Nz Wine Knocked Off Top Perch

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday December 24, 2008

JOHN LEWIS

THE 2008 Winestate magazine Wine of the Year Awards produced two boilovers one from a wine from Orange that ended the long New Zealand mortgage on the top sauvignon blanc title.

The 2008 Logan Orange Sauvignon Blanc nudged out three Kiwi Marlborough wines in the judging, which included hundreds tasted over the past year by Winestate panels.

The shock result in the sauvignon blanc section was eclipsed in the Wine of the Year and chardonnay of the year awards, won by the Queensland Heritage Estate 2007 Reserve Granite Belt Chardonnay.

It was the first time a Queensland winery had won the top award.

Winestate publisher Peter Simic said it was an incredible result and exciting that a Queensland producer had succeeded at the highest level.

Ironically, the Heritage Estate winery had a reputation for sweet wines but decided to focus on dry chardonnay last year after drought conditions reduced the presence of botrytis in its vineyard.

In the semillon category, wines from Shoalhaven Heads on the NSW South Coast were placed first, third and fourth. The Coolangatta Estate 2001 Shoalhaven Coast Semillon was the top wine and the 2005 and 2006 vintages were placed third and fourth. The wines were made at the Tyrrell's winery at Pokolbin.

The second-placed semillon was the Pokolbin Estate 2005 Semillon, made by Andrew Thomas.

Owned by Sydney businessmen Richard Friend and John Hindman, Pokolbin Estate vineyard in McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, won the Winestate semillon title in 2006 and 2007.

The title of Australian Winemaker of the Year went to Mark Lane, winemaker at Swings and Roundabouts winery at Margaret River. The d'Arenberg winery in South Australia's McLaren Vale Region took the title of Wine Company of the Year.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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