Buying wines based on a producer’s long-term reputation is a sign of maturity.

Buying wines based on a producer’s long-term reputation is a sign of maturity.

With New Zealand being one of the world’s youngest wine-producing countries, it’s easy to overlook positive industry changes, such as the recent advances in organic production, tightening of labelling rules and the rising number of mature vines – and winemakers. But some aspects of the wine scene suggest there is still a way to go before the country can claim to have a mature industry.

Take the current $17 million research and development programme, co-funded by New Zealand Winegrowers and the Ministry for Primary Industries, into “lighter” (previously called “lifestyle”) wines that have an alcohol content below 10% by volume. As Jamie Goode, the prominent British wine writer with a PhD in plant biology, wrote recently: “It’s a nonsense. They taste terrible.”

There is no shortage of light-bodied (under 10% alc/vol), ravishingly beautiful, finely balanced rieslings around the world – above all, those of Germany – but our vineyards are dominated by sauvignon blanc. This is the most difficult variety when it comes to making a lighter-alcohol wine, says Helen Morrison, Villa Maria’s senior Marlborough winemaker, because the acidity level in its grape juice doesn’t drop markedly until the natural sugar level is too high for lighter wine production.

Goode suggests we should allow our wine to be “what it naturally is, rather than denuding it of alcohol to fit a marketing proposition”. Most of our lighter sauvignon blancs are also sweeter than usual. Advocates point out that a few low-alcohol bottlings have won gold medals, tasted “blind” against normal-strength wines in competitions, but that brings us to the next point.

As New Zealand Winegrowers says, “Wine shows tend to polarise opinion in the wine industry.”

Most winemakers – especially those with top reputations – don’t enter the industry’s own show, the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, let alone this country’s dozen other competitions.

Nigel Greening – owner of Felton Road, last year rated No 13 on a list of the world’s most-respected wine brands, published by Drinks International – doesn’t enter shows, on the grounds that “winemaking is not a competitive sport”. The day we buy wines based on each producer’s long-term reputation, rather than medals from the latest show, will be a sign of maturity.