New Zealand
New Zealand wine is either unfairly overshadowed by its neighbor Australia, or lumped with it to create the Australasia market, which does nothing to further either country’s burgeoning wine industries.
While New Zealand’s wine industry is a little more than a tenth the size of Australia, it deserves to be recognized as a producer of quality wines. The United Kingdom understands this well. After New Zealand, they are the biggest consumers of New Zealand wines. It even commands a higher price than its Australian counterparts in the U.K.
Of course, with innovation comes a price. Not the least of which is the wine world’s snubbing of twist caps on wine, which the New Zealand industry boldly adopted in 2001 with the introduction of the Stelvin screwcap closure. For some reason, casual wine drinkers still associate screwcaps with low quality wine, which is a pity because New Zealand wines are anything but that. As many wine lovers have learned, you don’t need a cork to be a great bottle of wine.
The country is hardly a newcomer to the wine industry either. The first wines were produced there back in 1840 on North Island. An Englishman, James Busby, is credited with bringing viticulture to the country. However, the winemaking industry didn’t really take off until the early 1970s, when the first Sauvignon Blanc was planted in the Wairau Valley. This was a major move, as the area was much better suited to white wine production than North Island, which didn’t have soils that were fertile enough and the climate had too much humidity.
Sauvignon Blanc was just the beginning, however. Pinot Noir was originally brought in to help with blending sparkling wines. Pinot, however, loved the southerly region of New Zealand and happily took root, creating world-class Pinot Noirs in its continental mesoclimate.
Space, of course, will increasingly be a problem for New Zealand’s vineyards, which are currently located near ancient riverbeds. But new sites are being discovered, including Marlborough in the Southern Valley area, the limestone terraces of Martinborough, and Waitaki Valley. Pinot Gris has taken readily to the South Island area and Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon are beginning to grow well in New Zealand, too.
As the New Zealand wine industry continues to grow and mature, fewer people will resist the temptation to lump New Zealand in with Australia. That’s a well deserved development, as the country’s wines certainly stand well on their own.