The sale of £3.99 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is a short-term ‘blip’, according to the European head of New Zealand Winegrowers.

Following the record 2008 and 2009 vintages, increased production created an oversupply problem, giving rise to the first-ever £3.99 New Zealand wines as producers tried to clear tank space.

But David Cox, European director for New Zealand Winegrowers told decanter.com: ‘We are going to see the odd £3.99 New Zealand wine but not very often. I don’t think the consumer will ever get to the stage where they think they can get New Zealand wines for under £4.’

Cox also predicts New Zealand’s oversupply problems should be over next year. ‘We will be back in supply balance by the 2010 vintage,’ he said.

‘There was a bit of off-loading because of the size of the 2008 vintage but we must be a demand-led industry. We have stopped planting and we have opened new markets.’

Vineyard plantings increased by a massive 39% in 2008, and in 2009 a further 10% more vines came on stream. Cox urged the industry to carefully manage yields and is hopeful the 2010 harvest will be smaller than 2009 crop of 285,000 tonnes.

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Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW
Rebecca Gibb MW
Decanter Magazine & DWWA Judge

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).