Just follow the three steps to (wine) heaven
Always read the label, ask for help and consider any missteps an adventure — those are two of New Zealand’s top wine tasters’ tips for choosing a good bottle.
Jim Harre has been judging wine for the better part of three decades and this year returns to chair the New World wine awards in Wellington for the 10th time.
The awards use an internationally recognised 100-points scoring system to rank which under-$25 wines are worthy of gold, silver and bronze medals, which make the Top 50 and which are champions of their variety.
The winners will be announced and on shelves from October.
On average, 4 to 6 per cent of the wines entered will win gold, 15 per cent silver, 30 per cent bronze and about half won’t medal, says Harre.
With Harre on the 16-strong panel of independent judges, who this week will taste nearly 1400 wines in just three days, is Cameron Douglas, New Zealand’s only master sommelier.
Douglas worked for four years to earn the prestigious badge, which he said required him to turn into a walking encyclopedia about wine.
Harre reckons he judges about 7000 wines a year in international competitions.
He knows exactly what a good example of any variety should taste like and says a good bottle doesn’t have to break the bank.
The price point for a decent bottle to bring to a barbecue or have with dinner should sit between $15 and $18, he said.
In a sea of supermarket wines it could be hard for consumers to know which tipple to buy. Harre gave three guiding principles.
One, read the label. If the drinker knew which kinds of flavours they liked, the label, or wine pamphlet, would help explain what characteristics the wine had. Two, had it won any awards? “The bottom line is read the sticker — if it comes from a recognised show, then you can trust the quality of what’s in it. If it’s something that you’ve never heard of then treat it with caution,” Harre said. Competitions such as the New World, Air New Zealand, Easter Show or Cuisine wine awards had rigorous judging standards to make sure medal award winners were outstanding. Three, ask for help. Some supermarkets and bottle shops had staff specially trained to help. “If you follow those three steps, the worst-case scenario is you’re going to have an adventure and those are always fun.”