Traditional ingredient or illegal cheap plonk?

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Grocers are selling half-litre bottles of potent wine for less than $2 in a flagrant breach of licensing laws.

The Herald this week bought strong varieties of wine, spirits and sake at three Chinese and one Korean store despite a supposed crackdown by authorities.

Some shoppers, grocers and politicians said the crackdown was a stupid attack on specialist cooking wines, but five bottles purchased by a reporter were clearly meant for drinking.

One bottle of Sho Chiku Bai sake was bought from the Somerville branch of Tai Ping, the Chinese supermarket chain that sparked the crackdown by selling cheap cooking wine in October.

At Kim's Club in East Tamaki, the Herald bought a four-pack of Jinro, a spirit distilled from rice, barley and grain touted for its "low alcohol content at 22 per cent that helps lessen the burden on your body".

Chinese stores in Dominion Rd and Botany Downs were selling rice-based cooking wines that breached guidelines for supermarkets.

All four stores appeared to be breaking the law in three ways: their drinks were stronger than the 15 per cent alcohol limit for supermarkets, they were made from ingredients not approved for sale, and the stores were lacking in required notices and signs.

Staff at district licensing agencies said Tai Ping and Kim's Club held supermarket off-licences, but they could find no records for the other two stores.

An investigating officer for the Liquor Licensing Authority, Alan Bird, said supermarkets with off-licences were allowed to sell wine, beer and mead only.

The wine could be made from fruit, vegetables or grapes only, which most cooking wines were not.

Off-licensed stores must display their licences, the names of duty managers and warnings that no one under 18 can buy alcohol. The stores visited by the Herald appeared to lack such signs.

A manager at Kim's Club said an "agent" had promised to phone her if there was a legal problem with selling Jinro. The agent had not phoned.

A director at Tai Ping, Michael Chan, has argued for four months that supermarkets should be able to sell cooking wines if they are useless for drinking.

When asked whether it was legal for Tai Ping's Somerville branch to sell drinking sake, Mr Chan said: "I suppose it's not."

However, he insisted that Chinese cooking wines had been sold for 30 years without being abused.

He supplied a letter from the Food Safety Authority which he said supported his stance that supermarkets should be able to sell cooking wines.

The food safety letter came from the authority's imports programme manager, Jim Wilson, who later admitted that he was confused by the issue.

"When does a rice wine become a cooking wine?" he asked. "That's the thorny issue that everyone's unsure about."

A woman at Manukau's district licensing agency said staff knew what Kim's was selling and were discussing the matter with the store.

"With the Asian owners we have to make them understand that our regulations are totally different to theirs," said the woman, who would not be named.

Staff at Auckland City Council have been visiting Asian stores telling them to remove most cooking wines after a Liquor Licensing Authority ruling.

National Party MP Pansy Wong said she had been trying to help supermarkets sell Chinese cooking wine since 2002. It was undrinkable, and she was "annoyed and frustrated" at delays.

Act leader Richard Prebble accused the authority of "suffocating small business with red tape".

Police and council staff in greater Auckland were unable to give examples of underaged drinkers being caught with Chinese cooking wine.

What we found

KIM'S CLUB, EAST TAMAKI:

Jinro spirits (1420ml), 22 per cent, $27.00

TAI PING, SOMERVILLE:

Japanese sake (720ml), 15-16 per cent, $21.72

Chinese cooking wine (560ml), 22 per cent, $2.65

MARKET FRESH, BOTANY DOWNS:

Chinese cooking wine (560ml), 17.5 per cent, $1.85

Chinese cooking wine (640ml), 16 per cent, $2.70

SILVER BELL MARKET, DOMINION RD:

Chinese cooking wine (560ml), 22 per cent, $2.95