It is with enormous pride that I am here to present the highlights of my first year as Chair of Judges of the 2022 KPMG Sydney Royal Wine Show.

I would like to take this opportunity also to thank our major sponsor, KPMG; your support of the Sydney Royal Wine Show and the broader wine community is greatly appreciated and thanks for having us over at your house.

The hand-over from previous Chair of Judges; PJ Charteris began in December with the last show, it was a tight turn-around between the shows but it’s amazing what you can get done when you have to. It certainly takes a village!

Working with the wine show committee Chaired by the wonderful Sally Evans, we set about a schedule review and made some changes to the trophies and classes. Notably, was the introduction of a Grenache Trophy as a reflection of the growing number of entries and quality of the exhibits in recent years. As well we introduced a class for no or low alcohol wines. It’s fair to say it’s still early days with this technology and we look forward to seeing the evolution of this class over the next few years.

A lot of work goes into putting together a team of judges who reflect the diversity of our industry. After a cancelled 2020 show and a mostly NSW only judging panel in 2021, this was a very difficult task. I appreciate the calibre of judges putting up their hand to be part of Sydney Royal, like most things, balance is the key.

With a changeover of two thirds of judges from 2021, you could say it was a changing of the guard as we endeavoured to return to a nationally balanced team and invited judges from across Australia. The diversity of these judges is reflected in the results.

I am filled gratitude towards the six panel chairs who undertook the role of mentoring our judges, majority of them new to Sydney Royal Wine Show, they wrangled their panels to bring forward the best wines.

The trophies are an admirable reflection of both what is exciting in our industry right now as well as echoing quality, style and benchmark producers.

As I drilled down into the results, the importance of vintage conditions became clear. The results show that the 2020 vintage was an extremely difficult one across the country, OK for whites, but very tough for reds. Flanked by the strong 2019 and young 2021 vintage the 2020 wines were overshadowed. Many 2021 reds were not yet ready for this show, and I’m excited to see the quality of this vintage continue into next year’s results.

NSW as a state largely performed well with whites, a reflection of recent vintage conditions.

South Australia has done particularly well with reds; 2021 is clearly a standout vintage across that state with mild weather allowing flavour to develop without being forced. There is an elegance in the wines coupled with good concentration and freshness.

Overall, 58% of entries received a medal this year, with an impressive 7.5% receiving gold medals. This is however skewed by an exceptionally strong performance in both the Sparkling and Fortified classes.

The rewards of patience and expert blending in Class 47 - the 30 months or more tirage Sparkling class achieved a stunning 18% gold medal strike rate. Impressive.

White wines were in general very strong across the board with 8% gold medals. Semillon took the mantle with 12% of entries receiving golds. New vintage 2022 Rieslings were a highlight at 10%. The diversity in exceptional Chardonnay across the country was very impressive even though only 7% of entries received gold medals, the pointy end of Chardonnay was very sharp!

An area to watch is the other white varietals which seem to have hit their straps of late and where we awarded 10% of entries gold medals. Historically, these classes struggled to find any golds.

Reds also performed quite well with 7% of entries receiving a gold medal. There is a lot of excitement and quality wine being made in the area of ‘OTHER’ varietals, and if anyone has a better name for these largely non-French varieties, then please let me know!

Having been moved out of the “Other” class and now in its 6th year as a standalone class, Tempranillo impressed the judges with 10% golds and only 1/3 of wines not receiving a medal at all.

Gold medals in Pinot Noir sat at 7% and were awarded across two states but one state dominated with 5 golds from the 7 awarded.

The inaugural Grenache trophy is a wine to look out for with volume and energy, ample flavour in harmony with tannin and good acidity, 6% of Grenache entries received gold.

Blends seem to be growing in popularity. We saw delicious Grenache and Cabernet blends but it was the Shiraz dominant blends that topped the medal tally at 12% gold medals demonstrating the versatility of Shiraz to compliment most other red varietals and the occasional white.

The less traditional other red blends class excelled with 11% awarded gold.

Shiraz and Cabernet were on very solid ground, both sitting at 7.5% of entries on golds. Our trophy Shiraz demonstrated beautiful fruit weight, wrapped in a tannin frame with years ahead of it.

The trophy winning Cabernet was vibrant and serious all at once, fruit, spice and persistence.

It has been an absolute privilege to be involved in Sydney Royal Wine Show as the Chair of Judges for the first time, I’m sure by my 3^rd year I’ll be settling in just in time to hand over the reins.

My congratulations go to all of the trophy winners.

Sydney Royal Chair of Judges Sarah Crowe