Self-help books frequently tout the idea that our greatest strength can also be our greatest weakness. The same can be said about runaway commercial success in the wine industry. Ask any wine drinker what they know about New Zealand wine, and they’re bound to tell you something about Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
There’s good reason for this. Sauvignon Blanc (most of it from Marlborough) makes up a whopping 66% of the vine acreage and 75% of the overall wine production in the country. New Zealand shipped 329.6 million bottles of it overseas in 2024. According to the annual report from the New Zealand Winegrowers association, last year consumers across the globe purchased 81 glasses of New Zealand wine per second, 98.5% of which was Sauvignon Blanc priced somewhere between €9 and €20 per bottle.
That would all sound like pretty good news for New Zealand wine, especially in toughening global markets. But if you’re a producer who makes Riesling, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc priced above €40 a bottle, making sure people even know you exist proves extremely difficult under the long shadow thrown by the Sauvignon Blanc behemoth.
Understandably, this is a source of frustration for many producers in New Zealand who want their wines to be better known and respected on the world stage.
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