CAMERON DOUGLAS

Tasting and assessing 400 NZ entries was part of the challenge at the Decanter Wine Awards.

This year is the year the borders opened in earnest. I’m quite certain I was one of the first to board a long-haul flight to London from Auckland. The main reason for the trip was to take up the position of panel chair and senior wine judge at the world’s largest wine competition, the Decanter World Wine Awards. Double masking for two long stretches at 38,000 feet was worth the effort, with well over 18,000 wines to be judged in just seven days – the most since the competition began.

As one of the chairs, I oversaw the tasting and assessment of 400 New Zealand wine entries. The usual suspects were on show: sauvignon blanc was tasted every day along with pinot noir, chardonnay and fuller-bodied red wines. It was great to see syrah, viognier and riesling in the line-up as well. I am very proud of how well our wines showed and when the gold and silver wines are revealed in June, I’m sure you will be as well. All wines are judged blind by experts from disciplines such as wine writers, masters of wine and master sommeliers, with 260 judges in total.

Many great things come from a competition such as this, including the benchmarking of NZ wines, the opportunity to taste the best wines from dozens of countries and learning wine news from different continents. Highlights included tasting gold-medal quality wines from Japan, the Balkans, Canada and South America.