Sav Blanc dominance a concern

The wine industry has ridden a glorious wave of sauvignon blanc to international success and export riches worth nearly $1 billion.

But can the wave roll on forever?

Sauvignon blanc accounted for 62 per cent of last year's grape harvest and 81 per cent of exports by volume with 91.5 million litres.

Wine writer Michael Cooper says the dominance of one variety is a huge risk.

"It is very much a danger of having too many eggs in that basket but it is a danger that the industry is very aware of and working hard to counteract."

Sauvignon blanc is a love-it-or-hate-it style, Cooper says.

"Whether its run-away popularity at the moment proves to be enduring or whether it proves to be a fashion that fades remains to be seen."

Delegat's Group managing director Jim Delegat says talk about the risk of global consumers suddenly deciding they no longer liked sauvignon blanc was misplaced.

"I don't think those people understand consumers globally and the markets," Delegat says. "Chardonnay as much as merlot is as important as pinot and sauvignon blanc."

The old wine bar favourite chardonnay, which was 12 per cent of last year's grape harvest, still accounted for half of the world's white wine.

Jayson Bryant, owner of specialist store The Wine Vault, says the industry was doing a pretty good job with other varieties and needed to remain focused on what it was good at - sauvignon blanc.

"I think we should champion that but I think we need to tell a better story about it," Bryant says.

New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan says sauvignon blanc volume exports were up about 30 per cent on last year.

"We might not like the price that some of it is being sold at," Gregan says, "but 30 per cent growth is good news."