The Royal Hobart International Wine Show (20th November 2008) - eye witness account by PJ

In case you are like me and have never been to a wine show in the past I need to give a brief explanation of the wine show caper.  Periodically vignerons and winemakers fill in an entry form and send off a certain number of cases of their wines so that a bunch of other people, called judges, can swirl, sniff, sip and spit their wines with the intention of deciding that wine A is better than wine B or C and so on.  They then award medals and trophies to those wines.  If they win, the vignerons and winemakers get to feel good about themselves and put little round stickers on the bottles so that us punters can go "oo  ah" and buy the wine.

In case you are wondering winning a medal does result in increased sales.  A lot of people want to drink award winning wine or at least have them in their cellars to impress their friends.  But, as in any competition, there are the losers or as the PC crowd now demands that we call them the "gallant runners up or brave competitors".  If your wine doesn't win then you have a choice.  You can take the Peter Shields (Kilbowie Vineyard) approach and, as he told me, go and give the judges a "right bollocking" or you can just suck it up,  not be a cry baby and try to work out how you win a medal next time.  Peter told me he is now considering the latter option.

The good thing about this masochistic activity is that it gives us punters another excellent wine tasting opportunity. The Royal Agriculture Society of Tasmania which runs the Royal Hobart International Wine Show recognises the importance of punters and puts on a public tasting event once all the formalities have been completed.  The Show is held in November each year and is well publicised so there is no excuse for missing out.  

If you intend to go in the future there are a couple of things you need to know.  Although it is a show and it is held in the Showgrounds there are no show bags.  Now just pause for a moment and let the crushing disappointment you feel run it's course.  Feel a little better ?  Ok let's continue.

The other thing is pay the $10 and buy the catalogue. There is a bewildering range of wines and these are organised by class and then by number.  If this doesn't make any sense to you then you definately need the catalogue.  Next, if you don't like room temperature white wines then maybe avoid them or don't go to this event.  However you do get to  pour your own tasting.   This is not an event to attend without a designated driver or a mobile phone so you can call a taxi.  

Faced with this abundance you have to select the right tasting strategy.  I mean, you could just start at one end and work your way to the other but I think that would kill you or at least mean you are just ever so slightly off your best. Might I suggest using the spittoon and being very selective in your choices.

Thankfully Winepunters is mainly focused on Tasmanian Wine so this narrowed the field for me.  I tried to  concentrate on the gold and silver medal winning Tassie wines and still didn't get to everything I wanted. This was partly due to the fact that I couldn't resist the odd Shiraz and Peter Shields insisting that I try the Mcwilliams Tokay and Muscats.  For the record they lived up to Peter's praise.

Since it was a show I couldn't resist bestowing a few awards of my own.  The "I've got timing, I've got rhythm" award goes to Julian and Fiona from Moores Hill who took over their vineyard 2 months ago just in time for 'their' 2008 Riesling to win a gold medal and a number of trophies.  Before you think harsh thoughts, Julian told us he makes it very plain to anyone who will listen that all the credit goes to the previous owners.

The "thank god no one listens to me" award goes to Greg Melick from Pressing Matters vineyard.  Greg was a judge at the show and had just scored a wine as a silver medal. The chairman of the show came up and said "why didn't you award a gold?" to which Greg replied "because it's not worth a gold, it's only worth a silver".  The Chairman then said "well since I am the chairman I am going to overrule you and award this wine a gold medal".  You can probably guess where this tale is headed and yes it was Greg's wine.

We also got a chance to speak to Fred Peacock from Bream Creek (or as we now call him Winpunters own Fred Peacock) who won a gold medal and the Blundstone Australia Trophy for his Sauvignon Blanc.  If you have heard our conversation with him you would know that he nominated gewurtztraminer as his favourite variety and despite the win this remains true.  Although how smart does he feel pulling out his gewurtztraminer vines and replacing them with Sauvignon Blanc!

Summing up

All in all this was an excellent event and a great way to get a feel for what characteristics the professionals look for in a wine.  The catalogue also gives you some insight into what the judges were thinking as they went about their work as it includes a "judges comment" for each variety.  Here were some of our 'favourites'.  Warning, if you like Chardonnays you may want to look away now.

Class 15 Dry White - Chardonnay (2007 vintage - wooded)

"It was pleasing to find a few very well made wines in a mass of mediocrity (stomp! - Ed).  Consumers are turning away from Chardonnay and in this class we see the reasons why - premature development, coarse oak and a lack of fruit among them (kathump! - Ed)"

Class 5 Dry White - Chardonnay (Wooded) 2008

"Sad to see so many current vintage whites aready over developed and lacking fruit and length (kapow! - Ed)"

Class 16 Dry White - Chardonnay (2007 vintage - unwooded)

"There is a general lack of initiative evident in this class ... too many dilute (sic) wines (Biff! - Ed)"

Class 17 Dry White - Chardonnay (2006 vintage)

"Too many over-acidified wines, many of which are plain, lacking texture and complexity. Phenolics also an issue (Crunch! - Ed)"

Class 18 Dry White - Chardonnay (2005 and older vintages)

"Too many tired wines lacking structure (oh the pain, it's too much make it go away! - Ed)".  The judges did like the gold winners in this class which must have been a relief for the good people at McWilliams Wines.

Class 1 Dry White - Riesling 2008

"Top wines showed diversity of style with good fruit depth, balance and structure (Well at least they liked the Rieslings  - Ed)" with many other wines showing wine making faults and premature development (or maybe not - Ed)" .

Class 23 Dry White - Riesling - any vintage

"Disappointing class with too many wines lacking vibrancy ... If the industry wants people to drink Riesling the entry wines have to be better and show true varietal characters (I give up! - Ed) "

and my all time favourite

Class 10  Sweet White Table Wines - Semillon and Semillon Blends 2008

"A very small class".  There was only one entry and no it didn't win which proves the old saying "sometimes even in a one horse race you can end up a loser".

Let us know what you thought about this article or the event. Send us a comment