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Speaker 1: So the news is out the sales of spirits are

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Speaker 1: set to overtake wine, and this is globally. But the

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Speaker 1: funny thing is we already knew that in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: That already happened a while back. We are drinking less

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Speaker 1: and therefore we spend our money a little differently, and

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Speaker 1: last year, for the first time, we were more thirsty

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Speaker 1: for spirits than wine. So Spirits New Zealand Chief executive

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Speaker 1: Robert Brewer joins me right now, Hey, hey, Robert, how

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Speaker 1: are you.

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Speaker 2: I'm very good.

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Speaker 1: Thank you givin we're such a wine country, given we've

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Speaker 1: got such great wine giving, we're so proud of our wine.

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Speaker 1: Was all this surprising?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the trend's been happening for some time.

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Speaker 2: And I mean I work for the spirits industry obviously,

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Speaker 2: but I'm also a proud New Zealand wine drinker myself.

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Speaker 2: But a couple of things have happened over the last

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Speaker 2: few years that has meant that spirits have been on

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Speaker 2: the up and up one. As you've referred to, the

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Speaker 2: consumers are drinking less, but they're going up the premium tree,

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Speaker 2: so they're spending a little bit more but drinking less.

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Speaker 2: And spirits lends themselves to that premium nature. At the

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Speaker 2: same time, globally and actually here in New Zealand, the

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Speaker 2: wine industries hit a bit of a bit of a

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Speaker 2: slow patch, and so those things have combined to mean

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Speaker 2: that certainly globally, spirits sales and volume sold will will pass.

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Speaker 1: Wine and spirits have got better and better and better

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Speaker 1: and better. I bought it gin the other day which

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Speaker 1: was flavored with monica that you drink with ginger rail,

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Speaker 1: and then it was absolutely delicious. What do you call them?

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Speaker 1: Our spirit brewers? What's the technical two?

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Speaker 2: Distillers?

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Speaker 1: Distillers, Thank you so much. Distillers are just getting better

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Speaker 1: and better at their jobs.

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Speaker 2: Around the world, without a doubt, and in New Zealand

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Speaker 2: it's a growth story of some proportion. I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: fifteen years ago you could have counted the truly true

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Speaker 2: commercial distillers on two hands. Now there are about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and sixty one hundred and eighty. Gin is the premium.

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Speaker 2: Gin is the is, the is the watch word. But

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Speaker 2: everybody's laying down what we call the dark spirits, the

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Speaker 2: whiskeys and the RUMs, because in the long term that's

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Speaker 2: where the big profits are and.

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Speaker 1: Our New Zealand is preferring New Zealand made spirits or international.

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Speaker 2: It's a mix as you would imagine, just like we. Yes,

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Speaker 2: I wish I could say that I thought of that.

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Speaker 2: It didn't come out the yeah, yeah, no, no, but yes,

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Speaker 2: I mean the New Zealand consumer loves New Zealand spirits

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Speaker 2: and drinks them. And of course you know what I

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Speaker 2: was going to say, the Kiwi spirit is like. But

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Speaker 2: you know what the Kiwis are like. They they love

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Speaker 2: to look off shore and export and that's what and

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Speaker 2: that's what our ki We made spirits makers are doing.

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Speaker 1: Robert Geers, thank you so much for coming in. I

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Speaker 1: have to say I couldn't think of the word distillers

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Speaker 1: because Brewer big charge of spirits, we have to say,

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Speaker 1: is a nice irony.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, you know, if I had a dollar for every.

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Speaker 1: Time I know, I know, but we're very chea humorously

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Speaker 1: no fair enough.

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Speaker 2: Imagine if I if I ran the Brewers Association, that

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Speaker 2: would be too much.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, you go out there and shake things up.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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