The New Zealand Wine Trail: A series of thirty-eight short programmes looking at different aspects of the wine industry in New Zealand: grape varieties, wine styles, New Zealand vintages, and advice for New Zealanders who are new to wine-drinking.
Advice includes how to serve wine with a meal, how to cook with wine, and joining a wine clubs. Bob Knappstein, Peter Saunders, Jock Graham, and John Buck are interviewed about their involvement in wine industry in various programmes. Researched, compiled and presented by Heugh Chappell.
1) How it all began
2) Rosé – the red white wine
3) Making rosé wine
4) Being all things to all people
5) What makes a good wine
6) What it takes to make a top-quality wine
7) Beaujolais
8) The do’s and don’ts for a New Zealand wine writer
9) The most important contact between the wine-maker and you
10) The white wine you acquire a taste for. Bob Knappstein talks about getting New Zealanders to develop a taste for chardonnay, a new variety for the Kiwi palate.
11) Relating to the consumer
12) Cooking with wine
13) Bubbly
14) The value of wine clubs
15) The best New Zealand wine for long-keeping
16) Who to go to if you’re not sure. Wine shop owner Peter Taylor talks about giving customers advice on how to choose wine.
17) Just what is the premium wine-making part of New Zealand? Jock Graham says Hawkes Bay is out in front, making an effort to establish a regional reputation.
18) The work-horse of the grape industry. 1985 will be remembered as the year heavy wine price discounting took place, with Müller-Thurgau being heavily reduced. John Buck talks about the qualities of a good Müller-Thurgau.
19) Being adventurous about wine. Peter Reeve talks about fruit wines and the need to improve its 'amateur' image.
20) Preparing the wine for a meal
21) Fortifying yourself - sherry
22) Looking in retrospect
23) A wine for all tastes - the practice of 'back-blending' to create juicy, fruity tasting wines, with muted wine characteristics.
24) Catering for the enthusiast
25) Using wine as a marinade
26) Going the organic way
27) A wine writer’s responsibility
28) The most lauded of the new wines. Wine writer Ray Thom talks about the new sauvignon blanc variety which is only being grown in a few winemakers in New Zealand.
29) From grapes to everything else - fruit wine, with Malcom Reeve.
30) The white wine you don’t drink in its first year
31) A matter of self-confidence
32) The Australian connection
33) The wine of old colonels - port
34) Speaking out in written form
35) Getting a fair return
36) The new breed of red wines
37) Serving wine at home
38) The wine that fools even the enthusiast. In the final programme Dr Don Brash talks about kiwifruit wine, in his role as chairman of the Kiwifruit Authority.