THIS MAY have been the most exciting tasting we have conducted over the past 30 years, with so many angles of interest coming through. Not only was this our biggest varietal tasting ever, encompassing 790 wines, but we believe its is the world's biggest individual tasting of shiraz (syrah) wines.
But it is not just about quantity. We also wanted this tasting to reflect the best the world has to offer from a quality aspect. Accordingly, we sourced a number of the most acclaimed wines of this variety, whether by price or reputation, from our peers around the world.
Obviously, this can never be all-encompassing as each individual has his/her own view of the best up-and-coming wines, some readily available, others obscure. What we aimed to do was to present the broadly acknowledged leaders in their field - wines such as Penfolds Grange and Henschke Hill of Grace from Australia, the triumvirate of Guigal, Chapoutier and Paul Jaboulet from France and Villa Maria from New Zealand. Also included were some of the blockbuster wines achieving 90+ points from world-renowned wine critic Robert Parker.
The tasting was conducted over five days with panels of three different judges on each panel each day (except for chairman of judges Ian McKenzie, who presided over day four and day five - the trophy award day). Judges included prominent winemakers, a retailer and two masters of wine, all well versed in their craft!
On the final trophy judging day, all category winners and any wines receiving five-star awards were brought back for a final taste-off to decide our overall top 10 and ultimate winner and runners-up. The end result was quite startling and not at all what we expected.
First, two wines that we expected to do well, Penfolds Grange and Grant Burge Meshach, were both corked. As we only had one bottle available of each they could go no further. (It should be pointed out that this does not mean that all bottles of those wines are corked; our experience of all wines judged indicates a 6-7% corked result).
Second, the highly pointed Parker wines Clarendon Hills Astralis 2002, and Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road 2002 did not make the cut, along with the highly rated French star Paul Jaboulet La Chapelle 2003. Other French yardstick wines, such as Domaine Gilles Robin Cuvee Alberic Bouvet Croze Hermitage 2004 also missed out.
This was a massive tasting by any account, and readers should find great interest in the category winners and those that performed well in the various price categories. We commend these wines to you!
Peter Simic