The Tutorial, conceived by the late Len Evans AO OBE and recently awarded the McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Award, is an exclusive wine course held annually over the course of five days. Selected scholars were exposed to the demands of wine show judging – from master classes, to blind tastings and judging sessions – alongside some of Australia’s top wine experts.
Each year, twelve fully paid scholarships are offered, valued at $10,000, and held in the Hunter Valley. The students of this year’s course, held from October 31 to November 4, represented Australia’s prominent wine and viticulture professionals.
Len Evans Tutorial Convener and Tutor, Iain Riggs said, “The Trustees recognise the ongoing need for high calibre Australian wine show judges, and agree that the industry needs, now more than ever, highly-trained professionals to take the premium Australian wine message to a greater audience.
“These are the people at the forefront of grape-growing, winemaking and selling premium wine. The dramatic increase in sales of imported wine shows a sophisticated consumer. A better awareness of premium Australian wine and where it sits in relation to imported wine is essential to the industry getting its message out to the world.”
Scholars of the tutorial prove successful in the industry and often going on to judge at major national wine shows. Leading wine critic and Trustee of the Lens Evans Foundation, James Halliday, describes the Lens Evans Tutorial as “the most exclusive wine school in the world”.
Tasked with tastings of some of the rarest, oldest and greatest wines through the week, Halliday noted that Stuart judged exceedingly well across, and was the highest placed scholar on the Shiraz Dissertation.
Stuart is just one of two Hunter Valley based attendees to dux the Tutorial, following Liz Silkman (nee Jackson) in 2006. He will now be flown to Europe, where he has been invited to some of the greatest wine houses.
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