The Cairns Show Wine Awards Dinner
Media Release
2008 Cairns Show Wine Awards Results
The Cairns Show Wine Awards
The Cairns Show Wine Awards has become a feature on the Australian Wine Industry Calendar in June each year. The Awards, focusing attention on wine style, appropriate foods and wine quality, are especially important in the far north of Australia with its strong tourism and hospitability industry.
The Awards are held as part of the lead up to the annual Cairns Show. Public tasting of award winning wines will be promoted at several functions held in conjunction with the Show and wine appreciation groups in the area. The Awards uphold rigorous judging expertise, but are brought to the public in an educational way. At the time of the Wine Awards, the wine must be readily available for sale to the general public in Australia.
In 2007, 913 entries from over 150 wineries were judged by a quality line up of the leading local, national and international wine judges.
This year the Cairns Show Wine Awards are honoured to announce Mrs Sue Hodder as Chair. One of Australia's best-known winemakers, Sue Hodder is the senior winemaker at Wynns Coonawarra Estate in South Australia's Coonawarra region. She has just completed her 16th vintage at Wynns. Sue has worked in Margaret River and with vintages in California and Bordeaux. Sue has judged over 50 Regional, National and International wine shows and is admired by her peers for her commitment and attention to detail. She is current chair of the Highly Respected Adelaide Wine Show. Sue has worked collaboratively with wine industry bodies such as the CSIRO Food Futures Programme, the Australian Wine Research Institute and the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Advisory Committee. In 2007, she was a session chair at the 13th Technical Conference in Adelaide.
Panel Chair positions will be filled by Mrs Jane Faulkner, Mr Andrew Spinaze and Mr Andrew Corrigan.
Jane Faulkner is the Age newspaper's wine and food writer. Apart from regular feature articles on gastronomy, she is the wine columnist in Saturday's A2 section and Epicure on Tuesday and contributes to The Age's wine magazine, Wine Style. Jane is also a restaurant reviewer for The Age Good Food Guide and judges the quide's best wine lists and is a contributor to Gourmet Traveller's yearly restaurant guide.
Andrew Corrigan, founder of the Cairns Show Wine Awards and Master of Wine is based in Queensland where he teaches wine courses and is part of the group that publishes The Harris Corrigan Wine Report and is a project manager for property and construcation work specialising in wine, liquor and hotel work.
We are also extremely glad to announce Mr Spinaze, Chief wine maker of one of Australia's flagship wineries, Tyrrells. Andrew is fortunate to count the late Murray Tyrrell as his boss and mentor. In 2004 Andrew won The Australian Gourmet Traveller and Wine Estate magazines Wine Maker of the year, the same year VAT 1 wins best wine of the Adelaide Show for the second year running.
First held in 1996, the Show prides itself on its innovations and conforms with the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology protocols govering quality assurance of the judging and stewarding processes. Under this system continuous improvements are made to the wine show process.
The Cairns Show Wine Awards aim:
1. to support the development of the Australasian Wine Industry
2. to promote wine excellence
3. to represent the best interests of wine consumers
4. to educate emerging consumers about wine so that they can develop their palates to enjoy wine in moderation
Current Trophies awarded at the Cairns Wine Awards inculde:
- Champion Wine of the Show
- Champion Red of Show
- Champion White of Show
- Best Wine for Enjoyment in Tropics
- Champion Pinot in Show
- Best Sparking Wine in Show
- Best Fortifed in Show
- Best Dessert Wine in Show
- Best Chardonnay in Show
- Best Queensland Red in Show
- Best Queensland White in Show
Australian Wine Shows provide a vital source of feedback to the Industry and over recent years the show has seen a increase in Queensland Wines as our local industry has grown.
For more information please contact (07) 4042 6630