Why are New Zealand wines so good and so cheap?

A glance at New Zealand Vineyards

If you are a lover of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, you have probably had more than your fair share of New Zealand wines. In all honesty, if you are just a casual drinker, you may not have even realized where they were from, but were buying them more for cost conscious reasons than anything else. Then you open up this $15 bottle of wine and are absolutely blown away. How can New Zealand send great tasting wines to America and charge less money?

When you look at what the general public associates ‘great wine’ with, you think California, France and Italy. The problem of course is that while you can find good California Wines under $20, it is tough to find a great one. Forget about getting good Italian and French wine in that price point, it simply does not exist. Again, why can places like New Zealand produce wines that compete with a $40 bottle from any of these other areas of the world?

The first thing that you have to consider is the value of the dollar. Right now the United States dollar is very weak against the currency of British Pound and the Euro. That means you are going to pay far more for the same product. When you look at the economy of New Zealand, their currency only accounts for about $.60 of the USD. What this means to the consumer is a lot of value. By the time the wine gets here, you are basically playing the same price as someone from New Zealand would be paying for the bottle right from the vineyard. In other words, the difference in the price of the currency pays for the cost of import and retail markup.

The second reason is the more important one for all of us wine snobs. The growing conditions in New Zealand may not be very favorable for Cabernet and Merlot, but they are excellent for Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find better Sauvignon Blanc’s produced anywhere in the world.

You have more than likely heard me tout Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc on numerous occasions. I do this because I am adamant that it is far and away the best Sauvignon Blanc on the market. Not just the best in its price range (under $20), but the best period. When you look down the list of great Sauvignon Blanc’s, what you see are a bunch of very reasonably priced wines that are from New Zealand, specifically the Marlborough region. The island conditions in the South Pacific are absolutely perfect for this varietal and these wines have a special flavor to them that no other area in the world can come close to. And forget the bouquet, it is something that absolutely gets the taste buds fired up.

Whether you are a fan of red or white wine, you absolutely have to have these wines on your short list. Do not be put off by the twist off cap that most of them use as an enclosure. You have to realize that this is actually the best enclosure available to guarantee fresh tasting wine that is not subject to spoilage. It is actually one of the reasons that they are able to keep the price down. Give them a shot and you will not be disappointed.

Recommended Best Buys from New Zealand:
2007 Waipara Premo Pinot Noir (Waipara Springs) - $23
2008 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - $19
2008 Sauvignon Republic Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - $19
2008 Dashwood Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - $13
2008 Kirkland Signature Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) - $9

For questions and comments, email me at: jerrymcconway@simplythebestwriting.com