Chairman of the Cowra Wine Show, Michael Flannery, has praised the quality of wines on offer in this years show despite entrant numbers being down.
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Mr Flannery said while the ongoing drought was the cause of the low numbers it was also the cause of the quality on offer.
"The drought is one reason the numbers are down. Yields are down in some areas of South Australia by 60 per cent but often when yields are down quality goes up," he said.
"The grapes are a bit more starved of water and so often what happens more of the goodness of the vine goes into a smaller area of grapes and it increases the quality.
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"So we are very happy with the results, about 7 per cent of all the wines received gold medals and about 35 per cent of all the wines received a medal of some description, so that's on par with most national wines shows," he said.
Mr Flannery said the show had enjoyed a number of strong showings across all its categories.
"The Semillon class is always very strong," he said.
"Australian wine makes make the best Semillion's in the world, I think there was one class of about 22 wines and only one missed out on a medal so that indicates how strong it is.
"The Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon were again very strong and the Chardonnay was another very strong class.
"A lot of new entries received gold medals, a Nero D'avola from Calabria Wines won a gold medal which is the third year in a row that wine has won a gold medal," he said.
Mr Flannery also praised Windowrie Wine's Pig in the House for winning a gold medal and the estate itself for winning best local red wine and best local white wine.
Mr Flannery said the show wasn't possible without the help of the many volunteers that gave their time over the last few weeks.
"I'm only one of many local volunteers. We are a non-profit organisation, a subgroup of the Cowra Show Society, and we run on voluntary labour," he said.
"It's the usual cliche of there's too many people to thank. I just have to say thank you for a fantastic team effort by volunteers from Cowra and the district," he said.
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