Aussie Wines Too Bold?

Filed in archive Australian Wines on September 13, 2006

There has been a lot of criticism lately in the press about wines referred to as monster wines, meaning they are super bold in taste and this also often means super high in alcohol content as well. I have to admit to enjoying an occasional monster wine myself, but it isn't something that I want to drink all the time.

Wine making of these bolder wines is not limited to Australia. California has also had a finger pointed at it as a wine industry that thinks bolder is better. Ben Canaider is one such finger pointer, though he believes many of the Australian wines are just over the top.

Canaider sat down and talked about this issue with wine maker Brian Walsh, and both hashed out why these monster wines have become so popular due in part to wine shows. From Reining in the horse power:

Walsh admits wine shows are an imperfect system, but he has been involved in some repair work.

"Chairs of shows now often instruct judges to look for wines with greater finesse and not get sucked in by wines with big oak and alcohol, but that's hard to do in a system where dozens of wines are being judged every day.

"It means these shows are more like a sorting process; it is not really judging . . . We don't get the time to consider the wine."
Considering the huge numbers of vintages normally judged at wine shows, his explanation makes a lot of sense.