New Zealand’s hot, dry summer provided perfect grape growing conditions. This year’s crop is expected to be larger than 2012’s 269,000 ton crop which was 18% smaller than 2011’s crop and helped to re-balance supply and demand. If this year’s crop is very large, the country could slip back into a situation of oversupply which led in 2008 to an increase in exports of cheap, bulk wine after a bumper crop resulted in a 27 million liter glut eroding wine, land and grape prices.