2022 Wine Judging - deliberations from our judges #9

For the first two days of this week we’ve had Alex Hunt MW overseeing the judging of our wine entrants from Australia. We managed to grab a few moments of his time to hear how judging has been going…. 

“We've had exceptionally talented judges, judging generally in concord, and so as the wine judging committee member I’ve really had very little stepping in to do! So, on that front, really it's been a dream. Everything has been running quite seamlessly. 

“I would add to this, however that as far as the wines are concerned, I was hoping for more. We are all well aware that Australia, with its wealth of both viticultural and technical resources and expertise should put in an incredibly strong performance. We've had a smattering of gold medals only and I know it can do better than it has. 

“Why is this? I don't think that's because the judging was unduly harsh. I think that the wines were not, on average, up to the level that one might have hoped given that Australia has so much potential. We know this, the wines Australia is capable of producing are amazing – where were they? It seems that there's too much that is just ‘okay’ coming out of the country if the last few days are anything to go by. 

“I hope this is a bit of a wake up call to Australian producers not to rest on the laurels of their icons, but to step up their own game and start showing us that they can participate in the extraordinary potential of that country.”

The IWSC’s 2022 Wine Results will be available from 23 May 2022. Discover other deliberations from this series on our News page here.