2011 Upper North Island Wine Competition

Ti Point Vineyard’s 2010 Ti Point One Merlot Cabernet franc and Omaha Bay Vineyard’s 2009 Pinot gris, both from Matakana, were named the champion red and white wines of the 2011 Upper North Island Wine Competition at Old Government House on Saturday evening.

Wines from Northland, Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty are eligible for the competition and 100 wines were entered by 33 winemakers. Gold medals were awarded to six wines, and silver and bronze medals went to 12 and 35 wines, respectively.

“The wines were a pleasure to judge this year,” said Bob Campbell MW in his report as Chairman of Judges. “The high-points were thrilling and the absence of faults pleasing.”

The competition, organised by the Wine Science Programme at The University of Auckland, is now in its second year. It was established to meet the need for greater recognition of the region, and its unique and historic contribution to the New Zealand wine industry. It is run along similar lines as other competitions but has several important points of difference.

“The competition is a real collaboration between the University and wine makers,” says Mr Randy Weaver, head of the University’s Wine Science Programme. “It is unique in providing feedback to winemakers, as well as celebrating their successes – in addition to a standard sensory evaluation and technical notes, the judges provide detailed comments on each of the wines in competition.”

Already, feedback from the inaugural competition has been used as the basis for a workshop in which University wine scientists and Northland winemakers discussed issues raised by the judges and how to address them. “We anticipate holding more workshops of this kind in future,” says Mr Weaver.

"The competition is of enormous benefit, firstly due to the feedback to the entrants that gives a clearer understanding of why their wine was awarded the mark it got, and secondly in limiting entrants to the Upper North Island the wines are judged fairly with their peers in a broad, but similar geographical and environmental area,” says Ben Dugdale, winemaker at Karikari Estate and an Upper North Island Wine Competition committee member and judge.

Mr Dugdale says that winemakers from his region see the competition growing in future and strengthening the links between producer and the University. “Having a relationship with the University opens pathways for the producers in terms of knowledge and information as well as giving students valuable options in terms of possible employers or direct feedback in terms of real issues that face the industry."

The University collects data on all of the wines in competition for detailed analysis. The long-term goal is for its researchers to learn about regional and sub-regional differences between wines and the consequent challenges for winegrowers and winemakers, so that this information can be fed back to the industry.

The competition is also a valuable opportunity for top wine science students to gain experience as associate judges, who may discuss the wines with the judging panel but whose marks do not contribute to the overall scores.