WINE INDUSTRY

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33213, 1 May 1973, Page 14

WINE INDUSTRY

“We used to sneer at cold duck, but it’s a great seller. So we are making it ourselves this year, and we hope to make a lot of money out of it,” said Mr T. B. McDonald, production director of McWilliams Wines (N.Z.), Ltd, addressing a three-day forum for journalists now being held in Christchurch by the New Zealand Liquor Industry Council.

Cold duck, he explained, was not a trade name but a general name for a blend of sparkling red and sparkling white wine. It was a straight wine.

Other “pop wines,” however, sometimes were not. Mr McDonald said he hoped that the demand of younger drinkers would never force him to produce artificiallyflavoured wines, such as the strawberry-flavoured cold duck made overseas. Mr McDonald was asked if all wines supposedly made from grapes actually had been. Choosing his words with some care, he said that such wines were not made by reputable people, but undoubtedly in some cases “too much is made from too little.”

In Auckland, he said, one could buy a half-gallon flagon of wine for $l. and grape wine could not be made for that price. It took 131 b of grapes to make a gallon of wine.

It was hoped, he said, that amendment of the Food and Drug Act would solve the problem. In response to the inevitable question, Mr McDonald said that New Zealand’s better wines compared very favourably with many good overseas wines.

“Eighty-five per cent of French wine you wouldn’t drink,” he said. “It’s harsh and acid—bulk wine drunk by peasants. It’s blended with water. You wouldn’t drink it straight. You couldn’t. “The vineyard worker gets two casks of it a year—l2o gallons—as part of his pay.”

Mr McDonald said that last year, as a result of barter agreements made with various countries by the previous Government, New Zealand had been faced with a flood of cheap imported wines. To give a measure of protection, duties on all imported wines were then increased by about 100 per cent. This had also increased the cost of the better-class wines coming into New Zealand, thereby upsetting importers who had carried on a legitimate trade in good wines for many years. He hoped that a tariff hearing in August would provide protection against cheap imports without penalising good wines. While on the subject of price, Mr McDonald was asked about the price of wine {in restaurants. He said he himself found it irritating to be charged $3 for a bottle which he knew the restaurant

had bought for $l. A profit of 100 per cent would be fair, he said. But some restaurants made 200 and even 300 per cent. It was unfortunate.