Hunter Valley Wine Show(s) Class

A standout 2014 vintage for Shiraz and a terrific vintage for Semillon in 2015 were the highlights at this year’s 41^st annual Clear Image Hunter Valley Wine Show, which saw “a serious swag of silverware dished out” according to visiting international Judge Sarah Ahmed.

A record 420 winemakers and support crew gathered for one of the countries oldest regional wine shows, held this year at this year at Cypress Lake Resort. In all 23 trophies were awarded, with nine producers sharing in the trophy pool.

A team of 21 respected wine show judges led by PJ Charteris (in his first year as Chair of Judges) immersed themselves in 730 Hunter Valley wines last week in Singleton as part of the evaluation process. Here, judges including Fiona Donald, Peter Dredge, Russell Cody, Thomas Hogan, Kim Bickley, Andrew Spinaze, Liz Jackson and Scott Comyns awarded 69 Gold, 120 Silver and 208 Bronze medals in addition to the 23 Trophies.

The big winners were Tyrrell’s who took home 7 trophies including the coveted trophy for the Best Dry White Wine of the Show for their 2006 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Semillon (as well as it being named Best Mature Semillon and Best Semillon) and Brokenwood who scooped the pool with the 2014 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz being named the Best Dry Red Wine of the Show (as well as Best Current Vintage Shiraz, Best Shiraz, Best Named Vineyard Red Wine, Best Named Vineyard Wine).

Visiting international Judge, Sarah Ahmed took a shine to Margan Family Wines 2014 Breaking Ground Tempranillo, Graciano Shiraz and awarded it the “Silver Bullet” for the most Innovative Red Wine .

“My Silver Bullet shortlist focused on other red wines styles which I reckoned refresh the Hunter brand whilst retaining a strong regional thumbprint. What excited me about Margan Family Wines Breaking Ground Tempranillo, Graciano & Shiraz 2014 blend was the Australian clarity of fruit wed to the Hunter’s freshness – a terrific medium bodied style with great length and line.” said Ahmed

A remarkable 76% of 2014 Shiraz entries from named (single site) vineyards won medals compared with 62% overall Shiraz from the acclaimed 2014 vintage.

“Lots of brightness, fine acidity, fruit lift that has produced classic Hunter white styles. The Shriaz classes of entry were tremendous and have set new levels of benchmark for the Hunter,” PJ Charteris, Chair of Judges, commented.

“In one of the country’s few remaining wine shows which judge “true” museum classes it was interesting to note that 80 percent of the wines entered in the Museum White and Museum Red classes received medals, that’s 60 wines in total! This alone is an assurance of the ageing potential for great Hunter Valley Semillon and Shiraz.” finished Hunter Valley Wine & Tourism Association’s Vice President Andrew Margan.

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