Kumeu River Chardonnays trumped every other wine at a blind tasting of white burgundys in London. (Photo: NZIFF)
A film that positions France as everything New Zealand vintners should aspire to is looking at the world of wine through a narrow lens, argues wine writer Joelle Thomson.
Does the New Zealand wine industry deserve a seat at the international wine table?
It’s a big question with lots of different answers depending who you talk to, and David Nash and Simon Mark-Brown unleash several viewpoints in their new film, A Seat at the Table.
The pair co-directed and co-produced the film, which was inspired by the global success of wineries such as Kumeu River in West Auckland, Ata Rangi in Martinborough, Clos Henri in Marlborough and Alan Brady’s pioneering role at Gibbston Valley, Mount Edward and The Wild Irishman in Central Otago.
It is a self-funded venture that took four and a half years to produce. Not that the self-funding shows through. The cinematography is outstanding.
It had to be, says Nash, whose background is in advertising commercials.
He always had a love of wine, and when he returned to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 2011 he saw lots of New Zealand wine stories that he wanted to tell. After completing a course in wine in Auckland he decided to make a Kiwi wine film. And here it is.
I love the opening lines in the film by Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, who says that wine is a paradox, teaching us patience in a world that goes faster and faster. A product that teaches us conviviality in a world filled with brutality. And a product that shows us how uncertain life can be.
For many people wine is an analogy of how good things take time, so it’s ironic that New Zealand wine has become incredibly commercially successful on the global stage in a relatively short time. The French have been making wine for hundreds of years (and far longer, in some regions), whereas New Zealanders have only produced it from the same grape varieties for less than 50.
The New Zealand wine industry has come a long way in a staggeringly short period of time, writes Joelle Thomson. (Photo: NZIFF.)
The film’s central premise is that France is the model to which most New Zealand winemakers aspire. Which makes sense, given that this country’s wine industry focuses almost solely on French wine styles and French grape varieties, with the exception of riesling and gewurztraminer among a sprinkling of other grapes, but the French focus made me feel tetchy at times.
I’m not sure I can agree that France is the be-all and end-all when it comes to wine. There is no doubt that the French have refined wine making across a wide range of wine styles and that their best known wines are at the core of the New Zealand sector, but to suggest that this means French wine is the absolute pinnacle is to view the world of wine through an extremely narrow lens. Still, it is understandable to centre on a powerful message that is straightforward in the telling.
That message is the runaway success of Kumeu River Chardonnay at a formal blind wine tasting conducted by Farr Vintners in London. The chairman of Farr Vintners, Stephen Browett, suggests at the start of the film that their customers understand that white burgundy is the greatest white wine on Earth, but adds that Kumeu River Chardonnays from West Auckland have consistently surprised those same customers for many years, so he decided to formalise it and put the wines side-by-side in a blind tasting. He knew Kumeu River would do well but never expected them to (sorry to use the ‘t’ word) trump every single line-up of wines in the blind tasting.
Winemaker Michael Brajkovich is refreshingly humble when asked what he thought of the ‘win’, saying that burgundy is the wine he aspires to. His response suggests that he is flattered to have his wines in the same company.
When asked if he thinks that France is the greatest wine country on Earth, Nash says he wanted to frame the film from an international view point and deliver a straightforward message. Farr Vintners’ Browett substantiates this when talking about how his customers view wine – that white burgundy is the greatest white wine on Earth. In this context, it makes sense to focus on France as the inspiration for New Zealand winemakers.
“We wanted to tell a really simple story about how New Zealand was competing on a world stage in a way that everyone understands. It’s the simplest way to tell the story and to be honest when you go and talk to a lot of these winemakers, and as we showed later on in the film, the vast majority have learnt their craft from a French experience or inspiration. We are identifying with the French model to reflect the focus of our country’s wine industry.”
A Seat at the Table is beautifully shot and accurately reflects an impressive number of key movers and shakers in New Zealand wine today. This includes elder statesmen such as Sir George Fistonich and Master of Wine Bob Campbell, and top winemakers such as Master of Wine Michael Brajkovich, who is one of the country’s most talented but humble pragmatists. “Tradition, and dare I say it, snobbism,” says Brajkovich, when asked why French adhere so stubbornly to traditional corks.
New Zealand wine has come a long way in a short time for good reason: our winemakers work hard, adopt modern practical technology (viva la screwcap) and remain open to new ideas.
It is timely to see some of their stories on film. It’s great to hear and see the diversity of people and regions, including, among many others, Alan Brady, John Hancock, Paul Pujol, Jules Taylor, John Buck, Brent Marris, Murray Turner, Warren Gibson, Clive Paton, James Healy, Ivan Sutherland, Steve Smith, Duncan Forsyth, Chris Keys and Nigel Greening.
So, to the question: Do we deserve a seat at the table?
Some would say we are already at the table. As are many others in the growing world of wine, not only in France and Europe but far further afield, in places such as Argentina, Australia, California and South Africa, to name but a few of the great wine countries today.
Here’s a toast to both white burgundy and to Kumeu River Chardonnay, not to mention Felton Road Chardonnay, Tony Bish Zen and Skeetfield Chardonnay, Villa Maria Keltern Chardonnay, Kupe from Larry McKenna, Ata Rangi Pinot Noir, Pegasus Bay Riesling and Prima Donna Pinot Noir and all the other outstanding wines which are too numerous to name here, but which have come a long, long way in a staggeringly short time.
A Seat at the Table is showing at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Joelle Thomson is a journalist, author and wine educator
Keep going!
Gordon Gekko’s famous quote ‘greed is good’ in the movie ‘Wall St’ became a 1980s catchcry. (Photo: 20th Century Fox.)
Gordon Gekko’s famous quote ‘greed is good’ in the movie ‘Wall St’ became a 1980s catchcry. (Photo: 20th Century Fox.)
Do New Zealand firms still think greed is good – or are the days of unfettered pursuit of profits over? In a three-part series we get business bosses to front up over capitalism’s fault lines.
Nevertheless, the head of the government’s market regulator had a strong message for them: If a company’s sole purpose is to make money at the expense of everyone else they shouldn’t be allowed to operate.
He may as well have told the All Blacks that winning test matches isn’t the be-all and end-all.
“I was trying to provoke a conversation that seemed to me to be happening in other parts of the world but not really in New Zealand,” Everett says.
“I really wanted to force open a bit of a debate about what’s the responsibility of boards to think just beyond just profit.”
Company directors and executives should “anchor themselves” in what’s good for New Zealand and the communities they operate in, he told the gathering.
The former European chief operating officer of Merrill Lynch says working at the investment bank taught him that when a firm shifts from a client-focused model to a shareholder-focused model “bad stuff happens”.
He slammed the principle of shareholder primacy established by American economist Milton Friedman. The accepted model of capitalism post-Friedman, and encouraged by ex-US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, has been “an unfettered pursuit of corporate profits with the assumption that rational and judgemental markets will weed out the crooks and the incompetents, and the ‘best’ will rise to the top”.
“All of us in financial markets know that markets are often not rational and nor, it seems, are parliaments or electorates,” Everett said.
The reaction to his renegade presentation has ranged from sage nods in corporate social responsibility circles through to “push-back” from economists who argue he didn’t fairly represent Friedman.
He used the free marketeer as an entry point to the conversation, “and to be fair I took some of his more inflammatory quotes”, Everett chuckles.
“I was really trying to get to that notion that what’s in the law should be a minimum standard, trying to get them to understand there are expectations on them above and beyond that.
“And if they fail to align with those standards then it can really damage the trust dynamic which I think is important for big business.”
“In almost all jurisdictions you look at, trust has declined quite rapidly in the last 10 to15 years as to how those institutions serve their customers. And that’s a problem.”
Rob Everett, chief executive of the Financial Markets Authority. (Photo: Supplied.
Everett is far from the only one making this kind of point. French economist Thomas Piketty’s 2014 tome Capital in the 21st Century became an unlikely bestseller, and has now been turned into a film by New Zealand director Justin Pemberton that debuted at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival.
It romps through the last 400 years of wealth and income inequality in the western world, arguing that the post-war period of relative egalitarianism was a blip. Without a global system of progressive wealth taxes, the world is at risk of rapidly reverting to Victorian-style levels of inequality, Piketty warns.
When New Zealand First made its surprise announcement in October 2017 that it was forming a coalition government with Labour, party leader Winston Peters said the current perception of capitalism had deeply influenced its negotiations.
“We had a choice to make for a modified status quo or for change,” he said.
“Far too many New Zealanders have come to view today’s capitalism not as their friend but as their foe. That is why we believe that capitalism must regain its responsible, its human face.”
In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the party’s annual conference that shifting economic policy leftwards was the “new common sense of our time” after a decade of stagnating wages and squeezed living standards.
And even in the US it is not inconceivable that the next president will be a Democrat who favours policies such as clamping down on hyper-inflated CEOs’ pay packets, as Bernie Sanders advocates, or attacking the tech giants’ power as Elizabeth Warren has promised.
Are New Zealand firms having this discussion? Are they aware that four decades of privatisation, deregulation, lower taxes for business and more power for employers and shareholders have not produced widely shared prosperity, but instead created wage stagnation, growing inequality, banking crises, the convulsions of populism and the impending climate catastrophe?
Have they been listening to the next generation of customers and employees? Respondents to Deloitte’s 2019 Global Millennial Survey make it clear that if businesses and governments think this 1980s retro party can continue, they’re in for a shock. The poll shows positive economic sentiment among millennials is at its lowest level in six years, with only 26 percent of those surveyed expecting the economic situations in their countries to improve in the coming year. That figure has never been lower than 40 percent and stood at 45 percent the past two years.
Meanwhile the proportion who say business has a positive impact on wider society has fallen to just 55 percent, after four straight years in the 70s and 61 percent last year. Those surveyed say climate change is their greatest concern, and in perhaps their strongest message to the corporate sector 37 percent say they have stopped or lessened a business relationship because of the company’s ethical behaviour.
So: How are New Zealand businesses responding to this crescendo? The Spinoff decided to put it to the test by asking a selection of Kiwi business leaders to address three key questions about inequality, climate change, and the insidious power of social media.
The following are their answers to our first question:
Many younger New Zealanders are losing faith with capitalism and globalisation because they perceive inequality as being on the rise. Is this concern justified and what role can your organisation play in addressing it?
“It’s hard to argue that there isn’t a lot of concern about economic growth and globalisation actually benefiting a very small slice of people at the top and pretty much not everyone else to the same degree. You see it in Trump, Brexit – these are votes for change.
“If you run that through the slant of a financial markets regulator, what we worry about is the level of trust from the public to the financial services sector as a whole and the big financial institutions.
“The sense of inequality plays out there in the sense that those institutions seem to make a lot of money, pay their people very well, but are they really focused on the needs of the customer or are they just trying to sell stuff? They are possibly operating within the law but are not going that extra mile to put customers first.
“Corporate law never keeps up with society, it takes too long to change it. So if you just operate to the standard of the law in business you almost certainly are not going to meet the rapidly evolving views of society.”
Mike Bennetts Z energy CEO (Image: supplied).
Mike Bennetts, chief executive officer of fuel retailer Z Energy
“There is enough evidence there to say that it is justified, because the data says inequality is rising.
“I do think businesses have an absolute responsibility to contribute to the debate and to do something about it. The days of businesses being able to close themselves behind doors and say, ‘look we only talk about profits’, are long gone.
“If you look to more sophisticated markets than New Zealand, like say the US, you’ve got business leaders there speaking out on a number of issues, for example the tech sector speaking out on Trump’s thoughts on immigration, or someone like Apple CEO Tim Cook who is to the best of my knowledge the only gay chief executive of a very large Fortune 500 company.
“Business leaders are speaking out more, frankly because their employees expect them to make a stand on things that matter, socially and environmentally.
“Z Energy launched its sustainability policy in November 2010, so just a couple of months after we came into being as a ‘new’ company. The cliche we put in it was ‘we want to move from being in the middle of the problem to being at the heart of the solution’.
“Business leaders often miss out on the opportunity to listen to solutions, and in Z we have a certain amount of ‘reverse mentoring’ – senior executives assigned to a much younger or junior member of staff to tell them how it is in their world.”
Kendall Flutey, CEO of financial education startup Banqer
“In December last year Stats NZ reported that the net worth of the richest 20% of New Zealand households has risen $394,000 since 2015. Over the same period the net worth of the bottom 40 percent didn’t budge. Globally the richest 1% own 45% of the world’s wealth, a steadily increasing ratio over the last decade. Younger Kiwis perceive inequality and inequity is on the rise because it evidently is, here and abroad.
“Losing faith in an economic structure which doesn’t serve the majority of the world’s inhabitants, or our planet and sees few succeed sounds rational if you ask me. The system has been unmasked as a broken model and I don’t believe business can only be for profit, it needs to be for something more enduring, more meaningful.
“We represent that through how we do business and the daily decisions we make. We’re attempting to empower through education so that Kiwi kids understand the current economic system and have the capability to build on a new model.”
Douglas Pharmaceuticals managing director Jeff Douglas (Photo: Supplied.)
“Essentially, I would disagree with this statement. I don’t think many younger Kiwis are losing faith with capitalism and globalisation. I think young Kiwis are motivated, often well educated, and they want to get ahead. They want to be rewarded for their efforts and their investment in education.
“I would disagree that inequality is on the rise. I think capitalism is a far better model than socialism.”
Marc England, chief executive of electricity generator and retailer Genesis Energy
“Capitalism’s imperfections mean that there are examples of inequality developing. Businesses like ours have an important role to play by working with government to ensure issues are addressed.
“To associate inequality wholeheartedly with capitalism would be to disregard the fact it has brought so many global citizens out of poverty in the last hundred years. Capitalism and globalisation have been drivers of significant global wealth growth, achieved partly through free trade, open borders and global security, but also through its ability to encourage and reward creativity and innovation within countries and across borders.
“However, averages hide the fact that not everyone has benefited equally, and it is clear that globalisation has had a bigger impact in some economies than others – and in some cases inequalities are emerging.”
Alistair Davis, CEO of car dealer Toyota New Zealand and chair of the Sustainable Business Council
“The facts on inequality are sometimes quite confusing, but there seems little doubt that the perception there is increasing inequality and that the significant benefits of globalisation are not reaching everyone, has resulted in a pushback on immigration, trade friction and significant shakeups of economic systems across the globe.
“These disruptions can have a significant impact on how Toyota, as a global company, does business and we need to adapt in order to continue operations in an ever-evolving economy.
“One of our guiding principles is respect for people, their culture and the customs of every nation that we are present in, and to ensure that we contribute to the economic and social development of that country through corporate activities in the community.
“In New Zealand we try to provide employment to our associates with fair pay, and ensure that we remain a desirable company to work for. We contribute to society through our partnerships with Parenting Place, Department of Conservation (Toyota Kiwi Guardians), Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand and Emirates Team New Zealand.”
Kiwibank CEO Steve Jurkovich (Photo: Supplied.)
Steve Jurkovich, chief executive of state-owned Kiwibank
“Whether it’s justified or not we all have a role to play.
“At Kiwibank we have asked a range of our stakeholders including customer, staff and shareholder representatives on what matters most to them, and have formed initiatives and partnerships that have a big impact and are aligned with our purpose to make Kiwis Better Off.
“An example is our partnership with Banqer, a gamified financial literacy tool where kids come out of the programme knowledgeable on everything from budgeting, saving, interest, and KiwiSaver, to tax, real estate and insurance.
“Another is our recent accreditation for the Gender Tick, the first New Zealand bank to gain it.”
