Ban's demise sweet deal for winemakers

BOTTOMS UP: British wine drinkers will soon be quaffing New Zealand sweet riesling for the first time.

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British wine drinkers will soon be quaffing New Zealand sweet riesling for the first time after Europe lifted a long-standing trade barrier on sweet wine imports.

New Zealand winemakers were given the all-clear to export sweet wines, such as botrytised riesling and pinot gris, to Europe last month, and some are already pushing their way on to British wine lists.

While sweet wines represent less than 1 per cent of the wine produced in New Zealand, many in the industry said lifting the ban would significantly boost the country's premium producer reputation.

Britain is the second biggest export market for New Zealand wine, after Australia, consuming 41 million litres in the year to November.

Canterbury's Pegasus Bay Winery has already began talking to British restaurants about supplementing their stock of sauvignon blanc with a few of the sweet wines.

Marketing manager Edward Donaldson said British distributors and consumers were excited about getting their hands on a totally different range of New Zealand wine.

"I spent a couple of days in December going around with sweet wines and got a fantastic response. I think there is good potential."

While sweet wines would never compete with the popularity of Kiwi sauvignon blanc in Britain it would build a broader appreciation of New Zealand wine, he said.

The British "already have an excellent appreciation of New Zealand wine".

New Zealand Winegrowers has been pushing for a change to the European restriction since the 1990s.

The rationale for the restriction was that anything with a potential alcohol content of more than 15 per cent could not be classed as wine. While sweet wine's alcohol content is well below the threshold, its unfermented sugar content could "potentially" be fermented to boost the alcohol content above 15 per cent.

Winegrowers policy manager John Barker said the restriction worked to protect European sweet winemakers, arbitrarily excluding New Zealand producers.

"There has been a lot of back and forth on this for quite a long time."

In the end the change came as part of a larger reform of European wine import regulations rather than from any New Zealand pressure, he said.

Lifting the restriction would help boost New Zealand wine's profile in Europe.

Sweet wines "are high-value, high-quality wines that positions New Zealand as a high quality wine producer, which is exactly what we want".

But he said not to expect sweet wine production to explode in New Zealand as it was high risk and high maintenance.

Sweet wine is reliant on the temperamental onset of noble rot, or botrytis, a fungus that shrivels the grape, giving the wine its sweet concentrated flavour.

Villa Maria export manager Ian Clark said lifting the restriction would open the eyes of European consumers but would not necessary fill the coffers.

In some years, Villa Maria produced no sweet wines and even in a peak year, where about 500 dozen cases were produced, it represented less than 1 per cent of the total wine produced.

"But climatic conditions mean New Zealand produces some of the best sweet wines in the world."

- © Fairfax NZ News