New Zealand wine makers and grape growers have shown strong support to continue funding their industry body, New Zealand Winegrowers.
Eighty-seven percent of the organisation's 700 winery members and 90 percent of its 850 growers have voted in favour of keeping the grape levy.
New Zealand Winegrowers collects levies from member funding, on the sale of wine by the Wine Institute, and on the sale of grapes collected by the Grape Growers Council.
Its chair Steve Green said most of the funding goes towards research into pests and diseases relating to winemaking and viticulture, as well as marketing New Zealand wines to the rest of the world.
"I guess the biggest project that we're dealing with is actually the geographic indicators. Each area of New Zealand where wine is grown, through new legislation that is being proposed, will be able to have a secure geographic indicator, so Central Otago, Marlborough, regions that we know well, will have some backing both legal and for marketing purposes."
He said on the research front they are putting a lot of effort into the development of lifestyle wines, and looking at how production and growing techniques can achieve lower calorie, lower alcohol wines.
