Support builds for Kiwi wine emoji

Did you know that every second of every day, 78 glasses of New Zealand wine are poured in the world? And 73 of those are white wine?

This might explain why 40 countries from Malta to Vietnam have signed a petition launched by New Zealand Winegrowers to get a white wine emoji created.

The petition, which has more than 1000 signatures, will make up some of the submission that New Zealand Winegrowers plans to submit next month to the Unicode Consortium, the body approving new emojis on phones.

New Zealand Winegrowers global public relations manager Juliana Foster said it was exciting to see the campaign receiving support from all corners of the globe.

‘‘We have been actively promoting this campaign in New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, China, and Japan.

‘‘So to see people signing up from countries where we don’t have an active presence, such as Cyprus, Malta and Vietnam, has been wonderful and proves this is something the whole world is behind.

‘‘New Zealand, and the New Zealand wine industry, is globally perceived as being innovative and forward-thinking, and we like to think that the world loves to support a Kiwi cause,’’ Foster said.

International Sauvignon Blanc Day, International Pinot Gris Day and International Chardonnay Day all fall in May, making it as good a time as any to lobby for a white wine emoji.

‘‘This has been the drive behind the campaign for the white wine emoji – to secure the white wine emoji while shining a spotlight on the breadth of highquality white wine that New Zealand produces,’’ Foster said.

In 2019, Californian winery KendallJackson submitted a 19-page proposal to get a white wine emoji created.

But it failed to get approval; the Unicode Consortium that counts Google, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM executives among its board members said it would ‘‘continue to consider the emoji for future addition’’.

Individuals and companies could suggest new emojis to the consortium. The last batch of emojis was approved in September 2021, and included 37 new ones.

‘‘The more people that get behind and share the petition illustrates to the Unicode Consortium the demand for the white wine emoji, as well as continues to shine a spotlight on New Zealand,’’ Foster said. ‘‘Emojis are meant to be fun and light-hearted and convey a broad range of emotions or messages efficiently and in a way that words sometimes cannot.

‘‘So having a white wine emoji can help us communicate our New Zealand white wine message more effectively and efficiently in a time-poor world.’’

The outcome of the submission should be heard at the end of the year.