More than 300 Orange wines were judged on Wednesday and Thursday for the Orange wine Show.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The tasting is a fixture of the 2021 Orange Wine Festival, which will run along with the Orange360 Festival from December 9 to 12 this year.
The annual show is contested by Orange region wineries, vignerons and winemakers, all hoping for a trophy across 18 classes, which will be announced next week.
The community can then taste the winning wines at the Wine Show Tasting at the Canobolas Hotel on December 11.
Chair of judges Iain Riggs said this year's range is down by 35 per cent due to challenging vintages in 2020 and 2021.
However, that 35 per cent figure was better than expected and there are still several standout wines and varieties including 2018 and 2012 vintage shiraz and some 2021 rieslings and two "very good" pinot noirs.
He said there was also a strong sparkling class across all sorts of styles and there are three golds to be announced from that class.
Chief steward Jeff Byrne said smoke taint was an issue following the 2020 bushfires.
This years judges included First Creek Winery chief wine maker Liz Silkman from the Hunter Valley, master of wines Andrea Pritzker and Adam Walls from Wine Selectors as well as local wine makers Stuart Hordern from Brokenwood, Drew Tuckwell from Printhie and Monica Gray from See Saw Wines.
"We had to cancel last year for obvious reasons and historically we've had the Orange Wine Show in October so like a lot of wine shows we were pushed back to November.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.centralwesterndaily.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Catch up on our news headlines at Google News