Whose Competition is this, and who can explain the Results?

This is a curious affair that slipped quietly by me until I saw a wine website make reference to it. There’s been very little publicity, even on the Wine Companion website. In fact the event has its own website where the winners are posted. More questions are raised by this statement: ‘This is a wine show whose [sic] only agenda is to track down, appreciate and reward the best that Australian chardonnay can offer, a philosophy we share in common with our patron, James Halliday.

James says: ‘Chardonnay is enjoying its spring weather, after a prolonged, dark winter. Winemakers, wine writers, retailers, restaurateurs and consumers are all agreed: it is better than ever before. But winemakers, being winemakers, are not content to rest on their laurels. The challenge is (as ever) to make even better wines next vintage (and each vintage thereafter) than ever before. And this is what the Challenge is all about.’

So James is the patron of this challenge, which explains why we have a dozen judges and a chairman – see below – doing most of the work. Fair enough, but it would be useful to know to what degree JH was involved here apart from lending his name to the event.  The reason I say that will become obvious when you check the results.

The Winners

The Chardonnay Challenge is now in its fourth year, and the entries ran close to 600 wines. The winner was a complete surprise to most people, including its makers Shaun and Liz Silkman. Liz has been making wines under contract for a bunch of small wineries, so she’s no stranger to the art – more in Team Silkman: Hunter wine puts Australia on notice. The story is a fairy tale similar to Michelle Payne winning the 2015 Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance. Great stuff!

• 98 – Silkman Reserve Chardonnay 2014 – $40 at United Cellars
• 97 – Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay 2013 – $90 but not yet released
• 97 – Flametree Sub Regional Series Chardonnay 2014 – $58 at the winery
• 96 – Penfolds Cellar Reserve Chardonnay 2013 – $34 in a 6-pack at Penfolds
• 96 – Comus Chardonnay 2014 – no idea where you’d get any of this
• 96 – Houghton Wisdom Chardonnay 2013 – $25 at Cracka
• 96 – Heemskerk Chardonnay 2014 – $50 at Gasworks.

The complete list of results is posted HERE, arranged by Region. I should add that no Chardonnay from Geelong scored serious points, and the same goes for Macedon. Very few wines from the Mornington Peninsula did, or Gippsland, or the Hunter Valley and Orange. Margaret River seemed to hit the right spot with these judges.

Coming from a consumer perspective, I’m always looking for consistency since these competitions should provide a reliable guide to finding great wines. Mostly they don’t, as the Great Aussie Red Challenges proved again just now. This Chardonnay challenge has produced some pretty odd results as well, with serious and expensive wines scoring 85 or NR (below 85). I haven’t tasted any of the top bracket, but know a few of the wines further down the list. It’s a huge list so please have a look and you’ll see what I mean. Below are just a few obvious picks.

The Runners-Up

• 96 points – Seville Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2014 – Not released
• 96 points – Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay 2013 – $85 at the winery
• 96 points – Xanadu Stevens Road Chardonnay 2014 – Not released but will be $70
• 96 points – Wolf Blass White Label Piccadilly Chardonnay 2014 – not released
• 96 points – Windows Estate Small Batch Chardonnay 2013 – sold out
• 95 points – Hill Smith Estate Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2013 – $25 at Wines Warehouse. I just reviewed this wine and gave it 93, but gave the cheaper Eden Valley sibling 94; it scores 88 points in this competition
• 95 points – de Bortoli Villages Chardonnay 2013 – $18 at Winestar, 91 points from Huon Hooke, 90 from the Winefront. If it really were a 95 point Chardonnay, it would be the bargain of the year.

The Losers

We’ve added other reviewers’ scores for comparison, including those from James Halliday, and the differences are dramatic:

• 89 points – Petaluma Tiers Chardonnay 2012 – this $100 wine gets 97 points from James Halliday in the HWC, and that’s why I’m asking what his involvement was with this comp.
• 88 points – Cape Mentelle Chardonnay 2013 – also gets 97 points from James Halliday
• 88 points – Seppelt Drumborg Chardonnay 2013 – scores 96 points from JH
• 88 points – Rosily Vineyard Chardonnay 2014 – we gave this wine 94 points
• 86 points – Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2014 – not released yet but made by Tom Carson, one of our top winemakers, in one of the most successful wineries in OZ.
• Not Rated – Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay 2013 – Gets 5 stars from Huon Hooke, 93 points from Gary Walsh at the Winefront
• NR – Mountadam Estate Chardonnay 2014 – not released yet but this one of Australia’s best Chardonnays, year after year
• NR – Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay 2014 is Australia’s most famous and most awarded Chardonnay, and Tyrrells say the 2014 is the best they’ve made in recent memory. The 2013 and 2012 Vat 47 were also entered and scored 92 points & 88 points respectively. The 2014 scores 94 points at the Winefront, the 2013 gets 96 points.

As I said, these are just a few of many scores that don’t make sense in the context of what we know.

The Judges

Philip Rich was the Chairman of Judges. He is the owner of Prince Wine Stores, and the rest of the judges are winemakers or come from the industry. That means the selection of winning wines will reflect current industry norms and trends, not necessarily consumer preferences. Still, that doesn’t explain the all-over-the-shop scoring.

• Adam Wadewitz, winemaker at Shaw & Smith & Tolepuddle
• Chris Crawford, Beverage Manager, Crown Melbourne,
• Gabrielle Poy, sommelier and judge
• Julian Grounds, winemaker at Innocent Bystander
• Julian Langworthy, winemaker at Deep Woods Estate
• Kate Goodman, winemaker at Punt Road Wines
• Melanie Chester, winemaker for Seppelt and show judge
• Nick Spencer, winemaker at Eden Road
• Peter Dredge, winemaker at Petaluma
• Randall Pollard, wine merchant (Randalls)
• Sam Connew, wine maker at Tower Wine and Chair of Sydney Show judges
• Sarah Crowe, winemaker at Yarra Yering
• Tim James, winemaker at Willunga 100 and show judge
• Tristan Habeck, Whole Bunch Wines (distributor)
• Virginia Willcock, chief winemaker at Vasse Felix.

Kim