Canterbury wine industry ‘spared’ by NZ earthquake
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Canterbury wine producers are reporting being largely unaffected by the latest Christchurch earthquake.
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.
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Prime Minister John Key confirmed 65 people had died six hours following the first earthquake.
Written by Rebecca Gibb
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).