Nov 15: Australian media has been abuzz with a $ 7 Shiraz from the supermarket Aldi , winning Gold medal at the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge 2017, especially because it scored higher than the Bird in Hand 2013 MAC Shiraz retailing for around $350 a bottle which scored lower and won a Silver medal, writes Subhash Arora who explains that it does not mean the Aldi is overall a higher quality wine and says it was brave of them to enter the competition in the first place
About 12 years ago, Indian Wine Academy organised a blind tasting of top Chilean wines at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in conjunction with the Chilean Embassy and ProChile. We wanted to not only rate and find which Chilean wine selling In India comes out ahead in a blind tasting by a jury of eminent personalities like the Chilean Ambassador, the wine connoisseur General Manager of the Hyatt Regency and a few other stalwarts of the industry at that time.
Chilean example...
I was appalled by the lukewarm response of the importers selling high quality wines like Don Melchor, Don Maximiano and Montes Alpha on one hand (fearing the tarnishing of image and the brand if it did not make it to the Top) and the enthusiasm of one importer insisting to give us his new red wine label (it was introduced at Rs. 625 in retail) which was slightly cheaper than their regular entry level label (it is produced specifically for the Indian and Chinese market).
He insisted that the jury would rate it the Top Chilean wine in blind tasting. The situation was amicably resolved by us backtracking and saying we would take all the top wines costing over a certain price, match with Indian food and serve these wines, sharing our Tasting Notes, at a dinner to be hosted later at the Ambassador’s residence with these wines. Though the event was a huge success and created a buzz for the Chilean wines, I could not achieve our primary objective.
...Reoccurs in Australian wine
A similar situation occurred in Australia last week when a Shiraz from South Australia retailing for AUS $7 (Rs. 350) at the ALDI supermarket, One Road South Australian Heathcote Shiraz 2016 scored a Gold Medal at the 2017 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge 2017. This, soon after it won Double Gold and the Best Value Shiraz of the Year award at the Melbourne International Wine Competition (MIWC) 2017. It was also awarded the Best Value Buy at the Winestate Annual Edition in 2016.
What had the tongues wagging was the fact that it scored higher than even the Bird in Hand 2013 MAC Shiraz which retails for $350 and which scored a Silver. Other wines that rated lower than the Aldi Shiraz included a Mount Pleasant 2014 selling for AUS $ 250 and a Wolf Blass 2012 retailing at AUS$200, according to Daily Mail.
Interestingly, in the 4th edition of Melbourne International Wine Competition both the One Road and the Bird in Hand won a Double Gold in the Shiraz category.
Although one wonders about the efficacy of a competition where wines of such diverse price range and that too with wines with great brand value compete blind and side- by- side (The Chilean example I gave was to illustrate this dilemma, it brings home a point about such competitions. If there were a competition for Bordeaux wines, would the First or even Fifth Growth compete-only to see how they score in blind tasting? I think not.
Wine competitions can be strange in this respect. As Robert Joseph who co-founded International Wine Challenge in 1984 and went on to start in several countries including India, says, ‘assuming that the competition organisers are fair and professional-and a vast majority of them are, it depends on the quality of the judges, which sometimes leave much to be desired because of many rate-just to be invited again and again. Results also depend upon many other factor like the composition of a panel, their propensity to score too high or too low consistently, the spectrum of quality and as mundane factors as what time of the day it is, or if the wine is served earlier or later in the flight. They can be a barometer of the quality at present, but much less consistent in judging the age worthiness which for instance possibly made Californian wines score higher than the Bordeaux counterparts in the ‘Judgment at Paris 1976.’
Then there was this case of the infamous ‘Two Buck Chuck’ which won a gold medal in a competition a few years ago. At the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition, the $1.99 bottle of California Wine, the 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz, beat out 2,300 wines to win a prestigious double gold medal. When I told Robert he was quick to point out, ‘why not! At that point, the jury decided, it was the best wine, so it is fair to presume it was the best wine. It may have not reflected on the age-ability but the jury might have liked that style of wine making,’ he told me.
As a sideline comment one can always bring forth the argument that beyond a price varying from $20 to $50, wines are priced a lot on the branding they command-and that comes after year of consistent results and acceptance by the consumers, the style and various other factors that have earned the wine a certain reputation; thus it does not mean the One Road is a better wine, per se.
In the meantime, enjoy One Road Shiraz at AUS$7 and thank God unless Robert Parker ratings that could double the price of a wine overnight simply because it was rated higher 90s by him, prices are not jacked up significantly, if at all.. Aldi will perhaps welcome you with open arms and increase the sales several notches up. As a producer friend from Pfalz, Ralph Anselmann who has won hundreds of medals (he can’t remember the exact number) says, ‘we generally do not increase the price and try to focus on higher sales because what if we increase the price and next year there are no medals for the next vintage?’
But you as a customer get to decide whether to buy One Road or Bird in Hand, as your decision is important in determining the sale of these wines.
Subhash Arora
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