National Liquor News - February 2001
It's Cool at Bathurst Wine Show 2000
The Royal Bathurst Wine Show is not well known in Australia or NSW for that matter. It is, in fact, only two years old but now joins a long list of wine shows on the Australian wine calendar. As an associate judge at this year's Royal Bathurst Wine Show, it was enlightening to taste some 257 wines from cool climate wine regions around Australia. A 'cool climate' according to the organisers at Bathurst, refers to regions which have Heat Degree Days (HDD) under 1600 hours. They also have cool nights in the growing season, cool autumns, large variation in day time and night time temperatures, and four distinct seasons. The first Bathurst Wine Show in 1999 had some 142 wines and was chaired by Dr. 
Tony Jordan of 'Chandon' sparkling fizz fame of the Yarra Valley, Victoria. Tony was later sent by his masters to London, so this year the chief judge was Tim Knappstein of Lenswood in the Clare Valley. Fellow judges were Tony Royal of Armstrongs Winery in Victoria, international judge was Isabelle Batchellard, a wine writer and judge from France, and fellow associate judge was Sandy McKenzie from Porters at Turramurra. 

By way of introduction to this region the Bathurst Regional Vignerons Association (BRVA) was formed in January 1998 by a small group of grape growers and winemakers. Over the past year membership has expanded to include more growers, potential growers, winemakers and others with an interest in viticulture. Bathurst is in close proximity to Sydney and enroute to the wine producing regions of Cowra, Orange and Mudgee. However the Bathurst region covers the local government areas of Bathurst, Evans Shire, Oberon Shire, and Greater Lithgow City. Bathurst sits between 600 - 1000m above sea level. There are 15 vineyards in the region with a total area planted to approximately 50 hectares. Varieties planted are Riesling, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cab/Sauv, Shiraz, Cab/Franc, Pinot Noir and Sernillon.

In truth there were some disagreements between fellow judges. Isabelle Batchelard, the international judge, was at times un-compromising and had "several big disagreements". She was not impressed with many of the marks awarded to particular wines and at times appeared out of kilter with fellow judges giving many of the wines 9 and 10 out of a possible 20. As the majority of wines did not have faults, she was encouraged by the chief judge, to up her marks, but that is all part of the wine show system.

One got the impression Isabelle did not do her homework. With typical French aloofness she went on to say "when I'm not sure 1 give it bad marks (to make certain it does not win a gold medal)". Odd really, that such a young show would invite an international judge while still in its infancy. If it was public awareness they were looking for, they certainly got that (via the bush telegraph). However, Messrs Evans and Halliday would have brought them notoriety ( both electronically and in print) if only if they had been asked along to judge. Maybe next year?

At the end of the day consensus is what is required and judges Knappstein & Royal combined their considerable years of show judging experience to ensure this was achieved. While many trophies were not awarded in respective categories, this was due to there not being enough gold medals awarded in that particular class or no wines were entered in that
class. Next year it should be interesting to see if, like other shows, the number of entrants increases as the Show undoubtedly has potential to expand both domestically and internationally. Only time will tell!