$17m boost for 'lifestyle wines'

More drinkers are seeking low-calorie, low-alcohol wines.

A $17 million research and development project to produce low-calorie, low-alcohol wine was unlikely to have a major Hawke's Bay input.

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy said the project, called "Lifestyle Wines", was a primary growth partnership between the wine industry and the ministry and would be the largest R&D programme conducted by New Zealand's viticulture sector.

"A total investment of $16.97 million has been secured for the programme, with [the ministry] committing $8.13 million over seven years and the balance coming from industry partners as a mixture of cash and in-kind contributions," Mr Guy said.

Hawke's Bay Winegrowers chairman Nicholas Buck said it was not an area of the market the Bay's vineyards were heading into - focusing more on expanding and potentially lucrative new markets for the region's high quality, mainly red, wines.

The low-calorie/low-alcohol move was what he called a niche market, and involved mainly sauvignon blanc, which was a mainstay of Marlborough.

Mr Buck said he understood about 15 of the country's 700 or so wineries were involved in the new programme.

Mr Guy said the research and development would focus on natural production techniques, which would give New Zealand wineries a point of difference over other products on the market that used fruit juice or manufacturing techniques to lower alcohol content.

Reducing sunlight exposure to grapes and early harvesting can reduce alcohol and calorie-content in wine.

"This is a great example of the primary industries and government working together to support research and development and create high quality, value-added products. It will be major boost to the collective brand of New Zealand wine," he said.

New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said the project would capitalise on domestic and international demand for high quality, lower calorie and lower alcohol wine.

"Our point of difference will be producing premium wines that can be naturally produced using sustainable viticultural techniques and native yeasts - providing an important point of difference to existing processing methods," Mr Gregan said.

Tim Lightbourne, co-founder of Invivo Wines, said "lifestyle" wines were growing in popularity. The Auckland-based firm began producing a sauvignon blanc in 2010, called Belle, which has 9 per cent alcohol content (the average is about 13 per cent) and 330kj per glass.

Pernod Ricard Winemakers recently released a low-calorie, low alcohol wine called Flight, which is marketed under its Brancott Estate label and comes in a sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot gris.

The company's New Zealand managing director, Fabian Partigliani, said the alcoholic content was lowered through harvesting the grapes earlier, rather than a reverse osmosis process sometimes used, which compromised taste.