I recently bought some Old North Road Pinot Noir. It had a prominent logo and name, Waikoukou Valley. The rear label had a spiel about how Old North Road runs through the Riverhead Forest, west of Auckland, and “past our winery where we have been producing wines… for over 30 years”.
**But when I put my reading glasses on at home, I noticed “Wine of Chile” in tiny pale print at the bottom of the label. This is very misleading.
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I bought a bottle and agree with you. I think the labelling could be in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
The consumer information line on the label connected me with Treasury Wine Estates in Australia. I asked their PR rep if they had considered the label was misleading. She made the point that they state the country of origin on the label.
She added, “whether the wine is New Zealand or international, we are very proud to call it an Old North Road wine”.
I asked her what the relevance was of calling this wine Old North Road and stating that was where they have been producing wines, if it is actually Chilean? She said that is where the winery is based, the site has been there three decades, and they bring that amount of wine knowledge and expertise
to the craft.
I don’t buy that. Larger “Wine of Chile” stickers should be on the labels and I’ve referred the matter to the Commerce Commission.
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