Everyone loves visiting a winery or vineyard, tasting the wines, getting to see the place where the wine was grown and chatting to the people that made the wines with love and passion for their craft. Well we do too BUT for some smaller wineries, that may end up being a thing of the past! WTF you say?

The proposed Alcohol Reform Bill will require even the smallest Cellar Door facilities at those NZ wineries and vineyards to be subject to the same legislation and costs as the largest supermarket and Liquor store chains. Not only have wineries had to deal with increased excise duties and a rise in GST, now they will have to cough up for extra licensing and hire a duty manager to be present during all tastings.

Jayson Bryant of Unscrewed proposes “that there should be an exemption for all cellar door facilities, as they offer local employment, drive high spending tourism to the regional provinces, which without would see a drop in visitor numbers, and it’s this type of tourist that puts money in to the local economy.”  The result will be a number of the smaller operations closing their cellar doors. That would be a tragic loss to one of New Zealand’s major Tourism activities.

We at The New Zealand Wine Directory absolutely agree with Jayson and probably many 1,000’s of other New Zealand wine lovers and ask that you please consider signing his petition. Lets show the NZ Government that they need to reconsider and amend the Alcohol Reform Bill to include an exemption for cellar door facilities.

You can sign the petition here: http://www.unscrewed.co.nz/stop-the-closure-of-new-zealand-cellar-doors-petition/