Hunter Valley wine experts have been busy tasting away this week during the 33rd Hunter Valley Boutique Winemakers Show.
The aroma of reds and whites filled the shed at Maitland Showground on Monday and Tuesday, October 16 and 17, when more than 320 exhibits were carefully examined.
The panel of judges was led by chair of judging Neil McGuigan who said the show is all about the excellence of wine quality.
"It is also an opportunity to bring along young people in our industry and expose them to very good judges who can help them learn what it's all about to judge outstanding wines," he said.
When it comes down to what makes one wine better than the other, Mr McGuigan said it is all about the balance.
"It's all about fruit purity and having the wine in perfect harmony," he said.
"The best wines in the world have flavour and lightness."
Mr McGuigan who has been in the wine industry for 45 years said he has been judging wine shows for quite awhile.
He has also been the chairman for the Hunter Valley Boutique Winemakers Show for the past five years and said the Hunter Valley Semillon, Chardonnay and Shiraz are doing well.
"You can expect for them to do well as that's what the Hunter Valley is known for, but we've had a lot of good results with a lot of the new varieties," he said.
Mr McGuigan said they've had some very good results with Vermentino, Pecorino, Fiorano and a red variety called Barbera.
"We've got some of these new varieties coming through in the region and that's actually quite exciting because it gives consumers another reason to come to the Hunter," he said.
From what started out as a tough growing season, Mr McGuigan said the 2023 vintage has so far been very good, especially with Semillon, Chardonnay and Verdelho.
"Every second day it was raining so it was very tough for the viticulturists to make sure that we didn't have any diseases in the vines," he said.
"Come Christmas time and the weather changed and we had a fantastic vintage, but a lot of people lost fruit because it was very difficult during the growing season but we got there and it's been very successful."
The Hunter Valley Boutique Winemakers Show is a great chance for local, small winemakers across the Hunter Valley to show the consumer how great their wines are.
To be eligible to enter, the vineyard the wine had grown in must have had a total yearly production of less than 350 tonnes, and needed to be fermented in a winery with a total crush of less than 350 tonnes.
Winners of the Hunter Valley Boutique Wine Show will be announced at an awards dinner on Friday night, October 20 at Rydges Resort Hunter Valley.
The Hunter Valley Boutique Winemakers Show is proudly sponsored by Hunter Bottling Company, Carraro Design, Riedel Glassware, The Bloomfield Group, Orora Group and AGTurf Lawn Solutions.
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