Last week I posted about Colourful Australian Animals on wine labels. This week I’m talking about medals – you know the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals you sometimes find on wine labels. So what do they actually mean? I’m glad you asked.
Australia, like many other countries, has a network of wine shows where producers can bring their wine to be judged by panels of wine experts in what are called ‘blind tastings’. That doesn’t mean that the judges are blind drunk at the end of the day but rather the identity of the wine is not disclosed to the judges to remove certain biases. The top wines in each tasting are then awarded medals depending on how the panel of judges scored them, usually gold, silver or bronze. But are all medals equal and what do they actually mean?
First, not all wine shows are equal. Shows are held all over Australia with the most prestigious being the Royal Melbourne and Royal Sydney wine awards which have the largest number of wines being judged and the most competition. A medal from one of these shows indicates a relatively good wine. There are also regional wine shows, like the Cowra Wine Show, that are smaller and have less competition so these medals may not mean as much. The point here is be sure to check where the medal was awarded.
Is a gold medal really better than a silver or bronze medal? How are they awarded?Well, most wine shows in Australia judge wines on a 20 point scale:
- up to three points for the appearance of the wine
- up to seven for the nose (smell)
- up to ten for the palate (taste)
This results in the following medal categories:
- Gold-medal: 18.5–20.0 points. Outstanding quality
- Silver-medal: 17.0–18.4 points. Excellent standard
- Bronze-medal: 15.5–16.9 points. Very good wine for its class
Wines are also judged in what are called “Classes”. The number of classes will depend on the size of the wine show. For example the class “Best Australia Shiraz 2018 or younger” would mean that all of the Australian Shiraz’s that were made in 2018 or 2019 would be judged together.
In doing so it is possible that a class may not score any gold medals or multiple gold medals depending on the quality of the wines submitted. There is no particular quota but generally speaking there are usually more silver medals than gold awarded, and more bronze medals than silver awarded.
The wine that scores the highest points in any class not only receives a medal but might also receive a trophy as best in class, especially for larger more prestigious shows. So you might also see a trophy sticker on its wine labelwhich could indicate an exceptional wine, so look out for this.
So in summary medals can be an aid to choosing wine if you:
- Check which wine show they were awarded;
- Look out for trophies;
- Focus on wines with gold medals.
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Cheers,
Tony.
