Every wine tells a story, says National Wine Show steward John "Chippy" Payne as he pours me a glass of semillon.
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Chippy has been working as a steward at the show for all of its 40 years. I suspect that every wine steward has a story to tell too, I say to him and he laughs.
"Oh, the things I could tell you," he says.
But instead he tells me how to look like I know what I'm doing when it comes to wine. How to swirl the wine in the glass without spilling it - leave the base on the table - and why - to release the esters - which are the aromatic, fruity compounds in wine. Don't be afraid to put your nose right in the glass, breathe deep.
To be honest I'm not a fan of the way the semillon smells, but in my mouth it's a much better experience. I'm not smart enough to pick out any particular aromas or flavours. All I know is that it's delicious.
Which, according to chair of judges Jim Chatto, is exactly what a wine should be.
"A good wine should be in balance, have a good flavour and most importantly it should be delicious," says Chatto, who is also the chief winemaker for McWilliam's Wines.
He's happy to indulge my questions about drinking. Let's face it, most of us who drink wine have but a mere sniff of the expertise of the 21 judges working at the National Wine Show this week.
They'll spend three days swirling, tasting and spitting 1212 wines, across 48 classes, from riesling to tawny port. Blind tastings are done, done again, and Chatto is called in occasionally to settle disagreements. They'll go through 2304 Riedel glasses a day, which are washed and hand-dried with 500 tea towels. Wine shows, like wine, are a complex affair.
What can the average drinker take away from a wine show of this calibre, I ask Chatto. All the wines on display have already won awards at qualifying events. He's upfront enough to admit that most punters purchase by label and he says to pay attention to those little round stickers you might see.
"If you see a wine with a gold medal label, look at it as some sort of third-party endorsement," he says.
"Wine is complicated and people have this fear about choosing wine, getting it wrong and looking silly at the dinner party."
It would be remiss of me not to enquire about my own tipple of choice, rose. How should I choose a good one and not look silly?
"You want it to be fresh and bright, want it to be lightish and well balanced, not too sweet or too dry," he says.
"A lot of the Australian rose that we grew up with was fairly sweet, now you're seeing the influence from southern France. They're much paler, savoury and drier.
"There's nothing wrong with being pretty and vibrant."
Chatto has been impressed by the 34 roses in the wine show. I'm impressed that my favourite $15.99 IGA go-to is among the finallists.
If you're keen to see if your go-to is there, there's a chance for the public to taste any of the wines with a National Wine Experience on November 25, 2017, from 3-5pm at Exhibition Park in Canberra. Tickets are $120 and that includes your own Riedel glass, a copy of both the results catalogue and the latest edition of Halliday, Australia's best-selling wine magazine.
There is also the chance to dine, and drink, with the judges and winemakers at the awards dinner at the National Aboretum on November 24 when the final results are released. Tickets are $560 per double and include a four-course dinner and tastings of the trophy and medal winning wines.
Tickets for both events are available at rncas.org.au/national-wine-show
