The day I supped 600 bottles of wine and lived to tell the tale

If you want a sample of winemaking genius, look no further than this Aussie red, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
By Matthew Jukes
published

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2013 Deep Woods Estate, Redlands Cabernet/Shiraz, Margaret River, Western Australia (£14.99, Laithwaites, 0118-903 0903, Laithwaites.co.uk).

I was delighted to be invited back for a second year in a row to be the international judge at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show, in late September. Over the course of a week, I managed to taste well over 600 bottles of wine and I survived to tell the tale too.

You might be surprised to hear that judging wine at elite wine competitions is an exhausting task, but spending ten hours a day in silence nosing, tasting, scoring and deliberating over wines has one awesome upside for a Pommie journalist and that is that I get to see and taste wines months before anyone else does in the UK. This is invaluable preparation for compiling my annual 100 Best Australian Wines Report.

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One of the estates which performed at particularly stellar levels this year was Deep Woods, winning the trophy for most outstanding red wine of the competition and for best cabernet sauvignon in show (2014 Deep Woods Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon). It also picked up a gong for "best other red blend" (2014 Deep Woods Hillside Cabernet Merlot).

Deep Woods is a small estate and its wine-maker is an old pal of mine, Julian Langworthy. There are very few of his wines in the United Kingdom, but if you want a sample of his genius, with a wine that represents great value, then look no further than my featured tipple for this week's column. You heard it here first!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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