NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 67, 19 March 1910, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND WINE INDUSTRY

"Let us now discuss a flagon of good sack." quoth the ancient connoisseur of quaint memories, but the sack, canary, malmsey and whatnot of the rich wine juice that delighted those past palates would surely startle our modern and more temperate tastes. Yet have.we our ports, our Constantias, our sherries, and our palate-stimulating clarets—all excellent and delicious beverages in their seasons, pure and wholesome as the sun-kissed white and purple berries whose cherished blood they are. New Zealanders know too little of the wines their country produces, else would they never import sucTi quantities of the high-priced and often inferior foreign article. But we awakening. Wendel's wine

has already become a household word through the length and breadth of the Dominion, ■wherever good wine gladdens the well and revives the sick. And although such wine as Wendel's needs no bnsh, yet it is well that all Aucklanders and New Zearanders should be acquainted with the good news. Few, perhaps, know that at Wendel's cellars in. Symondsstreet is carried on an industry that contributes to the income of many a hardworking vigneron of North Auckland— nearly twenty tons of picked grapes of specially selected varieties yield "their rich juice during one season to add lustre to a reputation that is the synonym for excellence. Wendel's wines are famed for

1 their purity, and for the fact that they . are absolutely ~ unfortified by the introduction of any alcohol. The bonqnet, the rich lights, the clarity and general quality of this firm's New Zealand grown wine "would be a revelation to many an unthinking-critic, andta visit to the cellars, where GOOO gallons of port, Constantia, claxets and sherries lie, ever maturing, where the great vats welter -with the luscious fluid, and the master vintnef regards with just pride the finished and mature product -of., ! his labour—such a visit is an education lto the benighted soul who cherishes the vain notion that good wine only comes from oversea. There you may find invalid port that the medical profession has declared equal to anything the outside world can give us, table port, Constantia for the ladies, clarets to delight the connoisseur, and sherries sweet and dry that challenge competition. The firm is the sole holder of a New Zealand wine license, has held it for 17 years; and at the Karangahape-rond depot can be purchased wines at 2/6 a bottle that win gladdfin the hearts of all who love a good wholesome wine. Medicated wines and unfrr-, mented sacramental wines ape al«o speci- j alities of the firm,- which, by the way,: never sells to young people under eighteen years of age. Their record is in itself a credential for an industry which promises to become a lasting source of wealth to the Auckland Province.