How NZ’s wine industry is adapting to a changing world
Monday, 6 July 2026
Wine baroness Erica Crawford says the wine industry is at a crossroads, with international trade tariffs and changing consumer preferences making for difficult choices for operators.
The co-founder and former owner of Kim Crawford Wines says the local industry is focused on innovation to see it grow through tough market conditions.
Producers were having to do things differently to succeed in the current market, she said, including being more explicit in their labelling to better speak to consumers and selling into more markets to spread their risk.
Crawford now owns Loveblock Wine, established 12 years ago after a five-year stand down period following the sale of Kim Crawford Wines. She said her organic and vegan wine brand was resonating with consumers, as part of the global trend towards health, wellness and people being more mindful about what they put into their bodies.
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“I’m fully into organics now, and after 12 years, I can see the world is ready for it. It is now a mainstream category, not just something on the side,” Crawford told The Post.
Low sugar wines are becoming popular too, causing experts to “cringe”. “But people are starting to speak differently. That’s quite an interesting thing I've noticed in the last few years,” she said.
The wellness trend had forced winemakers in the direction of eliminating sulfites and using tannins instead, and new creations and variations, including no- and low-alcohol options.
“There are lots of fads that come and go. Low-alc and no-alc is here to stay.”
New Zealand’s wine industry is made up of 700 wineries, most small owner-operators.
Wine brands were now doing everything from infusing jalapeno into sauvignon blanc to using pea protein in the wine making process, in part to be seen as different - and to stand out on the shelf, Crawford said.
“Other things we’re seeing that's quite exciting, and good for New Zealand, is there’s a trend away from big red wines to lighter white wines, so that sits very well for us.”
Innovation stands out globally
Self proclaimed wine lover and “amateur enthusiast” Rob Elliott, founder of annual industry event Winetopia, said New Zealand wine stood out on the global stage for both innovation and quality.
He described the wine industry as in “fantastic” shape this season.
Each year wineries bring their best products to Winetopia for tastings and sales. The draws upwards of 4000 consumers across two days for a wine discovery experience, this year on August 7-8 at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland.
“There has been some really good growing conditions in the last harvest, and so we're looking forward to some of the new release whites, and some of the vintage reds,” said Elliott, who founded Winetopia in 2015.
Even considering increasing cost pressures and global uncertainty, the industry was doing well - and continued to punch above its weight against international competitors, Elliott said.
“There is still demand for a high-quality product, that hasn't gone away, but people's ability to buy large quantities has dropped … [and so] they're not buying as much of it as they might have been.
“A lot of the pain in the industry is because of changing appetites, and New Zealand’s not coming off too bad from that.”
Having the industry made up of mostly smaller operators who were innovative by DNA gave the country’s offering an edge, Elliott said.
Crawford said she was “not pessimistic” about the future for wine, even though price was top of mind for consumers right now.
Despite last year being what Crawford described as “one of the most difficult years” in business, with many wine makers forced to leave grapes unharvested, she said New Zealand sauvignon blanc was still growing at about 3% annually, and that was cause for optimism.
Profitability in the industry was still being squeezed, however.
Sarah Wilson, acting chief executive and general manager of advocacy at New Zealand Winegrowers, said ideal growing conditions had yielded another high-quality vintage, which was good for local wine companies.
The 2026 vintage was a smaller harvest compared to the very large yield in 2025, and this was the result of wineries and growers carefully managing intake in response to current market conditions.
“New Zealand exports around 90% of its wine production, so our industry is affected by economic conditions and consumer confidence in international markets. The large 2025 vintage created a temporary imbalance between supply and demand, which has been challenging for many growers and wineries. The smaller 2026 vintage will help restore that balance over time,” Wilson said.
Higher tariffs, which add cost and risk limiting choice for consumers, had hit the US market over the past 18 months, she said, but many of the country’s other large export markets had zero tariffs.
Wilson said the recent signing of the India free trade agreement would unlock one of the world’s largest and fastest‑growing consumer markets - a positive and significant long term opportunity for wine operators.
The wine industry would like the Government to introduce policy that supported businesses, avoiding unnecessary compliance costs and encouraging investment, innovation and growth, she said.
Practical measures such as enabling electronic labelling would reduce costs for wineries while maintaining the information consumers need.