After an interesting few days stewarding at the Sydney Royal Wine Show, I'm back and hope to get some more notes up soon.
Watching the judging process was illuminating in all sorts of ways, and humbling with respect to my own efforts here. Certainly, I'm reminded that I've an enormous amount still to learn. There is, I hope, a corresondingly enormous amount for me to enjoy too.
I never picked you as a wine show slut! I'd have thought you to be the antithesis!
GW
It's nice to know I can still manage a surprise or two, no matter how trivial. :)
Perhaps wine shows and people like me exist as two sides of the same coin. I drink for pleasure and exhibitionistically bore people on the Internet with it. Wine shows try to maintain an industry standard so that my hard earned dollars don't get spent, at least not too often, on crap/faulty wine. I'm cool with that arrangement.
How much did you actually get to taste as a steward Julian? I believe some shows they give the stewards free run, others they are pretty tight about who gets to taste what.
I'll be on the other side of the bench this week, comparing my scores to judges scores at the Exhibitors and the Public tastings.
Hardly anything. I wasn't sure what to expect in this regard, but quickly discovered stewards at the Sydney show don't taste the wines. Of course I couldn't help but sneak in a sip or two.
Some of the stewards who have worked other shows did remark that some are quite liberal in terms of letting stewards taste.
I'd be very interested to know your impressions of the wines.