Environmentally friendly wine wins 

New Zealand wine no longer comes in just red and white - green could be the latest colour to take off.

That is after the inaugural Sustainable Wine award was made at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards on Saturday night.

The first winner is Cottage Block's Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2006.

Winemaker Tony Robb says it is part of an international program to make wine making more environmentally friendly.

He says they were amazed to find out that making the process greener was not that hard, and many of the changes made good business sense.

Chair of the judging panel, Steve Smith, said the wine was strong, with savoury characteristics and a nutty complex.

North Island vintages picked up the top prizes at the annual wine awards dinner in Christchurch.

The champion wine of the show trophy went to a Trinity Hill homage syrah (prounouced see rah) - a 2006 vintage from Hawkes Bay.

"It's really all about the vineyards that we work with, its about the grapes that we get in the winery and our guys with their passion turn that into award winning wines," says John Hancock, the creator of the Trinity Hill Homage Syrah.

More than 1500 wines were presented to the judges, who described the best of them as world class.