Wine Blending Now Has a Heart In Australasia

Australia has produced some very popular wines over the years and has a climate conducive to producing bottles considered some of the best in the world. Other surrounding countries such as New Zealand and Fiji are now getting in on the act however and are growing their stakes in the market by experimenting with innovative wine production.

In the news recently was the high-profile contentious issue of wine producers being able to mix together red and white wine, and call the end product rosé. Rosé is normally made by separating the juice from the red grape skins before too much of the red colour can be absorbed into the liquid. However, this method has been somewhat ‘adapted’ by some producers who are feeling the pinch in the recession and many are simply adding a small amount of red wine to white and calling it rosé.

Countries such as France, widely considered the finest wine producing country in the world, were not best pleased with this “mutilation” of rosé wine and did not agree for it to be sold in their country, or even be given as wine gifts. However, those countries that have not set such strict rules for themselves, such as those in Australasia and Eastern Europe have profited from their liberalism. A spokesman from the New Zealand alcohol authority defended his country’s move by stating that people are free to consume whichever wine they wish. All rosé wine produced using the ‘blending method’ is clearly marked as such, and has a lower retail price than the classic wine. The spokesman argued that if people can make milk chocolate in a thousand different ways, why can the same not be done for rosé?

The blending together of some of the most popular wine varieties is another practice that is really taking off in Australasian countries.  In Fiji for example you can buy Sauvignon Blanc mixed with Chardonnay and Merlot blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. Fiji seem to have similar opinions to the wine makers in New Zealand and have said that they are able to blend their wine just as well as a whisky maker might blend two single malts to make a great blended drink. They state that companies all over the world, and in particular Scotland, produce some very fine blended whiskies that not only often taste superior to single malts, but that are also able to sell at more modest prices. Next they will be telling us which tableware we must use when consuming the wine, stated one official.

The new blended wine has proved to be a real hit internally with the Fijian population, with producers selling around 120,000 bottles in 2008. When compared to the wine consumption of some of the top bottles in the world, this figure is relatively low, but considering that the population of Fiji is not much more than 750,000, you can see just how successful this wine really is. Fiji plan to sell their blended wine all over the world and seeing as the product is cheap to produce and sells for less than most classic wines, it is likely the export will do well.