Judges find New Zealand wine ages gracefully

Judges find New Zealand wine ages gracefully

For the first time in this country, a New Zealand national wine competition is offering a guide to wine lovers about how their cellared wines age. The Royal Easter Show Wine Awards, which began judging at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds yesterday, has introduced a new category called “Heritage”, Each set comprises a current vintage wine with earlier vintages three or four years older.

“Traditionally, the Royal Easter Show Awards aim has been to help consumers rate the wines they can buy currently, but now we have introduced an additional category aimed at informing wine lovers who have older wines in their cellars, or assisting those who plan to buy wines for future consumption” said Terry Dunleavy, general director of the awards for the past 19 years. “This innovation is long overdue, and has won instant support from a good number of longstanding wine producers.”

Six sets of wines were judged as being worthy of high commendation by three of Australasia’s foremost wine judges, Bob Campbell MW, former Royal Easter chairman, his successor in that role, Kate Radburnd, who last year became the first woman to head a national wine judging panel, and Mike DeGaris who has chaired many panels at Australian wine competitions.

Wine sets highly commended in this year’s inaugural Heritage Category were:
Hunters Marlborough Riesling, 2010, 2007 and 2004.
Stoneleigh Riesling 2010, 2007 and 2004.
Johanneshof Cellars Marlborough Gewurztraminer, 2010,2007 and 2004.
Esk Valley Estate Reserve Chardonnay, 2009, 2006, and 2002.
Akarua Pinot Noir, 2009, 2006 and 2002
Villa Maria Estate Reserve Cabernet Merlot 2009, 2005 and 2001.

One of these wines will be named as inaugural winner of the Heritage Trophy at the Awards Dinner in Auckland on 19 March.

Mr Campbell, who acted as panel leader of the Heritage judging panel said: “Because high quality New Zealand wines are a relatively recent arrival on the world wine scene and because they tend to be released and consumed relatively quickly their ability to age gracefully is seldom considered. It is hardly surprising that many New Zealand wines do age well. They are the product of a cool climate with the sort of acidity and pH levels that winemakers from warmer areas can only dream about.

“Furthermore, the producers of some of the country’s best wines refuse to compromise quality by making their wines more accessible and earlier maturing. For their sake, and for the benefit of the entire wine sector, it’s timely to consider how well our wines age and to acknowledge those wines that perform with distinction.

“This first Heritage Award tasting was an eye-opener for me and my fellow judges. It was clear to us that New Zealand wine is capable of ageing very well indeed. The overall standard of entries was particularly high with most wines demonstrating an ability to age. It was also fascinating to see the very positive evolution of most styles, the influence of vintage and even the effect of different closures on the rate of bottle development.

“We were given the challenging task of picking just one winner from 26 sets of wines. We would particularly like to acknowledge a very strong short list of wines from which we chose the ultimate winner,”said Mr Campbell.

Ms Radburnd, current chair of Royal Easter Awards judges, said: “I am delighted to see the introduction of the Heritage Category. It provides a platform to reward both ageing ability and consistency in winemaking excellence. It is further evidence of the commitment of our wine producers to invest greater depth in the quality and long-term heritage of our wines.”

Mr DeGaris said that the Royal Adelaide Wine Show is the only competition in Australia to have introduced such a category just for reds, and in its first two years has become hugely popular with both wine producers and consumers. This makes the Royal Easter the first in Australasia to cover both reds and whites in this way.

Ends

© Scoop Media