Wine warning

The wine industry is being told it faces a big challenge to protect its brand while selling the huge amounts of grapes being produced.

The warning comes from Marlborough grapegrower Willie Crosse, who yesterday resigned as Grapegrowers Council president and New Zealand Winegrowers vice- chairman.

Mr Crosse says the wine-in-a-box saga would not be the end of bulk sales of Marlborough's sauvignon blanc.

The wine is being sold in a cask in British supermarkets, to the dismay of Marlborough's wine industry.

But with no quality assurance mark to identify premium Marlborough sauvignon blanc and no regulation to limit what standard of wine in what format could be exported, such "horrors" were likely to happen again, Mr Crosse said.