Spiegelau International Wine Competition to contribute to industry research

Owners and organisers of the Spiegelau International Wine Competition, Wine Competition Ltd are launching a Charitable Trust to provide funding for wine industry research.

Money will be raised through the sale of bottles of wine not required during the judging process. Company Director, Belinda Jackson explains, “Companies have to supply three bottles of wine per entry, the third one only being required if the wine is re-judged as a potential trophy-winner. By selling these unopened bottles, we hope to raise in the region of $15,000 to go towards industry research or other specific industry projects.” The auction will be held at the Marlborough Convention Centre, 10am, Saturday 24 June.

Wine Competition Ltd is also launching the inaugural O-I Marlborough Wine Show in September and again unopened bottles will be auctioned with the proceeds invested back into the industry via the Charitable Trust.

With every detail now confirmed for the first Spiegelau International Wine Competition, both the management team and judges are looking forward to the event taking place next week. Mike DeGaris flying from Sydney to chair the judging says, “It’s great to be part of this exciting new show – we have a fantastic line-up of judges from New Zealand and Australia ready to tackle more than 1100 entries.”

At the end of each day’s judging, the doors will be opened for local wine industry personnel to come and taste the wines. As Competition Director, Belinda explains, “With all these open bottles of wine it would be such a waste to tip them out when we have lots of eager wine people here who’d like a chance to taste them.”

To celebrate the results, an awards dinner is being held at the Langham Hotel, Auckland on Friday 8 July. All of the gold medal-winning wines will be enjoyed during the evening as the anxiously awaited trophy winners are announced.