Judgment days

I seem to spend an increasing amount of my time judging wine. I’m not talking about time spent at in my own tasting table, nor even the large generic and supermarket tastings which see me plough through several hundred wines in a day. The kind of judging I do is usually done over several days, usually involving panels of wine tasters who slurp and spit their way through flights of wines and eventually select the best for Gold, Silver or Bronze medals.

While I am committed to the International Wine Challenge held in London each year and even take along a Yorkshire Post reader to take part, I occasionally I get invited to judge overseas. I have just returned from South Africa where I was judging the Veritas Awards – an important competition for South African wines. I have also judged in Italy, France, China, Chile and Argentina.

So why do we need wine competitions? The simple answer is that medals sell wine. Around 80 per cent of all wine is sold through supermarkets and around 80 per cent of that is bought by women who probably scoop a few bottles up along with the weekly shop between going to work and doing the school run.

Busy people don’t have time to read back labels, so a few medals on the bottle and a highlighted sticker on the shelf helps decision making. This means that wine producers are keen to have their wines judged, especially if there is a chance that they will win some bling to stick on the bottle.

Wine competitions also send out vital messages to wine producers. If wines are too oaky, too heavy or just too dull, they won’t win medals, so producers take notice of trends.

Of course not all the competitions come up with the same results. It is quite easy to go through the lists of results and ask why a particular wine won gold in one competition and nothing in another. This can be down to all kinds of reasons: not all wines are submitted for all the competitions, there can be bottle to bottle variation which shows on the day and occasionally the judging panel may show preference to one particular style of wine. The grouping of wines may also have an influence since a restrained wine might not shine in overbearing company. But over the years a pattern emerges, with certain wines and producers consistently winning medals.

The results of The International Wine Challenge (IWC) and Decanter Awards were released in the same week. Here are a few highlights which are worth seeking out before they all fly off the shelves.

IWC North East Regional Merchant 2011

This award goes to the House of Townend in Hull which has moved to brand new premises at Melton on the outskirts of Hull and now has a retail shop with tasting area and a kitchen to accommodate the regular programme of food and wine tastings. You can even peer though into a temperature-controlled storage area and see the really expensive wines gathering age, but certainly not dust. This is a pleasant, airy place to buy wine with knowledgeable staff and there are usually a few wines open for tasting every day.

John Townend was delighted to win this award which clearly came as a bit of a surprise. “We have always had good wines but we have always been a bit shy about telling people how good we are. The move to Melton has provided us with the opportunity to do just that.” House of Townend delivers around the county and they are the Yorkshire Post’s partner in The Yorkshire Post Wine Club. Key wines include the deep-flavoured, blackberry and mulberry-rich Pitchfork Shiraz from Chalk Hill in Australia (£8.50) and the terrific value Aristocrate range of wines from Southern France which frequently feature in The Yorkshire Post Wine Club selections.

* Contact House of Townend on 01482 638888, www.houseoftownend.com or go shopping the old-fashioned way and call in at Melton, HU14 3BQ.

Also worth a mention is Le Bon Vin of Sheffield (0114 2560090) which was shortlisted for this award. There is a shop but the best way to contact this company is through their excellent website (www.lebonvin.co.uk) which regularly sends out newsletters and particularly keen offers on champagne and other French wines.

Trophy wines

As well as the regular gold, silver and bronze medals, most competitions award trophies for the best in each category.

Chemin de Moscou 2008 Languedoc, (£19.65 Field and Fawcett 01904 489073) a fabulous, complex Syrah-based wine from Domaine Gayda showing layers of intense red berry fruit, liquorice, spice and lively freshness on the finish.

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2005 (£30, or £23.99 on multibuy at Majestic). History is revived as this estate re-creates one of the great wines of the 1800’s with the same grape vines and the same methods as used before but with clean, candied lime flavours and caramelised nuts and spiced oranges.

Mc Guigan Shortlist Riesling 2004, Australia (£14.99 Majestic) Vintages have moved on for this wine and the 2005 vintage is now in shops but it is really good. Tasted just a couple of weeks ago, it wraps up lime, floral notes and lively citrus notes in minerally-fresh flavours.

Cave de Lugny Chardonnay, Macon-Villages 2010 (£6.99 Waitrose). Astonishingly good Burgundy for the price, with pure, clean Chardonnay fruit backed by light apricot and creamy notes.

Tagus Creek Shiraz Trincadeira 2010, Portugal, (£5.99 Asda and Tesco). Full of summer-pudding fruit, juicy tannins and a light, ripe finish.

Great Value Awards

Asda Extra Special Malbec 2010, Argentina (£6.48). Terrific flavours in this wine with dark plummy fruit and a long, spice-edged finish.

Waitrose Champagne Brut (£19.99). This wine always shines at tastings and it has deservedly won the IWC award for Great Value Champagne. Balanced, elegant with floral and toasty notes. It tastes well above its price point.

Dry Old Oloroso Sherry, Marks and Spencer (£7.49). Real sherry with complex mouth-filling flavours of orange peel, olives, spice and raisins, ending fresh, clean and fabulously dry.