Adam Walls awarded Basil Sellers Prize for Dux at the 2019 Len Evans Tutorial

The Hunter Valley – the venue for the annual Len Evans Tutorial – has provided the dux of this year’s tutorial. Adam Walls, a wine buyer at Newcastle-based Wine Selectors, is the dux of the 19th Len Evans Tutorial.

Each year in November, over a five-day period, 12 scholars are exposed to the great wines of the world through a series of judging sessions, masterclasses and dinners.

Each year in November, over a five-day period, 12 scholars are exposed to the great wines of the world.

Walls said the experience was ‘an absolute career highlight’, and having the opportunity to taste wines such as the 1954 Mount Pleasant Robert Hermitage ‘absolutely blew my mind’.

He has worked at Wine Selectors since 2010, where he is a buyer, a tasting panel member, and the head of the wine education program. Wine Selectors claims to be Australia’s largest privately owned direct marketer of wine, with 200,000 customers.

Adam’s role largely involves buying Australian wines, and while he was put to the test having to blind-taste wines mainly from the Old World,

“… his obvious knowledge of the subject and significant tasting experience gave him an advantage,” said Matthew White, Wine Selectors’ head of buying.

“When you recognise talent like Adam’s, you really have to nurture it. We were thrilled that Adam was selected as a scholar, and ecstatic that he came out on top,” White said.

Walls holds the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Diploma is a regular judge at Australian wine shows. His reward for winning the Basil Sellers Prize as dux of the tutorial is a trip to Europe with invitations to some of the world’s greatest wine houses.