Monday, 4 February 2008

Dear Friends – in Food & Wine

A day of Gastronomic fellowship ...
AWARDS & TROPHIES PRESENTATIONS BANQUET
Saturday, 1 March 2008, Grand Ballroom, Shangri-La Hotel
176 Cumberland St., The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000

Just four weeks away, the 2008 Competition's twenty-four Trophies will be presented and the complete list of TOP 1OO and Blue Gold Award winners will be disclosed in the very best possible way: for tasting!

From 10.00am to 12 noon, for Banquet Guests only, the premier Exhibition of the TOP 1OO and Blue-Gold Award winning wines precedes the Banquet. Wines worth well over $AU5,000.00 on the table, open for note-taking and discussion. Taste at your own pace. Each of the thirteen wine Style categories has its own, separate, easy access display where Award winning wines of similar palate weight can be compared and assessed. Plenty of crachoirs. This is one politically correct social occasion where it's cool to spit, (but not at each other). Participation in the Exhibition is optional, with Guests arriving ad libitum. There is a further 30 minute opportunity to re-visit the Exhibition of Award winners, to mingle with winemakers and fellow bon vivants, experience the Competition's jewels, about half way through the Banquet.

The Banquet Reception commences at 12 noon with the "Australia Day Wine of the Year", the Bay of Fires "Arras" 2002, the National Australia Day Council's 2008 Trophy winner, as chosen by the Competition's International Panel of Judges, our Apéritif. Upon seating at the dining tables in the main area of the Grand Ballroom, you will encounter the three, just poured, top Blue-Gold Award winners from the Sparkling Wines Category. As it happens, this year, all Pinot Noir dominant (French) Champagnes. These wines will be complemented by plated Amuses Gueules, instead of the Canapés you were not offered during Reception. So much easier to greet, embrace and chat with new and old friends, with only your flute in one hand.

And so it goes. Between our twenty-four Trophy Winners' "Proud Moments" presentations and photography, four hours of gastronomic Nirvana: seven dégustation sized food courses presented to complement the three top Blue-Gold Award winners in each of seven Style Categories: Sparkling, two White Categories, two Red Categories, Dessert Wines and Fortifieds. Seamless gastronomy. Wine and food as entertainment. And we can all drink to that!

Can't beat shellfish. Makes a great gift, too! To book on line, click here.

The Responsible Wine Tasting Show.
PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS OF THE TOP 1OO/BLUE GOLD WINNERS
For the serious, note taking, nose when to sniff, knows when to spit, wine geek.
Saturday, 15 March 2008. Two Sessions. The Australia Ballroom. The Menzies Hotel. 14 Carrington Street, Central Sydney CBD. Very close to major public transport: buses, ferries and trains.

Same format as described above for the pre-Banquet, premier Exhibition of the TOP 1OO and Blue-Gold Award winning wines. The difference for the Public Exhibitions in 2008 is the separation of the White Wine Session Number 1, from 10.00am to 12 noon, and the Red Wine Session 2, from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.

200+ Wines is a huge ask for even the most disciplined snifter, taster, spitter to keenly assess and make referable future wine notes. Quite soon, without appropriate food, the palate becomes less discerning. Over the past few years, a number of our more serious wine geek regulars have booked – double cost – the full Exhibition over two days, assessing only the whites on the first day and the red wine winners on the second day. Every year, others have attempted to taste their way through the entire 200+ Award winners in their thirteen style categories in one session!

Seriously, except for superwoman, to keenly assess and still make referable informative future wine notes on so many wines is almost 'mission impossible'. Ahh so ... We have split the Exhibition into two parts: Whites in the morning. Reds in the afternoon; with a goodly two recovery hours for a breather and some lunch in between. It's being called "the responsible wine tasting show".

To book on line, for either or both, click here.

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!

We, here at Competition Head Quarters, are staring down the barrel of a new 2008 Website deadline, to be launched immediately after the Banquet's revelations of the 2008 Trophy Award Winners, 1 March, 2008, with all the Judges' comments on the award winning wines, the Recipes of the dishes alongside which they were judged, the Judges' Résumés and Reflections and much more, on www.top100wines.com.

Meantime, here is a taste of the latter:

Kym Milne's Résumé
John Chua's Reflections

Best, in food, wine, fraternity

Warren Mason
Competition Director

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