The Buyer | How cream of Aussie fizz and Cab Sauv shone at the Mambas

After two hours tasting 108 wines the judges, including Stephen Spurrier, were treated to Roger Jones’ Michelin-starred cuisine, to pair the wines against, before the winners were announced.

A coachload of judges arrive at The Harrow at Little Bedwyn (one clearly with no intention of making it home!)

With a generic focus but broad criteria, the Mamba Riedel Decanter Awards are an illuminating and enjoyable way to test-taste individual wine categories, in this year’s case, Australia Sparkling and Cabernet Sauvignon.

32 bottles of non-vintage fizz and vintages as wide-ranging as 2005-2017 rub shoulders with each other, their price points as diverse as £11.35 – £99.99 RRP. With the Cabernet Sauvignon there were 76 examples from 2009-2016 with prices ranging from £9.99 to £350.

True to the adage that ‘you get what you pay for’ the Top 10 Sparkling (all bar two) were the 10 most expensive from the selection – the winner House of Arras Late Disgorged 2003 (Accolade Wines) being the dearest.

Of the Top 10 Cabernet Sauvignons only two were below the £50 price point, the winning Cab Sauv was Henschke Cyril (Enotria & Coe) with an RRP of £99.

I cannot think of any other awards ceremony where heavyweights take on flyweights like this in the same ring. What this does, however, is give a broad and illuminating snapshot of where these categories currently are and where the value lies.

Josef Chromy Pepik Sekt NV (Bibendum), for example, was named Best Value Wine on the day but in all honesty the tasting was peppered with shining examples of great value wines that were punching well above their weight and standing shoulder-to-shoulder, often comfortably, with ‘greater’ rivals.

In one week Sue and Roger Jones will host the Mamba Awards, a two day Greek wine festival, the annual Oxford Wine Society food matching tasting and tonight’s Tri Nations tasting between Chile and New Zealand; as well as run a one Michelin-star restaurant!

Other notable points were that:

Tasmania showed its mettle (once again)

In case you needed reminding, Tasmania’s cool climate is making Australia’s best sparkling wines – apart from two wines from Adelaide Hills’ Bird in Hand and Croser – all of the award winners were from Tasmanian wineries.

Judges clearly love sparkling wine from House of Arras

Four of the 10 awards went to House of Arras wines including gold, silver and bronze – meaning that its importer Accolade Wines won an embarrassment of riches including the overall Best Importer gong.

Regionality wasn’t so apparent in the Cab Sauv category

Given the difference in the age of the wines and the price points, regional typicity of the wines was not that obvious.

But consistency was

In the £20-£40 price bracket there were a good deal of Cabernet Sauvignons that were all trying to do the same thing – to the same sector of the market. Rich, fruit-forward with a small variety in acidity.

The best haloumi comes from sheep’s milk

I kid you not, one of the appetisers Roger Jones conjured up on his new BBQ contraption was out of this world. Forget the squeaky haloumi from Cyprus that is in the supermarket chillers, this came from Bath and from sheep – not cows. Next year it really should have an award category all its own.

Those winners in full

Sparkling wine