Strong Support For Wine Tourism With Passing Of Winery Cellar Door Tasting Bill

New Zealand Winegrowers congratulates Stuart Smith MP and Parliament on the passing of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Winery Cellar Door Tasting) Amendment Bill following its third reading.

“These changes will make a difference”, says Philip Gregan, Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Winegrowers. “The Bill brings legislation on winery cellar doors into the 21st Century. It recognises the contribution made by winery cellar doors to the tourism offering in New Zealand’s wine regions and enables wineries to charge for providing their tourism experience”.

Philip said “It is positive that the legislation will be in force ahead of the busy summer season, which was one of our requests to the Select Committee when hearing submissions on the Bill. We thank them for the timely consideration of the Private Members Bill.”

The changes allow winery cellar doors with an off-license to charge for providing samples of wine, which were previously only able to be given away for free, making it difficult for wineries to cover the costs of providing these experiences.

Philip said “During the submission process the Select Committee heard directly from our members that this change will help them to cover their costs and encourage other members to open new winery cellar doors that would otherwise have not been an economic proposition. We expect this change will create new jobs and new tourism experiences to encourage visitor growth”.

Winery cellar doors will continue to observe host responsibility practices, including a maximum sample size of 35ml, meeting the new requirements to have snack food available for purchase and for water to be freely available.

“The robust consideration by the Select Committee and Parliament means these changes will have a positive and lasting impact on New Zealand’s regional wine tourism experiences. We welcome all visitors to one of the 250 plus winery cellar doors and wine tourism experiences throughout New Zealand.”

© Scoop Media