The Wine Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) is pleased to announce that Mr Iain Riggs will take on the role of Chairman of Judges for the 2009 Macquarie Group Sydney Royal Wine Show and beyond.
Iain has a wealth of experience on the wine show judging circuit; having taken over from the late Len Evans in 2003 as Chairman of the Hunter Valley Wine Show. Previously he was, Chairman of Cowra and McLaren Vale Wine Shows, and Past Deputy Chairman of Wine Australia, the biggest wine exhibition in the southern hemisphere. He was also an inaugural board member of the Winemakers Federation of Australia, its Vice-President and President Australian Winemakers Forum.
The Committee would like to thank Mr James Halliday for all his efforts in his past three years as Chairman of the Wine Show and we look forward to his continued association with the Show.
We also welcome Mr Barry Burton, Chairman of the Hong Kong Wine Society, as our International Judge for the 2009 Show. Barry has a long history of wine writing and judging and we look forward to his involvement in the Show.
The judging process is overseen by the Chairman of Judges and includes 5 individual judging panels which are chaired by a number of leading industry experts.
Fourteen Judges and 15 Associate Judges are involved with the Show each year and each judging panel samples between 130 to 150 wines per day. A panel of three judges assesses each entry out of a total of 20 points. They are judged on 3 characteristics:
- Colour and condition (three points)
- Bouquet (seven points)
- Flavour (ten points)
Gold medals are awarded to wines achieving 18.5 points and over, Silver medals are awarded to exhibits gaining between 17 and below 18.5 points and Bronze medals are awarded to exhibits gaining between 15.5 and below 17 points.
