A glimpse into Decanter World Wine Awards: team Portugal

Decanter World Wine Awards kicked off this week.  Portuguese entries are up again this year as is the overall number of wines entered into the competition, topping 15,000.

So thank goodness we are judging in the much roomier Tobacco Dock in Wapping (pictured with the shard in the background).  Luckily for me given the tube strike, it’s handily located next to the overground.

Beatriz Machado, Joao Pires MS, Danny Cameron

Of some 200 judges participating in the competition (and putting away 25kg of  Neale’s Yard cheese daily) I have an impressive roll call of judges to chair.  Two panels are tasting their way through the Portuguese (table) wines over 4 days and, on Friday, an all woman panel will preside over the Regional Trophy judging on Friday – a first! As always fellow writer Richad Mayson will chair the fortified panel.

Jane MacQuitty, Ben Campbell-Johnston, Nick Oakley

My crack team comprise former Dinner man João Pires MS, Danny Cameron of Raymond Reynolds, Nick Oakley of Oakley Wines, Beatriz Machado, Wine Director, The Yeatman, Oporto-based consultant Anne Forrest, The Wine Society buyer Joanna Locke MW,  BFT co-founder Ben Campbell-Johnston, Portuguese wine man-about-London Claudio Martins and, on day 1, Jane MacQuitty, The Times’ wine correspondent and Portuguese Wine Writer of the Year.