Wine judges brawl it out

“Judging Australian wine shows is the closest I’ve ever come to hand-to-hand combat.”

So says wine writer Tim Atkin the Uk’s The Observer:

“No one actually exchanges punches, but the verbal fisticuffs can be brutal. If you’re brought up to be polite and to consider someone else’s point of view, the bare-knuckle opinions can come as a shock. ‘I thought that wine was fucked, mate,’ a fellow judge told me after I’d advanced the claims of one particular Shiraz/Viognier blend.”