[As published in May/June BayBuzz magazine.]
“The only wine that Joe Public has ever heard of outside New Zealand is Marlborough sauvignon blanc.”
These words fall harshly on Hawke’s Bay ears!
The world has fallen in love with the unmistakeable tangy, crisp flavours that a glass of savvy brings. But this isn’t especially helpful to Hawke’s Bay wine makers, because our sauvignon doesn’t have the necessary ‘tang’.
What can we do about that?
New Zealand has a history of making distinctive and world-class wines, and is internationally respected for its white wines. In most countries that we export to, NZ is the most expensive or second most expensive import per litre. With a new distinctive product, we would be pushing on the already-open door of premium white wines from NZ.
The success of Sauv Blanc can be leveraged in wine-drinkers minds to a sparkling wine that would sell in the same market bracket as Prosecco and Cava. Therefore a new sparkling wine would launch in the field that we are already playing in. [Champagne is a different proposition altogether, belonging in a super-premium category of its own.]
Technically, our wines deliver on NZ’s existing strong reputation for fresh, pure, crisp wines. We are well positioned to grow the right kind of grapes for this. They are already in the ground.
Our winemakers are already making great bubbles here in the Bay, but the problem is that all the names for sparkling are a tangled mouthful of euro-names (Methode champenoise, charmat, tirage, petillant, sekt, carbonated etc etc), with the success stories in the sector being Champagne, Cava and Prosecco.
A bunch of little guys with mouth-wrenchingly complicated branding on their bubbles like ‘methode champenoise’ isn’t going to cut it, especially when it is trying to taste like French champagne. We need a point of difference.
Here’s my idea and how it can work: Sparkling wine is the kind of wine that delivers a fun, fresh, and bright wine that younger drinkers want, and that older drinkers have come to expect from the sauvignon that the world knows us for.
I believe that people are turning away from wine because we are stuck in the same groove without innovation.
In fact the most recent innovation was 20 years ago when NZ spearheaded the move to quality wine sealed with a screwcap. And then 20 years before that when we unleashed Sauvignon Blanc on the world.
What if a group of innovators was to agree on a style of something new and exciting? And our wineries make this new sparkling wine to broaden their range, and help us create an industry-wide recognisable brand that focuses on Hawke’s Bay. Anyone got Kim Thorp’s number?
Then vest ownership of this uber-brand and its IP in a collective body, possibly HB Winegrowers, for our collective benefit. Our winemakers, being individuals, then produce their own slightly different version, but pointing in a collaborative direction. In the same way that Moët is different from Veuve Clicquot.
Why stop with a brand? What about a proprietary coloured bottle that gives it marketing distinctiveness alongside the other coloured, bright fresh brands of alcohol drinks that the young are drinking now?
A group of Hawke’s Bay’s pioneering sparkling winemakers have recently met to consider this concept and push forward. We agree that we’ve got what it takes – the vineyards, the skills, and the let’s-get-into-this attitude. As Rod McDonald said, “If not us, then who?”
The next move would be for a few brave winery owners to take the first step of making their first vintage – and launch a statement to the world of what we are capable of here in Hawke’s Bay.
First we’d like to hear from you wine-loving BayBuzz readers. Have you tried any of HB’s sparkling wines yet? To give yourself a taste of this intriguing opportunity, try any of the HB bubbles that Yvonne Lorkin recommended in BayBuzz Issue 72, Sep/Oct 2023.
You are our home-grown focus group after all. Do you see a future in a branded sparkling style that shouts ‘Hawke’s Bay’ to the world? And what would you call it?
Tim founded WineWorks in 1995, born from a desire to establish a food-processing plant in regional New Zealand that added value to primary production. Thirty years later, WineWorks is New Zealand’s leading contract bottler of any beverage or liquid. He remains a director and a majority shareholder in the company.
Tim Nowell-Usticke. Photo Florence Charvin
