Plans to make all New Zealand Wineries and Vineyards sustainable by next year are on track.

In the early 1990’s New Zealand Winegrowers recognized the importance of New Zealand’s natural resources and established the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand programme.

Wines from the 2010 vintage and onwards would have to come from wineries and vineyards operating in accordance with an independently audited sustainability programme.

New Zealand Winegrowers Marketing Director Chris Yorke says that the industry is not far from this goal and out of the 1500 entries in this year’s Air New Zealand Wine Awards, over three quarters, including all of the 2010 and 2011 vintage wines, meet the sustainability conditions, an 80% increase over last year’s awards.

“75% of wines entered into the Air New Zealand Wine Awards were 100% sustainable so we are doing very well, tracking very well, and I’m sure we’ll get as close as we can.”

Mr York says that this year’s awards show how advanced and committed the New Zealand wine sector is towards achieving a wholly sustainable industry for viticulture.

“It’s something that we have been doing for a long time. We’ve had a sustainable wine growing in New Zealand programme for over 15 years. It’s something that we believe is the right thing to do, protecting our land and our people, our water.

"More recently now it’s something that really our international consumers almost expect, and fortunately we’re quite a bit away ahead than a lot of other countries. Again I think it’s all down to kiwis doing the right thing.”

This year’s Air New Zealand Wine Awards kick off later this month, with the medal awards being announced early in November.