The announcement last week that the Government is providing $12 million in funding for researchers to develop top-end Sauvignon Blanc wines for the international market is the latest in a long line of weird decisions made by New Zealand Winegrowers. If nothing else, this waste of public funds should trigger a total revision of the structure under which independent winegrowers are obliged to operate.
NZ Winegrowers is funded by legislative decree, while the current Government acts to eliminate compulsory membership of student unions within their philosophical canopy of individual responsibility and “freedom”. If you are a small winemaker you are obliged to be a member and pay a healthy chunk of your invariably scarce cashflow to NZ Winegrowers. In return you get representation.
Well, not much representation. Five hundred and seventy seven of 643 winemakers in New Zealand have two representatives on the body’s board. These are the smallest winemakers, primarily those who have had the creative initiative to drive the wine industry to its current international status. They are the ones who created the wine styles, began the exporting process and developed new winemaking techniques.
The next largest wine producers, and there are 60 of them, have the same track record as the small producers, because most of them started as small producers. These have two representatives on the board as well. Hardly a fair distribution of influence at the top table between these two groups, but pathetic when compared to that wielded by the six largest producers who have three members on the board.
It is these six, who historically have contributed the least to New Zealand’s fine wine culture and its international success, who control the activities of the organisation. Which is why New Zealand Winegrowers supports the industrial wine sector and international distribution of its wines through mass market retail, because that is what is in the commercial interest of these six companies.
To many small wine producers, their funding of NZ Winegrowers returns nothing of value to their businesses, yet they are obliged to be members and pay their levy.
When contacting winemakers – who are already making high quality, sophisticated Sauvignon Blanc wines – for their reaction on the $12 million grant to “the industry” for research into high quality Sauvignon Blanc, those who didn’t laugh out loud were either angry (“another Winegrowers’ stuff up”), or bemused. None knew anything about the project, but their knowledge of best practice Sauvignon Blanc making, and their skills should surely be part of any aim to improve standards for the whole industry. But as none of them work for any of the six biggest producers, I guess they don’t figure in Winegrowers’ plans.
Compare Sauvignon Blanc to Pinot Noir to understand the power that engaging all winemakers in a process of industry-wide improvement. The Pinot Noir conferences for pinot-interested winemakers were the initiative of small producers who believed in this wine, then deemed “uncommercial” by the factory-driven companies. Through cooperation this group revolutionised Pinot Noir culture in this country to make New Zealand a leading producer with a truly international reputation. Now Pinot Noir is considered an essential part of every industrial producer’s portfolio.
Yet when a decision is made to improve the standards in Sauvignon Blanc, those who already have the knowledge and energy to do so are left out of the equation. Unfortunately the capture of Winegrowers by the factory sector means that there is little chance such a cooperative venture will ever be mounted again.
It is time to revisit the legal status of Winegrowers and make membership of this body one of individual choice. Such a change is in line with National Government policies in other areas, and it is the only fair way to represent an industry that is in dire need of continued innovation if it is to thrive.
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I also am very unsure about this funding, but:
Keith you omit the fact that the grape growers also sit around the NZW board table.
The representatives of the large wineries cannot outvote the medium, smaller and grower representatives.
Like Pinot Noir there is a small group of winemakers that meet every year (6 years now)
with no publicity to improve Syrah, and they have made a huge impact on quality.