KIWI DOC WARNS: NO SAVVY SAVVY

BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL MARLBOROUGH. BUT IS IT TOO BIG? photograph by KEVIN JUDD

Marlborough's Big Tip

“Tip glut wine or Marlborough topples, industry warns”, was Rachel Young’s headline in The Marlborough Express on New Year’s Day.

I don’t want to go on too much about my piece Wine Biz On The Nose, published on the same day in response to a Sydney Morning Herald piece, but I can’t help observing: why are these terrible wine crises reported only at a time when nobody’s reading newspapers, including journalists?

Oldest trick in the book. They can say “I told you so”. But they didn’t. They didn’t even tell themselves.

But Whitey noticed.

Dr. John Forrest, of the winery bearing his name, said Marlborough's wine image could be forever tarnished if the export market is flooded with cheap sauvignon blanc.

Plenty of that in my in tray. From Marlborough. Already. About the same quality as your average Adelaide Hills sauvignon. Piss on the nettles.

“Marlborough's vintage size increased by 61 percent from last year to a record 194,639 tonnes this year which has caused talk of excess wine and oversupply within the industry”, the Express reported.

“Forrest said oversupply could cause major problems for Marlborough's image and the price it could demand for future vintages ... most wineries took in more fruit than they needed, of which he estimated about 20 per cent was of compromised quality ... this compromised wine should not be blended with good wine, he said.

"If you believe that by flogging cheap 2008 when the 2009 is available and waiting will not compromise the long term viability and profitability of the New Zealand wine industry then I think you are kidding yourself.

"How do we save the Marlborough and New Zealand wine industry from slipping down to produce bulk white wine like you can buy for around 3 to 5 in the UK from Chile?" the Doc asked.

"I feel like we are standing on the edge of a cliff and once we go down I don't see how we can come out of it."

So does he have any solution?

Yep. Tip it out.

Ask our Riverland, and Coonawarra. And give Texas a call. And check CADUCEUS.