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Every year, in
August, AGP holds its annual Australian Pinot Noir Challenge and it's the only
one of its kind. The word Challenge is rather apt as it is different enough
to haul the judges out of their comfort zone and although it sound like a
lot of fun, (which it is) it's also a lot of hard work.
12 Judges evaluate 12
Pinot Noirs. All masked, first without food and the scores are tallied.
Then the same 12 masked Pinot Noirs are re-evaluated with a course of food.
Again the scores are tallied. Note also that the wines are not scored in
the traditional sense, but they are rated. Best wine gets a score of 1 and
worst wine gets a score of 12, ergo the wine with the lowest score wins.
Most years the winner of the Challenge 'Without' food and the winner 'With'
food are different wines, but we did have a couple of years where the
winner was the same in both categories.
This year's
Challenge, the 13th so far, was held at China Republic in Sydney and the
food was absolutely superb. If for whatever reason you have not eaten at
China Republic as yet, then you need to go and sample their wonderful Cantonese
food (and it's the only Chinese Restaurant in Sydney that does not serve
offal).
Needless to say the
service and attention to detail was impeccable and we thank Jason Ratcliffe, the GM of the restaurant for the wonderful
hospitality.
I would like to thank
China Republic for looking after us so brilliantly, all the judges for
lending us their palates and time and the Australian Wine Makers for
crafting such great wines.
Yours sincerely
Franz Scheurer
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