Cruise ships help boost winery profile

IN THE highly competitive wine industry you have to find new customers wherever you can.

For Marlborough winemaker Allan Scott that means welcoming Americans from visiting cruise ships to his winery one day and flying to Vietnam to meet new customers the next.

Scott is one of the pioneers of the Marlborough wine industry and knows that you can find business in some unusual places.

Recently he has been capitalising on the growing trade to passengers of cruise ships calling at Picton.

Twenty cruise ships are expected to berth at Picton this summer, bringing about 34,000 passengers eager to sample the region’s delights.

Americans make up the biggest single nationality on most of the ships and Scott has seen this as an excellent marketing opportunity because the United States is his company’s biggest export market.

He has joined forces with a local tour operator who brings bus loads of passengers to his winery whenever a ship is in port.

Generally there are about 30-40 passengers on a bus and there are often about six buses a day.

Scott said most of the visitors had at least some wine knowledge but even those who weren’t regular wine drinkers enjoyed visiting the winery and sampling its wares.

Scott leads the winery tours himself, underlining their importance, and part of the experience is letting the visitors taste wines straight from the barrels.

They are also given information on where they can buy Allan Scott