Gaybo may have gone, taking "One for everybody in the audience" with him - but the spirit of prize mania lives on. This year you could spend hours, days, just reading the list of winners in the International Wine Challenge. For the first time, they're spread out over not one but two issues of Wine magazine - whites this month, reds next. Some 450 tasters sampled over 8,500 wines and ended up awarding medals or commendations to about half of them - a bewildering assortment of bottles, quite a number of which you might not feel much inclined to drink after half a glass .
Why the sour grapes? Not because any of the perplexing winners are inherently nasty or badly made - oh dear me, no. Some of them are just a bit unsubtle. Wines that stand out in competitions are inclined to be super-assertive, offering big, upfront flavours - not always but often enough to indicate a tendency. They're Ruby Wax rather than Mary Robinson; Graham Norton as opposed to Seamus Heaney. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily. You may feel like a big, fruity mouthful now and again. But maybe not too often.
It's easy to see how competition syndrome sets in. In most contests, the judges only have a couple of minutes for each wine - just long enough to swirl, sniff, slurp, make notes and score. It stands to reason that the sort of wines which release their charm slowly in the glass don't stand as much of a chance as those with monster personalities. This I have discovered with unease, having been a judge in a few wine competitions. There's nothing worse than sitting down, after the prizegiving, to a celebratory meal with the winning wines, only to discover they're uninspiring after the first two sips.
Sitting at my kitchen table with the corkscrew out, I sometimes find that a wine which initially didn't seem too promising slips down with alarming ease during dinner, while another which had seemed terrific at first taste grows tiresome and isn't touched.
Do competitions matter? More and more, it seems. Awards are a marketing dream come true. Producers like nothing better than to affix those little gold and silver stickers to their bottles, which are then snapped up by wine drinkers as eagerly as if they contained deposits of the precious metals themselves. The more competitions, the more stickers, the more sales. The Australians have been prime movers from the start, with their tradition of local agricultural shows awarding prizes for produce of every kind including wine. But these days there are wine contests all over the planet, all the time - the International Wine Challenge is simply one of the biggest.
It's always interesting to glance through the list of winners because the prize list inevitably acts as a pointer to some unfamiliar gems as well as a reminder of some great wines.
Prize winners worth a whirl
WHITE: San Pedro Sauvignon Blanc, Molina, 1998 (Dunnes Stores, £5.79, on special offer at £5.29 until October 25th). This wine right under our Irish noses is the same as the UK's San Pedro 35 Sur - one of just two gold winners in the Sauvignon section - and also the same as Castillo de Molino which you'll see in restaurants. Gooseberryish and smooth, with herbal notes, tingly freshness and a surprisingly long finish.
Lawson's Dry Hills Riesling 1998 (McCabes Merrion, Vintry Rathgar, Redmonds Ranelagh, On the Grapevine Dalkey, Thomas's Foxrock, Wine Centre Kilkenny, Egans Drogheda, World of Wine Dungarvan and other outlets, usually about £10.99). A very warm New Zealand vintage, so the fruit (Kiwi?) in this silver medallist is extra-ripe; but citrusy acidity perks up the palate.
RED: Villiera Estate Merlot, Paarl, 1997 (Superquinn, Roches Stores, McCabes Merrion and some other outlets, usually about £9.49). I'd forgotten how tasty this South African gold medallist is - lively and quite savoury - in an elegant, middle-weight style.
Ripassa Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Zenato, 1996 (Searsons Monkstown, McCabes Foxrock, On the Grapevine Dalkey, Pielows Enniskerry, Wine Centre Kilkenny, usually about £9.95). Searsons's new star Zenato walked off with three gold medals - all of which they import: two Amarones and this sumptuous Valpol enriched through contact with Amarone lees. A real treat.
Marques de Grinon Dominio de Valpedusa Petit Verdot 1995 (McCabes Merrion, Cheers-Gibneys Malahide, Greenacres Wexford, Pettits in south-east and some other leading independent off-licences, £11.99£12.49). In the mood for something different? This is a sidelined old Bordeaux grape strutting its stuff to good effect in central Spain for a gold. Soft and very inviting with a nice bit of bite in a lingering finish.