"I haven't really thought about that yet - whatever happens at the national will happen - I'm just rapt to win this one."
As were the tables of his friends and work colleagues on the night.
"Yeah we kind of went into the small hours afterwards," he said.
He said the competition which was staged at the EIT had been demanding and challenging - even the slightly light-hearted side of it, which is dubbed the Vin Olympics.
The competitors were challenged to fill a jug a metre away with wine - by spitting it in, run a course carrying two jugs of wine, separate egg whites from yolks and take part in a rapid-fire identification of different varieties.
On the more serious side there were sessions involving fault-finding in wines and categorising the various production techniques for different varieties.
During the evening's events, each of the six competitors had to present a speech on the subject of "Water issues and the effects on the Hawke's Bay wine industry".
Mr Roper said his fellow competitors were all very polished and he reckoned it came down to the wire. Tom Hindmarsh from Dry River was runner-up, and like Mr Roper will also go through to the national final.
Hawke's Bay Winegrowers Association executive officer Melisa Beight said all six competitors did themselves proud and she and the judging team were equally proud of the way they all gave "100 per cent".
She said unlike last year when the women dominated the winning spots, this year the first three were all men.
"Alex excelled during the day," Ms Beight said.
"He stayed calm, cool and collected."
Mr Roper smiled and said it might have appeared that way.
"But I was a bag of nerves inside."
