risk for the New Zealand wine industry?’
What would you answer?
It’s a very interesting question, and only time will tell what the actual answer is of course. Will it be a biosecurity incursion, a run of poor vintages, scandal, changing consumer preferences ... ?
For what it is worth the answer I gave was: ‘That’s easy, complacency is the big risk as I see it’.
So why ‘complacency’?
In part, the answer reflects that over the past 30 or so years the industry has grown and prospered because it has been anything but complacent, simply because early on we had very little to be complacent about.
From the mid-1980s onwards once CER was signed, we were under threat in the domestic market from Australia, while in export markets we had none of the reputation that is so important to us today.
In every export market we were the new kid on the block with no history and few friends, the outsider who had everything to prove. As an industry we knew there was much to do and we were not going to win by sitting back and not working hard.
In part the answer also relates to what happened in 2008-2010. In that period, for whatever reason, we got ahead of the market. We produced more wine than the market at that time could absorb, and some of it was of questionable quality.
Was the cause complacency or perhaps arrogance? Whatever the reason, we got ourselves into trouble ... and to be fair we got ourselves out of the difficulties.
Our wine quality has steadily improved since then, and hopefully lessons have been learned.
Looking forward, are there signs of complacency that we should be worried about?
That is difficult to say, not in least part because complacency is much more difficult than frost, rain at vintage, or a new virus to identify and combat. And that is one reason it is such a risk for any industry.
At ISBC, one speaker, Oz Clarke I think, warned New Zealand about the risks from over cropping in terms of wine quality and the New Zealand reputation.
From where I sit, over cropping can be a sign of complacency. It represents a focus on quantity before quality, and as we all know our success has been built on quality, not quantity. Over cropping is about exploiting the here and now, rather than investing for the future.
Complacency, maybe? ‘Complacent’ is about the worst attitude that I could ever imagine taking hold in the industry, hence my answer to the journalist’s question. The risk is not so much the risk of complacency taking hold, but rather the risk of what happens if it does.
Fortunately the vast majority of the signs out there are that the industry is anything but complacent.
ISBC and all the associated events were the acts of a young, innovative and ambitious industry. While ISBC was a huge success, the debrief held by the organisers shows a determination to make it even better in the future, no complacency there.
New grape varieties and new wine styles, new vineyards being planted, the investment by wineries into low alcohol/low calorie wines, the forays into new markets, the continuing investment in existing markets, the industry’s support for open and competitive access into key Asia Pacific markets through TPP, these and many more initiatives are all the signs of an industry that is future focussed, that is innovative and open to new ideas and new ways of performing.
So let’s ensure complacency never takes hold and the 2016 vintage delivers superb wines that thrill and excite our consumers wherever they may be.
