The tasting room may have looked
like this

Well what can we say about the 2010 Tassie wine show. Not a lot actually because we didn't go. Yes we know you're thinking 'how can we call ourselves a wine site and not cover one of the marque wine shows on the Tasmanian calender'. See, yet again honesty is not the best policy. Maybe we should take a leaf out of Matt Skinner's book and say we have done things when we really haven't, it hasn't held back his wine writing career!

We did however get to the wine show awards dinner which this year was held in the Estelle Restaurant at Rosevears Estate vineyard. Good thing we did otherwise we would have missed out on seeing some spectacular Tasmanian hand made furniture. The trophies this year had a heavy but practical bent. It's the reason why so many wine industry people own utes rather than buzz boxes, you never know when you will win a wardrobe as a trophy.

The judging area may have
looked like this

Since the dinner is about handing out gongs and tasting the top gold wines you get a real insight into what the judging panel were thinking as they tasted all those entries. This year saw the return of the dynamic duo (Huon Hooke and James Halliday) who were supported in the judging by Peter Bosworth and Anna Pooley.

Based on what we tasted on the night you have to say that they did a pretty good job. Arriving we were able to have a few glasses of the 03 Arras Grand Vintage sparkling. If your experience of sparkling is something more akin to soft drink (all fizz and no taste) then trying a proper sparkling like the Arras really opens your eyes. It was nothing short of spectacular.

yes, yes we are using the
shots from last year!

This was our second Tassie wine show dinner and, like last year, trying all the wines at the dinner made us feel just a wee bit proud of the fact that Tassie wines are just so damn good. But attending a couple of these dinners makes you notice other things. How smoothly it all runs. The high percentage of wines that win medals. The fact that Kate Hill and Greg Mellick seem to win, a lot. Kate Hill took home the Best wine of show for her 08 Pinot and Greg Mellick got the gong for most successful exhibitor.

But there were some differences. James Halliday didn't seem as though his heart was in it as he delivered his annual diatribe against Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc. We always wondered how people in the audience, who work hard to produce these varieties, feel when he vents his spleen against these 'pointless' wines, and maybe he is starting to do that as well.

Lastly we noticed a disturbing reduction in the amount of wine served during the dinner. Is this another victory for the 'responsible serving of alcohol' crowd that are doing so much to ruin the Australian way of life?

On the plus side our prediction regarding how Tasmania will become the home of Australian sparkling has some important supporters. James Halliday made reference to the fact that Tasmania is "the epicentre of the production of sparkling wine". So we are already looking like Nostradamus geniuses and it's only January.

We have to pass on our congratulations and thanks to all the folk involved in organising the show and, more importantly, the dinner. Well done and we are already looking forward to next year's.

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