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It’s that time of year again, when an earnest group of specialists tastes more than a hundred local wines and pronounces upon them. Winners get a certificate and the right to put little stickers on the bottles they sell, telling the public of their Bronze, Silver or Gold Medals. No doubt this is the best part of the activity for the producer. For sure it helps sell. And that, in my view, is what it’s all about. But is the playing field level? Do all wines get an impartial judgment?
Watching a current UK BBC-4 series about wine, which really gets under the skin of the subject, an old thought re-occurred in my mind. A South African producer, successful in gaining awards for, and selling his Chardonnay and Cabernet, was trying to interest a Marks & Spencer buyer in his red “Pinotage” (*). The wine was acknowledged as good, but lack of public awareness of the grape variety was against it. In another sequence, judges at the International Wine Challenge also averred that little known or rare grape varieties were at a disadvantage because tasters were unfamiliar with their characteristics.
From my experience I agree with this – I can remember taking some time getting to know grapes like Grüner Veltliner, Tempranillo, Roditis and many others. If I was a judge suddenly coming upon them in a blind tasting, I do not think my markings would be very high, when considering them against the well known aromas and flavours of the ‘popular’ international grapes. So what do foreign judges make of Maratheftiko, Lefkada and Xynisteri? Last year, a judge was clearly non-plussed.
Which alarms me slightly, because familiar grapes like Chardonnay and Shiraz may win the awards that really ought to be given to Maratheftiko and Xynisteri. I hope to be proved wrong when the results come out, and which we shall bring you next week.
* Note: ‘Pinotage’ is a cross-bred South African vine, of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (which was given the name ‘Hermitage’ in South Africa). First bred in 1925, it has some of the pleasurable notes of Pinot Noir, but can be quite sharp and forward.
Patrick Skinner
Editor
