New Zealand Listener – August 24, 2019

AUGUST 24 2019 LISTENER

that the industry’s future prosper-

ity hinged on relaxing the country’s

restrictive licensing laws. Mazuran’s

highly effective lobbying triggered a

string of legislative concessions – such

as the rapid spread of wine shops and

a slashing of minimum sales volumes

• which laid the foundation for the

wine industry’s phenomenal growth

rates of the 1960s and 1970s.

Rising affluence and overseas travel

also encouraged Kiwis to seek new

experiences in food and drink. Wine

was becoming fashionable. In 1966,

2000 members of the Connoisseurs

Club consumed almost 5000 bottles of

wine in-between dancing on the green

at Redwood Park, in west Auckland.

Although vineyard expansion

slowed in Auckland, further south

• in Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and

Marlborough – the pace was hot. By

1975, müller-thurgau emerged as the most heavily

planted variety in the country, yielding light, fruity,

slightly sweet whites, ideal for those new to wine.

Today, more than half of New Zealand wine is from

a single variety grown in a single region – Marlbor-

ough sauvignon blanc.

Attracted by New Zealand’s ability to produce

world-class wines, a wave of overseas producers

has swept into the industry. When industry giant

Montana absorbed its major competitor, Corbans,

in 2000, it created a company large enough to com-

pete with big Australian producers. Today, Pernod

Ricard NZ, based in Paris, owns Brancott Estate (for-

merly Montana), Church Road, Stoneleigh, Deutz

Marlborough and a host of other brands.

New Zealand wine is now sold in 100 countries.

But the nation’s 700 wineries – stretched from North-

land to Central Otago – are facing huge challenges.

Fifty years ago, if you drank wine at all, 90% was

from New Zealand, so heavily protected was the

industry by import licensing and tariffs. Today,

40% of the wine we drink is from overseas.

Winegrowers are also grappling with a major

decline in the price achieved overseas for

Marlborough sauvignon blanc, coupled with a

20% drop over the past decade in the domestic

consumption of New Zealand wine.

The good news is that the quality of our wines

has never been better, and with increasing vine

age and winemaker maturity, you can look for-

ward to even greater wines in the future. l

A considerable

quantity of New

Zealand wine was

branded “unfit for

human consumption”.

PENFOLDS CHARDON

Thirty years ago, this was

New Zealanders’ favourite

sparkling, bearing a name

equally reminiscent of Moët &

Chandon, the famous Cham-

pagne house, and the classic

chardonnay variety. Made in a

fresh, crisp, low-alcohol style, it

was actually produced mostly

from müller-thurgau grapes

grown in Gisborne, blended to

an advanced level of sweet-

ness by adding unfermented

muscat grape juice.

McWILLIAM’S CRESTA DORÉ

English wine writer and mer-

chant Christopher Fielden first

visited New Zealand in 1969,

when “the great wines were

Cresta Doré white and Bakano

red. One of my greatest blind-

tasting feats was in the early

1970s, when Kiwi Don Hewit-

son, in his Cork & Bottle wine

bar off Leicester Square, gave

me a glass of white wine to

identify. ‘It smells of nothing,’ I

said, ‘and it tastes of nothing. It

must be Cresta Doré.’” Ten out

of 10 was his mark.

CORBANS VELLUTO ROSSO

During the 1980s, this red was

hugely popular with lovers of

medium white wine – such as

liebestraum and chasseur –

searching for a taste change.

Made apparently from pinot

noir and cabernet sauvignon,

it was light ruby, usually

fresh and crisp, with simple,

raspberry ish-strawberryish

flavours and an upfront

sweetness.

Remember

these?

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