Decanter World Wine AwardsCanterbury wine industry 'spared' by NZ earthquake
- Tuesday 22 February 2011
A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit at 12.51pm local time but wineries are reporting little damage, with the epicentre to the east of the city in Lyttelton, rather than in the wine growing areas west of Christchurch.
Speaking to Decanter.com within hours of the quake, Celia Bosman of Sandihurst winery said, 'The whole place was swaying but we are fine, we have have been spared this time. We had much more damage last time as we were far closer to the epicentre. '
When the earthquake hit, new tanks were being fitted at Sandihurst to replace those damaged by September's earthquake and work had to be stopped.
Tresillian Estate's Heather Anderson confirmed producers west of the city had escaped relatively unscathed: “We got far more damage last time and are ok because we are out of the city centre.”
Cracroft Chase Vineyards, a producer closer to the city centre in the suburb of Cashmere, also escaped damage to the vineyard and winery but owners Alessandro and Wilma Laryn have suffered damage to their home.
Decanter was unable to contact city centre fine wine retailers Decant and Vino Fino following the earthquake.
Prime Minister John Key confirmed 65 people had died six hours following the first earthquake.
Have your say!
Graeme Lindsay
February 23 22:59
Samuel, Some background may help. The previous quake (4 September 2010) brought significant damage to the winemakers near Christchurch - Sandihurst lost a massive quantity of stock, tanks, and a building, we lost 700 cases of wine and had in excess of $100k of damage to our home. Others had similar experiences.
Whilst none of us is, in any way, ignoring the tragedy that has occurred in the city, we are all thankful not to have had another big hit. The Sept quake was centred out here in the west.
The article wasn't really oin bad taste - it focussed on a small part of the Canterbury world for an audience that is focussed on the world of wine. The mass media re doing the appropriate job in reporting the disaster that exists in our city.
Cheers
Pieter Harcksen
February 23 15:51
Chance for the NZ-wine industry: give from every bottle you sell some money to help your people in Christchurch.
Ian Davies
February 23 15:02
Wine is replaceable, sadly, people are not. I do not think that those who have lost so very much in this earthquake would be that concerned about an agricultural product however wonderful it can be. This article is a little premature and therefore in very poor taste.
Norma
February 22 18:11
That is good news to hear that Canterbury was spared any damage. I pray for those that were not so lucky.