In a show of cross-Atlantic unity, the Los Angeles Times has joined the chorus of a significant number of UK wine writers who for several years have taken every available opportunity to take a shot at Australian wine. What consumers of both countries share in common is a dramatically increasing appetite for our wine, and the growth of sales in each has been little short of spectacular. ‘The Australians aren’t as good as they’d like to think they are’ screamed last week’s headline from the LA Times, making headlines of its own all over this country. ‘We know that because we put them to the test!.’. ‘!after considerable deliberation, California ought to take a deep breath. The wines here are still better’ barked the author, a staff writer called James Ricci. ‘Sorry Australia.’ While the article in question might provide a few moments of satisfaction and succour to the large number of Californian growers whose wines are struggling to compete on a quality and value basis with those from Australia, it really was nothing more than a snow job. The taste-off only included ten wines from each country, and the local US entries included a sauvignon blanc, a chenin blanc, a pinot noir and a zinfandel. Each of the tasters would have correctly expected the Australian wines to be drawn from the varieties of chardonnay, shiraz and cabernet sauvignon. Therefore any taster whose opinion is worth listening to should have quickly identified four of the American wines in an instant, largely making the event meaningless. The others wouldn’t have been that hard to distinguish between, either. Oddly, the LA Times crew chose not to include an example of the US’s own best selling species, the white or pink zinfandel. Perhaps it might have been too obvious? When any group of people in any given country set out to prove that their own country’s wine is better than that of any other, they invariably succeed. Of course the same sort of thing has happened over here, but not necessarily to such a disproportionate fanfare. From memory, the last time that there was a genuine attempt at an impartial taste-off between the wines of the US and Australia it was back in the late 1980s. The Qantas Cup was conducted at Rothbury Estate, and was conducted by a first-class panel of Australian, American and European judges headed by Hugh Johnson. The Australians cleaned up and the contest has not been rescheduled since.
