Ken Helm resigns from Canberra International Riesling Challenge ahead of 2023 event

The founder of what is now the largest wine show in the southern hemisphere announced he was resigning on Monday morning - the first day of this year's six-day event - saying aside from the launch, he would not participate in this year's challenge beyond that of a competitor.

Having made the decision earlier this year, Mr Helm said he and the Riesling Challenge board had decided to embargo the news to coincide with this year's wine show.

"I believe that everyone is replaceable, and you should make way for new ideas and initiatives when the time is right. The time is right for me," he said.

"The event really does need an enthusiastic person, probably a younger person, to actually take it to the next level.

"These are difficult times in the wine industry at the moment, and these are very difficult times, I believe, for wine shows. I don't know how many are in Australia, but there must be 50-odd wine shows, and you have to stand out from the crowd and you have to provide not just awards.

"I also believe that an event can't survive by standing still - it has to have innovations and some of the innovations that I've had during the event are being adopted by other shows, which is very gratifying."

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The Canberra International Riesling Challenge came at an interesting time for the wine varietal.

After years of Australian winemakers being able to name any white wine riesling, the government finally introduced regulations that meant that a wine named riesling had to have a certain percentage of riesling grapes in it.

"A winery could go out and take some sultana grapes or some Sémillon or some gordos or any white grape they wanted to they could make a white wine with and they could stick it in a bag in a box or a bottle and they could call it riesling," Mr Helm said.

"So number of riesling makers in the Clare Valley and around here - including myself, Jeffrey Grosset, and Brian Croser and other winemakers - we lobbied Federal Parliament and said look, let's quarantine the word riesling that can only be used for wine if it's made from the riesling grape. And on the first of January 2000, Federal Government under label integrity legislated that word would be quarantined just for that wine."

And as with most things, timing is everything. Something that Mr Helm knows all too well.

With the spotlight on riesling, Mr Helm knew it was the perfect time to do an event dedicated to riesling.

Having had some involvement in wine shows previously - he had worked on the National Wine Show and the Yass Wine Show (now known as the Cool Climate Wine Show) - he came up with the idea of the Riesling Challenge.

No other event focused solely on one vine varietal at the time, and when he approached other wine shows, they didn't think it was a suitable addition. So Mr Helm instead turned to Jim Murphy of Jim Murphy's Market Cellars. Soon after, Wolf Blass came on board as the event's first chairman of judges - which he held for six years.

And it turned out Canberra was the perfect place to hold not just a wine show dedicated to a cool climate varietal, but an event that would go on to be a truly international event. This year, for example, has a total of 370 entrants from the United States, Germany, New Zealand, France, and of course, Australia.

Canberra's role as a diplomatic outpost had a role to play in gaining such international attraction. It started with a conversation with the New Zealand high commissioner, and then the German ambassador, and slowly, the international community based in Canberra got behind it.

"It was a bit of a friendly competition between the ambassadors and high commissioners," Mr Helm said.

"But also, this is a perfect place to grow some of the best rieslings in the world. And we have shown that through the event. Two of the Canberra wineries were rated the best wine in the event. That's pretty good against Germany, Austria, the whole range of them."

Canberra hasn't heard the last from Mr Helm, however. He will continue to be involved in Helm Wines on a day-to-day basis.

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