The Auswine Forum

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Best wine of the show was... the 2007 Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay!

Also interesting to see the innaugrual Gramp, Hardy, Hill Smith Prize for most outstanding wine of provenance (based on three vintages of one wine spanning more than a decade, and including the current vintage) went to the Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch. Sue Hodder was the Chair of Judges, which is a nice coincidence.

Cheers,
Ian

And the best red of the show: 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz Viognier.
Best Shiraz: 2008 Richard Hamilton Gumprs Shiraz
Was there a full moon at the time of judging?

Red Bigot wrote:And the best red of the show: 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz Viognier.

Call me cynical but I wonder if this is actually bottled and labelled yet, not just the bottles that went to the show but the shed fulls that will lob onto retail shelves?

Spose I'd better get off this thread and see if it is available retail and go out and buy myself some bliss!

Red Bigot wrote:And the best red of the show: 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Shiraz Viognier.
Best Shiraz: 2008 Richard Hamilton Gumprs Shiraz
Was there a full moon at the time of judging?

Yeah I was a little surprised to see these come up trumps, although they have come up with some pretty wacky stuff in the past few years - it will be interesting to hear how these go at Blacktongues if Steve can source them soon.

On the plus side, I don't think you'll hear too many complaints about the 2006 Yalumba Menzies winning the trophy for best Cabernet.

Cheers,
Ian

Tasted the Yellow Label yesterday morning and was very surprised to see it got top gold in its class - thought that it was not particularly varietal and certainly not exceptional. Just about fell off my chair when I saw it won the red wine of the show. Guess there could have been some bottle variation, but doubt it. Will be interested to read Steve's notes on the "bliss"!
Cheers

Trent

Work mate went to the lonnngg lunch on Friday where you could taste all the major winners and more. I'll let you know his thoughts as he has a pretty good palate that commands respect.

Like others suggest maybe winning bottles are not representative of commercial release.

Chuck

n4sir wrote:
Best wine of the show was... the 2007 Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay!

Cheers,
Ian

No need to be shocked Ian. This could be an awesome premium Chardonnay. It's fairly expensive and the winemaking is decent. Probably Adelaide Hills fruit. I'm looking forward tasting it soon. 2007 Shaw&Smith or the 2007 Petaluma Chardonnay didn't rock my world and they are similarly priced.
I don't care if it's Wolf Blass as long as it is excellent.
Anyone out there who tasted this?

I had the pleasure of tasting it-thought it was a cracking good wine, but I guess it's the 50 million dollar question 'is it the best white wine is show'.Well, I guess it doesnt matter what me or anybody else thinks, the judging panel 'came to the consensus;' that it was/is and that is the way it is...

It was a strong class of Chardonnay it was in (Class 28), so to attract judges attention it must have shown well on the day-if you consider that 2008 Heggies Chardonnay was a Golf Medal winning wine a few weeks ago at another show, and for that wine to 'only' be awarded a Bronze in this show has to say something about having a certain amount of luck on the day (luck going both ways it seems). No bottle variation issues can be attributed here, both under screw cap. Go figure...

Next show please....

n4sir wrote:Best wine of the show was... the 2007 Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay!

I looked this up on the Wolf Blass website as I haven't seen the White Label in NZ.
The website states "The Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay and Riesling are released with at least five years of bottle age...."
which begs the question, was this a pre-release sample that no-one can buy?

The website lists the 2003 and 2004 only.

Tim Smith wrote:No bottle variation issues can be attributed here, both under screw cap. Go figure...

Many other factors come into play - even if the same judging team. Time of day, temperature of day, temperature of wine, placement of wine in flight, what the judges had for lunch, breakfast or dinner the night before, what the judges had to drink the night before, etc etc

Attila wrote:

n4sir wrote:
Best wine of the show was... the 2007 Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay!

Cheers,
Ian

No need to be shocked Ian. This could be an awesome premium Chardonnay. It's fairly expensive and the winemaking is decent. Probably Adelaide Hills fruit. I'm looking forward tasting it soon. 2007 Shaw&Smith or the 2007 Petaluma Chardonnay didn't rock my world and they are similarly priced.
I don't care if it's Wolf Blass as long as it is excellent.
Anyone out there who tasted this?

2003 vintage was only 10 bucks if you were foster's staff....

Attila wrote:

n4sir wrote:
Best wine of the show was... the 2007 Wolf Blass White Label Chardonnay!

Cheers,
Ian

No need to be shocked Ian. This could be an awesome premium Chardonnay. It's fairly expensive and the winemaking is decent. Probably Adelaide Hills fruit. I'm looking forward tasting it soon. 2007 Shaw&Smith or the 2007 Petaluma Chardonnay didn't rock my world and they are similarly priced.
I don't care if it's Wolf Blass as long as it is excellent.
Anyone out there who tasted this?

Only angling to see if I could get a couple of bites from the red Bigots out there.

If you go back ten years, the Penfolds Bin 95A chardonnay won the trophy for best wine at the Adelaide Wine Show two years in succession and I think a Peter Lehmann show reserve riesling (the 93?) did the same a few years later, so there's a history of whites doing well at the top end of judging. That said, Aussie chardy has taken a hammering in recent years, so maybe this is another sign that there's genuine improvement in what we're making.

Cheers,
Ian

Chuck wrote:Work mate went to the lonnngg lunch on Friday where you could taste all the major winners and more. I'll let you know his thoughts as he has a pretty good palate that commands respect.

Like others suggest maybe winning bottles are not representative of commercial release.

Chuck

Well he said the Shiraz viognier was OK, a little sweet, and felt it was a long way from being a gold medal winner let alone best of the best. selective barrel sample? He recalled another wine may years ago that performed the same but when it came to the commercial release it was a "loaves and fishes" exercise.

Chuck