Vintage 2023

The numbers are in…

This was supposed to be a follow-on article on Vineyard Redevelopment options however with the release of the 2023 Vintage tonnage data from New Zealand Winegrowers, lets be flexible and have a look at those. The headline number for the country is that the tonnage of grapes harvested fell 6% from Vintage 2022, from 514,749 T to 484,662 T (note that the total estimated tonnage harvested in 2023 was 501,000 T with the difference being an estimate of survey non-returns). Given that growing regions such as Gisborne saw a climate induced drop of -43% in their harvested tonnage, the result isn’t too surprising.

Focusing on Marlborough and combining data from both the 2023 Vintage Survey and the 2023 Vineyard Register, Marlborough harvested some 349,056 T of Sauvignon Blanc, down 4% on 2022. With new vineyard area coming into production, the yield per hectare for Sauvignon Blanc fell 5.6% from 15.3 T / Ha to 14.4 T / Ha. At an estimated average price of $2,300 / T, that’s still a good gross return of just over $33,000 / Ha. Of course there’s operating costs and debt servicing to come out of the gross return (and eventually vineyard redevelopment costs as well) but it helps to explain why we’re still seeing expanding areas of Sauvignon Blanc still being planted.

Marlborough grew 92% of the Sauvignon Blanc harvested in New Zealand for 2023 and it made up