KEY POINTS:
Kim Crawford is walking away from the wine company that turned his name into one of the country's most famous brands.
Crawford co-founded Kim Crawford Wines in 1996, producing 4000 cases the first year.
This year it will make more than half a million.
"We thought we might get it to about 15,000 cases," he said.
The company was sold to Canadian firm Vincor International in 2003 for about $18 million, excluding an earn-out clause, and then in 2006 to Constellation Brands US.
Crawford said he did not fit the corporate mould very well and had turned down an offer to stay.
He had no regrets. "I don't think we would ever have grown as quickly as what we did and got our international distribution up and running if we still owned it ourselves."
A restraint of trade means Crawford cannot be a winemaker until June next year.
"We've got a few little vineyard interests which we might do something [with] but I think I'm really over the sort of bulk, factory-type production."
Meanwhile, it was a nice year to be sitting on the outside, with most companies getting perhaps 40 per cent more harvest than expected, he said.
New Zealand Winegrowers said 285,000 tonnes of grapes were harvested in 2008 - 39 per cent more than last year.
Record wine exports worth $766 million in the year to March were up 16 per cent on the previous year, with a goal of $1 billion by 2010.
The sector needed to boost exports by about 40 per cent a year to sell the increasing production, Crawford said.
"It is a very big ask," he said. "There's large plantings coming on stream in the next two years so it's going to be an interesting time for a lot of people out there."
Sauvignon blanc accounted for about 75 per cent of exports and other varieties needed to be developed.
"It's been quite difficult to get growers to grow other varieties because sauvignon blanc is such a cash cow for everybody. But they are seeming to do that now."
Meanwhile, Chile planted 10,000ha of sauvignon blanc last year, with production costs of about US$24 ($31.51) a case, compared with about US$40 in New Zealand, Crawford said.
New Zealand was a significant player in the luxury category and needed to maintain its price point. "I think we make about half a per cent of the world's wine but we sell 15 per cent of the wine above $15 [a bottle]."
Crawford grew up on a Waikato farm and after graduating from Massey University with a BSc in microbiology and botany he headed to Australia in about 1985 to study winemaking.
During the past 20 years he had watched New Zealand grow from an unknown to a premium producer of sauvignon blanc. "I think most probably the most pleasing thing is when you see it in a good restaurant in New York or in London, you think, 'we are on the world map'."
