Ian Hampton: Boxing in quality wines will turn on tap to fresh markets

Photo / Herald on Sunday

In 1999, my wife and I first spent the first of nine summers on our canal boat Erewhon, cruising the magnificent French canal system.

One of the great charms of this life was the ability to consume wine as the French do.

We don't claim to be connoisseurs, but we have long enjoyed a glass or two of wine with our meals and developed some ability to judge a wine. In 1999 much of the French vin ordinaire consumed by families was sold by both supermarkets and caveaux en vrac in four litre plastic cubies and flagons, or in the cheaper bottles.

The cheaper French wines didn't compare with New Zealand and other Southern Hemisphere options, and a glut of French wines developed. This led to riots in the winegrowing regions as workers campaigned to keep imports out of supermarkets.

About 2002, the first bag-in-boxes appeared on supermarket shelves.

The rubbish wines were still being sold in cubies, and the quality of most of the bag-in-box wine was a step higher. At first, there was little acceptance of this new packaging by the French customers, but by 2005 we noticed an increasing variety of bag-in-boxes on the wine shelves in supermarkets. Even more noticeable was the quality both of the wine itself, and its presentation.

Two years later, 9 per cent of total wine sales were in bag-in-boxes. NZ Trade and Enterprise recently reported that 20 per cent of all wine sold in France today is in bag-in-boxes.

But there is one major difference between their use in France and that in New Zealand.

Unlike here, where practically all bag-in-box wine comprises imported bulk, simple and cheap wines, in France major brands sell a range of qualities, with prices from €6 ($15) for simple unblended wines, to €15 ($35) for a well blended, lightly oaked Bordeaux style red.

In between you can buy an excellent Listel Rosé, Cotes de Rhone, Buzet Rouge and other well recognised varieties. The three-litre bag-in-box, containing the equivalent of four bottles, is almost standard and is usually priced at two to three times the price of one bottle of a similar quality.

The French consumers recognise they are value for money, and more importantly, that a bag-in-box can be consumed over a period of up to three weeks (and probably much more) without noticeable deterioration. The packaging is less polluting and its glossy finish and shape enables the distributor to promote the product on the supermarket shelf.

Many New Zealand wine professionals helped France to improve their everyday wine quality by using good blending techniques.

With the large harvests of good quality wines in New Zealand this season, it is time for a New Zealand distributor to follow this French example, and retail a range of a good quality, blended New Zealand wine, labelled by variety and priced appropriately. Then those of us who want a glass of a reasonable quality wine with their lunch or dinner won't have to make do with what is now sold. In this year of high production, surely this makes sense? If they don't, they will find that South Africa and Australia will have filled the niche.

I can't wait to be able to have a good New Zealand Cabernet-Sauvignon on the shelf, and a lovely, cool local NZ Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge to have by the glass as I want it.

* Ian and Lorna Hampton live in Manukau City.