Neudorf Vineyards is reported to be named as one of 21 top New Zealand wineries to promote a Government-backed marketing campaign aimed to boost the premium wine sales in North America by $50 million by 2015.

The Government made an announcement last week to facilitate $1.2 million over two years, matched by a similar amount from the wineries involved.

Neudorf Co-owner, Judy Finn revealed that three of their wines – a chardonnay, a pinot noir and a Riesling – to be among the 58 wines selected to drive New Zealand's top labels.

Neudorf was selected because it is an old exporter to the US, which was the Company's third-largest market, and also it possessed an agent with a good reputation.

The campaign, to be initiated in Colorado in September, was aimed to convince the top sommeliers and decision makers that New Zealand wines should adorn the menu of all fine restaurants.

North America has always been a challenging market, primarily because it was segregated, with liquor laws that still had a "feel of prohibition" about them.

"It's always harder to sell wine to a country that has its own wine industry. The US is so big; it's very hard to get their attention. Sometimes their knowledge of what's outside America is not great”, she was quoted as saying.