Australia has long been considered a big player in the global wine industry and this has to a large extent been down to its ideal grape growing conditions. However, Fiji and New Zealand have also come onto the scene in recent years and has increased their market share largely as a result of their flexible wine producing policies.

In the news recently was the high-profile contentious issue of wine producers being able to mix together red and white wine, and call the end product rosé. Classically rosé has been made by removing the white juice mixture from the red grape skins at just the right time so that it doesn’t absorb so much of the colour. However, spurred on by the squeeze of the global recession on wine produces, a number of countries passed a law saying that producers could now sell blended wine (white will a dash of red) under the label of rosé.

Countries such as France, widely considered the finest wine producing country in the world, were not best pleased with this “mutilation” of rosé wine and did not agree for it to be sold in their country, or even be given as wine gifts. However, those countries that have not set such strict rules for themselves, such as those in Australasia and Eastern Europe have profited from their liberalism. A spokesman from the New Zealand alcohol authority defended his country’s move by stating that people are free to consume whichever wine they wish. They never market their blended rosé as wine made in the traditional way and the difference in pricing makes it quite obvious this is a different product entirely. The spokesman argued that if people can make milk chocolate in a thousand different ways, why can the same not be done for rosé?

Many of the Australasian countries have even embraced the full blending together of other wines as well.In Fiji for example you can buy Chenin Blanc mixed with Pinot Grigio and Tempranillo blended with Cabernet Franc. Mirroring the laid back approach of New Zealand, the Fijian wine makers suggest that wine is able to be blended just as easily and with the same success rate as whisky. They state that companies all over the world, and in particular Scotland, produce some very fine blended whiskies that not only often taste superior to single malts, but that are also able to sell at more modest prices. Next they will be telling us which tableware we must use when consuming the wine, stated one official.

The new blended wine has proved to be a real hit internally with the Fijian population, with producers selling around 120,000 bottles in 2008. This might not sound like the largest figure in the world, but when you consider that the population of the country is little over 800,000, you soon realise how popular it actually is. There are plans to start exporting this fully blended wine very soon and given the fact they are able to undercut many ‘single malt’ wine produces, they are almost certain to do well.

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