Who are these anonymous judges that hand out Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals?  It’s true that, for most shows, the consumer has no idea of who adjudged the wine so proudly displaying a gold medal on the retailers display unit or what the individual judges’ personal opinions were.
Result?  If the consumer does not like the wine, but it has been awarded its gold medal presumably by experts, there must be something wrong with the consumer’s palate.
Of course, the reality is that there is hardly ever one single opinion, even amongst a panel of experts judges, about a given wine.  As leading wine columnist and senior wine judge Huon Hooke once said, each person’s palate is as unique as their fingerprint. 

Sydney International Wine Competition publicly displays the resumés of its judges on its popular website www.top100wines.com. Its wine finalists are judged by panels of no less than six judges, twice the number used by most shows.  Each judge judges and marks each wine independently, with no attempt to force a consensus.  Awards are granted based purely of the Panel’s aggregate marks.  Best of all, each judge tape records his/her personal opinion of each wine and these are transcribed and published on the website, visited by over 500,000 pa consumers around the world.
When reading their independent comments on each individual wine, the truism noted by Huon Hooke becomes immediately apparent.  If you don’t like a wine that has won a high award, there is nothing wrong with your palate.  Indeed, you will probably find that at least one of the six judges who assessed that wine agrees with you.

We judge the 29th Sydney International Wine Competition next month.  Again, the wines will be judged by a stellar panel, representing six countries including major export markets UK x 2, USA x 2, NZ x 2, Ireland x 1, Singapore x 1.  The six Australian Judges, from South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales are in a minority!  Six of the Panelists are Masters of Wine.  Here is our Panel for the 2010 Sydney International Wine Competition.

Chief Judge
Kym Milne  MW (AU)                 This will be Kym’s 10th appearance on our Panel, and fifth as Chief Judge and Chairman of Judges. Australian by birth and education, Roseworthy Graduate and Master of Wine, Kym first made his mark as Chief Winemaker for Villa Maria Estate in New Zealand .  He went on to lead a successful group of UK based Flying Winemakers, with wine consultancy projects all over the world.  His Master of Wine qualification is marked by him being one of just a handful of candidates passing all phases of this notoriously difficult set of exams in one year at his first attempt.  He now heads his own International Wine Consultancy from a base in the Adelaide Hills.

Returning SIWC Judges
Neil Hadley MW (AU)                 Making his ninth appearance on the our Panel, international wine marketer Neil is formerly international Brand Manager for Penfold’s Grange, currently Export Manager for Taylor’s Wines of Clare Valley, South Australia.

Tony Allen (ENG)                       Formerly a senior buyer for the Oddbins chain of liquor stores, Tony is currently Category Purchasing Manager (Wine) for Matthew Clark & Sons, the UK’s largest supplier of wine (to complement food) to the On-Trade, servicing more than 20,000 restaurants, hotel chains, airlines etc.  This will be Tony’s sixth consecutive appearance on our Panel.

Adrian Atkinson (ENG)               This will be Adrian’s fifth consecutive appearance with our Panel He is the Wine Development Director for Pernod Ricard with responsibilities that include overseeing wine development for Orlando Wyndham (AU), Montana (NZ), Palacio de la Vega (Spain), Etchart  (Argentina), Wines from Georgia etc.  He judges extensively internationally.

Steve Flamsteed  (AU)               A qualified chef, also keen skier, Steve skied Europe extensively, paying his way chefing at ski lodges and small Cafés. He discovered wine during a stagiaire stint in Beaujolais. Returning to Australia, he enrolled in the winemaking course at Roseworthy. Also a qualified cheesemaker, Steve is now Chief Winemaker/General Manager with Yarra Valley’s Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. This will be his fourth appearance with our Panel.

Ken Dobler (AU)                 Ken’s interest in food and wine evolved whilst a Sydney Uni medical student. Ken is one of a long line of doctors involved in the wine industry. His practice is in the Hunter Valley, amongst the vines.  Ken’s Show judging began in the early 1990s.  As time permits, as well as the Sydney International, Ken still judges the Canberra National Wine Show and RAS Sydney Show. This will be Ken’s fourth appearance for SIWC.

Warren Gibson  (NZ)                  Educated at Massey University and at Roseworthy College, Warren began his winemaking career in 1987, subsequently, as a Flying Winemaker, working vintages, in Australia, Italy, Hungary, France and California. Chief Winemaker at Trinity Hills Winery, Warren and his wife also own the superstar boutique Bilancia label and the Hawkes Bay La Collina vineyard. Since 1998, Warren regularly judges at all of NZ’s major wine shows.  This will be his second appearance on our Panel.

First Time SIWC Judges
Jane Boyce MW (NIR)                Jane is an independent wine consultant and freelance winewriter with twenty-eight years experience in the wine trade spanning most sectors of the business from lecturing on food and wine, buying and selling, to shipping, marketing, composition of wine lists for hotels and restaurants, wine staff training, wine writing for the Irish Times, Belfast Telegraph and various other publications. An experienced Senior Judge, she became Ireland’s first female Master of Wine in 2000.

Peter Marks MW (USA)  `           Peter is Vice President of Education, Constellation Wines, St Helena, California.  He manages the Company’s Academy of Wine team, responsible for Constellation Wines’ diverse wine education programs. After graduating Bachelor of Science  from UC Davis in 1976 with Honours in Food Service Management, he first worked as chef, then restaurant manager before entering the retail wine trade in 1981. Peter attained the Master of Wine qualification in 1995, receiving the Madame Bollinger Foundation Award for the candidate with the highest blind tasting score.  He judges widely both locally and abroad.  He is currently Education Coordinator for the Institute of Masters of Wine USA.

Chuck Hayward (USA)               Chuck is the Managing Wine Buyer for the Jug Shop, San Francisco’s largest independent wine and spirits retailer.  Starting his career as a wine writer, he has been in the industry for over twenty years and is now regarded as one of the leading American experts of the wines of Australia and New Zealand. Both he and the retailer he manages have been recognised by the wine media as one of the nation’s best resources for wines from these growing segments of the American market.  Chuck judges, lectures, and serves on tasting panels widely.  His latest venture is Tasman Wine Selections the aim of which is to showcase wines of exceptional quality from Australasian small producers whose wines deserve exposure in the American market place.

Liam McElhinney (NZ)                Born into a restaurateur family, at just thirty, since graduating BSc (Oenology) from EIT Hawkes Bay in 2003, Liam has already packed a great deal into his wine career.  He is currently Winemaker at The Ned, a 260 hectare Marlborough property, working alongside high profile Winemaker/Proprietor Brent Marris, having previously held posts as White Winemaker at Marlborough’s Saint Clair Family Estate, Winemaker at Hawkes Bay’s Trinity Hill and Assistant Winemaker/Vineyard Manager at Bilancia Wines, alongside fellow senior SIWC Panelist Warren Gibson. The wine for food ideal motivates his winemaking philosophy.

Lisa Perotti-Brown MW (SIN)      American born Lisa, with a first degree in English Literature moved to London in 1989 with an ambition to become a playwright. Reality forced her to take a paying job in a wine bar and so began her career in wine. She soon found herself managing the wine bar and, with an increasing desire for more wine knowledge, she enrolled in a course of studies at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, soon achieving their Diploma. This led to various sales and marketing roles in the London Wine Trade for the next twelve years. In 2002 she moved to Tokyo for a position as buyer for a leading importer, also lecturing at the Academie du Vin. Lisa subsequently relocated to Singapore, opening the Perotti-Brown Wine Consultancy Pte Ltd.  Lisa achieved her Master of Wine qualification in 2008.  Lisa is the e-robertparker.com Asian wine correspondent.  

Martin Williams MW (AU)            After studying Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of Sydney, Martin completed a Masters degree in Oenology and Viticulture at University of California, Davis.  Subsequently, he travelled widely working in various wine regions in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States, accumulating broad winemaking experience on three continents before settling in Victoria’s Yarra Valley.  His work with Domaine Tollot-Beaut and Domaine Anne Gros in 1988 and 1989 influenced him deeply, infusing him with a  passion for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varieties of that region. He established his Métier Wines in the Yarra Valley in 1996, co-founding the contract winemaking consultancy, Master Winemakers, in 2000.  Martin sat and completed his Master of Wine qualification in 1999.

Reserve Judge in Residence
Andrew  Kemeny  (AU)               Andrew is the younger son of Australia’s most successful, family owned independent wine retailer, Kemenys of Bondi, winner of the Australia Liquour Industries’ “Liquour Store of the Year” Award for 2008, and on numerous previous occasions. Established as a corner convenience store by the emigrant Kemeny family in 1960, Andrew, born in 1964, lived upstairs with the family above the shop and, from his earliest recollections, “helped out in the shop”. His parents, determined to give their sons best education sent him to the exclusive Sydney Boys Grammar School and subsequently to Mitchell College for a Business Marketing degree. He became “full time” in the family business at age 20, eventually managing the liquor section which has duly established Kemenys as a household name across Australia.  In this capacity, Andrew personally tastes and assesses up to 500 wines per week, offering his own imprimatur for the high selling “Best Buys” in Kemenys hi-gloss quarterly Catalogue, distributed to a mailing list of 100,000+ subscribers.