Call to lay down ’83 wines

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 24

Call to lay down ’83 wines

PA Wellington ' The wine industry has been advised to lay down wines from the 1983 vintage, rather than rush into selling them as fast as possible, in order to reduce the pool of unsold stocks. The executive officer of the Wine Institute, Mr Terence Dunleavy, said that because wines from the 1983 Vintage were some of the best for most premium varieties, they had yielded wines of high quality and alcohol content.

t For this reason 1983 wines would not develop (heir full potential for some years and therefore would he better laid down than sold as fast as possible.

Wines were now a good buy, since they were cheaper than they had ever been thanks to highly competitive discounting and the price freeze, said Mr Dunleavy. Part of the present grape glut was because of over production and inadequate statistics for planning, and part of the problem was under-consumption. Mr Dunleavy said that in 1981 an industry development plan was based on a projection that there would be 5550 hectares of grapes by 1986, with average consumption by 1986 at 15 litres a head.

Instead, by 1982, 5901 hectares had been planted, al-

ready exceeding the prediction, and consumption had remained static for the last three years at 12 litres a head.

The growth in consumption had been inhibited by heavy taxation and the activities of anti-alcohol organisations “led by the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council who focused on prevention of drinking rather than prevention of abuse.” Mr Dunleavy estimated that New Zealanders were drinking only 8.2 per cent of the council’s recommended safe drinking level “so there is room for people to drink more,” he said. “The problem is to convince people that it is pos-

sible to double their rate of wine consumption without creating social problems,” he said.

The Apple and Pear Board, meanwhile, has suggested that some of the grape glut might be mopped up by transforming the grapes into concentrated grape juice.

The board has given the Grape Industry Council a quotation for reducing surplus grapes to grape juice concentrate.

The board’s corporate affairs manager, Mr Pat Turner, said that processors had held discussions with the council and had come up with a price for reducing the grapes to concentrate.