Wine, glorious wine

You may know that I’m a board member and Councillor of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales. What you may not know is that as well as the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the RAS of NSW also runs the Sydney Royal Wine, Fine Food and Cheese & Dairy Produce Shows. I am committee member of all three and Chair of Fine Food.

Today’s post is dedicated to wine, glorious wine. I’ll blog about the other two shows shortly.

The Macquarie Group Sydney Royal Show wrapped up last week, after the judging panels tasted more than 2,300 wines from a myriad of varietals and styles.

The judging panels are comprised of an interesting selection of wine professionals such as winemakers, sommeliers and educators, chaired by the well-informed Iain Riggs. This year the local contingent was joined by the very charming and articulate Ch’ng Poh Tiong, a Singapore based wine commentator. His insights into selling wine in China were fascinating, pointing out that China is in fact many countries, so diverse are its regions.

As you would imagine, there were a few events associated with the wine show – both industry specific and public. One of my favourites was the Wine Communicators of Australia Trophy Winners Lunch – held last Friday at the Westin Sydney. The trophy winning wines – click here for a full list – were matched to four sublime courses. I was MCing so unfortunately didn’t have time to take any pics, but my favourite course was the entrée – an antipasto plate featuring Sydney Royal Fine Food Champions including the most sensational prosciutto and Summerland Dried Olives and the Holy Goat La Luna goats cheese.

Praying for more wine?

As usual it was quite long lunch, a great opportunity for some 350 in the wine industry to network, catch up and generally celebrate the industry. At the lunch the WCA Wine Communicator of the Year award was announced and, for the first time, given to two people: Peter Bourne for his communication of wine within Australia; and Paul Henry, for his in the export market. Both were moved to have won – only minutes before Peter Bourne found out he had also become a grandfather!

Next time you are buying wine, look out for wines with a gold, silver or bronze Sydney Royal medal affixed to the label. The hard work of selection has been done for you! All you need to do is find a glass, sit back and enjoy.

For more information about Wine Communicators of Australia including their upcoming events and membership information click here.

To see me give my wrap of the show click here.