The first wine show of Australian capital cities is underway in Brisbane this week. The RNA means the Royal National Association of Queensland – an agricultural society.

The RNA have hosted this show since the 50s and supported agricultural competitions and exhibits since its inception in the late 1870s.

Of more recent times it’s better known as a part of the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show because meats, olive oil, cheese and other good digestible morsels are also paraded and tasted.

Twelve judges taste – four panels of three; so each group will taste approximately one quarter of the entries – 1935, over four days. On the fifth all judges taste the wines in trophy contention.

Sharing the same wines lined up in Riedel Magnum Overture glassware were David O’Leary (O’Leary Walker, Clare and Adelaide Hills) and Kevin Glastonbury (red winemaker at Yalumba-Barossa Valley)

Today was a good start. There were 54 commercial chardonnays (commercial means big volume production and holdings of a minimum of 2000 dozen).

Amongst these wines we found two gold medals and wrote a report about the standard in Australia at this time.

“Outstanding class; top gold excellent and sophisticated, the other more funkier. Chardonnay styles are on the rise and show diversity; we were more appreciative of less development and lessening oak but too many wines were prematurely aged or too funky.”

These comments are directed at all the winemakers who exhibited in the class (I will report the actual wines later in the week when these anonymous glasses are identified by their producer names).

One chardonnay in the class was cork finished, the other 53 were screw capped. Guess what happened to the former bottle – it was oxidised, and was discounted.

In today’s era, a faulty cork does not instantly demand the wine be re-poured as a “second chance”. If a cork fails then too bad; the wine is just downpointed to a poor showing.

Such detailed notes give exhibitors quite close indications of where their wine style fell, and how they related to the upwardly rising chardonnay style standard. And we noted, entry 12 was old fashioned.

Australian chardonnay is undergoing a style refit; wines are more steely, less oaky and more sculptured in their texture. You need to taste chardonnay carefully to secrete all the angles and tastes – that’s why it’s such an important world variety.

Then there were 52 cabernet sauvignons in the commercial group to be judged. We found just one gold medal and deduced the cabernets of Australia, made in big volumes, were in poor shape. These were mainly the 2007 and 2008 vintages.

Comments read, “Poor class; one outstanding wine, pure varietal expression. Too many wines were not varietal cabernet – were plummy, over-ripe, minty, lacking ripeness or without character. Some poor wines are the result of the 2007 and 2008 vintages which were not great”.

What we were saying is that many entries did not smell and taste like cabernet sauvignon. That has to be the starting point, but hot and stressful vintages can toy with the ability of vineyards to produce essential cabernet characters. That’s life in agricultural pursuits, and the weather has a bearing.

This year’s numbers were down a little, as exhibitors think closely about their level of entries in tight industry times. This show once had 2500 entries a decade ago.

Hilton Brisbane’s Masterclass 2010 weekend draws chefs from around the globe. And this year’s was no exception, a great array of culinary talent.

The best aspect of their demonstrations is that participants taste the same dishes which are demonstrated on stage-the Hilton hotel chefs cook and plate behind the scenes in parallel with the headline chefs.

I was lucky to pair up in the Singapore Airlines sponsored Asian Affairs Room with Vietnamese author and television chef Luke Nguyen (Red Lantern-Sydney) and once Queensland-domiciled Martin Boetz (Longrain-Melbourne and Sydney) cooking two similar dishes in sync-pomelo salad and duck.

To match wines sponsored by the Granite Belt Wine Country with these four dishes I took to dissecting their recipes first.

In my presentation I outlined that these foods contained the four principal taste sensations, SWEET-SOUR-SALTY-BITTER plus the most important aspect-Umami.

From there it was pointed out that Asian food components have certain repressive or emphasising actions on the principal tastes of table wines.

High food sweetness or sugar makes wine taste thin or often sourer. High food sourness or acidity such as lime juice can dominate the taste of light wines. Salty food emphasises wine tannin so wine selection needs to consider less tannic wines (pinot is a no brainer). Food bitterness is good because it creates wine savouriness. And food umami releases wine earthiness.

With that in mind I was anticipating reasonably salty dishes so low tannin reds were on the agenda, and for whites the means for avoiding high tannin was to go unwooded.

Both chef’s pair of dishes have strong flavours, distinct fragrances (they mélange well with aromatic wine smells) and ample fresh herbs.

Luke’s Crab and Pomelo Salad has mint, Vietnamese mint, paddy herb stems and coriander fresh herbs, principal flavours of garlic, garlic chip, peanuts, chilli (twice); leaving aside the crab protein, then umami in the dried shrimp and fish sauce (twice) when accounting for the dressing.

Martin’s Pomelo Ginger and Cashew Nut Salad with green chilli and crisp garlic has mint, coriander, lemon grass, and lime leaf fresh herbs, principal flavours of green chilli, garlic chips and galangal, then umami from the fish sauce.

The pair of wines served was Robert Channon Pinot Gris 2009 (pear-like, dry, medium bodied, on the lighter grigio end, bright acidity, little tannic grip) and Ballandean Estate Family Reserve Viognier 2009 (pale, heady citrus nose, full bodied, a clear palate bitterness to accentuate food flavours).

Luke’s Master Stock Duck with Tamarind and Plum Sauce is a umami bomb from two soy sauces, and oyster sauce plus one whole duck, and has garlic chive, watercress, cassia, anise and cardamon herbal and spice notes, then principal flavours are chilli and poached duck.

Martin’s Steamed Duck, Winter melon and Shitake Mushroom Soup has ginger, chives and Asian celery for the herb and spice pattern, principal flavours of garlic, peppercorns, preserved lime, plus umami from mushrooms, yellow bean soy and chicken stock.

The two red wines served were Symphony Hill Reserve Pinot Noir 2008 (earthy, strawberry, mushroom, soft tannins, elegant) and Summit Estate The Pinnacle Premium Red 2007 (shiraz and pinot noir blend, striking spice, pepper and supple tannins in line with the food influence).

Umami can never be under-estimated in Thai and Vietnamese dishes as it makes us salivate as we eat and appreciate the savouriness of wine influenced by food components, mainly salt. It is the spice of our eating lives.

Negociants Australia conducted their fabulous sommelier training program around Australia this week under the title “Working with Wine” under the byline Down to Earth Viticulture, focussing on vineyard practices.

And this company’s investment in the top end discussions about winespeak are well recorded. This time it was the evangelistic writer and Melbourne-based Max Allen armed with a plethora of biodynamic jargon and fact.

The day’s proceedings got down to tasting biodynamic and organically certified wines of various styles.

From Martinborough NZ, Palister Estate Riesling 2008 (USD 16), lime juice, off-dry, talcum powder acidity (89), a terrific Great Southern Riesling from Howard Park2009 (USD 22); austere nose but oh so wonderful palate, a full, front-palate wine (95), Radford bio-dynamically Grown Riesling 2009 ( USD 33.50) from Eden Valley was more the kero style, warmer fruit and austere and grainy (89); then the real revelation from the Mosel is Egon Muller Riesling Spaetlese 2008 (USD 136) with deliciousness and ripeness written all over it (96).

Yalumba’s Organic Viognier 2010 (USD 13) from Loxton has a great green colour, the telltale Yalumba skills at slippery palate for this variety (89) backed up with the Y Series 2010 (USD 12) ever so good as well, with real interest in the nose and palate structure-juicy (90).

Great biodynamic chardonnays included the standout Cullen Kevin John 2008 (USD 62), pale, restrained, austere now, yet to flower (95), a magnificent Macon-Milly-Lamartine “Clos du Four” 2008 (USD 47), at the nadir of chardonnay style with barrel ferment, solids infusion, super-tight palate belying much oak, owned by Comte Lafon (97), and quite an oaky Domaine Leflaive Pugliny Montrachet “Folatieres” 2007 (USD 210),complex sour lemon nose, closed and tannic, syrupy and lean with a backbone of intensity (94).

Globe-trotting Grant Taylor of Valli in central Otago presented non-organic three pinots under his banner; all terrific 2008s; Gibbston, Bannockburn and Waitaki (all USD 51). It’s amazing to line up three wines of similar provenance but totally different character caused by site and terroir. The Gibbston had the black fruits, brash on intensity, very closed up, quite edgy (93), Bannockburn was more forward from the warmer site, sweet fruit already, very soft with the fishtail tannins (91), and Waitaki powerful in fruit, almost steroidal, a step-up in concentration and a lot of additional winemaking happening, drying tannins, (92).

There was a little discussion about biodynamic nebbiolo, but the wine to cap the day was Gaja Barbaresco 2006 (USD 261), ever some well done, feral nose characters but the great palate combining high acid, high tannin and still finishing flush and chalky (95).

A recent gathering of wine industry folk descended on Adelaide for the 14th Annual Wine Industry Technical Conference (AWITC) which runs for four days of presentations.

Around that there are really interesting workshops, trade displays and a huge series of posters depicting many aspects of the industry; not necessarily all Australian with some good Kiwi and South African contributions.

One series of presentations honed in on wine consumers and struck strong chords with me because wine marketing sometimes tends to take the “one size fits all approach” and often such methods fail with an awful loss of money.

Lulie Halstead from the UK-based Wine Intelligence group clearly gave me the picture of how drinkers sat worldwide. And what a revelation. Wine Intelligance survey drinkers’ habits in the top fifty countries for wine drinking, basing this on four groups: traditionally established (France) and most of these countries drink at least 50 litres/capita per year, established (Australia), emerging (Singapore) and new emerging (China).

Lulie called a regular wine drinker a person who drank wine once a month. Let’s investigate US, UK, Canadian, Australian and Chinese drinking statistics (the latter consuming less than a litre per capita)!

Sixty-six percent of Australian adults (25 l/capita), sixty-one per cent of Canadians (13 l/capita), fifty-nine percent of Brits (25 l/capita, a third drink beer) and thirty-three percent of Americans (11 l/capita, a third drink beer and a third don’t drink alcohol) drink wine.

The average Australian drinker is aged 47, with fifty-seven percent over 40 years. The sexes are evenly split. In the USA the average drinker is aged 49, with sixty percent over 45 years. But sixty percent of US drinkers are female.

In China sixty-three percent of males and thirty-seven percent of females drink wine, but expect that to change. Importantly the table wine drinking age group is 25-35 years.

In terms of outright drinker numbers, USA has seventy-four million, then comes Canada, UK and Australia in descending order.

In surveying the USA market for Australian wine we rank fifth in importance with eighteen percent of drinkers experiencing Aussie wine whilst the Kiwi’s rank tenth and twelve percent of American palates have tried a sauvignon or pinot.

What’s even more interesting is the motivation for US consumers to buy wine. Their physical need is to be refreshed, quench a thirst or suffer a healthy experience, whereas most female Chinese see a glass of wine has a health and beauty tonic (actually consumed before a sleep event).

If the motivation is a self-expression; “about me”, a US drinker sees a good bottle as a personal reward, a form of relaxation, gaining knowledge or for leisure time. The Chinese drinker sees it as a good luck token, a personal experience, gaining knowledge or simply the important activity of consuming a western product.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world the Institute of Masters of Wine was holding its Symposium in Bordeaux entitled “Forging Links”.

Judy Leissner of Grace Vineyards is Hong Kong based but is building her brand in China from grapes grown in X’ian province at her isolated winery.

Jancis Robinson reports on www.jancisrobinson.com from the symposium reminding us that the population of China is over 1.3 billion, with one city, ChongQing, being home to 32.3 million inhabitants, many of whom never leave their own district.

So many of the new drinkers who were born during the one-child policy era are now coming on to the labour market or entering the Chinese middle class. These children grew up with one set of parents and two sets of grandparents completely focused on them and their desires.

Judy says, ‘You can’t criticise Chinese people born in the 1990s.’ She was not the first person to note that there is little sex discrimination in China, but that because drinking carries negative connotations, female wine sales people are generally thought to be easy conquests.”

This coming week Pernod China will welcome six hundred of its sales staff to its Orlando Wines and Jacob’s Creek headquarters at Rowland Flat. I’d be interested to know what the gender break is in this sales force.

According to Stacier Wei at info@wine-info.com , Orlando Wines MD, Stephen Couche “says China is emerging as a growing market for Australian wine, and Jacob’s Creek in particular. China has an increasingly affluent middle class, within which there is a desire for luxury consumer goods and a relaxed, family-based lifestyle.” This ties in with the research at Wine Intelligence.

Pernod China believe there are as many as 200 million people for whom bottled wine is seen as an element of this desirable lifestyle –and Australia, along with France, is seen as a preferred supplier of this wine.

According to Judy Leissner ‘typical consumers are men aged 40-60 who drink frequently but don’t really enjoy it. They drink wine because, doing a business deal, typically in a private room in a restaurant with shark-fin soup to demonstrate how well the guests are treated, they mustn’t lose face. Wine is served so that the guests know immediately how expensive the wine is.’

Looks like the demographic on Chinese drinkers, a very important new Australian customer is rapidly changing.

The final motivation for buying wine is an external one, for a US drinker it is status related, or a cause for celebration or due to a recommendation, whereas a Chinese drinker sees it as sophistication, social status, respect if it’s a business colleague or even more it’s for financial status.

And the moral for the wine industry is: educate the millennial demographic, to grow the Australian wine industry needs more younger consumers. So wines branded “Some Young Punks” would sound attractive to such a group.