Day One and Two
We basically took care of the logistics by trasnporting the wines, glasses and other needed stuff to the venue. The event was held at ANZAC stadium at one of those VIP rooms overlooking the entire field.
The set-up
What we did was:
- Transport wines, glasses, and logistics to room
- Set up tables for wine judging. We covered the tables with paper and then plastic. On the plastic, we drew lines to indicate the areas where the different glasses of wine will be placed along with the numbers of the wine. Note that the judges do not know the wines they are tasting and they will only be able to identify what wines they are tasting according to the number that the glass of wine is sitting on.
- Separate the wines into different classes. For example, Shiraz can go to the Shiraz or Shiraz Viognier class, White wines and red wines are separated.
- Arrange the wines in order what is to be tasted from first to last. Then, label each bottle with a sticker. The sticker has the order number of the wines to be tasted.
- Check the wines in that class against the list we have containing the brand, producer, origin, vintage, varietal etc. Ensure that the wines are in order of tasting and what wines are missing.
- Wash all glasses and dry them. I think we washed over 700 glasses.
- Prepare the spit buckets and feel them with sawdust. The sawdust is to prevent the wines from splashing out of the buckets when the judges spit into them. Place the buckets on carpets so that any dribbles won't tarnish the floor.
Checking the bottles
That's what we did for Day One and Two. Basically, it lots of checking and double checking that we will be serving the right wines in the right order, otherwise, we would be giving the awards to a different wine producer since the judges do not know the wines they are tasting except for the grape type and vintage.
Look at all these wines
Day Three to Five
The judges came in at 8.30 in the morning. The judges make up some of the best and seasoned palates in Australia so this is serious business. They have a lot of reputation going for them here. They sat around the table and the chairman started his brief.
How does the wine judging work? Each class of wine is made up of one panel of judges. One panel consists of three judges and one associate judge. The associate's score does not count and his purpose of being there is to score the wines and see if it is consistent to the other judges. The associate is there to learn from the senior judges.
The wines are graded using a 20 point system split into units of 0.5. A wine being given a score of 15.5-16.9 is a bronze, 17 - 18.4 is a silver and 18.5-20 is a gold. The wines are judged bsed on 3 criteria, colour (max 3 points), aroma (max 7 points) and taste(10 points). So an average is usually 15 points and anything below 15 points is usually considered below average due to several reasons like a wine fault, out of balance, not up to the style which the judges are looking for etc. More than one medal can be awarded to each class and no medals if all the wines in that class do not reach the desired quality. Next time when you see a gold medal on the bottle, you know that it doesn't mean that it won all the rest of the other wines in the same class.
Usually the judges who are judging each class of wines would discuss and lay down the criteria of what they are looking for and people's tastes for that class. With that in mind, they will run through each wine invidually and write their notes and points on the sheets provided.
The judges are busy
During this gruelling exercise, they may call the stewards to pour them another glass to analyse the wine again or to open a second bottle if they suspect a fault in the wine such as cork taint or oxidation. All the pouring of the wine is done in the back room. The judges are not to know who has made the wine.
Once everyone in that class is done, they would regroup and combine their scores and calculate the final score out of sixty. In this period, they would look for discrepancies in each other's score. For example, if one judges score is 15 and the other is 19, they would have to work it out among themselves and give reasons to support their scores. If none of them can come to a consensus, the chairman would step in to decide what the score should be for that wine.
Finally, they would single out the best wine in that class by having the stewards repour all the wines which have scored fantastically for that class and go through each of them one by one to select the winner.
So as the judges are debating and discussing on the score, we stewards would have to clear all the glasses on their table, start washing them and setting up for the next class. The wonderful thing being a steward is that we are allowed to taste the wines(providing if we spit) that are already opened while the judges are scoring the wines.
We would break for lunch at around one plus. The food that they serve the judges and the stewards is a small gourmet buffet. Pretty fancy if you ask me with meat, seafood, salads, small assorted dessert and cheeses. I could get used to this. We also got to take home some of the bottles at the end of the show.
The judges and us at the end of the show. What a bunch of nice people.
Toni Paterson MW, Gary Baldwin with the cap, Huon Hooke - wine writer of SMH, Chris Smales of Blue Pyrenees,Caton Hicks of Langton's, Peter Leske, Philip Shaw and Peter Dredge of Petuluma (hands of his hips). The other stewards , James (bending, Julian (on the second right), and Jeremy (far right).
Julian, James, Judith aka CEO of the wineshow, me and Jeremy
At the end of the three days of judging, the judges would get to together and taste the top wines of each class. This time there isn't any 20 point system. They would rank the wines in sequence for example, if there are seven wines, they would rank the wines from one to seven. Then, they add up their total scores and decide the Wine of the Show.
Toni Paterson MW and me. My wine idol.
After the whole show is done, it's cleaning up, packing the glasses back in the boxes, clearing out all the wine bottles in the backroom and making the room look the same as it was before we used it. What a wonderful experience.
Below is a list of the results. Look out for some of these bottles in your shops.
2009 wine wards results
Wine of Show Dan Murphy’s Trophy: Blind River Wines Pinot Noir 2007 (NZ)
Estate Grown and Produced AABW Trophy: Stanton & Killeen Grand Muscat NV (VIC)
Top of Class Wines
Class 1. No 1 Family Estate NV (NZ)
Class 2. Rumball Vintage Sparkling Shiraz 1997 (SA)
Class 3. Saddler’s Creek Semillon 2005 (NSW)
Class 4. Blind River Wines, The Sisters Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (NZ)
Class 5. Hamelin Bay Chardonnay 2007 (WA)
Class 6. Eden Springs High Eden Riesling 2007 (SA)
Class 7. Swish Wine Tin Soldier Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (NSW)
Class 8. Johanneshof Cellars Marlborough Gewurztraminer 2008 (NZ)
Class 9. Knee Deep Rose 2008 (WA)
Class 10. Blind River Wines Pinot Noir 2007 (NZ)
Class 11. Protero Wines Gumeracha Merlot 2006 (SA)
Class 12. Protero Wines Gumeracha Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 (SA)
Class 13a. Mulyan Shiraz Viognier 2006 (NSW)
Class 13. Harewood Estate Shiraz 2007 (WA)
Class 14. Neagles Rock Mr Duncan Cabernet Shiraz 2007 (SA)
Class 15. Pokolbin Estate Belebula Vineyard Tempranillo 2007 (NSW)
Class 16. Johanneshof Cellars Marlborough Noble Late Harvest Riesling 2007 (NZ)
Class 17. Stanton & Killeen Grand Muscat NV (VIC)