by Serenata Wines

Wineries in New Zealand are expecting to produce a much lower amount of 2012 vintage bottles because of a potential grape shortage, according to an article published by Decanter.

Industry experts have predicted that crop levels could be down by as much as 30 per cent - compared to the 328,000 tonnes yielded by 2011s harvest.

Chair of industry body, New Zealand Winegrowers, Stuart Smith, commented on the potential shortage.

He said: "I expected that the vintage will be around 300,000 tonnes. However, even if we had a 328,000 tonne harvest like last year, we would still be short by about 10 per cent. We now have very low stocks on hand and export sales are growing at a good rate.

"If we get a 300,000 tonne vintage, growth will stop because we wont even have any stock; even if we get 300-328,000 tonnes there will be practically no growth," Smith added.

The amount of wine exported from New Zealand has increased by a massive amount in the last decade, with 154 million litres exported during 2011 - compared to just 23 million exported in 2002.

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