How have you been enjoying our trip around New Zealand? If you’ve not yet read the New Zealand Overview, New Zealand North Island, South Island, or about New Zealand Wine Business, I suggest doing so before moving on, as these previous articles will put the following tastings into perspective.
If you have been traveling with me thus far—thank you! And now…we taste!
As I’m writing this, my D2 Wine Business exam looms. Most likely, by the time this goes live, I’ll have already sat the exam and be blissfully ignorant of the results. That being said, because of my D2 studies I am noticing more and more places where the material pops up in my D3 Wines of the World studies.
So, let’s take a look at how wine law, regulations, organizations, sales and marketing all take shape on the islands of New Zealand…
Before jumping in here, please take a look at the New Zealand Overview, North Island, and South Island articles first.
Welcome to New Zealand‘s South Island. If you haven’t yet read the New Zealand overview, or made a stop in the North Island yet, please do before moving on.
The South Island has significantly more terroir to cover, so strap in and enjoy the ride.
A note about the maps: I realize they are quite small, but good news—they’re active links. Click on a map and it will take you to the Google Earth page for a zoomed-in experience. Enjoy!
If you haven’t read through the New Zealand Overview, please do. There’s a lot of good basic information there that will help out before diving into the various regions. Here, we take a close up look at the North Island’s main wine producing regions.
We’re starting our tour of New Zealand with this FUN FACT: New Zealand is both the most isolated and smallest (by volume) wine producing country in our world. It is 1,000 miles away from its nearest neighbor, Australia, and produces just 1% of the world’s wine.
Remote and low-volume it may be, but its impact and place in our industry is certainly one to be examined.
On a personal note, I choose to travel next to New Zealand in order to decipher a distinction in the wines produced—as compared to the grown varieties’ Old World origins and to its New World neighbors (specifically the U.S., Australia, and South Africa).