Judges will be hard at work on Thursday picking the best wines, with the medals to be announced at the tasting on Friday, January 20 from 7pm to 9pm.

To be held at the Mollymook Golf Club, the tasting is open to everyone with finger food and wine tastings included in the $25 ticket price.

The tasting will be a casual, interactive evening, enabling the public to taste wine show entries.

Gold and Silver Medals as well as Special Awards will be announced during the evening.

In addition, judge David Morris will summarize 2012 wine show entries.

The show is in its 13th year and attracts entries from across the South Coast Zone, including the Shoalhaven Coast and the Southern Highlands wine regions.

David of Morris Wines in Rutherglen will be returning as chairman of the judging panel.

A highly accomplished winemaker and experienced judge, David has been involved with the South Coast wine show for almost 10 years.

He will be joined on the judging panel by Nicole Esdaile from Coombe Farm Estate in the Yarra Valley and Tom Ward from Swinging Bridge at Canowindra.

Both have significant winemaking and judging experience.

White wines - particularly the Semillons - have traditionally been the strength of the South Coast Wine Show but Mr Morris told the Times at last year’s event that the region's red wines were "coming up" and would eventually start challenging the whites as the strength of the show.

This year’s show has attracted 118 entries from 24 entrants.

Organiser have told the times that among the entries this year are four first time entrants.

Most of the entries come from the Southern Highlands Wine Region (a total of 50 entries from 10 entrants) and the Shoalhaven Coast Wine Region (44 entries from eight entrants, including those in the Milton-Ulladulla region).

There is another 20 entries from entrants in the Sydney region (formerly Nepean Hawkesbury) and another four entries from one entrant in the South Coast Zone.

Along with the public tasting in the evening, the entrants will get the chance to taste the wines in a tasting session earlier in the day.

The session will provide local winemakers with the opportunity to discuss their wines in detail with the three judges and to help them improve their winemaking techniques.

The wine show is sponsored by Bawley Liquor Barn and Hazcorp Pty Limited.

* For more information visit www.southcoastwineshow.blogspot.c om