How to organise and run a wine event in four days!

We've been quite excited about running this blind tasting/ judging event and thought it was all organised. The Gods however like to have their fun and just four days before kick off we got the news that Make a Wish were pulling out as they hadn't sold enough tickets to make it financially viable.

After a few moments of thoughtful contemplation (which involved a lot of tantrum throwing and coarse language - Ed) we decided to go ahead anyway. The thought that the 30 or so people who'd bought tickets off us would miss out was too much to bear, and in any case we wanted to see if we could still raise a little bit of money for Make a Wish. Good thing we went ahead as it turned out.

Thanks to Jackie and Darren Brown from Puddleduck we got a venue, amazing since their wines weren't in the line up. Then Wine Industry Tasmania stepped up by supplying the necessary glasses. All that was left was food and Michelle managed to sweet talk the Wursthaus into providing platters at very late notice. Thankfully this change of food and venue resulted in a happy and eager crowd showing up on the day. Even more amazingly the weather was fine and relatively warm.

Our resident photographer Rachael came along and got all snap happy ...

Punters were greeted with three of the eventual nine pinots and all the necessary paraphernalia on arrival

We went to a lot of trouble to hide the identity of the pinots ....

The punters soon got down to the serious business of judging pinot, no smiles just intense concentration .... ok some smiles ....

Mind you others took it very seriously indeed ....

It wasn't just wine, there was also food ...

and live entertainment from local musician Colin Reed ( go here to find out more about him) who sang songs we all knew ...

The first round went well with all wines scoring impressively. The top five wines were within a few points of each other. In case you're interested the 2009 Spring Vale topped the first round ... Here it is being poured ...

The top three wines were then poured and scored ... it was time to announce the wines that were in the event and the winners ...

Despite the last minute hurdles the event was a success. The punters thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to judge some wines. They bought over $2100 worth and all agreed that it needed to happen again.

To finish we will put you out or your misery and let you know which wines took the "You be the Judge" challenge (and a mighty big thanks to those vineyards and wine makers who took part - Ed) ....

2008 Oyster Cove pinot from Kilbowie Wines (first place)

2008 Winstead pinot (second place) 

2009 Spring Vale pinot (third place).

2008 Darlington pinot

2007 Elmslie Estate pinot

2010 Avance from Glaetzer Dixon Family Winemakers

2009 Milton pinot

2009 Morningside pinot

2006 Nandroya pinot

Every wine in the line up deserved to win but the result proved the point that punters pick their wines almost exclusively based on flavour and so it was no real surprise that our winner was a wine that hasn't done well in wine shows. Frankly the world would be a better place if there was a lot more punter judging and fewer 'professional' wine shows.

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