The 2018 Vintage: The First Cut

Posted on Aug 27, 2018

The 2018 wine show season is well underway. And with it comes the first tastes of the year’s new vintage.

Ten major shows have already reported this year including two capital city contests – Royal Queensland and Royal Sydney. These earlybird exhibitions have collectively assessed 7246 scores – 200 more than the same time last year.

Although these swallows don’t a summer make – we’re less than 20% of the way through the full year’s judging circuit – they do provide enough quantum to make some early observations about the new season’s vintages.

First up is rose – the Great Pink Hope. This favorite tipple of Millennials is storming the bastions of the wine market. Sales have increased 150 per cent since 2014 in NZ and are making fast inroads into Australia’s favourite variety, sauvignon blanc. Rose’s rise can be partly attributed to its androgynous appeal. Both sexes have fallen for its easy-drinking palate and new-age colour palette – forsaking their traditional preferences for hairy-chested reds and feminine whites.

Rose’s polyamorous embrace hasn’t been lost on winemakers. They’re rushing into the pink drinks market as quickly as possible and, some would also say, with a commensurate level of care. That appears to be borne out at the wine shows this year. Producers have exhibited 60% more new vintage labels this year than last to overtake pinot gris, riesling and cabernet sauvignon. But average scores for the 2018 vintage have dropped a hefty 21%* against the 2017 vintages exhibited this time last year.

This chimes with the view of judges at last week’s Hunter Valley Wine Show. They declined to award any gold medals – let alone a trophy – to rose exhibitors this year, telling them that more work needed to be done to identify and achieve the style’s desirable qualities. “We think you can do better,” chief judge Sarah Crowe told 400 attendees at the show’s trophy lunch.

Riesling shares a similar fate. King of the hill in 2017 with the highest median score and strike rate of all table wines, riesling’s renaissance was proclaimed at shows near and far. However its star shines a little less brightly in 2018. Perhaps emboldened by last year’s successes, winemakers have entered 78% more new vintage labels this year compared with 2017. Like rose, however, average scores for 2018 wines are down albeit less precipitous 10%* on the previous corresponding period. But it’s not all bad.  Riesling’s average score of 86 for the year-to-date still puts it ahead of all other large new season varieties.

The heavyweight of Australian whites – chardonnay – adds the complexity of longer maturation to the analysis. Thus we have defined the new season in chardonnay as the current and previous years (2018 and 2017) as few labels release their latest vintage this early in the year. These are compared with last year’s new season vintages of 2017 and 2016.

Eligible chardonnay exhibits are down 4% so far this year although scores are very slightly improved. On the very small subset of 2018 wines entered (12 to date) scores are marginally higher than the comparable 2017 vintage wines entered by this time last year. All such wines are cheaper, warm-climate labels.

Pinot Gris follows in rose’s footsteps as a popular wine that critics love to sneer at. Current-year exhibits for the variety are 34% higher than the number entered for last year’s class of 2017. Unlike rose, however, scores for 2018 pinot gris/grigio labels have kept pace with last year’s entries at an average of about 85.

Of interest is the split between wines labelled “gris” and “grigio”. The Italian denomination easily dominated its French counterpart in 2017 by a factor of 4:1 but the styles are much more even in 2018. Grigio still outweighs gris but by a much slimmer margin of 26:20.

Cabernet sauvignon’s Margaret River love-in looks set to continue in 2018. Three of the five gold medals awarded to the variety’s new season vintage (2017) were given to wines bearing the southwestern appellation. Five golds were also awarded to cabernet’s new vintage (2016) this time last year but the majority went to warm climate wines (albeit with two going to the same wine from different shows).

Overall, new season cabernet exhibits are up 19% this year over last. The average score for the variety is tracking last year’s 85.

Australia’s heavyweight battle on the judging benches is fought between “cool-climate” and “warm climate” shiraz labels. This was comprehensively won by cool-climate wines last year with entries from these regions accounting for 62% of all points awarded to shiraz exhibits. Warm-climate wines weren’t to be outdone, however, claiming better average scores for their fewer entries.

That contest looks to intensify in 2018. Cool-climate exhibits have claimed 11 of the 13 gold medals awarded at shows for the new season (2017) vintage so far this year. That compares with eight out of the 13 awarded for the 2016 new season at last year’s shows.

One winemaker has shown promising early form with gold medals for the same label across each of the two new vintages. Hentley Farm scored gold at last year’s Royal Sydney show for its 2016 vintage of The Marl shiraz and was awarded the same for its 2017 vintage this year.

New season shiraz exhibits are up 7% this year over last year and are showing a slightly higher average score just shy of 86.

Tasmania continues its domination of the sparkling classes in 2018 albeit with severely reduced numbers. New season sparkling exhibits (carrying NV and 2018 classifications) have increased by 14% this year over comparable 2017 and NV labels last year. However, average scores have dropped 10%. The fall is illustrated most vividly by the halving of gold medals awarded to the category. Only nine have been awarded to new season labels this year compared with 18 last year. Tasmanian exhibits accounted for about half of the gold medal haul in both years.

  • Differences in average scores quoted represents the difference between the share of scores at or below the average score. For example, the average rose rating in 2017 (86.5) exceeded in quality 70% of all roses tasted, whereas the average score of 84.9 in 2018 exceeds only 49%. 
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