A taste for life at the top

By SIMON HENDERY liquor writer

Having the Queen quaff a glass or two of your product must be close to the ultimate thrill for any winemaker.

Two New Zealand vineyards achieved that milestone last week when Mount Nelson's 2000 sauvignon blanc and Ata Rangi's 1999 pinot noir were served to the 270 guests at the state banquet for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

"It was a great honour," says Phyllis Pattie, of Ata Rangi in Martinborough.

"When you start out [making wine] you wonder if you'll ever be 'by royal appointment'."

In the global wine business - with its countless labels - recognition in the right circles is what builds brand strength.

Because regal banquets don't come along often, a more practical path to success is making it onto the wine lists of top international restaurants.

Ata Rangi's pinot noir is one of only three New Zealand wines featured on the lists of British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's London restaurants.

West Auckland-based Babich Wines is the latest antipodean addition to the cellars at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and the new Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's.

Its 2000 Marlborough riesling is the only New Zealand white on both lists, and recently joined Ata Rangi and a pinot noir from Central Otago's Felton Road Wines.

"Both of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants have huge wine lists of around 700 wines," says Barry Melton, sales director of Percy Fox, Babich's distributor in Britain.

"Of these, only about 130 are from the New World. So to be listed at one, let alone both, of his restaurants is a significant achievement."

Babich Wines' assistant general manager, David Babich, said such prestigious listings were not only good for the company but also indicated that top restaurants wanted New Zealand wines on their lists.

Pattie says a track record of excellence in quality and consistency is a prerequisite for getting listings at the world's top restaurants - Ata Rangi is a three-time winner of the Bouchard-Finlayson trophy for champion pinot noir at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

"The restaurant market is a very important sector for brand-building," she says. "It's a question of getting noticed and talked about by the opinion makers.

"With our relatively small volumes, and the strong demand we enjoy, it's not about selling per se.

"It's more strategic - allocating what you've got to maximise exposure and recognition, balanced against making sure the agents representing your brand in each market get enough wine to make both an impact and a profit."

The British market is particularly significant because it accounts for more than half NZ's wine exports.

Last year, 19.2 million litres of wine worth $198 million was exported to 64 countries. Britain took 9.9 million litres, worth $92.7 million.

Restaurant sales make up a significant proportion of Ata Rangi's export sales, and are also important because diners often buy further bottles of wines they like from retail outlets, says Pattie. "There is a flow-on effect and it's quite important to get exposure in those fine dining places if you're working in the top end [of the market]."