As Chris Waters noted in the Globe & Mail last week, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is headed for a big shortfall in the coming year.

What are the short-term and long-term ramifications for Canada? I sat down to discuss the issue with Rod Hallam, Canadian Market Manager for Villa Maria Estate, one of New Zealand’s largest wine companies.

Let’s just say it might be a good idea to grab what you can of the 2020 vintage, because demand is about to significantly exceed supply.

 

TheLushLife: Let’s start with the good news. I understand the 2021 harvest is pretty good, quality-wise.

Rod Hallam: “From a quality-of-fruit standpoint, 2021 will be one of the best vintages ever.”

And the bad news?
“It was it wet and cold spring and it really impacted flowering, the extent of which wasn’t fully realized until harvest. This harvest is down about 22% nationally, with Marlborough down 25%. New Zealand’s average production is about 420,000 tons of grapes every year. The impact will be about 92,000 tons short. At Villa Maria, our numbers are down about same as the national average.”

Business has been good, though?
“2020 was a banner year for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, with demand soaring throughout the pandemic, with people going to tried-and-true wine styles that they love, with little exploration of new wines. Maybe it’s because people were spending less time in the liquor stores because of the pandemic and just wanted to get in and out quickly. But this means there was no surplus this year—everyone is already running out of supply.

“Also, in five of the past six years, New Zealand has outsold its supply, so this trend was really been exacerbated by Covid.”

That can’t be good news for fans of sub-$20 Sauvignon Blancs.
“I expect there will be substantial change in this category, as there is no bulk Sauvignon Blanc for sale in New Zealand, and the last price was triple that of the previous year! There’s no margin on it anymore. I could see the White Label Sauvignon Blanc slowly disappearing. A lot of wineries are going to have to make some tough decisions. We could see some wines disappear from the Canadian market.”

Is there just a temporary thing?
“We are predicting next year’s vintage will be short as well, since the frost impact on budding this year will likely affect the vine shoots next year too.”

Any silver lining to this?
“As I mentioned, this might be one of the greatest vintages ever for quality. You’re getting a lot of small, seedless, highly concentrated berries. It’s called ‘hens and chicks’—where, because of the cool weather, the grape bunch contains both regular-sized, seeded berry clusters (the hens) and small seedless berry clusters (the chicks). The small ones are these thiol bombs, where the flavours are really intense. I think there will be mass acclaim for this vintage’s quality. Some people will fall in love again—or fall in love for the first time—with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It will just be in shorter supply.

“At the end of the day, though, Villa Maria is about maintaining and growing its premium wines, bringing a lot more than those punchy passionfruit bombs. We’re trying to show that even in the Sauvignon Blanc category there is much more to New Zealand than just these linear wines of limited expression.

“I just finished this book, A Natural History of Wine, and they talked about the effect of the 100 point scoring. The technology has improved so much that there aren’t very many poor wines around the $20 mark anymore. But they’re also incredibly consistent in style. So there is less distinction between brands at that lower price point. Those wines don’t speak to you in the way that some (more artisanal) wines can.”

So what can Canadian consumers expect in the coming months?
“The 2021 vintage of Sauvignon Blanc will start shipping at the end of June, early July. I imagine consumers will have to pay a little more for their favourite brands.

“But it remains a heavily growing ‘country of origin’ here in Ontario at the LCBO. Since 2014, New Zealand wines have grown 40% in Canada!

“We have lagged behind in terms of selection for the consumer, though. But maybe consumers can now begin to explore how amazing the wines are the next level up. The Wairau Reserve 2019 was RobertParker.com’s top New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (93 points). It’s probably the nicest Sauvignon Blanc that I’ve ever tasted in our portfolio—and that’s from a land filled with great Sauvignon Blancs—and for just $7 more than our Private Bin wine. So $25 for a country’s best varietal! That’s unheard of.”