Australian Fruit Wine Show Results for 2014

There were 140 entries in the show with three gold, 10 silver and 40 bronze medals being awarded. Entries came from across Australia including Broome in WA and from New Zealand.

The head judge was very pleased with the standard of entries this year saying that there weren’t any wines that showed winemaking faults as seen in previous years.

Many entries came very close to be awarded bronze but lacked that little extra required to reach that level.

All entrants should be happy with their results even if they didn’t receive a medal.

The dry classes were a stand out which attracted several silver medals. This is the class where significant progress has been made. The fortified and liqueurs class as usual attracted the gold. Fruit intensity showing in the entries by amateurs held the edge over the commercial products with the exception of the Wine of the Show - Kanagae Estate's Wattleseed Port 2013.

As to be expected the enthusiasts showed up very well in most classes. On a negative note the sweet classes were disappointing with balance being an issue and some wines not being sweet enough. The sweet class must be sweet!! The level is set at a specific gravity of 1.015. The acid and/or tannin balance is also important.

Traditional ciders were in the medals but this is a difficult class to make. We would welcome more entrants in the class in the future.

Contemporary ciders are still a challenge to score well. High acidity requires final sugar levels to be high also. Being able to incorporate levels of tannin that we see in traditional styles is the challenge.

The hybrid cider class was overall exceptionally well made but very few showed much apple character, the cider component being used as an almost neutral base. In this cider competition, we had to be able to identify both fruit and apple components.

The Rotary Club of Sorell thank all the entrants and hope you will consider entering again next year.