This year we are all facing an uncertain future due to the gathering economic storm – black clouds on the horizon. Winegrowers have been alerted to the implications of this by our professional body, the Wine Institute of NZ. In the face of a potential reduction in demand for New Zealand wine offshore due to harder times economically, they have recommended that we consider bunch-thinning our crops so as to produce less wine. Bunch thinning is the process of selectively removing a proportion of every vine’s bunches of grapes a few months before ripening. This recommendation was aimed squarely at Marlborough, with its vast acreages of sauvignon blanc – its “savalanche” as one wit has dubbed it, most of which has to be exported. But it is a message we would all do well to consider.
Bunch thinning has the effect of reducing production costs but perhaps more importantly, smaller crops make better wine (all other things being equal). So the argument is that the increased wine quality that comes with bunch-thinning might help to minimize any drop in demand in a market where people are being cautious in their spending. At the very least it will help to keep a high quality image for NZ wine in the minds of our overseas consumers, which will put us in good stead for when the economic storm passes.
In the Matakana region the combination of a great spring fruit set and the uncertainty ahead gives us a double reason to thin our crops. Bunch-thinning is not much fun, but the combined economic and wine quality reasons for doing it are compelling.
The silver lining probably applies more to you the buyers of wine: If winegrowers heed the advice of their professional body, economic pressures may mean that over the next few years you will be able to buy even better quality New Zealand wines and at very good prices.
Robin Ransom
President, Matakana Winegrowers Inc.
robin@ransomwines.co.nz
Originally published in Mahurangi Matters February 2009
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