Marlborough Wine Show Introduces New Ratings

*** MEDIA RELEASE*** 12 August 2011

Marlborough Wine Show drops gold, silver, bronze in favour of excellent, highly recommended and recommended

To better reflect the success of wines to the consumer, organisers of the inaugural Marlborough Wine Show have decided to replace gold, silver and bronze medal stickers with ‘excellent’, ‘highly recommended’ and ‘recommended’. The use of these familiar words means consumers can see at a glance just how good the wines are.

Sue White, owner of respected Marlborough producer, Whitehaven says, “We all know a bronze medal is a good wine, but it really just looks like a third place. We use gold and silver in our marketing but don’t bother using bronze awards, but would definitely use ‘recommended’.”

The Marlborough Wine Show has been launched primarily to take a closer look at the province’s sub-regions in the hope of drawing conclusions concerning the various grape varieties and wine styles based on where they are grown. Director Belinda Jackson explains, “We talk about promoting the sub-regions as the next step for the Marlborough wine industry, so we need to gather information to back up this important marketing strategy.”

She continues, “While gold, silver and bronze awards highlight good wines, we want to acknowledge them in a way that is more inclusive rather than exclusive.” The scoring system remains the same and producers will be able to quote ‘medal’ results if they so wish. John Forrest of Forrest Wines is delighted with the move.

“At last something that is more attractive to both winemakers and consumers as it says so much more. It’s great to win a gold medal but even silver, let alone bronze seems a poor cousin by comparison. These new accolades are far more exciting.”

Entries for the Marlborough Wine Show close today, Friday 12th August 2011. Enter online at www.wineshow.co.nz.

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