Sauvignon Blanc is NZs most planted grape variety by a country mile. It’s the grape we made our name internationally on. Its cheap to make and one of the earliest wines into the marketplace. Its our cash cow.
BUT, all may not be well in the land of cat pee. Heres the numbers...
In 2008 the total harvest in NZ was 282319 tonnes.
SB nationally accounted for 169613 tonnes ( 60%) of which 90.6% came from Marlborough, so 153669 tonnes.
The producing area for Sauvignon in Marlborough is around 11000ha.
This makes the average tones harvested per hectare to be around 14. Or on normal 3m x 1.5m plantings that’s well over 6kgs per vine. Surely outrageous.
The average across the whole of NZ for 2008 was 10.5t/ha. This means the average crop levels for everything else other than SB was about 5.5t/ha. At around 2500-3000 vines per hectare this represents good quality conscious viticulture.
But whats going on with Sauvignon Blanc, and why isn’t anyone worried about it?
The Marlborough Research Centre tells us ‘there are a number of reasons for the increase in Marlaborough – none of them to do with overcropping.’ They point to lower than average bunch numbers but a huge increase in berry weights and to the amount of new plantings coming on stream.
So they are saying 14 tonnes per hectare ISNT overcropping ??
This huge increase in berry weights caught most growers and wineries by surprise to the point where processing capacity was full and fruit had to be left on the vine. So, in fact the total tonnage could well have been higher.
Philip Gregan, our NZ Wine chief, quoted in the UK press, (and by Jancis Robinson here), was tactful to say the least.
“The increased harvest is a real opportunity to grow sales in new and existing export markets in the year ahead towards our target of $1 billion of exports by 2010. At the same time, the larger harvest will present a challenge to winery sales and marketing efforts to ensure that New Zealand’s premium image continues to go from strength to strength,”
One of those ‘challenges’ he referred to was illustrated recently when a certain large NZ wine company ‘dumped’ a million litres on the Australian market at $3.50/L. That might be generously inflating the total value of NZ wine exports but what is it doing to our image?
It still doesn’t add up to me. Maintaining our image for quality and above average price points in export markets should be paramount. The last thing we need to do is, as the saying goes, kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
BUT, all may not be well in the land of cat pee. Heres the numbers...
In 2008 the total harvest in NZ was 282319 tonnes.
SB nationally accounted for 169613 tonnes ( 60%) of which 90.6% came from Marlborough, so 153669 tonnes.
The producing area for Sauvignon in Marlborough is around 11000ha.
This makes the average tones harvested per hectare to be around 14. Or on normal 3m x 1.5m plantings that’s well over 6kgs per vine. Surely outrageous.
The average across the whole of NZ for 2008 was 10.5t/ha. This means the average crop levels for everything else other than SB was about 5.5t/ha. At around 2500-3000 vines per hectare this represents good quality conscious viticulture.
But whats going on with Sauvignon Blanc, and why isn’t anyone worried about it?
The Marlborough Research Centre tells us ‘there are a number of reasons for the increase in Marlaborough – none of them to do with overcropping.’ They point to lower than average bunch numbers but a huge increase in berry weights and to the amount of new plantings coming on stream.
So they are saying 14 tonnes per hectare ISNT overcropping ??
This huge increase in berry weights caught most growers and wineries by surprise to the point where processing capacity was full and fruit had to be left on the vine. So, in fact the total tonnage could well have been higher.
Philip Gregan, our NZ Wine chief, quoted in the UK press, (and by Jancis Robinson here), was tactful to say the least.
“The increased harvest is a real opportunity to grow sales in new and existing export markets in the year ahead towards our target of $1 billion of exports by 2010. At the same time, the larger harvest will present a challenge to winery sales and marketing efforts to ensure that New Zealand’s premium image continues to go from strength to strength,”
One of those ‘challenges’ he referred to was illustrated recently when a certain large NZ wine company ‘dumped’ a million litres on the Australian market at $3.50/L. That might be generously inflating the total value of NZ wine exports but what is it doing to our image?
It still doesn’t add up to me. Maintaining our image for quality and above average price points in export markets should be paramount. The last thing we need to do is, as the saying goes, kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
