We have been showing our wines since our first vintage, 2004 for the red wines and the 2005 Chardonnay. Over that time we have had a lot of success.
We do not put medal and trophy labels on our wines – to us, this misses the value of shows. We believe that a winery’s cumulative performance in wine shows, across vintages and varieties, is one of the most valid indicators of its level of quality – not one off performances.
Shows do not get it right every time and we know that the tastes of many wine consumers may differ to those of the judges in a particular show. What wine shows do well is to bring together a team of experienced wine people to taste wines completely blind – not knowing where any wine is from or who produced it. The team makes consensus decisions.
As Winston Churchill said of democracy – “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
It’s a bit like that with wine shows – not perfect or all-wise but overall the best indicator available. But don’t get hung up whether a wine has a medal or not – it’s your judgement that matters.