WISS II - The Reckoning

Whoa. 'The Reckoning' is a pretty dramatic headline for the Return To WISS opening blog for 2012 but it's been a long time between posts on here so why not, ey? Meat takes time to cure and so do we, hence the timing between any missives from WISS. Or something like that.

Meanwhile, the ball is actually rolling for WISS 2012. The judging dates have been set for Friday 2nd of November to Sunday 4th of November. Yes, a weekend long meatathon which will include a judging day, a wine and meat challenge, a salami making course then some good old-fashioned drinking of cans of beer and awkward hugging.

De Bortoli triumphed last year so for 2012 they are hosting the WISS entourage on their Yarra Valley estate. Word has it Stephen Webber has ordered a portaloo so none of the judges destroy the pristine plumbing at De Bortoli over the weekend. I think he just meant the judge Nick Ryan.

Anyway, WISS did a preliminary inspection of the De Bortoli facilities and were blown away by the facilities and proximity to the great outdoors in case of any urgent need to purge. The old shearing shed that will house the bulk of the WISS festival de meat even has a spooky room that has insulated and padded walls. We like it.

WISS has already been sent pictures of smallgoods action from around Australia and we are hoping that the later-in-year date will allow for many meats to taste even better than last year. Producers already committed include De Bortoli (of course), Ravensworth (last year's runner up and winner of the air dried class), Zema Estate from Coonawarra (super enthusiastic and we love them), while the First Drop boys from the Barossa have been early meat handlers in 2012, and a new, all girl wine posse from Victoria has set our faces to flush and our pants to 'watch out' with their commitment to sausages for WISS 2012.

There will be more details to come... rest assured WISS is once more flying the flag for all things wine industry smallgood in 2012.

We welcome you back to the WISS fold...