KEY POINTS:
Michael Cooper, wine writer, can tell you that a week fighting giants is "absolutely gruelling. Completely draining. Physically and mentally exhausting. But it was brought to a satisfying conclusion on Thursday."
It was a week ago that Cooper blew the whistle on Wither Hills, which was found to
have submitted a bottle of sauvignon blanc to the Cuisine wine awards that differed from the bottles on supermarket shelves.
In doing so he took on giants such as Wither Hills owner Lion Nathan and the owner of Cuisine magazine, Fairfax, which stripped the winery of its five stars but did not intend to run an explanation in the same edition.
On Thursday, Cooper got his scalp - Wither Hills winemaker Brent Marris resigned as chief judge of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, gave back his medal and withdrew the 2006 sauvignon blanc from competitions.
It was a satisfying day for Cooper.
"I have had to battle a range of powerful organisations to have this information placed in the public arena."
It was a mucky week, with allegations of conflicts of interest, friendships skewing judging decisions, and repeated denials from Mr Marris that he had deliberately submitted the bottle from a different batch.
Cooper hasn't seen or spoken to the winemaker since they both stood in the offices of Cuisine and he put the Institute of Environmental Science and Research evidence of the discovery in front of Mr Marris. "I've known him for 20 years ... and we've had an amicable relationship till now."
He says some claim he was on a personal crusade against Mr Marris, but "[to] any other winemaker in New Zealand ... my response would be exactly the same".
He's also offended at claims he was responsible for damaging the industry. But he found allies aplenty, both winemakers and most wine writers.
Regrets? "None at all. Because this was an issue of principle."
* Clarification
A report in yesterday's Herald could have been taken to suggest Cuisine wine critic Michael Cooper lost his job at the magazine because he blew the whistle on the Wither Hills saga.
As previously reported, Mr Cooper had already decided to leave Cuisine to join Winestate magazine for other reasons.
Subsequent to his speaking out on the Wither Hills issue the owners of Cuisine suggested in an email that his residual work for Cuisine might terminate early so readers would not be confused to see his name in Cuisine after it was known publicly that he had departed.
