2009 Marlborough Vintage Report
Quality and Quantity Assessment for 2009 Sauvignon Blanc in N.Z
Jul 15, 2009
With the Cook Strait bringing in milder than usual air currents off the Able Tasman, the 2009 vintage couldn't have started better for Marlborough. A mild winter kept frosts to a minimum whilst the rains provided a replenished water table. The spring time weather that followed was hot and dry which encouraged a successful flowering giving a good and abundant fruit set. Several rain events at the start of February led to a slight Botrytis outbreak just after veraison which was thankfully kept under control by disease management in conjunction with crop thinning and leaf plucking. Perfect weather from the beginning of March and throughout harvest meant that disease was a non-issue.
Quality & Quantity?
There was however the issue of quantity, especially with Marlborough’s cash cow grape variety, Sauvignon Blanc. According to Murry Peterson, in the Jancis Robinson article "Marlborough 2009- Another Glut" due to the massive over production last year and current global economic crisis “the major wineries got together and effectively decided to crush only 170,000 tonnes of Sauvignon, the volume they believe they can market in the circumstances”. In order to achieve this reduced yield, several passes were made through the vineyards, heavily fruit thinning the crop load to comply with the strict yield caps implemented by the wine producers. With recent figures of 245,000 tonnes being talked about it is unlikely everyone practised the selective harvesting and crop thinning. As in previous years, Chris Darling, winemaker for one of the largest contract winemaking facilities in Marlborough, readily admits that some less discretionary producers “picked any grapes just to get volumes”.
How Will This Alter Availability and Price of 2009 New Zealand Sauvignons?
The question that we are faced with now is, how will this vintage, which has seen massive yield reductions imposed on it, affect the availability and pricing of New Zealand Sauvignons? As of yet, none of the major wine producers have released their prices for the 2009 vintage. However, looking at a recent report, compiled by Wine Growers of New Zealand, we see that in 2008, a year of record breaking yields and massive over production, the average UK price still increased by 6% up to £6.47 a bottle. Can we expect the same to happen this year?
If a similar price increase where to happen again would the large Supermarkets, Independent Merchants and Sommelier continue to stock as much Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc or would they start to look somewhere else for a similar styled but slightly more affordable product, from say Chile or South Africa?
Martin Lam, Sommelier at top London Restaurant, Ransom's Dock, mentioned “In certain cases yes” although he admits that people are still willing to pay a little more for wines from New Zealand. Larger retailers like Tesco are a little more reluctant to let go of such a strong regional brand. Pierpaolo Petrassi, the New World Senior Product Development Manager at Tescos is confident in N.Z wines mentioning that despite any potential price rises, Tescos would not look else where for a similar styled wine “New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has a good franchise with our customers and produces quite a unique style”.
It seems that Marlborough's strength lies in its unique appeal and versatility ensuring there will always be a place for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on most wine lists. Christine Parkinson, Group Wine Buyer from Hakkasan comments, “Every wine producing region in the world seems to offer Sauvignon Blanc now, so from a varietal wine point of view the competition is immense”, but ultimately it seems “Nowhere else achieves the same style as Marlborough”.
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