Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Regional Wine Shows

The results for the 2011 Riverina Wine Show, published on 13 September, come with a prominent headline ‘Coonawarra Cabernet Crowned at 2011 Riverina Wine Show’. The release goes on to disclose that the cabernet in question was Brand’s Laira The Patron Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, and also that the Nepenthe Ithica Chardonay 2010 won the Best White Wine trophy. The cabernet edged out the chardonnay for the trophy for ‘Best Still Wine of Show’.

While in no way quarrelling with those particular awards, this once again raises the question why regional wine shows should be open to entrants from all over Australia, with little or no prospect of the field of entries from premium table wine regions (such as Margaret River, Barossa and Clare Valleys, Coonawarra, Yarra Valley, Hunter Valley...... the list goes on) being truly representative of the best wines of those regions.

What is more, even if they were truly representative, the basic point still remains: regional wine shows should be for the wines made from grapes grown in those regions.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Totally agree, Regional shows should be a chance to for local producers to benchmark and gauge their styles againest their local peers, not take on all from other regions. if they wish to benchmark againest the rest of the country it should be done in the capital city show where context should be taken into consideration.

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