Perth Royal Show - The Hidden Competitions

    Some of the most interesting moments of the Perth Royal Show happen before the show, are never seen by the public nor represented during the show. Of these are the commercial competitions for wine and bakery goods.

PRWS Judging     c.RAS

     I had the pleasure to glimpse into these spheres held three weeks before the actual Show. Very enlightening experiences these were. First there was the Perth Royal Wine Show judging taking up an entire building. Over 2100 commercial wineries across the country submitted six bottles apiece in 93 classes. Count that. Over 12,000 bottles of wine occupied  part of a large hall.  Completely mind boggling. I feared for the wine stewards-and the Chief Wine Steward most of all-getting the wines mixed up despite their careful lines of six behind a table marker. There are three separate checks and balances to make sure a sauvignon blanc is never poured in a chardonnay flight nor one winery's product confused for another's tipple.
     On the other half of the hall were just about as many  identical wine glasses all with a one ounce pour lined up on many, many tables. Five teams of tasters carrying  clipboards wander some unspoken path through the tables and occasionally stop to swirl, sniff, sip and spit out the flight presented at that space.  I looked around for the spittoons. [You don't expect them to swallow all that wine, do you?]  They took the shape of large Rubbermaid garbage cans strategically placed throughout the testing area. These folks weren't just master tasters but master spitters as well. But they do so quietly.  It is very quiet in this cavernous building.  Wine Show chairman John Snowball insists that intense concentration is required and silence aids that concentration...for the three and a half days of competition. The judging is in two parts: first the medals for each class and then the winners of the classes compete against each other for  best of show trophies.  And those trophies translate into some serious benefits for the winery that earned them.

     Homebrew and Fruit Wines.   
     What about the little guy? Mr or Ms Home Brewer who has a passion for making alcohol based beverages but not the estate or large scale production equipment?   Are these just B-grade wannabes to the commercial products? You might think so as the 150 entries are tucked away in an out-of-the-way corner.  Not so, according to Chairman Snowball. The small Mom and Pop operations have a technique and flavor flexibility that the commercial operations wouldn't dare dream about.  There are some great drops that come out of home kitchens.  The judges need to think a bit differently when judging this section.  They are not thinking of large batch consistency but of liquid alchemy. It is mostly bragging rights for these folks, but they get an advantage the commercial wineries do not.  The winners of the homebrew and fruit wine sections get their entries displayed in the Cookery Building during the Show itself.  The commercial victories disappear from general public view at about the same time as the contents of the Rubbermaid trash cans.

    
 COMMERCIAL BREAD & PASTRY

PRS Pastry Judging

     In a smaller building nearby are more busy people in white coats. Compared to the tomb atmosphere at the wine competition, the Commercial Bread & Pastry competition is practically a party. Yeah, the adjudicators are all wearing starched white vestments and carrying the ubiquitous clipboards. They are not cracking jokes nor smiling too hard. I think the sugar fairies  sprinkled a little something in the air. Or perhaps it is because no one is spitting anything out in high projectile fashion.  
    The pastry judges work in teams of two. Thinking like very fussy customers, they view each entry from every angle-far away and close up.  They then gently slice a thin piece from the whole and stare at it for awhile. Take a bite. Chomp, chomp. Toss the remaining part of the piece into a cardboard box located under the table. Check off clipboard.

PRS Bread Judging

   The bread is handled slightly differently.  The loaves are gawked at and pawed, then a slice is taken from the center and it is gawked at and pawed some more.  A bit of deep breathing goes on now as the slice meets the judicial nose. But the bread is NEVER eaten! The judges rely on the very close relationship of the olfactory sense to the sense of taste to make the determination of joy in the mouth. Not all bread is the same.  Many bakers are thinking outside the rectangle with artisanal hand-shaped breads. Gluten free breads defy their wretched reputations in innovative recipes.  Fruit loaves, braided loaves, beautiful golden loaves.   Small wonder the head judge has to call over the official tie-breaker held on retainer on numerous occasions.  And all followed by more obligatory clipboard scribbling.

PRS Cakes

    So are all 12,000 wine bottles used up in competition and, if not, what becomes of them?  The official word is that the remaining bottles are used for "educational purposes."  The cakes and breads? The government Health & Safety trolls insist that all consumable items not held in sterile  conditions be thrown away.  I had some serious thoughts about secretly dumpster diving that afternoon.

     One last thought...and complaint by the commercial exhibitors in both the wine and bakery sections.  The commercial competitions are held three weeks before the actual Perth Royal Show dates.  But there is zero presence of these competitions or its winners at the Show-not the smallest of signs or banners with a few captioned photos or names of winners. This is a shame because the only way the general public will get notice of the winners is by walking into their shops or handling the bottle that has a special sticker on it.  Some committee members blame the media for not being out en force for  judging but there is a huge disconnect between what happpens in early September and the Show at the end of the month. Who can make that leap? I think the organizers can be a bit more creative even when space is at a premium.

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Some winners:
Aravina Estates - in the Margaret River region,  had a great showing this year for its wines.
Denmark Bakery  - in the very southern part of the state, is a perennial top winner.
Patisserie La Vespa - in Fremantle, scooped up nine pastry awards this year.
Strange Grains Bakery - Perth area, its gluten-free bread made from buckwheat impressed the judges.
Organic Loafers - mostly wholesale to very lucky retailers and their customers.