New World: Cabernet/Shiraz blends
2014: Gold 2 Silver 1 Bronze 3 Commended 3
2013: Gold 1 Silver 0 Bronze 2 Commended N/A
Must-list status: 65%
Overall SWA performance 2014: B
With the best will in the world, this is an odd category. The vast majority of the wines entered are under £10, but every so often we get soaring ambition and soar-away pricing. A bit like an old lady who, week in week out, walks an extra 300 metres to save 10p a tin on cat food, then blows thousands of pounds on a time share. No wonder our tasters are so often confused, uncertain whether this is a wine style aimed at ‘gastropub gluggability’ or ‘cordon bleu complexity’.
In the end, this year we ended up with a bit of both – with Thorn-Clark’s supremely well-priced Terra Barossa counterbalanced by the Glaetzer Anaperenna. Not so much a price gap between these two as a yawning chasm.
Still, nine awards (medals and Commendeds) given out this year was only fractionally fewer than the previous three years put together, and the feedback was pretty positive, with the wines largely seen as reliable, well-priced and sellable.
And for those sommeliers still struggling to get their head around the category, it could have been worse. At least this year Australia did what we’d expect, obediently picking up most of the medals. Last year the whole lot went to Chile!
SWA SPOTLIGHT
With six medals and three Commendeds, this was comfortably the best performance by the Cab/Shiraz category since the Sommelier Wine Awards started.
From the Tasting Teams
‘This was a really strong flight. You could find a place for all of these medal winners on a list across the price points.’ Annette Scarfe MW, team leader