THOUGHTS OF CHAIRMAN DON

“I THINK IT IS A GREAT ERROR TO CONSIDER A HEAVY TAX ON WINE AS A TAX ON LUXURY. ON THE CONTRARY, IT IS A TAX ON THE HEALTH OF OUR CITIZENS.” Thomas Jefferson

Gordon Brown and his poodle have increased duty more this year, than the past ten years put together ….. And there is another increase next year! And we meekly accept things. In Spain, as soon as the Ministry of Health attempted to impose restrictions on advertising and promotion of wine, the Spanish Wine Federation and allied associations invoked so much pressure that the ministry backed down and declared wine to be ‘Food’. Our supine wine trade organisations do little, and our slimy politicians ride roughshod over the middle classes …. once again.

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I have just read an interview with my wine writer and merchant mate Chris Fielden, in the New Zealand Listener. The piece is about how rapidly my home country turned its wine industry around – from plonk to Pinot in a mere four decades. Chris said, “On my first visit in 1969 the top wines were Crest Doré white and Bakano red. One of my greatest blind tasting feats was when, in the early 70’s, Kiwi Don Hewitson, in his Cork & Bottle wine bar gave me a glass of white wine to identify. ‘It smells of nothing’ I said, ‘and it tastes of nothing. It must be Cresta Doré.” Ten out of 10 was the mark!

Amazing isn’t it? The wine business is notoriously slow to change. In Europe things took forever – the Romans planted vines in St. Emilion, but, despite considerable capital investments over the centuries, there wasn’t a Bordeaux classification of chateaux until 1855. No other winemaking country, in either the old or new world, has ever achieved so much in so little time.

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Some interesting facts for wine anoraks. Did you know that Spain has more land planted with grapes than any other country? However, it does not produce the most wine, mainly because a large number of these vines are planted in unfertile locations and the older vines are producing fewer grapes. Spain comes third in Europe behind Italy and France. And.. despite popular belief that most grapes are red, the vast majority are white.