Wine with Meg + Mel
The fun + frank podcast which helps you navigate the world of wine. Hosted by Australia's first female Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann, and self-titled Master of Sabrage Mel Gilcrist.
Wine with Meg + Mel
JUST IN! We taste the seriously amazing Sydney Royal Wine Show Winners
Ever wondered what $27 worth of Cabernet Sauvignon can get you? How about the prestigious Wine of Show trophy at one of Australia's most respected wine competitions?
We're in studio with crystal clear audio this week, tasting our way through the top winners from the Sydney Royal Wine Show – and the results are truly eye-opening. Among 1,500 wines entered by 261 exhibitors, we sample four standout bottles that captured the judges' attention and took home multiple trophies.
First up is Jim Barry's 2025 Clare Valley Riesling, claiming Best Value Wine at $25. This quintessential Australian style showcases the searing acidity, minerality and lime-driven character that makes our Rieslings distinctive on the world stage. We dive into why Australian Riesling consistently overdelivers at modest price points and how it ages beautifully for those patient enough to cellar it.
We're absolutely blown away by Tyrell's 2013 Vat One Semillon, which swept three major trophies: Best Semillon, Best NSW Wine, and Best Mature Wine. This iconic Hunter Valley style begins life as a delicate, low-alcohol white before developing remarkable complexity with age – honey, nougat, toast, and creamy textures while maintaining incredible freshness. At around $165 for this vintage, it represents Australia's white wine heritage as powerfully as Penfolds Grange does for reds.
The alternative varieties category brings us De Bortoli's One Line Sangiovese from Rutherglen ($24), demonstrating how warm regions are successfully diversifying beyond traditional offerings. But the most stunning revelation comes with the Wine of Show – Abbeyvale's 2023 Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon. Priced at just $27, this wine outperformed entries from prestigious producers across all categories, showing beautiful complexity, fine dusty tannins, and distinctive regional character.
Want to taste these wines yourself? Follow our Instagram for a chance to win tickets to the Grape, Grain and Graze Festival on September 20th or a collection of these award-winning bottles! And don't miss next week's episode where we interview Angus Barnes, Chair of the Sydney Royal Wine Show, answering all your questions about wine competitions and judging.
Follow us on instagram @winewithmegandmel
Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. We're here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm Mel Goodforshner, I'm a Master of Wine, meg Brotman, and there is a reason that we sound really good in yours today.
Speaker 1:We've finally upgraded to studio life after our episode with Austin last week.
Speaker 2:You can't go back.
Speaker 1:It was just so well. He did all the hard work. I just turned up with the wine. Yeah, it's just, I think makes life easier for us all.
Speaker 2:But also we were having so many tech difficulties with the mics, like you all would have heard. There was like three weeks in a row that you couldn't even hear Meg, I know, I was down like a tunnel. We didn't even really have the option to go back if we wanted to. So huge, huge, huge thank you for Producey for having us. So you all might have remembered, we were on an episode of Dylan Friends with Dil Buckley, and so those absolute legends are letting us come back, probably just because we come with wine. So we might have to leave a few things behind for the time.
Speaker 1:True, but apparently we got a listener from doing that with them. We did Darcy's mum, Darcy's mum. So shout out to Linda. We hear that you listen to us, so welcome aboard.
Speaker 2:We actually have quite a few people who I hear that from. I think we had quite a like wine niche and then we did that episode and then all of a sudden we had these like cool beginners that just like kind of wanted to have fun and I think it's done really nice things for our dynamic, for a bit more.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I agree definitely yeah, yeah but also, I think a lot of people are into wine from all walks of life, but they don't necessarily look up a wine podcast and then they hear how wonderfully entertaining we are and they're just like well, I have to listen.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, I have something of my own to say, which is thank you so much for doing the Shiraz episode while I was away.
Speaker 1:It was actually a really good episode. So, yes, we did do Shiraz. We should probably do more Shiraz, because I know that you did say, oh my God, we have so much Shiraz.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't want to do more.
Speaker 2:Shiraz. I saw one of our colleagues yesterday and he was like I know what you were doing there, that Shiraz. That was not a coincidence that they did Shiraz while you were away. I was like, yeah, I would have said no if it was me. But look, let's get into today because it's going to be really, really cool. Today we are working with the Sydney Royal Wine Show and they today it's embargoed at 3.30 of releasing the results and this podcast will come out soon after and we are going to taste the top winners from this show, which I am psyched about. Meg, we have kind of done episodes on wine shows before and we talk about how some aren't that prestigious but some absolutely carry proper weight. Tell us about Sydney Royal.
Speaker 1:So Sydney definitely is. It's the Royal Agricultural Society, so it coincides with the shows with cakes and sheep and everything. So it's all things agriculture and it's historically been associated with them and they run the show. Same as with Melbourne. Melbourne show is the same and there are probably three what we call national shows that have got importance. I guess the Queensland one as well, but mostly the Royal Sydney show, melbourne, and then there's the Adelaide show as well and these are the three national shows show as well. And these are the three national shows and because they are such great shows with such heavy sort of heft behind them, I guess they can they attract all the really good judges.
Speaker 2:And it's really interesting to say.
Speaker 1:You know, back in the day, when I was stewarding in Adelaide, when I was a student, it was all winemakers. You know, there was no one else but winemakers. And now you've got SOMs, you've got wine buyers. You've got supermarket wine buyers as well. You've got winemakers, and on each panel they usually have a range of people. So it is a great, great show. A lot of samples, there's a lot of wines to get through. I can tell you how many wines Did I read? 4,000?
Speaker 2:1,500 wines, 1,500, okay, so pretty crazy, but we are going to taste some of the top ones. We can't wait to go through them first. Meg, what have you been drinking? So I've been drinking.
Speaker 1:I went into the Loire and I used to make a lot of Anjou Blanc back in the day and I never really liked it. It was sort of 18 grams of residual sugar. We used to stop it with high doses of sulfur, which gave this really wet wool, dirty, lazy character to it. But times have changed. Obviously. That was a long time ago, so I bought a Cep by Cep. Now Cep in French is Cepage, so it means variety and Cep by Cep.
Speaker 2:It's a cute name.
Speaker 1:Anjou Blanc. I got it online, I can't remember where. It was about $35, but I say that every time. Really delicious, the acidity was definitely there. You had that green apple character, just a beautiful aperitif style of wine. It was something I just I've been buying more of it. It's not a Shannon to lay down, it literally is something that you enjoy. It's obviously bottled young because it had a little bit of spritz in it. So, just yeah, google sep by sep, which I thought was a great really cute bottle just gorgeous packaging.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to um drink outside the ordinary at the moment.
Speaker 2:I am also making a real effort to drink australian wines as well, yeah Well, we're going to have some interesting stuff to talk about next week when we have wine news, because not just drinking Australian, but we can dive into which regions or which states are most likely to drink to their local region, which is super interesting.
Speaker 1:But we also need to get your fun fact, my fun fact, in Osaka, japan, at Expo 25, Get your fun fact, my fun fact in Osaka, Japan, at Expo 25, the Portuguese unveiled a 280-gram bottle made from 80% recycled glass. So for people who don't know, the standard wine bottle is between 550 to 580. That's standard. That's not the heavyweight ones. All of the supermarkets and everything want us to go for the 425 grams. So this is almost half a standard bottle. I'm just interested to see what it looks like. I could not find a photograph of it. I mean, they had photos, but you couldn't really see whether there was a big seam, what the size of the punt was.
Speaker 2:It's great. I'm just trying to think about other stuff, like if you think about a water bottle, like plastic is so thin, like, is there other things that glass holds, like jam or whatever that has a thinner like? Yeah, why can't we do it?
Speaker 1:Sparkling is probably different, because it's there is a lightweight sparkling bottle, but it's still heavier than a normal bottle because it holds the amount of pressure.
Speaker 1:And it's held the pressure, yeah, but for pressure, um, it's all the pressure, yeah, but for table wine there is absolutely no reason. Yeah, it's just. I guess in the past, breakages on lines and things when you're bottling, um, they're probably not as sturdy, but I'd want to start. I just was. I was talking to pete about it and he said, yeah, but you probably need thicker cardboard boxes to transport it, so that kind of takes with one hand and takes, yeah, gives with another. And I'm anyway, just thought it was interesting. Good to see that people are making an effort.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I love that. And on the topic of Japan, remember we spoke about how we had this big joke about how we were going to do wine bath. Yep Anitra, who is a photographer who we love, who we've both worked with a lot, got in touch with us and thought it was hilarious and she's like if you want to do it, I'll do it. Well, she'll photograph it too. She can photograph it.
Speaker 1:I feel like we should actually do it. Did you see Austin's?
Speaker 2:Yes, he AI generated one which I really enjoyed as well.
Speaker 1:I look like I've got this big blobby nose yeah, I don't know why. And you looked old yeah, I thought but anyway, that wasn't about that.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's AI, we can't take it to heart.
Speaker 1:Well, no, if it's AI, you should be looking fucking better.
Speaker 2:You should, you should, you would think so. Okay, look, let's get into it. So Sydney Royal Wine Show a few key stats. So, as we say, 1,500 wines were entered by 261 exhibitors. They say that the show is open to all. So there's like large labels, but there's also like boutique stuff, which means there's like such a broad array of different results.
Speaker 1:That's the beauty of these big shows, which.
Speaker 2:I absolutely love. I think a lot of. I think there's this perception sometimes that, like wine, shows want to make money so everyone gets a gold medal or whatever, and so I wanted to clear the air on that one that 6.6% were gold, so not high. And what is it? Two-thirds got medals.
Speaker 1:So, don't forget, the medals are silver and bronze, and usually it does. If you look at a sort of standard deviation, it's almost like a pyramid. The bronze will be the biggest Yep, then you'll have silver Yep, and then you'll have gold as the absolute peak at the top of the pyramid, because the bronze is, on a 100-point scale, only 85 points. So a lot of wines fall into that. It's sort of you know, technically sound, varietally expressive. It doesn't have to be super special, so that kind of makes sense.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, we are thrilled to be working with Sydney Roo Wine Show to taste these results. Let's get into what we have. Meg, the first one we're going to taste one best value wine at $25.
Speaker 1:Is this the Jim Berry and Sons 2025 reason for the Clear Valley?
Speaker 2:It sure is If you had to bet your own personal money on what the best value wine would come out in an Australian wine show, would you have? It would have to be it's Riesling, right? I would bet my left arm that that would be Riesling.
Speaker 1:I just think yes, Riesling always over delivers for the price point $25. You're drinking at the topper, topper end at the top end of um. Riesling, the sort of you know you're guaranteed to get something delicious and it is beautiful, yes, um okay, so like let's have a taste.
Speaker 2:I haven't had it yet. Have you already just like gotten into everything?
Speaker 1:yeah, because it's Riesling and it's in a glass and it's 12 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2:The rule is you're not meant to drink anything so that you have your reaction. Live on the pod.
Speaker 1:Oh that is so good that is so good. I mean that beautiful acidity, that lime juice. It makes you like when you have a fruit tingle. Now your mouth goes all puckery. It will age $25, lay it down, but I would also say just drink it now in its youth because it is so delicious and this is 2025. Like. This wine has been in bottle a couple of months. You know, yeah, that's nothing. That's crazy it. This wine has been in bottle a couple of months.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, that's nothing.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. It was probably bottled in June or July, and this is the great thing you were saying this about New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that it's a really good deliverer of revenue because you don't have to hang around with it, and that's the beauty about these clear resins. But the thing that is so astounding about them is that they do age at this price point.
Speaker 2:They do, and I have found Rieslings worth $14 that are a decade old. You can find old ones sometimes and, yeah, they show, they show up. It is so nice to see and I think I got a reminder recently when I was teaching Wesset that a lot of people don't realise that our Riesling in Australia is unique to the world, like our style that is so searingly mineral and limey. And I traced it back. I went through a hole the other day and it's because we were the ones who first did cold fermentation in the 50s with it. We designed this style and then we put a screw cap on top while the whole rest of the world was still doing a sweeter style with like stone fruit notes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we also made sort of were the pioneers of very protective winemaking with carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide in the bins, and so the fruit arrived in pristine condition. You know, when I was working in France, even in the 90s, adding sulphur dioxide to the picking bins was just like.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They looked at me. I'd give them these little baggies and say one bag per bin, and they would just look at me like what are you doing? Yeah, and all it does is it's just protecting the juice from the farm to the winery. So if there's any express juice it's not going to get oxidised. And you see, even in Alsatian wine some of that bruised apple character today I had an Alsatian Riesling the other day which is not it's non-protective handling, it's slightly oxidative style of wine. So yeah, we do make world stage Rieslings.
Speaker 2:Look, absolutely no doubt about this being best value wine. I would drink this any day of the week. That is super yum Yum. The next wine we are going to taste is Best Semillon. It got Best Semillon, and then it also got Best New South Wales and Best Mature Wine. So this one, a slew of awards.
Speaker 1:So it got three trophies Best New South Wales Wine yeah, so it beat out any New South Wales Reds. Yeah. Best Mature Wine Mm-hmm. And Best Semillon.
Speaker 1:Now, usually in shows what they'll do is they will. If there's an aged wine class, they will break them up. So they would probably do a class of young Semillons and then they do a class of, say, five-year. I mean, in the case of New South Wales they're getting a lot of Semillons, so they might do a five-year-old up to five-years-old Semillon. And then what happens is the top wine of each of those is brought out and then you've got three Semillons in front of you and you have to choose which is the best, which is how you end up at best Semi-Yong. So it's a knockout system. And then you put that Semi-Yong up against all the top New South Wales wines of which there might be. You know there might be five different wines and they choose which is the best wine. So again, they knock out. And usually it's like a ranking system. So you rank one, so say you've got five in front of you, your top one is five, your bottom one is zero points.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And it just does some crazy maths and this will be delicious.
Speaker 2:The interesting thing for me is that often in wine shows it's completely blind. Right, you chair wine shows I've associate wine judge at a couple of shows and genuinely you approach a table and there is like 30 glasses and that's all you know. You can see the colour it's in the glass, that's all you know. And there are wines at different price points from different places and they might be big producers or small producers and it is such a good way to sometimes be like God. These, like big, famous wines of the world, aren't actually standing up against these smaller ones, and that's always interesting, but in this case, exactly what you think would come out did. So I just think the reputation of this wine just completely is warranted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's the Tyrols 2013 Stemion.
Speaker 2:Oh my.
Speaker 1:God, I could cry smelling that. So it's the fat one which is probably the most expensive one. The thing is with the Stemion particularly. We are seeing some new producers coming in but they have to buy their fruit. They don't have wineries. These are established wineries that have access to the best fruit. They've invested in their vineyards to grow the best fruit and this is why, year on year on year on year, tyrell's Vat One Semi-Yong, no matter what year it is, is a standout wine and it just smells of that beautiful honey, nougat, creamy creamed honey, a little bit of toast in it. The colour's still fairly bright, you know. It's moving definitely to a sort of a lemon, a medium sort of lemon for WCT people, but definite green tinge to it.
Speaker 2:It just. You've gone into all these tasting notes but it's like I'm not even there yet, like I just taste it and I'm just in awe of it. It is so good.
Speaker 1:You just want to mellow in the aromas and just sit there and go oh my God, it is so yummy and the aromas for me are probably more interesting than the palate. I love that acidity, but the aromas are just. It is so complex and layered and it's really inviting. I know that acidity, but the aromas are just. It is so complex and layered and it's really inviting. I know that sounds really wanky, but it is a really inviting wine. You want to get it into your mouth to taste it, that beautiful acidity. These only run usually around 10 to 11% alcohol, so they're not big wines because the fruit when it's young is so delicate and they have to pick it fairly low potential alcohol so they retain that fresh acidity so it just keeps the wine fresh for a really long period of time. That is stunning.
Speaker 2:And now that one from Tyrell's is. I've heard it on an international podcast. Actually, they were the ones who described it as the like if our most famous wine in Australia for red wines is Grange, this is what you would put up as the most famous white wine of Australia. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1:Well, I think we should, because it's our style whereas we see Chardonnays coming out you know, on top with Penfolds, chasing their Tabernacle Chardonnays and their high-end Chardonnays, and you know the Lewins and the Margaret Rivers that are seen within. You know the Langton's classification. There are definitely Semillons in there, but this, for me, is an iconic Australian wine, absolutely. It's quite brave of judges to pick a white wine as wine of state.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you can imagine all of the wines that are in New South Wales and they chose to have a white wine, but I can see why it is just. It is seamless, it is perfect.
Speaker 2:Oh, without a doubt. So I just looked it up. You can get Tyrell Simeon Vat wine for around $100, kind of depending where you go, what vintage you get, especially the newer ones. What's current vintage? Do you know Current vintage? The first one that's come up is Canterbury wines and it is selling for $100. Oh sorry, you mean what vintage is current vintage?
Speaker 1:Oh, it'll just be the latest one, yeah, but do you know how much it is? Because this is the thing with these wines you're paying for them to age it. So we've said this a thousand times Go out and buy yourself Valley Semillon from a producer that you like and just hide them away, because they will reward you. Even my husband likes them.
Speaker 2:Even your husband.
Speaker 1:Well, he kind of you know poo-poos, australian wine sometimes that's not from a cool climate. Wow, yeah, right, and he makes it. Okay, pete, he does love the Yarra Valley, I have to say, but he's definitely a cool climate, so the bigger, warmer regions of Australia. But he says about Hunter that it is, you know, he loves it, and he loves it with oysters, because my dad used to live on the mid-north coast, so you'd fly into Newcastle, which isn't far from the Hunter, so you get lots of Hunter Valley, semi-yong in Foster, where he lived, and they had oysters, so we'd just go and get oysters. Does he want the aged stuff with oysters? Had oysters, so we'd just go and get oysters. Does he want the aged stuff with oysters?
Speaker 2:Anything but the beauty about it was I wouldn't have aged. I feel like with oysters you imagine this crisp young stuff. This is still because some oysters are creamy. I don't eat oysters, I just know the theory of oysters.
Speaker 1:No, these ones, they're very bright. I did an oyster degustation when I was in Singapore. Every night Must be nice. Every night Must be nice. Yeah, they were flown in from the Puget Sound in Washington. Anyway, I digress. No, the beauty of it was Dad had a bottle shop just around the corner, Bogan Bottle Shop.
Speaker 1:That's where he got his stivies and they had all this old semi on, because no one drank it. It was awesome In the fridge, down the bottom $25. Oh my gosh, Every year we'd just go up and empty it out and just buy it all and take it straight into the house and it was literally down the elevator, out the door there was the bottle shop.
Speaker 2:It was great. Can I digress real quick? Yeah, my mother and father just came back from a cruise and mum, before she went, sent me the wine list. Because all these international wines, she didn't really understand. She was in Europe and I opened the wine list and she said these are all the wines that are going to be available as part of our package the whole time, so they could drink anything they wanted.
Speaker 2:First one was champagne. I didn't even look at the rest of the list. Well, I did, but I said straight away. I said, mum, that's what you drink and it's all included in the package, all included. Can you have it for breakfast? I think so. So here's this right. So my mum, bless her, listens to me. She's like oh, mal says I better drink champagne and because she has to deal with me all the time, she kind of gets champagne. Yes, but a lot of the other people didn't, and they're drinking like the Prosecco, and so because they know Prosecco is nice and that and my mum's on this boat going, no try that, bless her. She says French champagne.
Speaker 1:They probably drank them out of.
Speaker 2:So she's going to everyone try the French champagne Trust me as opposed to the Australian champagne. This is the poor beau, which is probably used to only a couple of people having a glass. Mums just converted the whole cruise ship to drink them out of champagne.
Speaker 1:Good, on her.
Speaker 2:I know, so this is absolutely wonderful. I did have a look at different vintages, so this is the same store, so we are comparing like with like the 2023 Vat One Semillon is $90 and the 2013, which we're currently drinking, is $165.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And this is a prestigious wine show, so it may go up again after this. It would not be surprising if it did.
Speaker 1:True, once they get the results out.
Speaker 2:Yes. So if you are listening right now and you go and buy some of this, it could be the time to buy it. Let's just say, but honestly, the one they got, wine of show, maybe even more so, but we will get there, because our next one that we are going to taste is best other red varietal. So we're talking varietals that aren't the main ones you would think of, which is what, namely going to be Shiraz Cabrino.
Speaker 1:Not what we call the international grape variety. So there'd be San Gvese, sagrantino, tempranillo, tempranillo In whites you might have Grunewaldlinger. Yeah, you might have Pinot Gris. No, just anything that's not international. I can't think of all the grape varieties in the world. It's a little bit hard. There is an alternative variety, isn't that?
Speaker 2:literally part of how you got a master of wine. Yeah, no, but not. It's been a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I don't you know there's too many, you don't go home and practice them every night still no, I can't even remember all the wines from Chateauneuf, all the grapes from Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So this is a debauch. I'd go for Sangiovese Rutherglen. Well, I guess it's warm like Chianti. It is warm, but I just, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I didn't actually see the region.
Speaker 1:That is interesting.
Speaker 2:But it actually makes more sense than anywhere else now that you think about it. If you think Chianti is quite hot, which is where it traditionally comes from, in Italy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yummy nose, yummy nose. For me it's probably got a bit too juicy in the mid palate, but it is a really young wine. But I can see how it stands out because it is just so refreshing. It's got that beautiful sour cherry character that I love in Sangiovese, the beautiful Sangiovese tannins. There might be a touch of oak in there, but it's really quite background.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, for me the finish is gorgeous. It bursts and it holds. It doesn't hold like a long stream, it holds like a poo. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I see why. That's what I mean, you know, with. Centervasian for me, I've always said it's like eating a sword swallowing a sword.
Speaker 2:For this it kind of goes poo using Mel's wine terminology in the middle and then kind of comes back in down the back of the line, and don't you think that's amazing, that it's challenging your expectations and giving a uniquely, maybe, australian perspective on what this grape could?
Speaker 1:be. And this is the thing when we're judging, we want it to have a varietal expression, but we're not comparing it to Chianti or Chianti Classico or Chianti Reserva or whatever. We are looking at distinctly Australian versions of this and they would be tasting them with a whole heap of other Sangioveses in there, because they would taste the red alternatives in one class and then they'd taste the white alternatives in another class and then they'd put them up against each other. Do you think there's any chance?
Speaker 2:there's a whole bunch in there. It's quite juicy. So when we say whole bunch, that is when the fermentation kind of happens inside the grape and it tends to make these really juicy, gummy, candy, delicious flavours, and even just a small amount can help like bring out this yummy perfume style.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what it does I don't know, but based on the tannins, I don't feel maybe there's some whole berry in there giving that sort of juicy vibrancy to the wine. Beautifully made wine, it is so well held together and I actually think this would age into this kind of nice savoury character that you get in Sangiovese. None of those sort of woody herbal notes that you sometimes see in Sangiovese which I those sort of woody herbal notes that you sometimes see in Sangiovese which I actually like.
Speaker 2:Me too, because I think for a young Sangiovese.
Speaker 1:you want that freshness and joy and Sangiovese is a really versatile, great variety. It doesn't have to make these. You know Super Tuscans and everything it should make really good, easy-drinking red wine styles. Well done.
Speaker 2:If you're looking for something that would be a nice class to judge.
Speaker 1:Whoever got to judge that class.
Speaker 2:I think, when I think about Sangiovese, I think people who know that they love Pinot Noir but they're getting sick of it and they're looking for the next thing. That's like easy but interesting, but nice and drinkable. Go to Sangio, and this is a great place, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, start here, yeah start here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, start literally with this bottle. So this one is $24 and it's to Borderley. What was it called? One horse, one line, one line. I don't know where I got a horse from. There's a horse on there.
Speaker 1:Oh, there is a horse on the front. There we go. Gosh, you do see things. I didn't even Just saw the one line, and it's yeah, rotherglen. So well done, rotherglen. And this is the other thing with these warm regions that have traditionally made these big reds, and people aren't buying them.
Speaker 1:They are being so agile in what they're planting and what they're making and, you know, sourcing fruit from all over Australia, because De Boerts has two wineries, one in Griffith and one in the Yarra Valley, so they can process their fruit. You know they can pick fruit from all over Australia.
Speaker 2:Well done, that's yum I just want to keep drinking that I think like I don't want to go on about it too much. But I think also sometimes something like De Bordelais, because they do goon. They get a bad rap Like people think of their low end and not everyone realises that the stuff that they do over that $20, say, price range there is some really good stuff in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, go to the Cellar Door in the Yarra Valley, and it's not just Yarra Valley wines. They've got Tempranillo, I think. We've had Grenache from De Bordelais. We've had a whole range of styles. They do a Prosecco, they do everything because they are a big company, so they can source fruit from all over, but they make it themselves. They don't have it made off-site.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really good, that's a nice one. Okay, now this last one. I'm pumped to taste, because not only was it Best Cab Sav, it then went on to be Best Red and then it went to be on Best In Show. Yeah, meg gets a Caps Out. I'm not always excited about Caps Out, but I'm excited about this one.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. Well done, judges. It is so rare for a Cabernet Sauvignon to get up as wine of show, particularly, you know this is from Australia, yeah, right, so there's going to be your little cheeky pinots in there, and we're talking. This is a show that attracts people of quality. It's not a regional show where everyone supports a regional show. It's people who truly can stand on that national stage. Yeah, and so people are behind their wines, and to see a Cabernet Sauvignon get up as wine of show, it would have had to knock out all those pesky Pinots and Syrah styles of wines and sparkling and fantastic Hunter Valley Semillon. So where's it from?
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll tell you where it's from, but let's stop there, so no.
Speaker 1:Shall I tell you where it's from, now that I've seen the label.
Speaker 2:I'm so good, say what you know, okay.
Speaker 1:No, let's taste it first.
Speaker 2:Okay okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So the first thing that I notice is it's I think it's a really young wine, because often Cabernet for me has more of that garnety terracottas edging to it, rather than this very bright, plummy red.
Speaker 2:Do you think you could pick region? From no, by smelling a wine, do you think you could pick what region it's from?
Speaker 1:Oh no, Do you know what region?
Speaker 2:it's from.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you saw Okay. No, because tannins for me are the You're just being honest, then oh really, okay, tannins for me are the defining factor for region.
Speaker 1:It's not great variety, it's not aroma or palate descriptors, it is tannin structure. Like Yarra, cabernet has a distinct tannin structure, so does Kunawara, so does Margaret River, so does Bordeaux, napa. I will be honest, I haven't drunk enough of them to be able to define them, but I think the oak and the bigness of them, the style, defines itself. Yeah, whereas so no, on the nose, I don't think you can. But it is definitely Cabernet. There's even a touch of a herbal note in there, which I'm loving, yes, and fresh blueberry.
Speaker 2:For me, one of the indicators of a really high quality wine red wine is. Normally you're going to get black fruit or red fruit, and I think when I can smell black fruit and red fruit is when I go. This is complex. So black fruit you mean like blackberry, blackcurrant, black cherry in there Exactly, and that is usually, with Cab Sav, all I get Right. I don't often get red fruit, but I do now.
Speaker 1:And what red fruit are you getting?
Speaker 2:I get a little bit of that red cherry. I almost get this like cranberry, I get a bit of what's boysenberry? Is that red or black?
Speaker 1:It's more dark but it's kind of in between I get a sort of a red curranty character.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, which yeah, and actually I do associate that with this region. You do. So maybe I need to click onto that and find that as my hook to hang my hat on. There's perfume as well, and there's floral, there's like a violet. Well, it's really interesting. I was talking, was it Kate McIntyre? When we were doing our. She said that the violets in Australia are scentless. Yes, so for those of you, if you haven't smelt violets and you don't know what they smell like, clearly don't pick them up in the garden. And I think Kate would know, because I think she is a bit of an avid gardener. She makes sourdough and everything. She does everything perfectly. So I said go and get violet cream chocolates from Hague's and violet sweets. You can buy them in a tin. So I said go and get Violet Cream Chocolates from Hague's and Violet Sweets. You can buy them in a tin. They're from France and you'll see what we mean. There is a definite perfume to this wine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, talk me through the palette. Have we disclosed? Should we just disclose where it's from or just keep going? No, let's keep going, let's keep going, okay.
Speaker 1:The tannins give it away.
Speaker 2:Do they? Yes, dusty yes.
Speaker 1:Is that what you'd call them Cooler climate? Tannins in Cabernet tend to be that Lego block. Yeah, blockiness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is much more of that dusty, what we call fine-lined finesse tannins which, for me, it takes me to Margaret River or Bordeaux.
Speaker 2:But okay, so say, we're getting like blocky tannins and that might point to like Yarra Valley, what would point to South Australia, well that's a very big state. Okay, what would point to Baroosa or McLaren Vale or Coonawarra? Okay, what would point to Barossa or McLaren Vale or Coonawarra? Okay, what would point to Coonawarra? We're saying this one.
Speaker 1:So Coonawarra tannins are more blocky, but it's hot. You're confusing us, coonawarra is actually considered to be a cool to moderate climate because it's got some maritime influence, although it does consider itself to be a continental climate. The jury's out. But it is inland. But don't forget, cabernet ripens later, so it's coming in later in the year, so when it's cooler, not during that hot peak of summer during February, it's coming in late March, early April. So you get mintiness it's big picture as well as tannin.
Speaker 2:So what's telling you that this isn't Kunawara?
Speaker 1:Oh, fruit Fruit, To start with Tannin structure. When you say fruit, what do you mean? So, like you said, that black and red fruit characteristic, it's not as dense in colour as Kunawara.
Speaker 1:Definitely not. The tannins are that much more fine-lined dusty tannin. It feels like a riper, warmer tannin. Yeah, Really beautiful use of oak. So this is a 2023 Abbeyvale Margaret River Cab Sav. Have you ever heard of Abbeyvale before? No, and this is the one thing I love about these shows. Yeah, they put up some. You know we're only seeing a tiny portion Go through when they release the results, because there will be some absolute pearlers in there that you want to go out and buy and don't just look at the trophy winners.
Speaker 1:Go and deep dive into the golds and even the silvers, because you might be able to find some absolute gems.
Speaker 2:Meg, how much would you spend on this wine? Like if you bought this at a restaurant, if you picked it up in a shop, what would you be happy paying for a wine that tastes like this?
Speaker 1:$45 to $60.
Speaker 2:Anything higher than $60, I'd be a little bit. This wine retails at $27.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, I know that's amazing Nearly fell off my seat. That's amazing. That is the headline of this episode.
Speaker 2:And that's wine of show. That's wine of show. Out of every wine that was submitted in all of Australia to this prestigious wine show, a $27 wine came out as wine of show.
Speaker 1:And the thing is people you can trust these results. These are they would have. I don't know all of the judges. I had a look at some of them. Yeah, we've got some of the preeminent wine people from all areas marketers, winemakers, soms, wine buyers from around Australia gathered in a room to taste wines. You know that you can trust these results. That's the beautiful thing about these shows, where you and they're honest about their judges, so you can actually see. So it's very transparent. Yeah, the thing is I used to enter wines in the Sydney Wine Show and you'd always do well, but just never well enough. And I can kind of see now, looking at that's the standard.
Speaker 1:The standard of wines, yeah, but to have a $27 wine from Margaret River, it excites me so much. Is it a second wine from anyone?
Speaker 2:What do you mean? Oh, like, is there a broader?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it doesn't seem to be so look, we've got a follow-up that we might both do it or just me. We'll figure it out. But we're getting Angus Barnes. Angus Angus Barnes Is the chair and you know him apparently. I know Angus Barnes so from way back when I was a wine ambassador. I was like 23 years old and I was just hooked with the wine industry and I was the only one that actually had kind of come from more of like a corporate affairs comms background and he at the time, with Pernod Ricard, was like head of corporate affairs comms. So I really like idolized him and so now it's kind of awesome that-.
Speaker 1:He's heading up one of our biggest national shows. He's heading up one of our biggest national shows. What a legend. Where is he now?
Speaker 2:I forgot We'll find out. But yeah, but like we're going to have a chat to it, like next week we are picking up the phone to Angus, we're going to ask some questions, we're going to get all this follow-up from this session. Now, the reason we're doing it next week is because I figure our listeners are going to have questions.
Speaker 1:So he's going to be bombarded once the release of the results Okay well, okay, let's be honest. He's at a lunch today.
Speaker 2:He's at a lunch today, which is why we're not talking to him exactly today, but we are talking to him next week. But I thought it was a nice opportunity. We're going to open up the Instagram.
Speaker 1:Send us your questions Brilliant idea Right.
Speaker 2:And we'll ask him Say to us, you know what was the most surprising wine? Or what does he think? What are the top picks for like best value, how?
Speaker 1:does it work? Who are the judges In these wine shows? The chair doesn't judge.
Speaker 2:Yeah so the chair.
Speaker 1:If there's discrepancy amongst wines or there's a holdout in a class on top gold, the chair will come in and say I think that's the top gold, because there is discussion. It's not like it's just everyone amalgamates their scores and then that's it. You actually have a discussion about your top golds and you choose what you're putting up from that class. So the chair's role is to A keep the show running, but make sure. Well, not make sure, just help people along if they, he or she, can be the tiebreaker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, my first one show I did you were chair and you were seen like so fancy and I was like I know her, I did, you were chair and you were seen like so fancy and I was like I know her, I know she's not fancy.
Speaker 1:We had a lot of bread at that wine show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you know what's funny at work when people are like, oh, we're doing a wine. You know, no one's allowed to bring coffee into the wine tasting. I always giggle because I'm like do you know how much coffee is consumed at wine shows? Yeah, that's right. Coffee and beer, Right. So, look, the last thing that we have to cover off is that you can also taste these wines, because the festival that we spoke about earlier, the Grape Grain and Graze Festival I think this is freaking cool, and I don't know if any other regions do this, but they take all of their winners and they give everyone a chance to taste it at a festival in the state. So it's called the Grape Grain and Graze Festival. It's in New South Wales. It's one day only and you get a ticket, so it's $120 to get in.
Speaker 1:Oh, but you're tasting beer, spirits and all, I'm assuming, the top wines from the show Shut up, listen to this Unlimited tastings of medal-winning wines. Wow, that's awesome, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:But also unlimited tastings of beer and cider, cheese and charcuterie, grazing tables, live performances oh my God, why did I not work us attending this into this contract? Clearly, I'm not on the ball, haven't you just had the horror?
Speaker 1:week from Sydney, so you don't ever want to go back again.
Speaker 2:I would go back to this. So yes, listen to this. You can add on 20 for only an extra $25. Then you get to do a medal, winning wines and cheeses in a guided tasting experience. That is only things that has earned gold and that is not much money.
Speaker 1:No, that's a glass of wine in a restaurant.
Speaker 2:Not many people get the opportunity to taste things like 2013 Vat One Semillon from Tyrrell's. Where is it? That is an absolute steal. It is at the Sydney Showgrounds.
Speaker 1:Oh, so where the show's from At Olympic Park. Oh, that's so cute.
Speaker 2:Awesome. It is the 20th of September, so it is in about a month, two till seven.
Speaker 1:Now Put it in your calendar. Now people fly to Sydney.
Speaker 2:This is the thing about our podcast is I do a lot of the back end, so I don't even know if you realise this. This might be news to you, but we are giving away tickets, so we actually have a good portion.
Speaker 1:Can we give some away to ourselves? That's kind of against the picture at all.
Speaker 2:I think that's against consumer law. Oh bugger, we'll be like you're all into the competition and we'll be like, sorry, we won, we won't do that. So here's the thing. They were like we want to give away a couple of tickets and we were like, sweet, love that. But then I was kind of like, oh, not everyone is in Victoria, new South Wales, new South Wales.
Speaker 1:So what else can we do Can?
Speaker 2:Victoria, so New South Wales. So what else can we do? Can we give away all the wines that we've tasted today as well?
Speaker 1:No way. So we are doing competition that is so generous yeah well, you're going to find it on our Instagram.
Speaker 2:What do they have?
Speaker 1:They have to work for it, surely?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you need to be following both us on Instagram Wine with Megan Mal and Royal Agricultural Society New South Wales. If you follow both of us, then you need to comment, and your comment lets us know which prize you are entering for. So, if you want to win tickets to the show, if you want to go and taste all these amazing wines, bring a mate, just comment and say I want to go to the show and this is who I want to bring. If you're in the state and you don't think you're going to be in Sydney on the 20th of September, then what you can do is you can comment and say that you would win the wines themselves, but just comment and you need to tag the friend or friends that you're going to taste them with, and that is all you need to do.
Speaker 2:And there are going to be two winners One is going to win the wines and one is going to win the tickets. Can I enter? No, meg, you can't enter. What I'm hearing is we are going to have to publicly post who the winners are.
Speaker 1:I did not win.
Speaker 2:So that you all know that Meg didn't just walk away with the prize. But genuinely, this is a prestigious show, and if any of these top wines that we've tasted today sound awesome to you, it is probably a good idea to go out and buy them soon, because there is a chance that they're going to grow up in price on the back of it.
Speaker 1:that is all we have time for this week that's awesome, so listen up for the interview that we do with angus barnes, the chair of the show, and if you've got any questions, make sure that you ask absolutely, and make sure you're visiting our instagram.
Speaker 2:It'll be up in the next few days. We are going to be giving away these tickets and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 1:Thanks, and drink well, enjoy your next glass of wine. I had to do it for austin last one week off right, hang on, we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Enjoy your next glass of wine and drink. Well, there we go.
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