Benefits of participating in the

Australian & New Zealand Boutique Wine Show

Our World class Judges:

The Australian & New Zealand Wine Show is honoured and privileged to have Huon Hooke as the founding Awards Chairman – a position he still holds to this day. Gary Baldwin is a Senior judge and panel leader who has also served the show since 1996. Their unbroken records are unusual in the Australian wine industry and demonstrates their commitment to the boutique winemakers.

Hooke and Baldwin are joined each year by ‘permanents’ Toni Paterson MW & Peter Leske and other winemakers and industry personnel making a total of nine judges and three associate judges.

Our Judging methodology:

Every wine entered is judged blind. Wines are ranked by judges within panels and then put forward to other panel chairs and show Chairperson. The process is rigorous & thorough, with each wine passing through a number of palates for evaluation.

Our large & ever increasing team of Judges ensures efficient and effective management of palate fatigue, thereby giving each wine judged a chance to shine.

Our back of house team are often composed of industry trained Sommeliers, assistant Winemakers, on-premise & off-premise Managers & WSET students who understand the importance of accuracy and professionalism in handling your wines.

World class software powers this show:

The Australian & New Zealand Boutique Wine Show & Design Awards are powered by the DRINK.ME software platform. This custom built wine & spirits software has been designed around all aspects of wine judging, and tested in both the domestic competition as well as the Six Nations Global Fine Wine Challenge over the past 2 years by some of the worlds leading wine critics.

What does this mean for you? Accuracy, detailed reporting, capture of judging comments, access to scores and more, all through a dedicated online login for each winery participating. We are also looking at the next phase of development, which would turn this information into a consumer facing resource/reference, and potential buying guide.

We keep going from strength to strength, so should you:

The Australian & New Zealand Boutique Wine Show, now in its 25th year continues to go from strength to strength with 1200 entries in 2018 and 1100 entries in 2019.

We are the only wine show dedicated to supporting the small winemakers of Australia & New Zealand.

We level the playing field against the major producers – we are the voice of the small winemakers.

We continue to monitor and adjust where required, our judging classes to accommodate the ever-increasing range of varieties being planted in Australia & New Zealand.

The ANZ Boutique Wine Show draws entries from premium producers and regions as well as new and emerging regions.

Our medals have long established significance in the marketplace and consumers are increasingly relating to points and medals in their buying decisions. The ANZ Boutique Wine Show results are a trusted guide and tool for wine drinking and buying patterns.

Through newly formed industry partnerships, from 2020 onward all Gold & Silver medal wines will be made available for additional external reviews and features, at no cost to you, on a prominent 3rd party wine review website in the 6-12 months post competition. More info available upon request.

Lastly, this year has been one of the toughest ever:

Floods, Fires, Smoke damage and Covid-19! The outcome is significant impact to the wine trade. As a result, many Capital wine shows, regional shows and even large International shows have been cancelled. However, you, the producer still has wine to sell and bills to pay.

Let us help you get your wine in front of the right people to give you that much needed medal, review and boost that we hope will get the ball rolling again in your business.