Marlborough wine producers to introduce AOC

Forrest wants to initiate a campagne for next year already. "It is my goal to build a consortium of quality-concerned producers, who will -amongst other things-control the quality of our wines at all times", explains John Forres. According to the winemaker, this idea should be turned into practice in 2013 already and was inspired by the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC). Membership will be voluntary and members will support each other with financial means.

The British wine journalist and wine criti Oz Clarke shares John Forrest's worries about the low wine qualities in Marlborough, which particularly came to light with the Sauvignon Blanc wines from 2008/09. "Those vintages were absolute rubbish -  the wine producers should be ashamed of themselves", complains Clarke.

Sam Lockyer, Sales Manager at Forrest Wines commented about his employer's campagne: "If John Forrest succeeds in building such a consortium, its membership will be a strong marketing tool for all producers from this area. Then, we will finally be able to show a degree of quality on our labels".

It seems as though there is some improvement in Marlborough already. Thus, the yield amounts from 2008/09 will not be reafched again. "The growing region Marlborough and Nelson, too, where mainly Chardonnay is grown, had cooler temperatures and plenty of rain during spring. This means that there is a yield decrease of 20 to 25 percent", explains David Cox, Europe-director at the New Zealand Wine Association. "Of course we welcome any initiative that will contribute to the quality increase an stabilization of our wines". (red.yoopress)