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Stephen Wong MW at Pinot Noir NZ 2025.
Pinot Noir might be dwarfed by Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand sales data, but in high end hospitality it's king, says Master of Wine Stephen Wong.
Speaking at Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025, Stephen ran through data from mid to premium Wellington restaurants in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas 2024, illustrating why Pinot Noir is the most important category for his clients, topping the pile in terms of total value, followed by sparkling wine, Chardonnay and Syrah, in that order.
Sauvignon and Pinot Gris, while export heavyweights, yield a quarter and fifth (respectively) of Pinot's value in the restaurant he used as a case study.
Wellington's restaurants are feeling the effects of the economic downturn and growing unemployment, but Pinot has held relatively steady, with a slower sales decline than other varieties.
"If people are drinking less, we are buffering that by making sure they drink better," Stephen told attendees. "We haven't found the ceiling yet for what diners are happy to pay for really good Pinot... We will reach that ceiling at some point, but we haven't hit it yet."
Despite that relatively buoyant outlook from the capital, he said there was a lot of work to do overseas, with little to no recognition of "territorial brands", a term that captures the synergy of a region and variety, such as Central Otago Pinot Noir or Martinborough Pinot noir.
On a recent project in the United Kingdom, he was "absolutely shocked" by the absence of representation of New Zealand wine on premium wine lists, with Sauvignon Blanc very rare, let alone Pinot Noir.
"I think we have been away from the market as an industry, as producers and as ambassadors of New Zealand wine for too long."
The wine industry needs to stop "clinging to the debris of 'fine wine'" and instead speak in a language future customers can relate to, Nigel Greening told attendees at Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025.
Pinot Noir New Zealand 2025 brought together local and international Pinot lovers to celebrate New Zealand's flagship red variety.
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