[question] Question submitted by Paul Azzalini, Australia Evans & Tate “The Reserve” Shiraz Margaret River 2005. My query is your rating on the above wine being only 17.2/20… From the label the wine has won 6 Trophies from the 2008 Sydney Royal Wine Show, including Best Wine of the Show. Is there a typo with your rating of 17.2 or did you strongly disagree with the Sydney judges? I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts as i have a few of these wines but wondering whether it’s worthwhile keeping. [/question] [answer] You typically find that one particular wine wins a swag of trophies at most single major wine shows. I’d be far more interested if it won the same number of trophies across a number of different shows, in which case it could genuinely be said that it impressed a range of different people in different environments, rather than simply seducing a single group of judges. However, from a realistic perspective, wine shows are only good at picking wines that stand out from the crowd at wine shows. Trophy winners are typically brazen, up-front, concentrated and assertive. Reserved, sophisticated styles with lower levels of oak, concentration and alcohol rarely stand out, regardless of their quality. My tasting notes on this very wine say ‘tricked up show pony’ and ‘lacking the balance for the longer term’. On that basis, both the show system and I appear to be functioning just as usual… [/answer]
