Decanter World Wine AwardsJudges treated to live music at wine competition
- Wednesday 19 September 2012
'Renowned': Gabriella Smart
James Erskine, who runs the judging for the Adelaide Review Hot 100 Wines Show, commissioned an original composition from the percussionist and composer Eugene Ughetti of the Melbourne music enterprise Speak Percussion.
The piece, entitled ‘Terroir’, was performed by one of South Australia's most renowned pianists, Gabriella Smart, while the judges tasted wines entered in the category entitled, ‘Wines produced without the addition of commercial yeasts or acids’.
Erskine makes natural wines in South Australia under the label Jauma, and is also one of the collaborators on Natural Selection Theory, an ‘experiment in natural winemaking’ in which wine is aged underground in the Hunter Valley in 900ml ceramic eggs.
He believes he has devised a way to ‘challenge the idea of tasting wines at wine shows in an inert environment’.
‘We taste wines not knowing their variety or brand. We have no emotional connection to what we taste, so we as judges are confronted with only the wine,’ says Erskine.
‘I want to provide an environment which forces the judges, wherever they are from, to think, feel and taste in a South Australian mindset to better understand the emotional, or non-geophysical, terroir of South Australia that influences the wine styles we are tasting.’
Whether listening to music while judging is a help or a hindrance is a matter of debate.
One international judge, Joe Wadsack, listens to his own music on headphones - ‘I found it was the only way, when you’re confronted with a row of say, 200 commercial Chardonnays, to stay upbeat and focused. It’s like being an athlete: you have to find your own pace’ – but baulked at the idea of having music imposed without any choice.
Guy Woodward, editor of Decanter magazine, said he thought the idea ‘ridiculous’.
'Music quite clearly affects people's mood – there are enough studies to show that. So it follows that how an individual reacts to a certain type of music will put them in a certain frame of mind when judging the wines, and could quite easily impact their judgment.
'If certain tasters feel they can concentrate better with music in the background, fine. But to impose it on all tasters is ridiculous. I would hate it – and the fact that in this case it's going to be performed live is just a further distraction. I certainly wouldn't want my wine tasted against such a backdrop.'
Have your say!
Leo Ferrando
September 23 17:05
Understood. So, to stay focused during an australian wine tests, Mr Erskine may suggest the judge that the best is to do it during a Wangga concert and ceremony, didgeridoo and clapstick soloists included! Please include this condition with the results .... !
Lim Hwee Peng, CSW, FWS
September 23 06:20
I was surprised by such less than open-mindedness in the comments of your article.
Although I support the notion that every individual is entitled to an opinion; perhaps it is also equally vital to find out more factual information before proclaiming such effort as 'ridiculous', which I thought was a little extreme. The live music was only played at the Taste Off where it involves only the panel chair with a small selected number of wines being sampled. It certainly was not an all-day, throughout the wine show sort of arrangement.
Did the music (which was not loud, nor distracting)affect the panel negatively? probably not. Instead, I found the experience made my senses more acute, much like a shot of expresso in the morning to perk up the senses, and that I am certain help the evaluation of wines (or is not acute sense an important trait in assessing wines?)
My sharing is factual because I was one of the panel chair.
Maybe such creative approach in assessing wines for a wine show is ahead of many wine professionals' understanding (or perhaps ahead of its time). There will always be room for improvement, and I think giving creative initiatives time and space to grow may be a better approach than to shoot it down with little effort in understanding its purpose.
G.B.
September 21 05:40
Probably worth interviewing the judges before labeling it ridiculous.
Mike Smith
September 20 01:34
Based on the last sentence, I didn't know Guy Woodward made a wine!