Australasia Lead The Way In Wine Diversification
Australia has long been considered a big player in the global wine industry and this has to a large extent been down to its ideal grape growing conditions. Other surrounding countries such as New Zealand and Fiji are now getting in on the act however and are growing their stakes in the market by experimenting with innovative wine production.
There was recent debate about the moral ramifications about being able to produce ros© by blending white and red together. Classically ros© has been made by removing the white juice mixture from the red grape skins at just the right time so that it doesnt absorb so much of the colour. However, just mixing small quantities of red wine into white is the method that has seen a massive rise in popularity recently…a result of the recession forcing cheaper production methods to be adopted.
Countries such as France, widely considered the finest wine producing country in the world, were not best pleased with this mutilation of ros© wine and did not agree for it to be sold in their country, or even be given as wine gifts. However, those countries that have not set such strict rules for themselves, such as those in Australasia and Eastern Europe have profited from their liberalism. A spokesman from the New Zealand alcohol authority defended his countrys move by stating that people are free to consume whichever wine they wish. They never market their blended ros© as wine made in the traditional way and the difference in pricing makes it quite obvious this is a different product entirely. The spokesman argued that if people can make milk chocolate in a thousand different ways, why can the same not be done for ros©?
Many of the Australasian countries have even embraced the full blending together of other wines as well. In Fiji for example you can buy Sauvignon Blanc mixed with Chardonnay and Merlot blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. Fiji seem to have similar opinions to the wine makers in New Zealand and have said that they are able to blend their wine just as well as a whisky maker might blend two single malts to make a great blended drink. They state that companies all over the world, and in particular Scotland, produce some very fine blended whiskies that not only often taste superior to single malts, but that are also able to sell at more modest prices. Next they will be telling us which tableware we must use when consuming the wine, stated one official.
It is clear that the Fiji natives like this blended wine, with over 100,000 bottles of the stuff consumed last year. Many might consider this to be a small about, but relative to the population of Fiji, which is around 850,000, this rate of sale is incredibly high. Fiji plan to sell their blended wine all over the world and seeing as the product is cheap to produce and sells for less than most classic wines, it is likely the export will do well.
