Australia has long been considered a big player in the global wine industry and this has to a large extent been down to its ideal grape growing conditions. Other surrounding countries such as New Zealand and Fiji are now getting in on the act however and are growing their stakes in the market by experimenting with innovative wine production.
There was recent debate about the moral ramifications about being able to produce ros© by blending white and red together. The traditional method of producing ros© wine involved taking the red grape skins out of the juice mixture early on in the process so that only a little of the colour ends up in the final product. However, just mixing small quantities of red wine into white is the method that has seen a massive rise in popularity recently…a result of the recession forcing cheaper production methods to be adopted.
Countries such as France, widely considered the finest wine producing country in the world, were not best pleased with this mutilation of ros© wine and did not agree for it to be sold in their country, or even be given as wine gifts. However, those countries that have not set such strict rules for themselves, such as those in Australasia and Eastern Europe have profited from their liberalism. A spokesman from the New Zealand alcohol authority defended his countrys move by stating that people are free to consume whichever wine they wish. The companies that produce this blended form of ros© wine do not use any trickery to try and sell it as the traditionally made variety, and there are clear differences in the pricing. The spokesman argued that if people can make milk chocolate in a thousand different ways, why can the same not be done for ros©?
The blending together of some of the most popular wine varieties is another practice that is really taking off in Australasian countries. In Fiji for example you can buy Sauvignon Blanc mixed with Chardonnay and Merlot blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. Mirroring the laid back approach of New Zealand, the Fijian wine makers suggest that wine is able to be blended just as easily and with the same success rate as whisky. They state that companies all over the world, and in particular Scotland, produce some very fine blended whiskies that not only often taste superior to single malts, but that are also able to sell at more modest prices. Next they will be telling us which tableware we must use when consuming the wine, stated one official.
The natives of Fiji have really taken a liking to this new blended wine, with around 150,000 bottles sold last year alone. When compared to the wine consumption of some of the top bottles in the world, this figure is relatively low, but considering that the population of Fiji is not much more than 750,000, you can see just how successful this wine really is. Fiji plan to sell their blended wine all over the world and seeing as the product is cheap to produce and sells for less than most classic wines, it is likely the export will do well.
