March 15, 2026 • 18 mins
This month's On the Vine episode asks what happens when you have too many grapes? In this case, more is not always more. Turns out, in the world of viticulture, it's possible to have too much of a good thing.
Last year, an estimated 100,000 tonnes, or approximately a fifth of the crop, was left on the vine. The 2026 season is shaping up to have a lot of excess grapes, too.
So, what's behind the supply hangover? What are the options for New Zealand's vineyards? Is this the new normal?
Joining the conversation to answer these questions, and more, is Jon Peet, Fruitfed Technical Specialist.
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(00:10):
Welcome to Blue Shed Diaries on the Vine segment, a podcast
episode that takes a deep dive into New Zealand's horticultural
sector. I'm your host and Peter G writes
and technical team manager Milton Munro.
In the world of grapes, more is not always more.
For vineyards, too much is not agood thing.
And last year it's estimated around 100,000 tonnes.
(00:32):
Approximately 1/5 of the croppedwas left on the vine.
The 2026 season is currently shaping up to have a lot of
unpicked grapes. What's behind the supply
hangover, pardon the pun, And what are the options for New
Zealand's vignettes? Is this the new normal we're
entering into? Joining the conversation to
answer these questions and more is John Pete Fruit Feeds,
(00:55):
technical specialist for Viticulture.
Welcome to the show, John. Thank you, Milton.
What's behind the excess supply?Why have we got grapes that that
just don't ever, ever place? Well, that's a good but not good
question, not a simple answer. A number of factors contributing
that to that. One, of course is the supply.
(01:18):
End of the question is where? Worldwide, when we depend a lot
on export markets for the sales of our wine overseas.
Worldwide, everyone's drinking less and there's a whole range
of factors behind that, generational factors, increased
inflation around the world, tariffs now in the past few
(01:39):
months, et cetera, et cetera. So our markets have declined,
especially post COVID and, and we're into a, a, a climatic, um,
trend where we seem to be producing very large crops.
So in other words, we've got a bit of a double whammy going on
excess production and reduced markets in the short, hopefully
(02:05):
short to medium term. What happens to these extra
grapes that are produced? Are there are there alternative
places they could go? I know we don't have much of a
table market grape and industry in New Zealand, but is there
anywhere else these grapes couldgo?
Or is it really just the only option?
We've got us to leave them on the vinyl, drop them.
I'm afraid it is. And it it boils down to where
(02:29):
those grapes are being produced,not just regionally produced,
but who is producing them. The market is made-up of either
corporate wineries with their own blocks of vines that they
manage for their wine production.
But traditionally we've had a large market of what we call
growers who supply the larger wineries.
(02:49):
And unfortunately it's those growers who are mostly suffering
from this and finding an alternative market is pretty
much impossible. And the only really solution to
that is either not produce at all or you produce far less and
(03:11):
relying on a contract with a winery that you hopefully is
longer term enough to to get over this this dip in in
production. And gives it segues nicely into
probably really what I want to talk to you about today is this
concept of I have to give creditwhere credit is due.
(03:31):
You actually taught me this termand the conversation at the end
of last year mothballing vines. What do you mean when you when
you talk about mothballing of vine, John?
Well, it essentially means not producing any grapes on that
block at all. Putting it to sleep, in other
words, um, looking at, uh, production, long term
(03:54):
production, but short term not doing anything in terms of
production at all. I E not selling any of the
grapes that you're producing. Not an easy thing to do at all
and not straight forward either.Surely it would just be a matter
of, you know, you just don't do anything.
You just leave the vineyard to its own devices.
Don't. Don't do any spraying, don't
(04:16):
look after it at all. Don't run the harvester through
it and and pick it back up againwhen the market picks up.
Yeah, that would be nice if it was that simple.
I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to say that.
So OK, we can get rid of my naive, my naive opinion here and
and tell me what you know what would be involved in mothballing
(04:36):
of Vineyard? Well, the one thing you can't do
is walk away from it. As you naively said, walking
away from a vineyard will give you a a long term nightmare and
a whole lot of extra cost. Now, that may not be immediately
obvious, but as a grower, you know, let's say you have a 50
(04:57):
hectare, 100 hectare vineyard. It doesn't really matter what
the size is. If you don't have a market for
those grapes and you want to stop producing grapes for a
period of time, you do still have to look after those grapes
for the longer term. You can't just walk away from
them because that will have a long term effect on the vine
(05:20):
itself. It will also lead to a lot of
extra cost as and when you want to bring those vines back into
production. So therein lies one of the big
questions. When people come to me and talk
about mothballing, what are their options?
The first question I always ask is how long do you want to
(05:41):
mothball for? It's the $64 billion question,
if you like, which of course is not easy to answer because in
effect, a grower doesn't know necessarily how long that break
in production needs to be for. And that can depend on a whole
range of factors, whether they have a contract with a winery or
(06:01):
not, and longer term what their prospects are in terms of
selling those grapes. That would provide quite an
issue. If you don't know an in date of
when we need to bring these backinto production.
It's going to be quite a tough one.
So you mentioned you're still going to have to look after
these grabs and you're still going to have to be putting some
input into there. What would you do with a
(06:24):
mothballed vineyard? I mean, obviously it probably
won't be to the same extent as the controls you would apply to
a fully functioning performing, producing vignette.
What would you still need to do in a mothballed vignette?
Well, let's assume for a moment,as a lot of growers have done,
they've had a positive mindset and say, look, let's assume
we're mothballing for one seasonhere, 2 at the very most.
(06:47):
What, what, what's my primary concern here?
And of course, to an independentgrowers especially, the primary
concern is to reduce cost. So you're going to look at the
most obvious cost savings and the largest cost on any
producing vineyard is a labour cost, by far the biggest cost.
(07:07):
And that has increased dramatically over the past,
certainly well past 20 years that I've been in the industry.
But certainly in recent times our costs have gone up for a
whole range of factors. So anything you can do to remove
labour is good in terms of reducing cost.
Anything you can therefore do mechanically is going to save
you money in terms of the vines production for the future years.
(07:34):
So if we're assuming one year down, second year we're coming
back into production. There are a range of costs you
can reduce, but there are a range of costs that you can't
reduce. What you have to make sure is
that you're not allowing your vineyard block to accumulate
disease. So in terms of diseases, and
most growers will be very aware of the diseases they have to
(07:55):
manage in a in a normal production year.
And those fungal diseases, the key disease that you have to try
and prevent in a mothballed vineyard is powdery mildew.
Now without going into too much detail about how you do that,
that is very much site specific.It doesn't just depend on your
location, doesn't just depend onhow you've managed those vines
(08:19):
in the past. Of course there's a dependence
on the weather that's coming over that growing season which
we can't predict. And what it boils down to in
essence is that you pretty much need to run a standard programme
for powdery mildew, control powdery mildew and the lessons
we've learned certainly within fruit fed powdery mildew is the
(08:39):
one disease you cannot reduce your inputs on and every single
vineyard block will be different.
There is no one set recipe here and that's where advice comes
into it and that's where when I'm certainly phoned, whether it
be by one of our reps or one of our key growers will be, that's
(09:00):
the advice I'm giving, how to prevent powdery mildew in that
particular block for the season that we're experiencing.
That makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think one of the
biggest risks you're going to have is at some point the market
will shift, it'll come back, there will be opportunities and
and you really want to make surethat you haven't done yourself
any long term damage to your production that's going to take
(09:23):
time to recover from. That's absolute key.
You've hit the nail on the head because what you do in that year
of mothballing will have an impact for the next two seasons.
It it isn't just a case of coming back and flicking the
switch and saying, right, we're back into full production, no
worries. There will be impacts If that
(09:44):
disease gets out of control. You're actually have two to
three seasons at the minimum to bring it back into full control
of that disease. That's a lot more cost than
you're going to save by reducingthat spray in that one year of
mothballing. And and that's a big message to
(10:04):
get across two to three seasons of increased cost over and above
what you would have done in the previous seasons.
Disease Control is paramount. Now.
You can do lots of things to help that in a mothballed
vineyard, and that's where the second biggest factor comes in,
and that's a pruning. I was going to ask about
pruning, John, because look, when you first mentioned
(10:25):
multiple vineyards to me, I haveto admit I kind of pictured
these, these vineyards that havegone to, gone to see, they've
gone wild. And I could imagine, you know,
the great vines in these blocks.I'm kind of looking like the
Grapevine I've got growing in myglasshouse at home and a wild
and out of control. But but something tells me that
(10:48):
that's probably not really what I'm gonna be seeing here, is it?
What would what would the pruning requirements for a
mothballed vineyard look? Like it's funny you say that you
wouldn't see that because I haveto drive past vineyards everyday
on my way to work where unfortunately that has been
allowed to happen in terms of cash flow, etcetera, etcetera.
(11:08):
And sometimes people just can't do what the best solution is.
But you're absolutely right, thebest thing not to do is to allow
that scenario to occur because avine will grow in its natural
state completely out of control.It wants to produce as much
growth and as much fruit as it possibly can in any one growing
(11:29):
season. It will maximise that.
That's what we have to try and control and that all starts at
pruning. Again, the decision to mothball
has to be taken very early on. It has to be taken in the winter
months because that pruning is essential.
The easy solution is you cut back the canopy as much as you
possibly can. But again, you've got to bear in
(11:49):
mind what do you want to do the following season because the way
you prune, and let's assume for a moment we're reducing labour
costs by mechanising that pruning.
If we come in and chop the vine back, it depends on how much of
that vine canopy you're leaving for the following season.
If you want fruit production, you have to retain a certain
(12:13):
number of buds. So again, we're into a
complicated and not straight forward business here.
We have a recipe that that I've I've spent the past 12 months or
so visiting vineyards around thecountry, having come up with a
best pruning plan depending on awhole set of factors and
(12:33):
circumstances to apply in this situation.
Because if there's one rule about growing grapes to produce
wine is control of the vine but keeping it in balance.
And that means a balance betweenhow much vegetative or growth of
leaves and canopy compared to the well, balancing that with
(12:56):
the amount of fruit you want to produce.
When you mothball a vineyard, itis very easy to allow that to go
completely out of balance. You produce too much canopy.
You're encouraging disease. It makes your Disease Control
much, much harder. Too little canopy and you're not
storing the energy for the following season to produce a
(13:19):
crop. Balance is everything and it's
not straight forward. And Yep, technical advice, as I
say, I must questions after questions through the season
about what the best thing to do is.
And it is. It's an ongoing thing.
You don't take a decision. You never make a plan and not
change it will make a plan at the beginning of the season, and
(13:40):
I guarantee it will. Change has to be managed all the
way through the season, even if you're not fooling.
Look, the key take home message I would be taking out of our
conversation here is you're really going to need some
experience, help, advice and support here.
I can see that you need to have a plan.
It's not just a case of shut thegate into the vineyard and walk
(14:05):
away. It really is a case of it's got
to be a controlled process. You're going to need a plan.
You're going to need some support, so where can grow as go
to to get that level of expertise, support and help?
Well, absolutely. First Call is one of our
regional reps, which obviously we have a number around the
(14:25):
country, especially in the main growing regions.
Talk to them about what your plan is, seek their advice.
They've, they've learned a lot, certainly in the past season or
12 to 18 months. And they talk to me.
And as I said a few minutes ago,I've, I've spent this growing
(14:46):
season seeing what you shouldn'tdo and seeing some very good
examples of what you should do and balancing that with reducing
the cost. Because at the end of the day,
that's what the grower wants to know.
How do I reduce the cost but don't run the risk of impacting
my future in a negative way. Now that balance as we keep
talking about, that's what our reps can provide advice on in
(15:09):
very specific examples, they will talk to me.
That's my job within Fruit Fed is to receive those calls and
act on behalf of the grower to help produce a plan.
I want you to take your crystal ball out of your pocket, give it
a wee bit of Polish. You knew I had to ask this
question. What's your prediction?
(15:31):
I mean, where do you think, how long do you think it's going to
take to rebalance supply and demand to be able to, to, to get
all of this product off their vineyards and and out into
production? It is the $64 billion question.
My crystal ball says that thingswill bounce back to a degree.
(15:54):
Um, I think we're looking at least another two seasons,
possibly 3. The trouble is the world keeps
changing and there I say not in a good way and.
Definitely more volatility, definitely more cost.
Yeah, it is unpredictable. It is, and that that could
lengthen the time that this takes to turn around.
(16:17):
But the one thing I would say isthat New Zealand produces unique
wine. And yes, of course we're biassed
in that opinion, especially myself, but we do we, we, we
produce wines that the rest of the rest of the world can't
produce, flavour some wines. And actually lower alcohol wines
(16:37):
typically don't produce 1516% alcohol.
Wines we put as lower alcohol than that.
And we can actually produce lower alcohol again, not 0
alcohol necessarily, but we can produce flavoursome wines.
And this is where I get a bit opinionated.
I think the industry needs to sort of have a reset.
(16:58):
It needs to have a think about how much are we producing and
what is the quality of that winebecause our name overseas is
quality. We must not damage that brand,
we must retain that and if we do, I think the future is rosy.
There will be a readjustment, there will be some blocks which
(17:19):
perhaps won't be producing grapes anymore, but we will
retain an industry that is important to this country.
I'm convinced of that. Or I think probably most
importantly, we'll be able to retain their price point that
we're able to get from overseas from some of our higher quality
wines. Absolutely.
And if you can, if you can successfully mothball, and we've
(17:40):
spoken about just a few of the number of factors that come into
that, if you can successfully dothat and retain a good high
quality producing vineyard for the future, then your future
will be there and will be rosy. Absolute pleasure to have you on
today and to take us through mothballing, a new term for
(18:01):
probably many of our listeners. My pleasure, Milton.
Thank you for joining the conversation at Bloodshed Diary.
If you have feedback about today's show, or if there's
something you wanna hear on the On the Vine segment, drop us a
line at podcast at pggwrightson.co dot NZ.
Welcome to Blue Shed Diaries on the Vine segment, a podcast
episode that takes a deep dive into New Zealand's horticultural
sector. I'm your host and Peter G writes
and technical team manager Milton Munro.
In the world of grapes, more is not always more.
For vineyards, too much is not agood thing.
And last year it's estimated around 100,000 tonnes.
(00:32):
Approximately 1/5 of the croppedwas left on the vine.
The 2026 season is currently shaping up to have a lot of
unpicked grapes. What's behind the supply
hangover, pardon the pun, And what are the options for New
Zealand's vignettes? Is this the new normal we're
entering into? Joining the conversation to
answer these questions and more is John Pete Fruit Feeds,
(00:55):
technical specialist for Viticulture.
Welcome to the show, John. Thank you, Milton.
What's behind the excess supply?Why have we got grapes that that
just don't ever, ever place? Well, that's a good but not good
question, not a simple answer. A number of factors contributing
that to that. One, of course is the supply.
(01:18):
End of the question is where? Worldwide, when we depend a lot
on export markets for the sales of our wine overseas.
Worldwide, everyone's drinking less and there's a whole range
of factors behind that, generational factors, increased
inflation around the world, tariffs now in the past few
(01:39):
months, et cetera, et cetera. So our markets have declined,
especially post COVID and, and we're into a, a, a climatic, um,
trend where we seem to be producing very large crops.
So in other words, we've got a bit of a double whammy going on
excess production and reduced markets in the short, hopefully
(02:05):
short to medium term. What happens to these extra
grapes that are produced? Are there are there alternative
places they could go? I know we don't have much of a
table market grape and industry in New Zealand, but is there
anywhere else these grapes couldgo?
Or is it really just the only option?
We've got us to leave them on the vinyl, drop them.
I'm afraid it is. And it it boils down to where
(02:29):
those grapes are being produced,not just regionally produced,
but who is producing them. The market is made-up of either
corporate wineries with their own blocks of vines that they
manage for their wine production.
But traditionally we've had a large market of what we call
growers who supply the larger wineries.
(02:49):
And unfortunately it's those growers who are mostly suffering
from this and finding an alternative market is pretty
much impossible. And the only really solution to
that is either not produce at all or you produce far less and
(03:11):
relying on a contract with a winery that you hopefully is
longer term enough to to get over this this dip in in
production. And gives it segues nicely into
probably really what I want to talk to you about today is this
concept of I have to give creditwhere credit is due.
(03:31):
You actually taught me this termand the conversation at the end
of last year mothballing vines. What do you mean when you when
you talk about mothballing of vine, John?
Well, it essentially means not producing any grapes on that
block at all. Putting it to sleep, in other
words, um, looking at, uh, production, long term
(03:54):
production, but short term not doing anything in terms of
production at all. I E not selling any of the
grapes that you're producing. Not an easy thing to do at all
and not straight forward either.Surely it would just be a matter
of, you know, you just don't do anything.
You just leave the vineyard to its own devices.
Don't. Don't do any spraying, don't
(04:16):
look after it at all. Don't run the harvester through
it and and pick it back up againwhen the market picks up.
Yeah, that would be nice if it was that simple.
I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to say that.
So OK, we can get rid of my naive, my naive opinion here and
and tell me what you know what would be involved in mothballing
(04:36):
of Vineyard? Well, the one thing you can't do
is walk away from it. As you naively said, walking
away from a vineyard will give you a a long term nightmare and
a whole lot of extra cost. Now, that may not be immediately
obvious, but as a grower, you know, let's say you have a 50
(04:57):
hectare, 100 hectare vineyard. It doesn't really matter what
the size is. If you don't have a market for
those grapes and you want to stop producing grapes for a
period of time, you do still have to look after those grapes
for the longer term. You can't just walk away from
them because that will have a long term effect on the vine
(05:20):
itself. It will also lead to a lot of
extra cost as and when you want to bring those vines back into
production. So therein lies one of the big
questions. When people come to me and talk
about mothballing, what are their options?
The first question I always ask is how long do you want to
(05:41):
mothball for? It's the $64 billion question,
if you like, which of course is not easy to answer because in
effect, a grower doesn't know necessarily how long that break
in production needs to be for. And that can depend on a whole
range of factors, whether they have a contract with a winery or
(06:01):
not, and longer term what their prospects are in terms of
selling those grapes. That would provide quite an
issue. If you don't know an in date of
when we need to bring these backinto production.
It's going to be quite a tough one.
So you mentioned you're still going to have to look after
these grabs and you're still going to have to be putting some
input into there. What would you do with a
(06:24):
mothballed vineyard? I mean, obviously it probably
won't be to the same extent as the controls you would apply to
a fully functioning performing, producing vignette.
What would you still need to do in a mothballed vignette?
Well, let's assume for a moment,as a lot of growers have done,
they've had a positive mindset and say, look, let's assume
we're mothballing for one seasonhere, 2 at the very most.
(06:47):
What, what, what's my primary concern here?
And of course, to an independentgrowers especially, the primary
concern is to reduce cost. So you're going to look at the
most obvious cost savings and the largest cost on any
producing vineyard is a labour cost, by far the biggest cost.
(07:07):
And that has increased dramatically over the past,
certainly well past 20 years that I've been in the industry.
But certainly in recent times our costs have gone up for a
whole range of factors. So anything you can do to remove
labour is good in terms of reducing cost.
Anything you can therefore do mechanically is going to save
you money in terms of the vines production for the future years.
(07:34):
So if we're assuming one year down, second year we're coming
back into production. There are a range of costs you
can reduce, but there are a range of costs that you can't
reduce. What you have to make sure is
that you're not allowing your vineyard block to accumulate
disease. So in terms of diseases, and
most growers will be very aware of the diseases they have to
(07:55):
manage in a in a normal production year.
And those fungal diseases, the key disease that you have to try
and prevent in a mothballed vineyard is powdery mildew.
Now without going into too much detail about how you do that,
that is very much site specific.It doesn't just depend on your
location, doesn't just depend onhow you've managed those vines
(08:19):
in the past. Of course there's a dependence
on the weather that's coming over that growing season which
we can't predict. And what it boils down to in
essence is that you pretty much need to run a standard programme
for powdery mildew, control powdery mildew and the lessons
we've learned certainly within fruit fed powdery mildew is the
(08:39):
one disease you cannot reduce your inputs on and every single
vineyard block will be different.
There is no one set recipe here and that's where advice comes
into it and that's where when I'm certainly phoned, whether it
be by one of our reps or one of our key growers will be, that's
(09:00):
the advice I'm giving, how to prevent powdery mildew in that
particular block for the season that we're experiencing.
That makes a lot of sense. I mean, I think one of the
biggest risks you're going to have is at some point the market
will shift, it'll come back, there will be opportunities and
and you really want to make surethat you haven't done yourself
any long term damage to your production that's going to take
(09:23):
time to recover from. That's absolute key.
You've hit the nail on the head because what you do in that year
of mothballing will have an impact for the next two seasons.
It it isn't just a case of coming back and flicking the
switch and saying, right, we're back into full production, no
worries. There will be impacts If that
(09:44):
disease gets out of control. You're actually have two to
three seasons at the minimum to bring it back into full control
of that disease. That's a lot more cost than
you're going to save by reducingthat spray in that one year of
mothballing. And and that's a big message to
(10:04):
get across two to three seasons of increased cost over and above
what you would have done in the previous seasons.
Disease Control is paramount. Now.
You can do lots of things to help that in a mothballed
vineyard, and that's where the second biggest factor comes in,
and that's a pruning. I was going to ask about
pruning, John, because look, when you first mentioned
(10:25):
multiple vineyards to me, I haveto admit I kind of pictured
these, these vineyards that havegone to, gone to see, they've
gone wild. And I could imagine, you know,
the great vines in these blocks.I'm kind of looking like the
Grapevine I've got growing in myglasshouse at home and a wild
and out of control. But but something tells me that
(10:48):
that's probably not really what I'm gonna be seeing here, is it?
What would what would the pruning requirements for a
mothballed vineyard look? Like it's funny you say that you
wouldn't see that because I haveto drive past vineyards everyday
on my way to work where unfortunately that has been
allowed to happen in terms of cash flow, etcetera, etcetera.
(11:08):
And sometimes people just can't do what the best solution is.
But you're absolutely right, thebest thing not to do is to allow
that scenario to occur because avine will grow in its natural
state completely out of control.It wants to produce as much
growth and as much fruit as it possibly can in any one growing
(11:29):
season. It will maximise that.
That's what we have to try and control and that all starts at
pruning. Again, the decision to mothball
has to be taken very early on. It has to be taken in the winter
months because that pruning is essential.
The easy solution is you cut back the canopy as much as you
possibly can. But again, you've got to bear in
(11:49):
mind what do you want to do the following season because the way
you prune, and let's assume for a moment we're reducing labour
costs by mechanising that pruning.
If we come in and chop the vine back, it depends on how much of
that vine canopy you're leaving for the following season.
If you want fruit production, you have to retain a certain
(12:13):
number of buds. So again, we're into a
complicated and not straight forward business here.
We have a recipe that that I've I've spent the past 12 months or
so visiting vineyards around thecountry, having come up with a
best pruning plan depending on awhole set of factors and
(12:33):
circumstances to apply in this situation.
Because if there's one rule about growing grapes to produce
wine is control of the vine but keeping it in balance.
And that means a balance betweenhow much vegetative or growth of
leaves and canopy compared to the well, balancing that with
(12:56):
the amount of fruit you want to produce.
When you mothball a vineyard, itis very easy to allow that to go
completely out of balance. You produce too much canopy.
You're encouraging disease. It makes your Disease Control
much, much harder. Too little canopy and you're not
storing the energy for the following season to produce a
(13:19):
crop. Balance is everything and it's
not straight forward. And Yep, technical advice, as I
say, I must questions after questions through the season
about what the best thing to do is.
And it is. It's an ongoing thing.
You don't take a decision. You never make a plan and not
change it will make a plan at the beginning of the season, and
(13:40):
I guarantee it will. Change has to be managed all the
way through the season, even if you're not fooling.
Look, the key take home message I would be taking out of our
conversation here is you're really going to need some
experience, help, advice and support here.
I can see that you need to have a plan.
It's not just a case of shut thegate into the vineyard and walk
(14:05):
away. It really is a case of it's got
to be a controlled process. You're going to need a plan.
You're going to need some support, so where can grow as go
to to get that level of expertise, support and help?
Well, absolutely. First Call is one of our
regional reps, which obviously we have a number around the
(14:25):
country, especially in the main growing regions.
Talk to them about what your plan is, seek their advice.
They've, they've learned a lot, certainly in the past season or
12 to 18 months. And they talk to me.
And as I said a few minutes ago,I've, I've spent this growing
(14:46):
season seeing what you shouldn'tdo and seeing some very good
examples of what you should do and balancing that with reducing
the cost. Because at the end of the day,
that's what the grower wants to know.
How do I reduce the cost but don't run the risk of impacting
my future in a negative way. Now that balance as we keep
talking about, that's what our reps can provide advice on in
(15:09):
very specific examples, they will talk to me.
That's my job within Fruit Fed is to receive those calls and
act on behalf of the grower to help produce a plan.
I want you to take your crystal ball out of your pocket, give it
a wee bit of Polish. You knew I had to ask this
question. What's your prediction?
(15:31):
I mean, where do you think, how long do you think it's going to
take to rebalance supply and demand to be able to, to, to get
all of this product off their vineyards and and out into
production? It is the $64 billion question.
My crystal ball says that thingswill bounce back to a degree.
(15:54):
Um, I think we're looking at least another two seasons,
possibly 3. The trouble is the world keeps
changing and there I say not in a good way and.
Definitely more volatility, definitely more cost.
Yeah, it is unpredictable. It is, and that that could
lengthen the time that this takes to turn around.
(16:17):
But the one thing I would say isthat New Zealand produces unique
wine. And yes, of course we're biassed
in that opinion, especially myself, but we do we, we, we
produce wines that the rest of the rest of the world can't
produce, flavour some wines. And actually lower alcohol wines
(16:37):
typically don't produce 1516% alcohol.
Wines we put as lower alcohol than that.
And we can actually produce lower alcohol again, not 0
alcohol necessarily, but we can produce flavoursome wines.
And this is where I get a bit opinionated.
I think the industry needs to sort of have a reset.
(16:58):
It needs to have a think about how much are we producing and
what is the quality of that winebecause our name overseas is
quality. We must not damage that brand,
we must retain that and if we do, I think the future is rosy.
There will be a readjustment, there will be some blocks which
(17:19):
perhaps won't be producing grapes anymore, but we will
retain an industry that is important to this country.
I'm convinced of that. Or I think probably most
importantly, we'll be able to retain their price point that
we're able to get from overseas from some of our higher quality
wines. Absolutely.
And if you can, if you can successfully mothball, and we've
(17:40):
spoken about just a few of the number of factors that come into
that, if you can successfully dothat and retain a good high
quality producing vineyard for the future, then your future
will be there and will be rosy. Absolute pleasure to have you on
today and to take us through mothballing, a new term for
(18:01):
probably many of our listeners. My pleasure, Milton.
Thank you for joining the conversation at Bloodshed Diary.
If you have feedback about today's show, or if there's
something you wanna hear on the On the Vine segment, drop us a
line at podcast at pggwrightson.co dot NZ.
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