Watson win worth cost of a hangover

The Jimmy Watson Trophy has had a circuitous journey en route to ­becoming Australia’s most ­famous wine show prize.

(Photo by Jeff PACHOUD / AFP)

The Jimmy Watson Trophy has had a circuitous journey en route to ­becoming Australia’s most ­famous wine show prize.

Its origin story begins at the funeral of the man whose name and memory it perpetuates.

Jimmy Watson was the well-known and widely loved proprietor of the eponymous wine bar on Melbourne’s Lygon Street, a bolthole of vinous ­devotion in a world of beer-­swilling pubs.

Watson was well known for his scouring of Australia in search of wines he would purchase by the hogshead, a 300-litre barrel, and take back to the bar to bottle for patrons.

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When he died suddenly in 1962, a group of family, friends and loyal customers instituted a trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show that rewarded the maker of the best one-year-old red wine with a silver and cut-crystal claret jug to be known as the Jimmy Watson Trophy.

The first decade of its existence was relatively unremark­able, a prize well worth winning but not necessarily something that needed to be shouted from the rooftops.

Then along came Wolf Blass.

There are times when it seems Blass came into this world only to show us non-believers that a self-blown trumpet will bring forth the most brazen ­angels.

When Blass and his winemaking sidekick and laconic counterpoint, John Glaetzer, won the trophy three years in a row in the early 1970s, his wea­pons-grade capacity for self-­promotion swept the trophy up in his turbulent wake and he ­quickly had the nation convinced this was the most significant winemaking achievement since Jesus shouted the bar at his mate’s wedding in Cana, and the Jimmy Watson Trophy was the wine world’s Melbourne Cup.

Such prominence can present problems, and the practice of ­entering unfinished wines became a source of suspicion and rumours that carefully selected best barrels could suddenly ­become 100,000-case bottling runs after a Watson win dogged the award.

On the 50th anniversary of the award, entry criteria were sensibly changed, the age limit pushed out to two years and ­entries had to be finished and bottled wines.

It’s wise protection for the one wine show trophy that still attracts attention in newsrooms around the country and drags punters into bottleshops in search of its winners. And it’s still the one wine show trophy winemakers most want to win.

Just ask Paul Hotker, Matt Laube and Robbie Potts from Bleasdale Wines in Langhorne Creek, South Australia, winners of this year’s Jimmy Watson Trophy.

Interviewed at a lunch last Friday, the day after winning the trophy, Hotker, nursing a hangover and a beer brewed from ­razor blades, managed to assem­ble a collection of words into a sentence that went something like this: “We’ve been lucky enough to have a bit of wine-show success the last couple of years but this one’s the pinnacle. I’d swap all the others to have one of these.”

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The trio had celebrated in the traditional style the night before, leading a parade of wellwishers and hangers-on to a bar in Melbourne’s CBD to fill the trophy with as much serious champagne as they could get their hands on.

Then Potts attempted to set a new standard. Potts, whose great-great-grandfather Frank arrived in South Australia on the first ship to land in the colony and established Bleasdale and Langhorne Creek itself, declared the trophy really should be filled with Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, a request, if it hadn’t been knocked back on ­responsible alcohol service grounds, would’ve set him back a cool grand.

But not even missing out on his tipple of choice could dampen Potts’s enthusiasm.

From the earliest days, the Potts family has been a neighbour with the Folletts of Lake Breeze Wines, their friendly ­rivalry a pillar of this small and close winemaking community.

Robbie’s rival, Greg Follett, has an enviable trophy ­cabinet of his own but Robbie was keen to point out what it was missing.

“Follett can win every other bloody thing but he hasn’t got one of these!” he boasted.

It was as the trophy was thrust into the air that a dozen wiser heads gently prised it from the Potts paw, filled it with more champagne and normal transmission resumed.

Bleasdale Vineyards The Wild Fig

Bleasdale The Wild Fig Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre 2018, Langhorne Creek, $20

There are many reasons this wine winning the Watson is to be celebrated.

First, its modest price. Second, it’s the first win for a Langhorne Creek wine since the first winner, the 1961 Stonyfell Metala back in 1962. Third, Blass and ­Glaetzer always said the portion of Langhorne Creek fruit in the Blass Black Label wines was the secret weapon that took them to three consecutive Watson wins. And finally, it’s simply bloody delicious, beautifully fragrant and vibrant. If there’s any at your local, grab it.