Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter hopes New Zealand wineries can get a special exemption to sell lower alcohol wine in the EU after the geographical indication bill is passed in Parliament.

A shipment of New Zealand wine has been rejected by one of the country's largest export markets.

About 1000 bottles of Bannockburn Riesling, produced by Central Otago winery Felton Road, failed to even make it to European shores after it was discovered the alcohol content was too low.

The winery's 2015 Riesling had an alcohol level of 8.44 per cent, which fell below the 8.5 per cent threshold set by the European Union.

Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter said he was disappointed but he was unaware of the limit.

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"We had the wine destined for export markets - it was already ordered and we had the wine sitting on the wharf in Auckland awaiting for the export certificate.

"Then we got a call saying 'we've got a problem with that wine.'"

Felton Road had been exporting Riesling to the UK since they first starting making it 20 years ago, Walter said.

"This is the first time that on of our wines has been blocked.

"I was completely unaware it was not considered 'normal' wine if it was below 8.5."

He suspected the rules were put in place to prevent poor quality wines making it to the market, however, times had changed, he said.

German wines were commonly made below the 8.5 per cent limit and were still considered high quality wines, Walter said.

"We've discovered in New Zealand, particularly in the South Island, we can make a very similar style riesling with the alcohol level down below 8.5 per cent."

The cases had to be shipped back to Central Otago where the wine would awaiting distribution to another market, he said.

Walter hoped New Zealand Winegrowers would apply for a special exemption to allow the sale of lower alcohol wines once the government passed the geographical indication bill, he said.

A geographical indication - similar to trademark registration - indicates that a wine or spirit comes from a specific region.

This means producers will no longer be allowed to put a region on the wine label if the fruit used to make the wine is not from that region.

"I think we have to...the rules were made years ago to protect the consumer to ensure they were getting good quality wines, but nowadays it's almost becoming a trade barrier."

The EU should be encouraging lower alcohol wines, not banning them, Walter said.

He believed they were not the only winery to hit the hurdle.

New Zealand Winegrowers legal advocacy manager Jeffrey Clarke admitted it was a problem.

"I don't think a large amount of our export sales into that category, but I think it's happened before."

"New Zealand is working hard to produce naturally lower alcohol wines so it will become an increasing problem," he said.

"We will be raising that with the EU during the pre-trade negotiations. It's very important for us to deal with that."