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The maker of a wine that won at the Hawkes Bay Wine Awards last week has withdrawn the wine and returned the trophy.
His move followed allegations of a potential conflict of interest where the top prize went to a company owned by chief judge Tony Bish. Mr Bish is winemaker for Sacred Hill, which also owns the Gunn Estate label that won the Champion Wine trophy with its 2006 Skeetfield Chardonnay.
In withdrawing the wine yesterday, Sacred Hill said Mr Bish was not involved in any way during the competition judging that might have influenced the final results and did not breach any rules of the Hawkes Bay Wine Awards.
"We have decided to withdraw the wine even though technically no rules were broken, out of respect for the Hawkes Bay Wine Awards," said Mr Bish.
It is just a year since Brent Marris, the chief judge at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards, the country's top wine competition, was forced to resign after his Wither Hills competition wines were found to be different from those sold to the public.
Top wine judge Michael Cooper was the whistleblower in that case and had called for Gunn Estate to give back its award.
Mr Bish said this week the possibility of a conflict of interest had been discussed before the competition and steps had been taken to avoid it.
After reviewing the event Mr Bish said he believed he had been in no way compromised, an opinion that the panel leader, Te Mata Estate winemaker Peter Cowley, agreed with.
"It was a good wine, no doubt about it. And Tony had no input into the results at all," he said.
The other judges on the panel were Wellington wine critic Geoff Kelly and Australian judge Philip Rich, and they were in agreement.
Mr Cowley was surprised to learn that the wine, which was tasted "blind" or unknown to the judges, was from the Sacred Hill portfolio.
"It was pretty silly for them to put the wine in. Everybody has been talking about the need to be seen to be straight, and Sacred Hill made a point of saying they were not putting any wine in. I really don't know why they did enter the Gunn Estate wine."
- NZPA
