“The wines served with the National Wine Show dinner showed the best of Australia, and Canberra should be proud to host this event.,” writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER. 

So, get this, fear of Friday the 13th has a name: paraskevidekatriaphobia. 

Setting aside any fears, I stumped up $205 to attend the National Wine Show of Australia 50th anniversary dinner held at the Hyatt Hotel on, you guessed it, Friday, June 13. 

And at my age I asked the question: what do you call someone who wakes up on Saturday the 14th? Lucky.
But there was a small unlucky happening: the dropping of a tray of 2016 House of Arras Grand Vintage sparkling, which won the top gold in the sparkling category. 

I feel sorry for the poor staff member; they must have been mortified. In the 1970s I once dropped an entire tray of sparkling wine in the lap of an unsuspecting customer as her tablemate pushed back his chair at the wrong time, involuntarily bending my knee: I watched in horror as each glass slid off the tray on to the poor woman.

I did get to try this sparkling wine and it deserved the medal: a fine bead and a complex palate were complemented by a clean acidity that delivered honey and grapefruit characteristics. It was a clean and enlivening drink. Later, I looked up the price of this wine and it sells for $125 a bottle from the winery. 

One of the doyens of past wine shows is our own Ken Helm, of Helm Wines. It was good to catch up with him and I congratulated him on becoming an octogenarian. Ken gave a heartfelt speech that, in particular, honoured the role of James Halliday in the creation and ongoing success of the National Wine Show. Ken was voluble and interesting. 

On the table were a collection of white and red wines, all top notch.

The award-winning chardonnay was one of the standout wines of the night: the top gold went to the Deep Woods Estate 2023 Reserve chardonnay. This is an intense and complex wine. The bouquet had a floral and herbal mix. On first taste, you are overwhelmed by the great mouth feel and almost umami like flavours, reminiscent of the butter mushroom flavours that are becoming more frequent in French Chablis.

This is a textural wine that wows; no wonder it took out the top chardonnay award and was a whisker away from being the top wine of show. The local 2021 Collector Tiger Tiger chardonnay was also on the table, a wine that rightfully won a gold medal. This is a local wine to be proud of: slightly buttery, less textural than the Deep Woods, but very refreshing with a citrus-like finish, very clean.

With the lamb that was the main course, there was a choice of reds, including the wine that swept aside all comers: a grenache from a small vineyard in SA’s McLaren Vale, the Willunga 100’s 2023 McLaren Vale Grenache. 

This is the first time the grenache variety has won in the show’s 50-year history. The grenache edged out the winner of the Len Evans Memorial Trophy for White Wine of Show, the Deep Woods chardonnay, to take out the Prime Minister’s Trophy for top wine of the show. 

I find grenache to be very fruit forward and with the lamb, therefore, I chose to drink the Bream Creek 2023 pinot noir, another Tassie wine that won a gold medal. The long finish with a dominance of plum flavours and a hit of spice worked perfectly with the meat. 

The move from holding events at Epic to the Hyatt has taken the Show to new levels. The wines served with the dinner showed the best of Australia, and Canberra should be proud to host this event. But hopefully next year, the dinner will be held on a more auspicious date.