Monthly Report - September 2009

Winsor Dobbin - fix st james Sydney

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Wine Shows and the death of interesting wine…

 

Anyone who is a regular reader of my reports is aware of my concerns with the wine show system in Australia.  The past two November monthly reports gave a rundown of my impressions of the Margaret River wine show that we enter a couple of bottles in. We do not do this in the expectation of winning anything (heaven forbid that a wine other than a cabernet or chardonnay took away the gong in Margaret River!), but rather the ability to taste our way though the regions' wines and reference where everyone is heading and the overall quality of wines produced each vintage.

 

But, in all honesty the concept and continual promotion of wine shows and their winners is a futile and pointless exercise.  In fact I can say without fear, the whole system has passed its use by date and provides nothing to the consumer except the chance to peel off some gold stickers on some random bottles.  Now this is not sour grapes due to our lack of show success (we do not enter in any, bar the local Margaret River show and we have no expectation there at all – crikey our famous Bordeaux blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc is forced to compete against Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Grenache, Graciano, Nebbiolo , Sangiovese, Mouvedre, etc and blends of all the above! How enlightening for the tasting panel.), but a view which has come from being in the industry and now looking out at the consumers.

 

Wine shows were developed to help improve the “breed” and wine experts were brought into wine growing regions to help the local, often unqualified, winemakers with expert tasting knowledge and wine making expertise.  Concerns such as under / over ripeness in comparison to “best examples” could be proffered, and when wine making faults such as over sulfuring and “brett” became too prevalent, this could be highlighted as well.  But move forward to today, who in the business is not aware of the world of wine and the faults associated with wine?  Each region has so many qualified wine makers, many of the wine judges tend NOT to be winemakers but retailers or members of the press! So what does the unqualified with self-proclaimed palates bring to the table?

 

Well a load of tosh really, they highlight trends and fashions that are “opportunities” (remember the Pinot Gris fad... those were the days), and with their 4th Estate ownership we are meant to dive over the cliff lemming style.  As for the other judges, it is like a big crush of winemaking buddies who are either in the merry-go-round of wine shows or doing their very best to “crack” into the wine show circuit – in effect we the owners are sponsoring the back slapping and clasped elbow handshakes of the wine maker’s fraternity.

 

Now, you would think with all this high level of “expertise” rolling around the country snuffling through hundreds of wines and attending all their dinners with their bottles of rocking horse poo, that there would be a consistency, standard, uniformity, evenness, and constancy with the wine show results?  Well they are the best the industry has to offer apparently (judging by the standards they set themselves), but still are they at all consistent?

 

NO

 

In fact the whole system is such a lucky dip that most wineries who believe that the gold medal stickers on the front of their bottle is the reason for making wine may enter 10-20 shows on the off chance that they will do well SOMEWHERE.  What a joke it has all become, wines from Yarra in the Mt Barker shows, wines from Margaret River in the Cowra show – and yes there is every chance they will pick up a gold medal in one or two shows, and with pride they will get the stickers ordered. Mission Accomplished.  Also many shows are now so directly linked to marketing spin that it is impossible to believe some of the hype that is generated, and it also questions the representative nature of the wine samples submitted – almost too much to lose.

 

So let us run through some major points before we get to the crux of the discussion – “the death of interesting wine”

 

• Wine show results are not consistent

• There is no consistency in the judges and their methods

• Many well known wine labels do not enter in wine shows for fear of poor results (refer to the 2 points above)

• Wine shows as a source of advice to wine making communities is historic and not relevant today

• Wines can be “doctored” to ensure a greater chance on the tasting table lottery

 

So how are wine shows the death of interesting wines?  Well it is simply the way wines are judged and the fact that wine makers are very aware of what wines do well in this circus and consciously (or possibly sub-consciously), are making wines for this setting.  The big four ticks required for a wine in a wine show are:

 

1. Clear as a bell, with the deeper or brighter the colour the better

2. Must be VERY aromatic from the get go. No use having it open up 3hrs after the tasting panel has been through.

3. It must be rounded and big, no harsh acids or tannins or anything out of the ordinary (regardless of age).  Long length not necessary.

4. Varietal, varietal, varietal – any wines that confuse the judges are bad wines.

 

If you meet these criteria you have every chance of picking up a gold medal somewhere.  But are they at all interesting wine? Are they wines that show where they come from?  Are they wines with character and complexity?  Are they wines you want to drink every day?  Not a chance, but these wines are touted as the best wines in Australia.  So for decades the wine industry has gone down this path of making more and more uniform wines – throw in new tools like new chemical additions, micro ox and various fining techniques - and voila you have a nation of consistent wines that rarely excite the knowledgeable wine drinkers out there (especially in our export markets – see last month’s monthly report for further detail).

 

The multiplier effect is the presence of retailers and media personalities, who are often linked with wine shows and they promote the winners heavily.  Thus you have wine makers wanting to be part of the circuit, retailers and critics who want to use the circuit and you have often blind chance providing the results – with the only way of putting the odds in your favour is to meet the varietal guidelines.  Throw in a heavy dose of self appointed regional classification and ego from all participants and you therefore have a simple path forward to the death of interesting wine in Australia.

 

And after all of this … well we will be entering a couple of bottles in the Margaret River Wine show just for the hell of it.  It means nothing at all, BUT Gail and I get a morning off listening to some erroneous waffle and tasting through 100’s of bottles (note to self, ensure Gail practices some wine spitting or get her to wear sandals), and we get a chance to catch up with friends from around the district.

 

It is a funny business the wine game, having a product that can be praised or damned on the back of simple opinion is difficult at times for me to understand coming from a science background – but our desire to make great wine is not dented and you can be assured Blue Poles wines compares well with other examples of the styles from around the world and are delicious to drink.  So next time you see a bottle covered in gold medal stickers, think to yourself what was the point?

 

 

Weather for ducks...

 

Well it looked like everything was going along swimmingly, a couple of dry clear days in between some rain fronts and then I headed off to Melbourne and Sydney.  From this point on it was just wet and windy with an embedded hail fall or two thrown in for good measure on the last two days of the month.

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