This is a yearly even that is held in Australia and judged by a number of well known critics.
The Five Nations are:
Australia
New Zealand
Argentina
South Africa
Chile
The five judges select 110 different wines from their home country to compete against the wines from the other countries. For example, Bob Campbell respresented New Zealand and Huon Hook represented Australia.
They had a good broad range of different types of wine and for the most part the quality was above average.
BUT
The tasting part of the show was so poorly run, I have to question the experience of whomever was putting it on.
Let's start off with how you get a ticket in the first place:
Your options were to fax it (secure but a bit out of date).
or
E-mail it. Sounds pretty benign except only someone completely ignorant would send their credit card details over something like E-mail which is not secure. I'm not saying these people should really understand all the technical stuff behind getting credit card information but certainly doing it this way is a bit of a joke.
Don't have a secure shopping card? Have the information sent over SSL off of your website. DO NOT HAVE PEOPLE E-MAIL YOU THEIR CREDIT CARD DETAILS.
Ok so no big deal...fax it in...get the ticket (which btw was just a word document with no way to verify if you actually bought one or not).
The show was moved from its previous room at the Four Seasons to a larger room at the Four Seasons..perfect...no point in getting squeezed together...EXCEPT....
They didn't seem to have very many tables..so you had a very large room with just enough tables to fit the wine shoulder to should across all of the tables..so on the outside you had tons of free space (For what I'm not sure) and on the inside you had a ton of people squeezing in trying to get a taste.
So you had a rather unprofessionally organized event to start off...and then it gets better (worse).
It is on a Friday night...in the city...so half the people there are showing up not to taste but to get pissed drunk....People pouring each other nearly full glasses of some wine..chatting it up across the table so no one could get in..For a social event where you just want to drink some wine and come home completely off your face, it would've been great....For a tasting it was terrible.
What made this worse is there was only one bottle of any given wine. Ok, so not only are you doing this on a Friday night where you know all of the piss heads will show up and get to pour their own "tastes" but you supply a single bottle....I'm sure these wineries donated their wine for the show so I'm not sure why they'd only have a single bottle left for the tasting...who knows..
Luckily for me, I figured out that there wouldn't be enough wine to taste the ones I wanted to taste so I skipped from whites to reds for a bit and back...not exactly ideal but I would've missed out more than I did...
And finally, one of the most annoying things you can have at these events...a lack of spit buckets....There were spit buckets..small ones....spread out across the tables...but there weren't many (I'd guess about 12 in total for the entire room). This made for a terrible time if you were there to actually taste and not drink...another indication that their target market was for the after work Sydney crowd to come and get pissed on some wine..great.
There were some other minor annoying things...
The wine that they had available to buy was set aside on a different table...but no way you'd actually know that without running across it...luckily at some point I did...In many ways this was good as it ended up hiding some wine from people that I'm sure would've just come and poured themselves a few glasses full...
There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to how the bottles were placed the table except that they were in their general area. Example, Chardonnay was in the Chardonnay section...but the bottles were in alphabetical order or by vintage (which doesn't make sense to do anyways) or even by country..they were basically randomly put out across the section.....It meant if you were actually looking for something specific, it took longer than it should have..
So that was the show itself...for me, because of all the pressure to hurry up, because it was so crowded, I felt incredibly rushed...
Overall, glad I got to to but really annoyed at how it was organized...Sorry to rant about it but I figure if they ever get around to searching what people thought of the show, maybe they'll read this and make improvements...
Now to the WINE
Overall the quality of the wine was quite good...with a few very ordinary wines but for the most part, because of how the wines were selected, the overall selection was excellent.
Caro 2009 from Argentina. Consisting of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon, I had never heard of this label but was quite surprised at it its structure and complexity. Dark fruit, some herbs. It was very very tannic...but the fruit still managed to come out. The wine shifted as it was in my mouth and I was actually quite surprised. I do wish it had a bit more acid but overall this looks to be a pretty good wine in 10+ years..it'll probably take that long for the tannins to soften..
Newton Forrest Cornerstone 2009 from New Zealand. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec blend. First thing that strikes me is this is a fairly medium bodied Bordeaux blend...More red than dark fruits coming off the nose...Maybe come pencil shavings...Palate has lovely acid that gives it a great lift. It is also making it stand out from the rest of the wine I'm trying. Fruit is bright and very forward but not big and overpowering. It is mainly red fruits or maybe it is just the acid that makes it feel that way..Tannins are there but mainly for structure. The wine evolves while it is in my mouth..good complexity but not more than the Caro or a few others...but either way, this is a really nice wine, something I'd gladly drink over and over.
Penfolds Bin 169 2008 from Australia. This is a Penfolds 707 but with French Oak instead of American. It is actually quite difficult to find and I'm a bit surprised it was here. Really deep deep dark fruit. Tannins are definitely there for structure and the oak is very apparent although not as much as the 707. It actually does seem significantly more elegant than a 707 would be at this stage. It is a very well made wine, it has good complexity, good structure, good balance. There is actually nothing wrong w/ this wine but for whatever reason, it isn't exciting me either. Don't get me wrong, this is very good but for the price I'd rather get multiple bottles of other things. The best way for me to describe this is...a wine that everyone (wine geeks and non wine geeks) will enjoy and everyone will be happy drinking it...but no one will remember it later on other than to say they've had it.
Pikes "The Merle" Reserve Riesling 2011 from Australia. Slight petrol notes on the nose which is nice to see on a Riesling this young. Picking up some stoney characters as well. Really good acidity on the palate and a tad of residual sugar. The RS really helps soften the acidity just a tad but not so much where you lose it...I really enjoy Australian Rieslings done in this fashion. Completely dry Rieslings are also great but sometimes they're just overdone. To put it in perspective, I liked this more than the Peter Lehmann Wigan 2006, more than the Pewsey Vale Contours 2006 and the Grosset Watervale Riesling 2011 at least on this day.
Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay 2010 from Australia. I'm surprised but not surprised. I'm surprised that every time I come back to this wine, it is excellent. You'd think there would be more bottle variation or my palate would change or the conditions would be different so it would taste different but no...As I've stated several times before, this is a really great Chardonnay...Good acidity, good use of oak, good fruit, has good complexity, good balance. I only wish this was priced better in Australia (it is actually cheaper outside of Australia). Do I think this is comparable to the top Chardonnays in Australia? As it is tasting now yes. Will it age well? Probably...but without the proven track record it is hard to put this at the same price point. Other "new" guns like Lethbridge Allegra or Yabby Lake Single Vineyard or something from 10 Minutes by Tractor, are also up there but at a lower price point.
Boekenhoutskloof Shiraz 2009 from South Africa. I'm not very familiar with South African wine but I'm told this is fairly well known. Very complex nose with red and dark fruits, some earth, a tad bit a of leather. Palate is has nice dark fruit and a bit fruit forward but not too much. Good use of oak, very nice balance. A bit of a fruit bomb but not a fruit bomb. Silky tannins, not as much acidity as I'd like but this has very nice balance and complexity. I would like to try this again to see how it goes....
Some other wines to mention...
Navarro Correas Structura 2006. A nice Bordeaux blend but definitely more on the fruity side. This won a Trophy in its division.
Polkura Block G+I Shiraz 2009 from Chile. BIG fruit bomb. Actually quite a complex palate. Very smooth tannins, very low acidity. A bit of heat. Not sure this will get better but it will be a crowd pleaser.
Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2010 from NZ. Far more approachable than I've seen them in the past. A lot more fruit forward than I'm used to seeing them as well. Still, this was nice to have in a sea of Pinot Noir made like Shiraz.
Overall the quality is was very good..there are probably about 30 or 40 more I could mention and nearly everything there was above average so it was a good event from that standpoint. My only hope is they're far more organized the next time around...
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