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Wine critic Michael Cooper's role with Cuisine was terminated yesterday after he blew the whistle on the Wither Hills sauvignon blanc furore - even though he hasn't written up tasting notes on 157 chardonnays needed for the magazine's next issue.
Mr Cooper's suspicions led to the magazine denying
the Wither Hills sauvignon blanc an endorsement after it was discovered that a wine sent to judges was different to the version on shop shelves, as revealed by a Weekend Herald inquiry.
He spoke out this week saying he was led to believe Cuisine, owned by Fairfax Magazines, was not going to publicise the reason the wine was withdrawn.
He wanted to dissociate himself from that to protect his own integrity as a wine writer.
Mr Cooper had already resigned from the magazine for other reasons, but would still be writing a chardonnay tasting for the March issue.
Yesterday, Fairfax Magazines general manager Lynley Belton told Mr Cooper it was best that the relationship was terminated given his "prominent role" in the issue.
She said as readers now knew Mr Cooper was leaving the magazine, it would be confusing if he was still writing for it in the new year.
She had asked him to return the tasting notes for the 157 chardonnays so someone else could write them up.
He would be credited for all the work already done and he would be paid.
Mr Cooper told the Herald he would return the notes.
He stood by his comments that he believed Cuisine readers would not have been told the reasons the wine was denied a five-star rating if the furore had not been made public.
Lynley Belton has said the upcoming January issue of Cuisine magazine would have only an inserted letter explaining why the wine was not featuring in its annual New Zealand sauvignon blanc awards because the company was still going through "due process" with Wither Hills' owners Lion Nathan and the Winegrowers Association as it went to print.
An explanation would be published with the March issue.
The 2006 Wither Hills sauvignon blanc was this week also stripped of a gold medal from the country's biggest wine competition, the International Wine Show, after the Herald inquiry revealed its judges also received a sample different to that on shop shelves.
The sample came from a batch called BR315 of which 2228 cases were made out of a total run of more than 100,000 cases - essentially giving consumers a 1 in 50 chance of buying the winning wine.
A BR315 sample also won a silver medal at the industry's Air New Zealand awards, the rule for which state that "entrants are expected to ensure that wines awarded trophies and medals are reasonably available for purchase by consumers".
The New Zealand Winegrowers board will be considering its actions in relation to the medal at a board meeting on Thursday.
The Liquorland Top 100 judges also received a BR315, but the competition organiser has said the award will not be withdrawn.
