New Zealand wine exports have begun to rebound as stocks from the record 2013 harvest find their way to improving markets.
For Central Otago's niche pinot noir exports, the year did not produce a bumper harvest but the quality of the vintage was ''shaping up as good'', but it was too early to call it classic, Central Otago Winegrowers Association president James Dicey said when contacted.
Rabobank's latest wine quarterly report showed shipment volumes in the year to date decreased 0.8% on the previous corresponding period, but shipments in July this year surged 27%, compared with July last year.
Mr Dicey said sales by volume, as reported by Rabobank, were driven by Marlborough's sauvignon blanc sales, whereas quality, not quantity, was the Central Otago measure.
''Central Otago is relatively positive, with most of its markets, which have been struggling, [now] showing signs of progress,'' he said.
He said the US market was showing ''positive signs'', against recent trends, as were Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
However, China remained a difficult market to determine and Canada, which used government monopolies for distribution, was a ''lottery''.
Overall, New Zealand wines continued to find favour in North American markets, while volumes sent to the United Kingdom had begun to increase as more stock became available.
In the meantime, exports of Australian wine continued to trend downwards. Shipment volumes fell by 7.1% in the seven months to July, compared to the same period last year.
Mr Dicey said sales of New Zealand pinot noir to Australia were down about 3%, noting parochial Australians preferred their own pinots.
Rabobank said while exports to the UK and US markets had declined at much the same rate, declining shipments to the US market had largely been driven by lower demand for bulk wine.
The harvest had begun in the northern hemisphere and production was set to be mixed, with high yields and marked improvements in some regions while others appeared set to see the lowest production in recent history, the report said.
Warm weather got the California grape crop off to an early start and expectations were for a large crop of just below 4 million tonnes, slightly below last year's record harvest.
Many European producers were reporting a very challenging wine grape crop, mostly notably in France, Europe's largest supplier, which was expecting the worst harvest in more than 40 years.
Hailstorms and cool weather had decimated the crop, both in quantity and quality. While many European producers were facing difficulties, Italy and Spain appeared to be heading for more normalised production levels, well above last year's exceptionally low figures.
