Melanie Chester

Melanie continued the family connection to the wine industry by completing a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology. In the last year of her degree, she worked as a steward at the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards (then called the Royal Melbourne Wine Show). Melanie remembers it as a formative point in her career, commenting that she got to meet some of her heroes of the wine industry that week who are now great mentors.

Over the following years, Melanie worked at various wineries across Australia (she is currently Head of Winemaking and Viticulture at Giant Steps Winery in Healesville) and continued her connection with the Awards. She progressed from her position as steward to become the Head Steward, then an associate on the judging panel, then panel chair, and finally took up her current position as Chair of Judges in 2022. Melanie recalls the beginning of her association with the Show:

'I couldn’t have told myself ten years ago that I’d be taking over as the Chair of Judges in ten years’ time. I think my jaw would have hit the ground.'

The Wine Awards have existed, in various iterations, since 1884. Melanie comments that ‘you feel so connected to the history … but you’re also in a really modern wine awards’. The judging process currently involves 35 judges who are allocated to different panels. They assess a total of roughly 3,000 entries over about four days. The entries are made up of different types of wine from all over Australia. The Chair of Judges usually only tastes the one or two favourite wines of each panel each day. Melanie describes that aspect of the position as being ‘almost like a fresh palette or a fresh set of eyes for those wines’.

'One of the things we really pride ourselves on at the Wine Awards is that we do actually send feedback to every exhibitor. So no matter whether you get a gold or a trophy or you get no medal and you’re one of the lowest scoring wines, you will get feedback on that product. And that’s a really great way to give back to the exhibitors and have the exhibitors see value. And as a winemaker myself in other shows that do that, it’s fantastic because I can just get a little couple of notes on the wine and go, “Oh yeah, right. That makes sense.” Or, “I see that in that wine. I like that about that wine too. I’m glad other people see that and value that too.'

Melanie is the youngest person and the first woman to hold the Chair of Judges position. She remembers 10 or 12 years ago, there were female wine judges, but they were fewer and further between than the male counterparts’. In recent years, however, she has seen a lot more women involved in the industry.

Melanie says that one of the best things about being part of the Awards is the variety of new people she has met from the industry and the exposure she is able to give their products:

'one of my favourite things about being involved in the Show is to be able to find these great wines or these great producers that perhaps no one has ever heard of before, or [whose] stories haven’t been told as loudly as they should have been.'