For the last three years Kingsley Wood has picked the perfect day to hold the Auckland Wine Options competition. Wet, rainy and windy outside, warm and winey inside. The ideal weather for winter wine games. And so fifty-one teams and the entourage of wine options' groupies assembled at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Central Auckland for the First Glass Wine Options 2003.

I was playing the wine game for the first time in seven years. I'd last played in 1996 when our team - with teammates being my husband Neil and my sisters Christine and Linsey - were the defending National Champions. We lost the title but came a respectable 5th. That was it for me. I'd hung up my wine tasting glass for the last time - or so I thought.

"Are you sure you don't want to come out of retirement", asked Mr Wine Options, Kingsley Wood, when I walked into his shop one day a couple of months ago. "There's plenty of people who would love to have you in their team".

"Who's going to take the photos?" I asked. I'd taken photos and posted them on wineoftheweek.com since 1999.

The matter was closed until one day I was propositioned. "We're short a team member. We'd love you to be on our team." Bill Hird had made the approach. He was a relative options newbie but his team had placed 2nd last year. I knew Bill had an excellent palate "Mmmmm, it's tempting", I thought to myself. "Let me think about it", I said out loud. I was worried that the team might have high expectations of me and that I might let them down. But Neil said to me, "Why not?". He'd take photos of the winners and we didn't really need all the team photos on the website. And so I joined Bill Hird, Chris Gardiner and Sue Muggleston on Sunday 29th June at the Crowne Plaza to play Wine Options.

It was going to be fun, if nothing else. Our team was called "It's just a Matter of Faith", based on the Warriors Football Team current television campaign. We dressed as gospel singers with our black party wigs, honky sunglasses (I chose big Jancis Robinson-styled glasses of the '80's), Marlborough wine festival glass holders and Top 100 wine tasting glasses. The stereo system, which took up half the table, blasted out James Brown and we danced to the music. We decided that every time our name was mentioned by Kingsley, we'd play our theme song - real loud.

After the palate prepping pre-taster, the room was called to silence, competitors and spectators were asked to take their seats and the competition got under way.

Each wine would first be poured to one team member to answer an individual 3-point question. The wine could not be smelt or tasted by any other team member but the wine's characters could be discussed. Each team member had to do two of the eight team wines. I was doing wines 2 and 6.

Wine 1: Sue M's individual question. "Gooseberry" she said. The options were "Australia, France or NZ'. This was undoubtably NZ. I wrote my notes when the rest of the team member's glasses were filled. "A dry, racy wine reeking Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc on the nose, limes and gooseberries and lovely rich weighty tropical fruit in the palate. Absolutely tons of passionfruit, a touch of stonefruit. Fantastic length. A very good wine". We had no hesitation in answering Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough and 2002 on the next three questions. But what was it? Could it be A. Saint Clair? No, not sweaty enough. Perhaps B - Villa Maria Wairau Reserve? No not austere enough. What about C - the legend, Cloudy Bay? We had practised on this a couple of weeks ago. Yes! It had to be. We were right. 22 points in the bag.

After Wine 1 we were one of eight teams tied for the lead. But where were the pre-competition favourites, top seeded Sassy Choir - last year's Australasian Champions and 2nd seeded Sars-a-Killer - last year's Auckland winners? They had dropped points already.

Bonus Wine 1: Sue M took this wine too. One question only for a 5 point addition to the score. "I smell gooseberries again", she said. The options were Seresin Riesling, Kim Crawford Flowers Sauvignon Blanc or Albert Mann Pinot Gris. She ticked Option B. 5 more points to the score.

Wine 2: My individual question. Chardonnay, Riesling or Gewurztraminer? "It's an old Riesling", I said. Australia, probably Clare Valley, perhaps a 1996. This was yellow gold in colour with lots of limes on the nose, dry in the palate with limes and talc, dry, very dry, almost salty. A good Riesling with terrific development. We correctly picked the options of Australasia, then Australia (as opposed to Martinborough or Canterbury / Waipara) and 1999 or older vintage. The options on the last question were A. Grosset Polish Hill 1999, B. Orlando Steingarten 1998 and C. Penfolds Clare Riesling 1997. C. I said emphatically - It has to be the Aged Release Riesling. Bill agreed. We were right.

2 wines and 1 bonus down, 49 points out of 49. Only three teams sharing the lead now. Us, Team 5 - Hangovers Reloaded and Team 24 - Palates of Mass Distraction.

Wine 3: Sue M takes her 2nd individual question - Semillon, Chardonnay or Pinot Gris? "It's a Kingsley-style Chardonnay", she says. People who go to the First Glass tastings know she means - rich, smooth, buttery. Wow, this was a gorgeous wine, full of peaches, pineapple and crème caramel with a citrus finish. Rich, smooth, warm and mealy. We aced the next three questions, choosing NZ, Marlborough and 2000 or 2001. But we were heading for a fall. The options were A. Mt Riley 17 Valley 2001, B. Cloudy Bay 2001 or C. Villa Maria Fletcher 2000. 'Not Villa', said Bill. 'Not 2000" I said, remembering Friday night's practice and a very developed Marlborough 2000 chardonnay. We all plumped for the Seventeen Valley. Wrong! It was the Villa Maria Fletcher Vineyard 2000. That was a 5-pointer question too.

3 wines and 1 bonus down, 66 points from a possible 71. Now just two teams in the lead. We were one of them. Team 5 was with still there too.

Bonus Wine 2: Chris has his turn on the bonus wine. "It's dry, lots of limes", he said. The options came up. Wither Hills Chardonnay 2000, Patutahi Gewurztraminer 2000 or Gibbston Valley Riesling 2001. "Has to be the Riesling", he said. It was. 5 more points.

Wine 4: Chris takes his first individual question. "Lychees". He said. The question was - "Is this A. Pinot Gris, B. Chardonnay or C. Something Else". He chooses C.
It's a pale greeny gold wine. I found it quite muted on the nose for a Gewurztraminer, an amazing intensity of honey was joining the lychee aromas and a hint of lanolin. Very strongly flavoured in the palate, sweet but terrifically balanced with ripe lychees, rose petals, honey, musky icing sugar, good vibrant spicy acidity and a dry, nutty finish. It seemed very youthful to all of us. We went Europe, France and Gewurztraminer on the next three questions but once again pinpointing the label was going to be our downfall.
Is it A. Schoffit 2001, Albert Mann 2000 or Rolly Gassman 1996. We went young. It was old. 4 points lost.

The whites were done. We had 89 points out of a possible 98. And incredibly we were still in the lead. We'd shaken off Team 5 but Team 13, Polly Rogered, was now sharing the lead with us. They'd moved up from 4th place where they were tied with Team 16, Pinot Now - who had now moved into 3rd.

Wine 5: Bill's first individual question was a purple-red translucent wine of light to medium intensity. "Pinot", he said to the options of Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Merlot. It was Pinot indeed, a gorgeous pinot with elegant, rich, chocolate, mushroom and gamey characters and lots and lots of vibrant cherries. Quite light but with a silky texture and a savoury richness on the finish where loads of overwhelming sweet cherry flavours lingered. We correctly picked NZ on the next question but now we had to decide - Was it from Martinborough, Marlborough or Central Otago. "It's not from Martinborough" said Sue M, emphatically. She doesn't like the savouriness and tannin structure of most Martinborough wines. "I don't get any Central Otago herbs"", I said. "It doesn't seem big enough for a Marlborough wine", said Bill. "But its got loads and loads of sweet cherries", said Chris. Our first real dilemma. We eliminated Martinborough. It was down to a fifty/fifty choice - Marlborough or Central Otago. "It seems too light for Marlborough", said I. Chris was still really keen. It came to the Captain's decision. We went Central. Darn. The correct answer was Marlborough.
We regained some composure when correctly nailing the 2001 vintage. But what was the wine? Was it A. Villa Maria Reserve 2001, B. Kaituna Valley 2001 or C. Nautilus 2001.
"It's not the Villa", said I, "That's got almost 15% alcohol and this isn't that big". "Kaituna" said Bill. "I think it's the Nautilus", I contradicted and gave my reasons. "We loved this every time it was served at a First Glass tasting, it won gold at the Easter Show, it's a light wine for Marlborough and I distinctly remember chocolate". "Right", said Bill and Sue M. marked C on the answer card. Big sighs of relief all round when Kingsley said "The correct answer is C, Nautilus".

But we had lost the lead to Team 13, Polly Rogered, who had 107 points. We were in second place on 106.

Bonus Wine 3: My bonus wine. Sweet vanillin oak on the nose, strawberries, cherries, fruitcake, mint, lots of spice. Sweet and succulent as only Aussie wines can be. The options were - Leonardi Chianti, Bilancia Pinot Noir 2001 or Grant Burge Miamba Shiraz 2000. Far too easy. I chose C. I was right. 5 more points in the bag.

Wine 6: My 2nd individual wine. "It smells the same", I said, but its got more colour, more weight, more structure, more flavour, just more of everything. Wow, this wine was simply delicious to taste. "Wait till you try it" I said to the others. "It's yummy". Pepper, spice, mocha, heaps of creamy berries and chocolate, hint of tobacco, then cherries, cherry chocolate, Cherry Ripe choc bars. Soft, juicy and succulent. Aussie Shiraz as we love it. My individual options were "Australia, NZ or France". Too easy again, asking Sue M to write down A on the answer sheet.
"It's Barossa Shiraz" said Bill when he eventually got to taste it. Next question was the variety. We picked Shiraz.
Next question was the vintage. A. 2002 or 2001, B. 2000 or 1999, C.1996 or older. No 1998 - that made it easy. We picked B.
Next question was the region - South Australia of course.
Then the label options. Was it A. Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2000, B. Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 1999 or C. Browns of Padthaway Ernest Shiraz 1999. "Grant Burge was in last year", said Bill, "would he do the same wine two years in a row?". But he had mentioned the Filsell during the tasting of the wine. "It could be the Filsell", he said and there it was in the options. I was happy to go for this - "Remember my initial comments - it's the same only bigger and better". We picked A. We were right. Phew!!! 22 out of a possible 22 points added to the score.

This was the last time the points were going to be displayed until the results were announced. We were back in front. But there were plenty of teams knocking at the door.
We had 133 points out of a possible 147.
Team 16, Pinot Now, was now in second place on 130 points.
Team 25, Bugger We Should Have Got That with 129 points, had come from 6th= to 3rd.
Team 13, Polly Rogered had dropped to 4th and Team 3, Blah Blah Blah was one point behind in fifth.

Wine 7: This was Chris's 2nd individual question. It was a dense, youthful, purple red with red-black hues. Was it A. Tradition Bordeaux varieties, B. Pinot Noir or Gamay, or C. Traditional Rhone varieties. Chris went A. A safe bet but the answer was C.
The wines were poured to the rest of us and the sweet cracked black pepper on the nose immediately gave the variety away to me but Chris had anosmia to that aroma. This was a huge, rich, dry, savoury, peppery wine with yards of succulent sweet fruit and hints of chocolate and liquorice. Definitely a NZ Syrah with all that wonderful cracked pepper but perhaps made with sweeter American oak? Then even more complexities came through in this dense, powerful, wonderfully structured wine. There's just so much going on in here. I'd like to see it again with a little development to give time for those dry, youthful tannins to soften a little.
"It's a 2001 Hawkes Bay Syrah", I said. Bill agreed. We correctly answered Australasia, Hawkes Bay and 2001 on the next three questions. While these were being asked we tried to work out what it could be. The three options given were in our list. Was it A. Vidal Soler Syrah 2001, B. Craggy Range Block 14 Syrah 2001, or C. Te Kairanga Syrah 2001. This was going to be hard. Three wines from the Gimblett Gravels wine growing sub-region in Hawkes Bay. "It's not C", I said. The trophy winning wine from the Easter Show did not have that Aussie-like succulence. "It could be A". "What about B?". No-one had tasted it. We went A. Wrong! It was the Craggy Range. Just 15 points on this wine.

Bonus Wine 4: This was Bill's wine. "It's Australian Cabernet" he said. The options were Ingoldby Cabernet from Australia, Condado de Haza from Spain and Te Mata Bullnose Syrah from Hawkes Bay. Bill nailed it. Five more points.

Wine 8: Bill's 2nd individual question and there it was again "Australian Cabernet - it's just so full of cassis" he said of the dense, inky, scarlet red wine that had lost the purple hues of youth but still had good pinky-red colours on the rims. The options were A. Australia, B. NZ, C. Spain or Portugal. Bill had nailed it again. Easy peasy.
My wine was poured and I too found intense cassis along with tobacco and cedar on the nose, violets and cassis in the palate, a beautifully structured wine with very fine tannins, an older wine with some secondary characters starting to appear. We chose Cabernet Sauvignon on the next question, 1998 or older for the vintage and South Australia for the region. But what was this wine. Was it A. Peter Lehmann The Mentor 1998, Orlando Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 or Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon 1998. "I don't think it's C", I said. It could be The Mentor" said Bill. He'd had it a couple of weeks before. Last wine, last question. None of us really knew. We left it to the Captain to decide. We went A.

It took absolutely ages for Kingsley to give the result. He talked about what was happening next, the costume prizes, the raffle that was about to be drawn and so forth. Then he said - the correct answer is "B - Orlando Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon". We'd done our best. We had 171 points out of a possible 196. It was not a bad score. Whatever happened, we had definitely qualified for Wine Options Extreme in October. We knew Team 25 had got it right. They jumped and cheered when the answer was read out.

Results had to be tallied. Hospitality wines were poured. "It's just a matter of faith" and other James Brown soul music blasted out once again. Then Kingsley asked for quiet. "We've got a tie" he said. He asked everyone to sit down and keep quiet while teams 16 and 25 were poured a run-off wine. Someone said they heard they had 174 points. "It must be a run-off for first and second", I said. "We might have come third then", said Bill.

Eventually (like this story) the results were announced.

Best Team Name. A Case of Shattered Neufs
Worst Team Name: Blah, Blah, Blah
Best Costume Runner-Up: Mistresses of Wine
Best Costume: Major Tom's Spaced Out Sippers - also last year's costume winners

The Boot: (for the lowest score). My Left Foot. They won the boot last year. Now they've got a pair.

Third Place: Team 25 - Bugger We Should Have Got That.
Team members: Graeme Jenkins, Peter Bulley, Greg Kerr and Warren King

Second Place: Team 16 - Pinot Now
Team Members: Gabor Sareczky, John Ingle, Michael Tangney and Bruce Thomason

We were wondering who had won the competition. Someone must have come through and aced the last two wines. Bill's team had done that last year. "This is going to be a popular win", said Kingsley. "It's going to be noisy", he said. And then we got the surprise of our lives when he said "The winners are . . . .
in First Place . . . .
Team 18 - It's just a Matter of Faith".

We were so excited. James Brown boomed out from the stereo once again. We managed to make it to the stage to accept the First Glass Wine Options Trophy and a bottle Clarendon Astralis 2001 for each of us.

All in all it was a great day. What more can I say!

Wines Recap:
1. Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2002
2. Penfolds Aged Release Clare Valley Riesling 1997
3. Villa Maria Fletcher Vineyard Marlborough Chardonnay 2000
4. Rolly Gassman Alsace Gewurztraminer 1996
5. Nautilus Marlborough Pinot Noir 2001
6. Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Hawkes Bay Syrah 2001
7. Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz 2000
8. Orlando Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

Bonus Wines Recap:
1. Kim Crawford The Flowers Sauvignon Blanc 2002
2. Gibbston Valley Central Otago Riesling 2001
3. Grant Burge Miamba Shiraz 2000
4. Ingoldby Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

The Top Ten Teams (as I heard them being called out)
1. Team 18 - It's Just a Matter of Faith on 171 points
2. Team 16 - Pinot Now (on 164 points, second place decided by a run-off wine)
3. Team 25 - Bugger, We Should Have Got That (on 164 points)
4. Team 10 - Dick of Confidence
5. Team 12 - A Case of Shattered Neufs
6. Team 3 - Blah, Blah, Blah
7. Team 22 - The Eurowinos
8. Team 5 - Hangovers Reloaded
9. Team 6 - Mooloo@scholssed.absolutely
10. Team 32 - LOYAL - Lovers of Yeast Activated Liquids

copyright © Sue Courtney
30 June 2003

Footnote: We ended up leaving the camera at home. The photos were taken on Chris Gardiner's camera. Neil Courtney took the photos with Chris in them and Chris took the others.