Twenty one judges have been working their way through 1246 wines out at the National Wine Show.
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They’re winemakers mainly, chair of judges David Bicknell from Oakridge Wines, Corrina White is the sixth generation of her family involved in Oliver’s Taranga. Some of them work in the industry, Chris Crawford is the general manager of beverage for Crown Casino and the youngest judge, 29-year-old Kayleen Reynolds works in a Melbourne wine store.
Bicknell says this mix of palates is important when it comes to setting up a show panel.
“Us winemakers live in a little bubble, in our own little world,” he says.
“We don't have that direct conduit into the public and what they like.”
I ask him if there’d ever be a chance for a wine drinker, a general punter, say, like me, for example, who knows when she likes a wine, but could not tell you why with any great skill.
“It’s been contemplated many times,” he says.
“In one wine show I was in years ago there was one class of wine - rose - where we went 'Why don’t we get three people off the street and let them do it?'.
“We had a laugh about it, that they wouldn’t actually taste any of them, they'd just look for the prettiest looking wine and the nicest label and go for that.”
Ah, isn’t that how the majority of the wine drinking public select wine? And how dare you disparage rose.
If you need someone to fill this very role, Dave. You have my number.
But in all seriousness, the National Wine Show is a serious affair. They spend three days tasting the 1246 wines, across 46 classes, from sparkling wines to muscats more than 10 years old. The biggest class is shiraz, with 284 entries.
To make the task easier it’s the first time the National Wine Show will use ShowRunner, a digital platform created by the Australian Wine Research Institute in South Australia. It enables each individual judge to enter points and tasting notes electronically.
“This should make the administration, management and judging process seamless and allow us to make use of better feedback to the exhibitors,” says Bicknell, adding that this feedback is vital to exhibitors looking to improve their wines.
There are 56 new exhibitors this year, and an overall increase in entries, up 6 per cent from 2017, but Bicknell stresses the show has to be about quality, not quantity for it to cement its rightful place as the top wine show in the country.
To enter the National Wine Show, a wine must have won a medal at a qualifying wine show and the organising committee is contemplating making this process even harder by culling the list of qualifying wine shows.
“The whole concept of this show [now in its 41st year] has always been we get the best exhibitors from the other shows,” Bicknell says.
“You have to pre qualify, but we need to make qualification more difficult.
“It’s not kindergarten where everyone gets a prize, we want the best wines, the best wine show judges, in the end we're measured by the quality of the results.”
The results will be known on Friday, November 23. Bicknell says the big reveal, when the actual wine they’ve been blind tasting all week, “is the most frightening part of the whole process, it can make or break you”.
If you’d like to see if he’s got it right there’s a public tasting of the wines at the National Wine Experience on November 24, from 3 to 5pm at Exhibition Park in Canberra. Tickets are $120 and that includes your own Riedel glass and a copy of the results catalogue.
There is also the chance to dine, and drink, with the judges and winemakers at the awards dinner at the National Arboretum on November 23 when the final results are released. Tickets are $250 and include a four-course dinner and tastings of the trophy and medal winning wines and live entertainment.
Tickets for both events are available at rncas.org.au
