Evolving maps

John Saker ponders what happens to regions when pioneering wineries are no longer in local hands.

When I heard last year that Central Otago’s Mount Difficulty had been swallowed up by Foley Family Wines (one of US billionaire Bill Foley’s many companies), I felt a small sadness.

I’m always being told foreign ownership is not a bad thing, and I agree to some extent. Foley Family Wines, for example, has done nothing but improve the quality and stability of the two Martinborough brands it recently acquired, Te Kairanga and Martinborough Vineyards. Over the short term, anyway.

But at the same time, great wine comes from great regions. Great regions build strong cultures around their wine and their vignerons’ devotion to producing it. How can that spirit not be weakened when the destinies of a region’s pioneering wineries are no longer in local hands?

The Mount D sale hammered home how New Zealand’s wine-producing profile is being reshaped right now.

While overseas ownership is on the rise (roughly 40 per cent of the grapes crushed every year are foreign owned), so is the overall corporate share of NZ wine.

For years, Central Otago was deemed too risky a proposition for the big boys. The large wine companies stood on the sideline and watched. When the miracle that is a Central Otago pinot vintage kept repeating itself year after year, they began buying fruit. It reached a point where 30 per cent of the fruit grown in Central Otago was being trucked north.

Now the corporates are in there, boots and all. Over recent years, Accolade Wines (Mud House), Constellation Brands ((Wild Grace, Kim Crawford and other labels) and LVMH (Cloudy Bay) have all bought significant holdings. Central Otago is not quite as folksy as it once was.

The move by Foley Family Wines was also emblematic of wine’s ongoing southern drift.

In 2001 the area under vine was roughly the same in both islands. Since then the south’s vineyard area has increased four-fold, while the needle has only nudged up a few ticks for the north. Most North Island regions have gone backwards in terms of vineyard area over recent years. Hawke’s Bay’s slight increase is deceptive. It is largely because of extensive plantings of sauvignon blanc, much of which is blended into Marlborough sauvignon blanc.

Too much great wine is being made on Te Ika-aMāui for it to become a vinous backwater. But I still think there’s change aplenty to come for our wine map.