The consumer’s choice award evolved through discussions about Pinot noir between Wine Centre staff and producers.
We all have our favourites, so putting a selection together and having the consumers do the tasting unveiled some amazing results. Wines were tasted blind – the tasters are not influenced by knowing what they are drinking.
The wines were grouped in lots of four, all around a similar price point. Enjoying some Tapas from the Village Café while sampling wine added another element, assessing if the wine is “food friendly” Similar vintages were also grouped in flights, this way focusing on the sub-regional differences, vineyard expression and winemaking style.
On Saturday evening, 8th December 2012, 12 Pinot noir, all winners in the previous events were tasted. All the wines looked great, very tough decisions for the voters, but there were some clear winners. The ultimate Consumers Choice was a very close result with one vote between the Stonecutter 2009 and Cobblestone 2010 pinot noir. Stonecutter was the winner on the night!
Roger Pemberton and Lucy Harper are “thrilled to bits with the result, especially as we really like the format for this event. It is a response from the important people – the customers – who drink and enjoy wine, and the inclusion of food adds to the “reality” of the situation the wines are being tasted in.
Stonecutter’s 2009 Pinot Noir has been developing in bottle over the past two years and we’ve watched it grow into a lovely soft and supple, accessible pinot with lots of complex flavours.
Stonecutter is a very small operation. The fruit is all estate grown, with a lot of different pinot clones. Each clone ripens in its own time, is picked as near to optimum as possible and is separately batch fermented and barrel aged for a year or more. This is a somewhat fiddly process, but Roger is after the best wine he can make from his fruit and believes this is the way to do that.
The Consumers Choice Award will be run annually. There has been a request from participants to run the event with other varietals as well. Something to look into in the future.
