Decanter World Wine Awards 2013 – Everyone’s a winner

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Decanter tells us that judges at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards ‘tasted a record-breaking 14,362 wines and awarded nearly 10,000 medals … This year, 219 wine experts from 27 countries, including 75 Masters of Wine and 13 Master Sommeliers, gathered in London in April to taste 14,362 wine entries from around the world …


What is fascinating, and proof of the ridiculous waste of time these events are, is the number of medals awarded: ‘A total of 9,873 wines were awarded a Decanter medal: 156 Regional Trophies, 229 Gold medals, 1,665 Silver medals, 4,165 Bronze medals, and 3,658 Commendeds.’

That means 2 out of 3 wines at this Galah Event scored a medal of some sort. I rest my case.

Kim

Perfect Grange in Ugly Discount War

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The Perfect Grange was off to an imperfect start today

Today, Grange 2008 was finally offered for sale to the public, along with Penfolds’ other icons and luxury goods. ‘Rock stars, restaurateurs and loyal mum and dad fans rubbed shoulders at the cold crack of an Adelaide dawn this morning,’ News Ltd reported, ‘ waiting for celebrated winemaker Peter Gago to open the Magill Estate doors and officially pull the first cork on the much anticipated Penfolds 2008 Grange.’

A few hours later, Fairfax media reported that ‘a price war has broken out among retailers hoping to lure buyers of the “perfect” 2008 Penfolds Grange with the lowest over-the-counter price.’ Dan Murphy’s started the war at $669, and then dropped the price to $649.99 to match Costco. Even the normally sensible Winestar got into the act with a $679.99 offer.

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Penfolds Icon and Luxury Goods 2013

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Phantasy, Propaganda and Profiteering

On May 2, Penfolds will release the 2013 Icon and Luxury Range, with the usual hype about the exulted status of these wines. Wines? No, we’re dealing with nectar from the gods. That’s what most of our wine writers tell us. Lisa Perotti-Brown from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate gave the 2008 Grange 100 points, and Penfolds promptly cranked the price up another $100.

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