Annual national wine competition at the Chateau

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 24, 5 November 1985, Page 1

Annual national wine competition at the Chateau

Judging at the annual national wine competition took place last week at the Chateau Tongariro. Unlike past years all judging took place at the Chateau instead of half in Auckland as in the past. Director of the competition, Jock Graham, wine writer for the New Zealand Herald and former assistant editor of that paper, said that it was better to have all the judges gathered together than splitting them. He also said that the 666 wines entered this year were judged against higher standards than in the past. "Because of the improvement in New Zealand wines it is much harder to get a medal this year," he said. The two judging panels were led by Briton Steven Spurrier and John Beeston from Australia. Mr Spurrier, a worldrespected wine authority, the author of several books and a wine merchant, has achieved the remarkable feat of running his own school of wine in Paris. "It is the only permanent

wine school in Paris and when we began in 1 972 mostly Americans and Britons came. Now it is mostly French people which we think is a bit of a coup," said Mr Spurrier. The courses at the school begin with a preliminary study, the ABC of wine, and progress to more specialised subjects such as a study of wines from Bordeaux. Mr Spurrier has judged wine in France, California and other parts of the world but this is his first time in New Zealand. John Beeston from Australia is a Sydney solicitor, the wine writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and owner of the Broken Wood Wine Boutique north of Sydney. Mr Beeston judged wine in New Zealand earlier this year at the Easter show and is a well-known judge in Australia. He believes that New Zealand wines have a great future, particularly in the rich yarietal styles of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc which he says are up with the world's best.

. "Although you are making very good reds now the big, ripe years are not as frequent in New Zealand as in Australia because of the climatic difference," he said. Mr Beeston said that standards were very good in this year's competition. The 'T' bar at the Chateau was transformed for the competition by hospital-like white screens designed to ensure the judges were separated and could not be seen by others. The wine was served in identical glasses, each denoted by number only, to make sure the tasting was totally blind. Rows of glasses containing liquids of different colours, buckets of sawdust into which tasters spat their wine after each savouring, and the tasters' white aprons, added to the clinical look. Each taster noted their comments and graded the wine for colour and class, bouquet and taste and general qualities. When each panel of tasters completed a Continued on page 2

Annual competition

Continued from page 1 class they met to compare their decisions. Chairman of judges, John Buck, who is also chief executive of Te Mata Wines, arbitrated where necessary, though he says the better the wine the more the tasters'judgements were in agreement. "My main job is to make sure the panels are working consistently," he said. Mr Buck said that international judges were very important for New Zealand competitions. "They provide invaluable style pointers and they help us to avoid a blinkered viewpoint," he said. Results of the competition were fed into a computer and this year were released at the end of the competition instead of at the end of each day as in the past.