I’m devouring a sausage cassoulet lunch with De Bortoli’s Steve Webber. It’s leftovers from dinner the night before, he admits, but it’s all the better for it.
I’m looking out at the vines as the rain comes down in sheets and the trees are stripped naked by the wind. Naturally we’re talking about the Yarra but I’m interested in Webber’s attitude towards wine shows. As chair of judges at the Melbourne Wine Show for the past two years, Webber has some firm views on the Australian wine show system that I’m keen to here about before we make it to dessert.
In the past six months, many of the best wines I have tasted are those that aren’t entered in competitions. Out of context, interesting or restrained wines just don’t cut the mustard in wine shows. It’s well known that the big ballsy wines tend to catch the tired judges’ palates despite many judging chiefs asking subtlety to be rewarded.
Webber agrees, “Shows reward obviousness. We are trying to change the attitude of judgesâ€
Standards have also been increased: a mere 27% of wines won a medal at the most recent Melbourne show; 43% of wines took a gong at the Royal Sydney competition. I’m happy to see fewer wines taking a bronze. I never buy a bronze medal-winning wine because it’s likely to be uninteresting, albeit technically correct. “The show system promotes sameness,†complains Webber.
“Something that’s fault-free and well-made wins a bronze. That’s not good enough for me, it has to show character. We have got to make more interesting wines that don’t have the soul fined or filtered out of them,†he adds.
By making the process more rigorous, it gives the bronze medal winners credibility rather than being also-rans. But it could be commercial suicide. Many of the bigger wine companies (mentioning no names) blanket enter their wines in every competition in the hope that they’ll get something – which they usually do. And that’s what makes money for the shows to continue running. It seems you’re damned if you do change things and you’re damned if you don’t.
Under Webber there has been a shift in attitudes at the Melbourne show, he claims. However like a sausage cassoulet, things will only improve with time.
