Writing in the influential British newspaper the Telegraph, Victoria Moore has criticised the influx of cheap New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, questioning whether New Zealand’s reputation can survive such poor quality wine.
Identifying the source of a bottle of 2009 Wairau Cove Sauvignon Blanc sold in Tesco’s supermarkets as being “bulk wine from Pernod Ricard… Sacred Hill and Babich”, Moore criticises the wine, saying “… it smelt tired, had lost its fresh zing and had the starchy, watery taste of slices of raw old potatoes. At dinner, I noticed my friends trying small sips then abandoning it for something – indeed, anything – else on the long, crowded table.”
More telling were her comments about New Zealand wine in general, and its continued reputation in its largest export market.
“If you can’t rely on the name of New Zealand to guarantee the quality of your wine, you end up having to play detective and here, besides the offer, there were two big clues that all might not be well.
“The first was the name: Wairau Cove is neither a winery nor a place. It might sound familiar because Wairau Valley is a subregion of Marlborough (incidentally, asked if the grapes actually come from there, Tesco could only say that ”the vast majority of them had”) but Wairau Cove doesn’t actually exist. The second was the small print on the back label that indicated the wine was bottled in the UK. Together these two clues point in one direction: bulk wine,” she wrote, before concluding, “the hope is that as the balance between supply and demand steadies, New Zealand will decide that the short-term gain of bulk wine sales isn’t worth the long-term damage to our faith in its wine. It always takes a while for perception to catch up with reality but, as my mother said when I innocently asked how she’d found her bottle of Wairau Cove: ‘’It didn’t taste quite like I expected a New Zealand sauvignon blanc to taste. I didn’t really like it.’
“It would be a shame if the magic disappeared.”
Related posts:
