SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION

Australia's International Wine Show. Founded 1982. European Union Accredited
Only Major International Wine Show to Judge Finalists Alongside Appropriate Food.

P O Box 210, Wentworth Falls, NSW 2782, Australia
info@top100wines.com tel +61 (0)2 4757 4400

THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR GASTRONOMIC YEAR.
Our Dégustation Banquet, where the 2013 Competition’s Highest Awards and Trophies are premiered, takes place 12 Noon, Saturday, 23 February 2013, Grand Ballroom, Hotel Shangri-La Sydney. Seven dégustation food courses are matched with the three highest pointed wines of the appropriate Wine Style Category, one of which is the Trophy winner. For example, this year’s three highest pointed wines from the Sparkling Apéritif Style Category (alpha order) 1. Champagne Lanson Black Label NV; 2. Daniel Le Brun Blanc de Blanc 2002; 3. Nautilus Cuvée Marlborough Brut NV; will be presented, guests seated, with the plated Amuse-Bouche first food course. From 10.00am, (optional), prior to the Banquet, the 200+ Blue-Gold Award winners will be presented in their thirteen separate Wine Style Categories in civilised tasting circumstances. Another feature, our Banquet’s Key Note Speaker this year, Mr James Gosper, General Manager-Market Development-Wine Australia, will outline key new strategic marketing and promotional initiatives for Australian wines, domestically and internationally. You will be interested in what Wine Australia is proposing! Every year, for the past eight years, Shangri-La has offered us a Banquet of the highest quality. Our Banquet is open to all winelovers. Typically,120-160 Guests, many of them winemakers, are served by 30+ service personnel and goodness knows how many in the Kitchen Brigade, under the leadership of, and presenting the superior cuisine of Executive Chef Steven Krasicki. Here in this City, you may pay $400.00 plus for a wine/food dégustation that does not match up to this. To book for the Highlight of our Gastronomic Year, go to Events, top100wines.com.

ELEVATING THE PLEASURE - THE ROLE OF THE SOMELLIER.
“Sommeliers pair and suggest wines that will best complement each particular food menu item. This entails the need for a deep knowledge of how food and wine ...work in harmony. A professional sommelier also works on the floor of the restaurant and is in direct contact with restaurant patrons. The sommelier has a responsibility to work within the taste preference and budget parameters of the patron.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Through an exhaustive judging process carried out by thirteen highly qualified wine judges from various wine industry backgrounds embracing hundreds of years of experience, our Competition focuses on offering objective suggestions for complementing various food styles with appropriate wines.
Seems to me, there is a natural affinity between what we do and the rôle of the Sommelier. Whereas the Sommelier is one voice, one opinion, we are many, and to allay any possible impression that there is only one opinion about a given wine, we publish at least six seriously qualified Judges’ objective comments on the same wine alongside the same food dish, assessed blind in the same environment.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR EXTENSION TRAINING.
Announcing a Sydney International Wine Competition Initiative to introduce Advanced Sommeliers into Major Wine Show Judging. In particular, a Wine Show Judging where wines are judged for overall quality but also for their compatibility with appropriate food.

WE INVITE APPLICATIONS from accredited Advanced Sommeliers to join our Judging Panel next 13-18 October 2013 as Reserve Judge in Residence. You will be accommodated with the Panel Judges in their luxury Resort Hotel in the Blue Mountains. You will travel with them, dine with them, engage in their conversations over breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch, pre-dinner-drinks and dinner. You will participate in all aspects of the judging process, all at Competition’s expense. Your taped and transcribed comments on the Award winning wines will be published on the Competition’s website for comparison alongside those of senior Panel Members. As of now, you will be responsible for your own travel expenses to and from Sydney, but we may be able to find limited sponsorship for that.

We trialled this initiative during the 2013 Competition with Advanced Sommelier Tom Hogan. Here are his Reflections on the experience. If you are ready for such an experience, email me for Application details.

HOW ABOUT THESE QUOTES?
(Some) show judges are absurd. They say ”However good this wine is I’m going to give it zero because it’s got faults.” I look for qualities in wine, not faults. I‘ve no reason to look for faults. I’m a hedonist. Even if a wine is corked or reeks of sulphur, it there is something there that appeals, then I know that in there, there is something worth having. Hugh Johnson, Decanter July 2009

“I like the idea that an imperfection can actually make something even more attractive. It may strange to say, for example, that someone’s face is too perfect. Faults can actually be a turn on” Anon

And best of all: “Wine should engage our intellects, as well as our senses.”

Amen

Warren Mason
Competition Director.