A new wine competition is taking place this year, to fill the gap left by Liquorland Ltd who have decided not to run their International Wine Competition for the time being.

'The Spiegelau International Wine Competition' inaugural judging will take place from June 21 to 23, in Marlborough, New Zealand. Sydney-based Mike DeGaris is Chief Judge in command of a team of New Zealand's leading wine judges and a number of international judges including Adrian Atkinson, Global Wine-Buying Director for Pernod-Ricard from London and Phil Reedman, Specialist Wine Consultant based in Adelaide.

The competition management team is well known trio Belinda Jackson as Competition Director, Margaret Cresswell, Competition Administrator and Shona White, Chief Steward.

Belinda Jackson says, "We are very excited to launch this new event. It will be the ideal platform to bench-mark New Zealand wines with styles from around the world and with our highly respected principal sponsor, Spiegelau we believe that the event will be of significant interest both locally and overseas." She continues, "The competition will identify a range of wonderful wines for consumers to enjoy, safe in the knowledge that each has been endorsed through a rigorous judging process."

Spiegelau New Zealand distributor, Michael Jemison of Macvine says, "I am delighted to be associated with this exciting new show and look forward to supplying style-specific Spiegelau glasses for judging. This is thought to be a first for a wine competition."

Details including entry criteria will be sent to wine producers and distributors at the beginning of April. The event will offer Associate Judge positions to those with the relevant experience. Stewarding positions will also be available.

An awards dinner will be held to announce the trophies, details to be announced.