The 2011 harvest in New Zealand is underway and it look like it’ll be a record beating 310,000 tonnes.
The industry’s marketing body, New Zealand Winegrowers, is putting a positive spin on this, pointing out bottled wine exports are growing beyond initial forecasts but this sort of bumper crop is exactly what it has been trying to avoid.
Stock levels seem to be coming back into balance, according to one Auckland broker. “Producers don’t have any spare Sauvignon Blanc. A year ago there was about 30 million litres of it floating around and now there’s none.”
Around 18 months ago, you could pick up a litre of NZ Sauvignon Blanc for as little as $1.85 (it probably didn’t taste great, admittedly) whereas it’s now up to $3-3.25, according to members of the industry, which indicates that excess supplies have been largely drained.
Finally, the industry is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel but this vintage could see that light extinguished. The next two months will be crucial.
Homeless wine?
You have to wonder if there are enough machine harvesters, presses and tanks to cope with a crop of 310,000 tonnes.
Back in 2008, when the harvest was a record 285,000, the infrastructure failed to cope. Is there anywhere to put an extra 25,000 tonnes of fruit? And what happens if the weather turns ugly towards the end of the season, and everyone wants to get their grapes in before rot kicks in? Good luck finding a machine to harvest it and a tank to put it in.
