A taste for fine wines
A WINE that can be bought off the bottleshop shelf for $17 was the star of the Cairns Show Wine Awards.
The 2005 Gramps Shiraz was awarded Champion Wine of the annual awards yesterday, with a host of other wines awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.
The awards started on Thursday and yesterday the public were invited to taste-test 1200 selections of wines from across Australia and New Zealand.
One of the 12 judges was Cairns businessman Roy Payne who said the show had brought the best wine makers such as Penfolds to the region.
"It's quite a big deal for Cairns when it's not a wine-growing region," Mr Payne said.
"We're looking at good fruit, oak balance and a good length of palette and by that we mean you can taste the wine from the tip of the tongue to the back, and also a complex of flavours."
Master of Wines Andrew Corrigan thought up the idea 14 years ago to expose people to a range of wines and encourage wine drinking.
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