The tips and tricks of wine tasting
Did you eat garlic last night? Or spray on a touch of perfume as you left the house this morning?
Tough luck, you may have just ruled yourself out as a judge in the New World Wine Awards.
Back for its 16th year, the awards bring together 17 expert wine judges – but enter the judging room in Westpac Stadium, and there’s some important rules in place.
For three days, from July 31 to August 2, both New Zealand and international wines are sniffed, swirled and sipped to determine the best of the best.
Judge and panel leader Olly Masters has been judging wine for the last 25 years or so and is well used to the dedication required to picking out top contenders.
‘‘It can be tiring, a whole day of judging can be hard work.’’
The judges were often on their feet most of the day, standing at their own trestle tables, with the wines in front of them.
Alongside minimising strong smells, each judge is tasting blind, with no idea who made the wines set out in a row in front of them.
On day one of the tasting, 421 different wines were being tasted – to deal with the volume of wine coming through, staff hired
2000 wine glasses and over the three-day judging event, about 7000 glasses of wine are sampled.
Each glass has to be carefully washed too – at a high temperature with no detergent to interfere with the taste.
All they know is the type of wine, the vintage and the grape variety. Everything else is kept under wraps to ensure a complete blind tasting.
Masters said over the last ten years, the quality of wine had increased dramatically.
‘‘The quality across the board is very good.’’
A number of different wine awards and shows had popped up too, each one with different focuses.
‘‘They’re all very different – the New World competition focuses on a consumer point of view,’’ he said.
One of the requirements for entering the awards is that the wines must sell for $25 or less.
Each wine is given a ranking out of 100 and can be awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. A Top 50 is also selected, as well as a Champion Red and a Champion White.
The winners of the New World Wine Awards 2018 will be announced in October.