Vintners' luck

There is nothing like a bundle of vintage press releases to bring out the cynic in a wine journalist.

Reports about the 2006 vintage are pouring in faster than the wines, most of which have yet to be finished.

The flurry of wineries' raves sent to the country's wine media are upbeat - claiming "superb quality of fruit", "increased quantity of grapes picked" and "expansion to other regions".

Actually, the first wines trickling on to the market look superb - despite the increased quantity.

At the time of writing, you had to look hard to find 2006 wines on supermarket and liquor store shelves but that is changing by the second.

The first wines to be bottled here each year are sauvignon blanc and the earliest on the market are often characterised by high acids and green flavours. These wines are picked early in the rush to be the first out, hence it follows that they are not always as ripe as we'd like.

But five of the six new 2006 sauvignon blancs I had tasted at the time of writing were more tropical than the old-fashioned green-plum flavour that used to signal a good New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

Just because the 2006 whites are good there is no need to be optimistic about the reds until they are finished, bottled and tasted, which is about 18 months away.

Growth in the New Zealand wine industry over the past year is good for the country's economy and is bringing in lots of export dollars.

New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive officer Philip Gregan says there are now around 530 wineries.

Total sales of New Zealand wine reached 96 million litres last year, more than 40 per cent higher than the previous peak. And for the first time, our wine exports exceeded domestic sales, accounting for 53 per cent of New Zealand wine sales.

By 2010 the New Zealand wine industry is forecast to reach export figures of $1 billion and domestic sales of $500 million.

News from further afield: three new Argentinian red wines winged their way to New Zealand last month, continuing the growth in South American wines available here.

These three are from Bodegas Cavas de Weinert, founded in 1976 in Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza - Argentina's largest and best-known wine region. The best wine is the 2000 Cavas de Weinert Cavas De Weinert Gran Vino, an equal blend of cabernet sauvignon and malbec with a smaller amount of merlot softening what is already a top red wine.

* Find out more from importers The Grape Explorer, phone (09) 374 4136.