KEY POINTS:
The fallout from the storm over medal stickers and the Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc last year brought into question more than just the wine itself.
When the winemaker returned his multiple medals and resigned as chairman at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, there was a hot new
topic of discussion: how much integrity do wine awards actually have?
More pointedly, can wine drinkers trust the medal stickers that adorn bottles if they have been awarded by winemakers who also judge their own wines?
Now the Air New Zealand Wine Awards have a new chief judge, Steve Smith. He is a Master of Wine, one of only 251 in the world.
His career began outside in the vineyards as a viticulturist. He rose to become general manager at Craggy Range winery in Hawkes Bay, where he plays an active role in winemaking. And he plans to up the ante at this year's Air New Zealand awards - to give both the wine drinker and the wine industry more confidence.
Mr Smith enters his wines into competitions but he won't be entering any wines he has had a hand in making in the Air New Zealand awards. As he said when his appointment as chairman of judges became official last month, it is a matter of perception: "How could you stand up there after being involved in the judging process and, even if you didn't judge your particular wine, you basically accept a trophy from yourself?"
He plans to use more judges who taste fewer wines each, decreasing the potential for palate fatigue when judges tackle upwards of 100 wines a day.
It is not unusual in the Southern Hemisphere for a winemaker to judge his own wines, but because all wines are tasted blind, judges have no idea which wines they are tasting. Or so the argument goes.
Wines are poured at competitions while judges are out of the room. Bottles are kept in separate areas and rooms before, during and after the pouring process to keep their identity concealed.
"It is simply not conceivable to have a wine competition without winemaker judges in New Zealand, simply because in my experience they have in the most part, the best palates," Mr Smith says.
Like most people on the wine industry judging circuit, he insists that it is rare for a winemaker to recognise one of his wines even if he does come across it.
The Air New Zealand awards have a system where a judge's score does not count if he is rating his own wine, but Mr Smith would like this taken further.
"I would like to make it so that not only does their score not count, but also to remove opportunity to influence the others."
Terry Dunleavy has been organising and running national wine competitions in New Zealand since 1975, including both the National Wine Competition (now the Air New Zealand awards) and the Royal Easter Show every year since.
"In most cases, winemakers are unable to pick their own wines. With the Easter Show, because of the anonymity involved I wouldn't know at any stage - unless I go and look - whether a winemaker is judging his own wine and how he judges it.
"Having said that, that winemaker is only one of three on a panel and if his opinion was different from the other two senior members of the panel, that difference would bring into play the chairman of judges or a fourth super figure with the power to overrule, so there's no way that a winemaker could choose their own wine."
Mr Dunleavy's response to suggestions of judging impropriety is unequivocal. "I have seen no evidence of winemaker judges being able with certainty to pick their own wines from a lineup, let alone trying to favour them unduly. Even if they were to try, the system would prevent them from succeeding: each judge is part of a panel of three, all of whose marks go towards deciding the final medal."
A wine awarded a gold the first time round automatically involves the chairman of judges in a recall tasting, so that it becomes three to one in the final decision.
As to the importance of winemaker judges, Mr Dunleavy says: "It is vital that wines are assessed by professionals who are not only well qualified in their craft, but whose daily jobs involve tasting wines to identify and, where possible, rectify faults."
He adds: "It is unfortunate that in a small country like New Zealand, apart from practising winemakers (and not all winemakers are necessarily good judges) there are very few people with the requisite experienced palates and sensory perception skills."
North American wine judge Linda Murphy, who has judged at the Air New Zealand awards, believes all wine competitions need international judges to add outside perspectives.
"For countries like New Zealand that rely heavily on exporting, it's invaluable for producers to get feedback from those on the buying end abroad."
She is not in favour of all-winemaker panels. She'd like to see judges sourced from production, trade and media. "The consumer is better served when palates with different agendas come together to award medals."
So should wine drinkers hang their decisions on stickers?
Linda Murphy has some qualms. "Many of the best producers inthe world don't enter competitions, because they don't have to; theysell everything they make without going to the expense and troubleof entering competitions."
And, she adds, "a wine that wins gold this week might not win a medal next week".
And therein lies the rub, both within the wine industry and outside. The fact is that judges - be they winemakers, writers or others in the industry - do have preferences. They also get palate fatigue, they come across the same wine served at a different temperature in one competition than in another. Cork taint and the placement of a wine in a long lineup are other variables that affect the perception of a wine's quality.
This also explains why the same wine bottle adorned with a couple of gold medal stickers might sport a silver medal sticker too.
Linda Murphy's advice to shoppers is to look for producers who win medals with regularity. "It's those consistent producers I recommend, and not flashes in the pan."
Mr Smith has another solution to some of these variables.
"We need to put a system in place so that there are specialists judging different styles of wine. For example with sauvignon blanc, there are at least three or four different styles of sauvignon ... so the job of a judge is to look at the wines and say is that a good example of that style or not? It shouldn't be the judge saying, 'Well, I like that style so I'm going to give it a gold medal'."
Mr Dunleavy agrees that wine judging should not be a popularity contest.
"What is essential is that all judges have the necessary technical skills and tasting experience. At present in New Zealand, there are only a handful of non-winemakers who I rate as having that skill and background."
