The International Riesling Challenge 2018
It’s an annual event staged in Canberra, with local and overseas judges doing the tasting and the scoring. The maths always provide some overall clues. 567 Rieslings were judged in various categories, and 2 out of 3 won a medal.
- 70 gold medals
- 104 silver medals
- 205 bronze
That’s a pretty high ratio, and not uncommon these days. Winemaking standards have improved out of sight, they tell us. To be fair, the majority of medals were bronze so the marking was reasonably tough.
Photo © Chris Holly
The Crème de La Crème
Let’s just look at one category: Elite Gold Medal winners, wines scoring 96 points or more.
Here we find a surprise entry in a Jacobs Creek Classic Riesling 2018, which we can buy for $7 at Liquorland. So how did a wine mass-produced to a price win an elite gold medal? This is the lowliest wine made by Jacobs Creek. The company’s flagship Riesling is the $30 Steingarten 2017, which scored a measly 83 points, just about off the bottom of the scale.
There are lots more weird scores: the 2017 Ottelia Mount Gambier Riesling that James Halliday gove 98 points to scored just 83 points. Jim Barry’s top-of-the-tree Florita Riesling 2017 scored just 84.
Here are the highest scoring Rieslings in the under $20 stakes – scoring 96 and 95 points
- Jim Barry Lodge Hill 2018
- Eden Hall Springton Riesling 2018
- Naked Run the 1st 2018
- Leo Buring Eden Valley Riesling 2018
- Thorn-Clarke Sandpiper 2018
- Lawson’s Dry Hills Riesling 2017
I grabbed a bottle of the $7 Jacobs Creek to check my bearings, and found pretty much what I’d expect from this kind of wine: it lacks varietal character on both nose and palate – the limes and talc and minerals, let alone aromatics; the wine lacks flavour, it’s mostly an acid trip of no distinction but perhaps the judges mistook it for an austere cool climate Riesling. I used it in the kitchen, and it was OK, but I’m not tempted to buy more of it.
The question is: how can we trust the scores in these shows, given major blunders like these? Here’s the Full List of Results
The Great Australian Shiraz Challenge 2018
Another annual competition that used to be sponsored by VISI, and is now sponsored by Tonnellerie Saint Martin, a French cooperage of oak barrels. The results look a bit more consistent here, in the sense that the top-scoring wines have top-scoring prices as well, yet they’re not the expected names.
- Penfolds $100 Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz 2016 scores a bronze medal
- Peter Lehmann Stonewell Shiraz 2013 scores 16 points and costs $100
- Moppity Vineyards Escalier Shiraz 2016 scores 15.8 points and costs $130
- Kaesler Alte Reben Shiraz 2015 scores another bronze despite the $150 price tag
- Geoff Merrill Henley Shiraz 2006 scores 15.5 and costs $185
There are many similar examples. The under $20 star performers make an interesting cast as usual:
- One Road Shiraz 2017 is a $7 Heathcote red from Aldi
- GR18 Langhorne Creek Shiraz – a $10 cleanskin from Dan M’s.
- Mike Press Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2016 – $13
- Davey Brothers McLaren Vale Shiraz 2016 – $16
- Longhop Shiraz 2016 – $19
- The $23 McWilliams Wines Canberra 660 Syrah 2016 won a gold medal and the Keith Lucas Design Trophy for Best Australian Capital Territory Shiraz
I grabbed a bottle of One Road Shiraz from Aldi and found a robust, rustic red that was rough around the edges and had a short, harsh, hot finish. How anyone could get excited by a rough red like this is a mystery to me.
You can check the Full List HERE.
The Great Australian Red
This competition arranged by Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer, which celebrates the Aussie blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, is a much more predictable affair, except that the $30 Pepperjack Certified Shiraz Cabernet 2016 won best wine overall. For those of us looking for sub $20 bargains, the $14 George Wyndham I Am George Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 won the under $25 category.
Both wines are pretty obvious, big, rich and chunky reds with forward fruit, high alcohol and tannin. The Wyndham Estate features a pretty weird label showing a man’s head with grapes and a compass and other things growing out of it, against a background of tumultuous dark clouds.
Penfolds Marananga Shiraz scored a bronze medal in the Great Shiraz challenge; here the famous Bin 389 scores a silver medal. Henschke Keyneton Euphonium 2015 scored a bronze medal, as did Pepperjack Barossa Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2016. Pretty weird, given that its certified sibling won the comp!
Wynns Coonawarra Estate V&A Lane Cabernet Shiraz 2015 & 2016 also scored bronze medals, so did Yalumba FDR1A Cabernet Sauvignon & Shiraz 2015 and Yalumba’s Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2016. Treasury Wine Estates must be wondering why they bothered entering wines in this comp.
Check the full list of results HERE
Kim