International judge joins panel at New World Wine Awards

1 August, 2016

High profile international guest judge joins judging panel at New World Wine Awards

Sue Hodder, one of Australia’s most well-known winemakers and an international wine judge, will be part of the 13-strong team of wine judges that today begin judging the 1,325 wines entered in the New World Wine Awards 2016.

Ms Hodder said this is especially timely, off the back of her attendance last week at the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference in Adelaide, which is one of the biggest international wine conferences in the world held only every three years.

“I’m looking forward to applying insights from that and sharing them with fellow judges at the New Worlds Wine Awards. I’m also really looking forward to being a judge at this major New Zealand wine show with peers of the highest calibre,” said Ms Hodder.

The independent panel of 13 expert wine judges is chaired by Jim Harré, and includes Jane Boyle, Terry Copeland, Simon Fell, Jack Glover, Sam Kim, Dr Alastair Leggat, Alastair Maling MW, Olly Masters, Simon Nunns, James Rowan, and Barry Riwai.

The judging panel will spend three days tasting up to 120 wines a day to get through the record number of entries. They use the same internationally recognised 20-point system as all other leading wine shows. The judges will award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, with the best wines in each category re-tasted to determine the Champion wine of each varietal, plus the overall Champion Red and Champion White.

Chair of the judging panel, Jim Harré, said the New World Wine Awards has grown year-on-year to become such an important fixture on the wine calendar because of the credibility of the awards, the benefits to winemakers, and the unique focus of this wine show on affordability and availability of wines to consumers.

In order to be eligible for entry to the New World Wine Awards the wines entered must retail for $25 or less and there must be at least 5,000 bottles available for sale. This ensures the award-winning wines are more accessible for wine lovers than is often the case for other wine awards.

“The New World Wine Awards occupies an important niche, which recognises that wine lovers today are spoilt for choice, so they value having the guesswork taken out of choosing an affordable wine that is also high quality as judged by independent wine experts,” said Mr Harré.

As well as Sue Hodder, who has judged at wine shows around the world (UK, Canada, Germany and Australia), the wider panel of judges also have significant experience in judging at a range of wine shows around New Zealand and internationally. New judge, Alistair Maling, is one of the elite group of experts globally to hold the Master of Wine qualification.

“The calibre of the judging panel and integrity of the judging process are essential elements for any serious wine show, and I am delighted to welcome Sue, Alastair and Simon Fell to the judging panel for the first time, and to welcome back the other judges,” said Mr Harré.

The New World Wine Awards judging takes place from the 1-3 August at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. Award-winning wines will be announced in October 2016, and distributed nationwide in New World stores.

ENDS

© Scoop Media