NEW ZEALAND v. AUSTRALIAN WINES.

Evening Star, Issue 8118, 18 January 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND v. AUSTRALIAN WINES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln your issue of the 28 hj December, 1889, you give a long and glowing account of the exhibits of Australian wines. With Inference to the exhibit of wine from New South Wales you say as follows :—" jt is an essential part of the exhibition of the resources of New South Wales • and it is intended as such by the Government and by the Commissioner. It is considered in the interests of both colonies that these wines should be more widely known in New Zealand, and that an opportunity should be afforded of testing their real worth." Now, sir, I am an extensive manufacturer in Auckland of New Zealand wine made from grapes grown in the colony, and I boldly assert that the wine made by me is equal to, if not better, than that manufactured in the Australian colonies, I have a large exhibit of wine at the Exhibition, in the court next to that occupied by South Australia, but am unfortunately debarred from selling my wine in the Exhibition owing to the rights and privileges attached to the sale of wine in the Exhibition having been seoured by the combined Australian wine-growers. My wines may, however, be obtained from the principal grocers in your town. Now, sir, if it is desirable in the interests of other colonies that their wines should be widely known throughout New Zealand, it i 3 to my mind still more desirable that the capabilities of th? 3 colony as a wine-growing country should also be widely known, and it is with a view to giving publicity to this fact that I venture to ask the insertion of the following remarks :—lt is an undisputed fact that New Zealand grapes produce wine equal to any manufactured in the world. I speak with some little authority on this subject. I am a practical wine-maker, coming, as I do, from Moselle, about seventyrtwo miles from Coblenz, on the banks of the of the richest winegrowing countries in Europe. J served a long apprenticeship there in the manufacture of wine, and since my arrival in New Zealand J have been actively engaged in the manufacture of wine from the New Zealand grape for over sixteen years. New Zealand possesses all the natural advantages of a great wineproducing country. The plimate is eminently adapted for the growing of the grapp. We are not scourged with hot winds, and we have plenty of sheltered valleys; and I venture to say that no country in the world has better qualifications for the growing of the grape. I have been making wine in

Auckland for the last sixteen years, during which time I have frequently had my wine analysed at my own expense by the best experts in the colony, and have not waited for the Government to undertake the analysis for me. My object in subjecting the wine manufactured by me to the test of analysis was that the public should be satisfied as to its freeness from all deleterious matter. The last analysis of my wine was made by Professor Black, of your town, in November last, and he speaks of it in the highest possible terms. The details of his analysis may be obtained on reference to my circulars obtainable in the Exhibition. Now, sir, I do not wish to speak disparagingly of the Australian wines, but I do think that it is very strange that out of the scores of exhibitors of Australian wines in the Exhibition, not one of them puts forward a detailed analysis of their wines, which they are asking a confiding public to accept without in the least knowing the ingredients of what they are composed. When f wasiuDunedin, I was informed that it was a common thing for samples of wine to be seized by the police, submitted to analysis, and hundreds of dozens were frequently condemned. During the long period of my career as a wine-maker I have never had a single bottle so condemned. The *vine made by me is strongly recommended by the medical faculty as strengthening, nutritious, fleshgiving, yet not intoxicating, and is admirably adapted for the use of invalids, and numerous are the cases where complete restoration to health may be attributed to the health - giving properties of my wines and their beneficial results upon delicate constitutions. For some considerable time the wine manufactured by me, particularly the dark grape wine, has been in use by the churches, owing to its freedom from alcoholic tendencies. I notice that the Australian manufacturers delight in giving fanciful names to the varied classes of wine offered by them etc., etc. Now, sir, allow me to emphatically state that there are only two classes of wine made from the fruit of the grape—viz., light grape wine and dark grape wine. No wine-grower in the universe can separate the fruit in such a way as to produce a dozen different kinds of wine ; consequently, if a different variety is produced beyond the two classes which I have mentioned, it is by the aid of essences, chemicals, flavoring, etc. I submit two classes of wine only made from the pure fruit of the grapo, free from all injurious matter and non-alcoholic, and I leave the new-fangled names to those manufacturers who seck'to obtain a sale for their wines, more from the highflown name 3 which they give them than from their real worth.

In conclusion, I would say that the resources of this colony are capable of still further development in the cultivation of the wine-growing industry, and a field of labor may be opened up by which the struggling settler may add to his income by pursuing this industry. If the inhabitants of New Zealand would support their own local industries by consuming the wine grown and made in the colony, they would keep the money in circulation in our own beautiful land, and not impoverish themselves as colonists by sending it away to other countries when we as a young colony so much require it to be circulated in our midst. The absence of a wine duty in New Zealand, I need scarcely say, makes it possible to supply wiue at a less cost than it can be procured from Australia.—l am, etc., J. Wexdel. Auckland, January 8.