Australia’s Best Chardonnay?

More than 430 wines will be judged in this year’s quest to find Australia’s best chardonnay maker. 260 wineries will compete against each other in the inaugural James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge (JHCC) this week. James Halliday is an Australian wine critic, ambassador and Yarra Valley local and is the patron of the challenge.
On Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th of September the JHCC will take place in the Yarra Valley. On October 8th James Halliday will announce the winner of the first Chardonnay Challenge Trophy in a short video. The Wine Yarra valley organises the challenge and the objective is to affirm the quality of Australian Chardonnay and give people a new look on this much-loved wine.
Chair of Judges Ben Edwards is thrilled with the response from the Australian wine industry, “When I started work with Wine Yarra Valley on the Challenge we knew this Trophy provided an amazing opportunity to showcase the depth and quality of Australian chardonnay. What we weren’t so sure of was how winemakers would react. With just over 430 chardonnays from 260 wineries representing 40 wine regions throughout Australia entered, we know the industry is as excited about it as we are.”
Edwards says that the judging process of this event will differ from other larger shows as all the wines will be grouped by region and the judges won’t know the region they taste. The wines will then be scored out of 100. To hear the winners log onto the site or become involved in the awards announcement by joining the Twitter conversation using the hash tag: #chardchallenge.