Five new Canterbury wine licences

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 12

Five new Canterbury wine licences

Five new wine re-| sellers' licences have been granted to the Canterbury licensing district and are now up for application.

The authorisations, made in spite of “considerable opposition" by existing .wine sellers and hotel licensees, were announced by the Licensing Control Commission under Mr J. R. P. Hom, S.M.

Akaroa, Hornby, Darfield, Waimairi County and Methven have been granted licences in the written decision from a review by the commission made in November, last year, and last month. The commission has declined extra licences for Christchurch Central, Aranui-Wainoni. and Halswell.

The commission said, that a general statement of its criteria was necessary, although “circumstances can vary from time to time”. In summary, the commission said it approached its task on the understanding that encouragement should be given to New Zealand wine-makers by provision of

outlets for their products. “Most existing wine shops provide such outlets. The genera] pattern in a wine shop shows a variety of winemakers being represented, some well-known and some not, and a variety of wine types,” the decision said.

•‘•‘Alsually there are facilities for inspection — for browsing as it is"tallgd — and sometimes provision~fot. sampling before purchase. Generally, but by no means always, hotel bottle stores operate with stocks of all types of liquor on display, quite often protected by a counter, and New Zealand wines form not a large part of the display. "Further, New Zealand wines available in hotel bottle stores are usually the* products of well-known or of large producers only. The variety of New Zealand winemakers represented in wine shops is not present in bottle stores.

“One wonders whether hotels generally have tended to ignore the growing interest in the greater number of winemakers whose products are increasingly available,” the decision said. Allowing the Methven ap-

plication, the Commission [said the area had changed its character over recent years, mainly because of the progressive development of ski-fields on Mount Hutt. “The two hotels in the town do not appear to us to specialise to any great extent in the sale of New Zealand wines. Business activity within the town is expanding and provision has and is being made for additional housing sections which, we are told, are <n demand.”

The commission said it was persuaded that a new authorisation should be made to serve Akaroa, to a minor extent because ' of its French background. But, more importantly! the Commission was persuaded because of Akaroa’s incr'»>’cing importance as a focal shopping centre for u.e county and its steady growth as a holiday resort.

The Darfield area had been shown to the commissipn to have a progressive outlook and to be one which shoulti he able to include among its facilities those of a wine sellers outlet, providing specialised service in the sale of New Zealand wines.