My best friend Reg called me last week, and asked me if I’d seen that an Australian wine had been voted the best wine at the biggest wine competition in the world. The competition was the Decanter World Wine Awards 2024, a gargantuan event where over 18,000 wines from 57 countries were judged by 243 expert judges, including 61 Masters of Wine and 20 Master Sommeliers.
The winning wine was Shingleback’s Red Knot Classified GSM 2022, a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre. And the best part was that it sold for less than $20 a bottle, which is of course music to my ears.
Best in Show?
What got Reg so excited was this headline at 7News: Dan Murphy’s $20 Shingleback wine named ‘Best in Show’ at world’s biggest competition. The South Australian drop beat 18,000 entries from 57 countries.
Now my mate Reg loves a good story as most of us do, but the headline was misleading. The wine finished up among the 50 Best Wines in the World., but no wine was singled out as the best of this short list.
And it turned out that the good news was announced about a week before we talked about this, by which time there was none of the wine left anywhere down under. Reg had combed the internet from end to end, along with several wine-loving friends, and the wine had sold out everywhere.
Dig a Little Deeper
I said I’d do some more digging, given that I call myself a wine sleuth, and I found lots of places that stocked Red Knot GSM. The winery is owned by Endeavour, which also owns Dan Murphy’s, BWS and hundreds of those pokie pubs Woolworths got rid of when it was accused of supporting gambling addiction.
As a result, Endeavour is a massive outfit employing almost 30,000 people who’re committed to a common goal: ‘Creating a more sociable future together gives us direction and inspires us to create great work together.’
What this wonderful culture of togetherness doesn’t include is the vintage of the wines on sale at Dan Murply’s, or phone numbers for any stores you can call and check. BWS stores, are part of the same group, and do provide phone numbers if you dig deep enough. I called a bunch of them, and they were all on the 2023. I bought a sample, which really wasn’t that exciting. Vin ordinaire.
When Numbers Get Serious
The judges handed out 117 platinum medals, along with 643 gold, 5,977 silver and 8,016 bronze . that’s almost 15,000 of 18,000 entries. Did anyone not get a medal? No need to worry, there were more awards. The name of this game is selling thousands of rolls of stickers that wineries can stick on their wine labels, and this paper bling fills Decanter’s coffers with lots of real dollars.
Try as I might, I couldn’t find the number of ‘Commended’ or ‘Value’ awards handed out, but theses pyramids tend to get broader at the bottom so I wouldn’t be surprised if these two made up at least another 10,000. Did anyone not get a medal? I doubt it.