An interesting question. Given everyone’s tastes are different, how relevant is it, when purchasing a wine, whether it has a Gold Medal or not? I judged at the recent Air NZ Wine Awards and was delighted to see, throughout the process, so many different expressions of the various varieties recognised. The Air NZ Wine Awards are New Zealand’s pre-eminent wine competition, owned and run by NZ Wine Growers; this year celebrates 30 years of Air New Zealand’s involvement with the competition. I believe the calibre and diversity of the team of judges is one of the instrumental keys to the success of this show. It is all too easy in the process of judging a large number of wines, for wines that have lots of oak, lots of fruit, in fact, lots of anything, to stand out in the crowd – it’s not bad judging, it’s just natural. Not so at the Air NZ Wine Awards; the award winning wines include those that clearly have great fruit, excellent oak use (where applicable) and all in perfect balance, together with those wines that are on the restrained, refined side of things and equally brilliant. Furthermore, when I look now at the results, there are a variety of styles, price points and regions represented; further impressive given the large number of entries and wines reviewed over the three days. The process itself is rigorous, with numerous stages for the wines to pass through before they end up on the Gold Medal winning list.
So back to the question at hand, are they relevant? What you can be well assured of, with any of the Air NZ Award winning wines, is that these are wines of very good quality. Particularly the Gold Medal wines; to achieve a Gold, the wine has to be very smart indeed. Within the Gold Medal wines, there’s diversity of style and character that you’ll then need to match to your palate, whether that’s through purchasing a selection, coming along to one of our tastings, or talking to the team in store. You will find on the Glengarry Website a selection of the award winning wines, and today an exceptional deal on a super smart sub $15 Pinot Noir that won Gold – well worth celebrating we believe.
