Wither Hills Stripped Of Award
New Zealand producer has had a from one of their wines when scientific analysis discovered that the wine in the sample was not the same as that on the shelf.
“Wither Hills was to be named in list of top 10 Sauvignon blanc wines, but that all changed after an ESR scientist concluded that the entered wine was not the same.
But Wither Hills’s chief winemaker Brent Marris says that while the wine in the competition was different to the one sold on the shelves, the public have not been misled.
“Technically they are different wines, but from a quality point of view and from a style and taste point of view they’re essentially the same,” he says.”
Two different wines but ‘technically’ the same… yeah, right.
You have to ask how often this tactic occurs and exactly how often the various wine magazines who run such undertake such extensive testing. Seeing that many competitions have literally thousands of wines entered do any put the wines through for comparison?
If such an endorsement guarantees better sales then can you blame the company for trying?
You don’t have to test “thousands” of wines for a competition, you only have to test the winners - just like horse races.
Sadly, even the scandal will increase this companies name-recognition, and likely their sales to novice markets.
“Look honey, Wither Hills - I’ve heard of them (but I can’t remember where). Let’s try this one.”