Experience helps the wine go down

Sam Kim tasting port

Judges have entered the third and final day of the Spiegelau International Wine Competition, during which they are looking, smelling and tasting their way through 1100 different wines.

Twelve judges from New Zealand and Australia have been rating wine by variety, assisted at the Marlborough Convention Centre by eight associate judges and around 20 stewards.

Competition director Belinda Jackson, from Renwick, said she believed it was the first wine competition in Australasia – and possibly the world – that had used glasses specific to their variety of wine.

"The judges are saying it is giving them a more rewarding judging experience," she said.

"A glass can't make a wine look better than it is, but it shows the wine in its truest form."

Judges had been tasting about 120 wines a day and although it was possible for tastebuds to get jaded, the ability to maintain consistency was one of the signs of a good judge.

"These guys are highly experienced. You have to give No80 the same concentration as you give numbers one and two.

"It's both the skill of tasting and the ability to translate why something tastes the way it tastes."

Judges drank still and soda water between tastings, and also ate green olives with the stones in because they contained a compound which helped to remove tannin from their mouths, said Ms Jackson.