Eli Greenbalt
SMH

A HANDFUL of wineries based in New Zealand's celebrated Marlborough region have gone into receivership, and more are expected to follow, as the area's popular sauvignon blanc suffers from a high New Zealand dollar, over-supply and a resurgence by Australian chardonnay.

Winemakers and retailers have started to detect a rebound by chardonnay after years of big declines in consumption of the once champion white wine style, potentially helping to resuscitate struggling wine businesses owned by Foster's, Constellation Brands and a host of other local wineries.

''It's probably very early days,'' said the general manager of the Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association, Richard Howden. ''We are not noticing a big bounce in cellar door sales but chardonnay seems to be talked about a little bit more,'' said Richard Howden, general manager of the Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association. ''We have seen a few more listings on wine lists at restaurants and interest back to chardonnay from some of the wine writers and sommelliers. Sauvignon blanc has had its boom, but wine is a fashion industry, it was strong for a period of time and chardonnay looks to be making it back.''
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A cool-climate crisp style, the New Zealand wine proved such a hit at parties, barbecues and social gatherings that liquor retailer Dan Murphy's found during its Christmas trading period last year that four of its six biggest-selling wines were Marlborough sauvignon blanc.

Its popularity proved costly to chardonnay, with sales at bottle shops collapsing from $420 million in 2004 to $312 million by last year. sales of sauvignon blanc jumped from $54 million to $345 million.

But the party for sauvignon blanc may be winding down. In Marlborough, closely associated with the sauvignon blanc craze, several wineries have collapsed over the past month, including Cape Campbell Wines, Awatere Vineyard Estates and Gravitas Wines. Industry executives believe more wineries may collapse, as the high New Zealand dollar crimps export earnings and over-planting of sauvignon blanc forces prices lower. Deloitte's latest New Zealand wine industry benchmark survey said debt-to-equity ratio at wineries with annual revenue of between $NZ1 million and $NZ5 million rose from 84 per cent in 2008 to 133 per cent last year.
ave at least some effect on prices.

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