Gewurz 'is our future'

Gewurztraminer has huge potential in the Chinese market and could be the next big seller for New Zealand, says wine industry pioneer Nick Nobilo.

Mr Nobilo put "a stake in the ground" at the Romeo Bragato wine industry conference in Blenheim yesterday and said New Zealand would be exporting more of the spicy German-style wine than sauvignon blanc within 15 years.

Others at the conference yesterday said Marlborough produced excellent aromatics but the maritime climate was too unpredictable to replace sauvignon blanc vines with gewurztraminer.

Mr Nobilo is known for producing the first New Zealand wine to be exported commercially to Britain - a chardonnay served on British Airways flights in Europe.

He was one of a panel of four industry experts at the conference yesterday to answer questions from some of the 300 delegates.

The other speakers were Saint Clair Family Estate owner Neil Ibbotson, Matador Estate's Dominic Pecchinino and PriceWaterhouseCoopers senior partner Craig Rice.

The panel agreed China and the United States were the two markets with the most potential for New Zealand wine, but Eastern Europe and Asia were also promising.

Mr Nobilo developed Vinoptima Estate near Gisborne, specialising in gewurztraminer, after the family-owned Nobilo Wine Company was sold in 2000.

He planted a "fruit salad" of grape varieties in the 1970s and discovered gewurztraminer - also known as gewurz - were best suited to the Gisborne climate.

He first went to China 20 years ago to investigate opportunities for New Zealand wine and said the food they ate was the perfect match for the sweet and spicy flavours of gewurz.

While 1 per cent of the Chinese population drank wine, it would take only a modest rise to 5 per cent for it to become New Zealand's biggest market, he said.

"In 15 years' time there will be more gewurztraminer grown and sold than sauvignon blanc.

"We have a clear window of opportunity in China - it is our future without a doubt."

However, Pernod Ricard chief winemaker Patrick Materman warned that the Marlborough climate was too variable for gewurz.

"Take this year for example - fruit set for aromatics was almost non-existent."