Many apologies but the Argentinians (or is it Argentines? I can't get any of them to give me a definitive ruling on this) are killing us with kindness and are leaving us without a moment's free time.
We tasted all the wines on which the two panels failed to agree re medal rating and then all possible candidates for a trophy on Wednesday and very fascinating it was too. Not enough Cabernet Sauvignons! Lots of Red Blends. Even more trophy candidates than for the Malbec trophy. All will presumably become clear tomorrow at the award giving dinner – after a sellout seminar Thursday morning for which we must report for duty at 8am and at which we visiting judges are supposed to pronounce on how Argentina is to conquer the British market. (Question: given the US market is even more important to Argentine/Argentinian wine than the UK, why don't they have a generic office in the US? It is the existence of James Forbes, ex Oddbins wine buyer, as representative of Wine of Argentina in the UK that has spawned these awards.)
I think Adrian Atkinson of Pernod Ricard (Jacobs Creek, Montana and no fewer than three Argentine/Argentinian bodegas) will be able to provide the most pertinent information to the crowd of 300. We wine writers will surely tend to waffle impressionistically – although I happen to know that Joe Fattorini has calculated the carbon cost of shipping Argentina's ridiculously heavy heaviest bottles around the world. Yes, you may well wonder at this point about the carbon cost of shipping our palates around the world.
But I will report in more detail on all of this.
