NZ Sauvignon – should and will it be cheaper?

We all know by now that Australian 2004 grape harvest was enormous (see Drowning in wine). But proportionately the New Zealand crop was even more unexpectedly vast. A record NZ crop of 110,000 tonnes were expected – a considerable increase on the frost-affected 2003 harvest of 76,000 tonnes – but in fact, once all the sums were done, the total 2004 harvest has turned out to be 166 tonnes – an amazing 117 per cent increase on the previous year (see regional detail below). The previous record crop was in 2003 when 118,700 tonnes were harvested. This is a fairly...