They're drinking our wine over there

From top: Vasse Felix Margaret River Chardonnay 2012 $28.95. Shingleback The Davey McLaren Vale Shiraz 2011 $27.99. Mount Langi Ghiran Billi Billi Shiraz 2010 $25.50

Tomorrow marks the start of the third Aussie Wine Month, a wine industry initiative to encourage Australians to drink their local wines. It follows a winemaker's campaign to get Aussies to eschew all other wines but their own. Are these shows of healthy support or jingoistic protectionism, and do these endeavours across the ditch reflect what's happening in New Zealand?

It all started in January 2011 when veteran Australian winemaker Stephen Pannell posted his online petition, "All for One Wine, Drink Australian" urging Australians to partake only of Australian wine that month. Pannell noted that though these were some of the wine industry's most difficult and competitive times - which were seeing local grapes being left on the vine - imported wines were growing significantly.

Then in 2012, the Australian wine industry's representative body, Wine Australia, launched Aussie Wine Month, aiming to get local consumers drinking and buying wines from their own backyard.

Recent years have seen the sales of Australian wines in their domestic market eroded by invaders from overseas. Local bottles accounted for more than 92 per cent of the market eight years ago. They've now slipped to around 84 per cent, and wines from New Zealand lead the foreign charge.

New Zealand wines now account for almost 14 per cent of all wine sold in Australia and 73 per cent of all sauvignon blanc, and the volume we import from them is now eclipsed by the amount of our wine we ship across the Tasman. So it's possibly no surprise the Australian industry is taking pains to defend its products.

Here in New Zealand, we actually buy a far higher proportion of wines from abroad, with a split of 56 per cent home-grown to 44 per cent foreign, according to figures published in the latest New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Report. Wine imports rose by 50 per cent, but this was off the back of the small 2012 New Zealand vintage, highlighting the fact that, unlike in Australia, where consumer demand is driving import growth, in New Zealand it's largely down to lack of supply of our own products.

It could be that we're not blowing the local wine trumpet across our land because we're quieter than our Australian cousins. However, it's most likely due to this different supply dynamic and the fact many of our imported wines are at the cheaper end of the spectrum and consequently not in direct competition with our own more premium-priced products.

Although I have sympathy for the winegrowers in Australia, as a wine enthusiast I welcome choice and diversity. Travel to Australia and this can certainly be found in its good wine stores and restaurants. As well as showcasing the country's finest, they feature a wonderfully wide array of wines from across the world, driven by the country's increasingly sophisticated market.

This variety makes what we have available at the premium level in New Zealand look somewhat limited. We're not shy to knock back litres of cheap Aussie wine, but possess distinctly parochial palates when it comes to buying better booze.

Misplaced loyalty and lack of knowledge could be contributing factors. When I hear someone saying New Zealand wines are the best so they don't drink any others, I ask them how they can be so sure if they're not benchmarking what we're making against examples from elsewhere.

We are undoubtedly making world-class wines, as is Australia, and the likes of France, and Italy and Spain, all sources of wines whose best can't be replicated anywhere else. They're all threads in the rich international tapestry of wine that are there to be enjoyed across the world by wine drinkers with adventurous palates and open minds.

AUSSIE RULES
Shingleback The Davey McLaren Vale Shiraz 2011 $27.99
This ripe, rich style of shiraz is typical of Australia's warm McLaren Vale region with its super-concentrated and bright boysenberry and blackberry fruit laced with sweet cedar and vanillin oak and hint of liquorice spice. Available from First Glass, Caro's and all fine wine stores.

Mount Langi Ghiran Billi Billi Shiraz 2010 $25.50
Another great example of Australia's flagship red, this time from the cooler Grampians
region of Victoria, which is reflected in its elegant, medium-bodied style and juicy black fruit and savoury undertones. Available from macvine.co.nz

Vasse Felix Margaret River Chardonnay 2012 $28.95
Australian chardonnay has entered an exciting era, with less overt oak and more focus on fruit and freshness. This is a fine example possessing pure peach fruit overlaid with subtle notes of toasty oak and supported by an attractive line of lemon and mineral. Find at Caro's Wines and Liquor King.

- VIVA