'Affordable' price tag for top wine

An "affordable" wine has taken top honours in the Hawke's Bay Wine Awards.

The champion wine of the show, announced at a function in Hastings last night, is Villa Maria's Cellar Selection Syrah 2006, which sells for about $32.

Last year's winner, Vidal Reserve Syrah 2005, sells for $53. The 2006 champion was Trinity Hill Homage Syrah 2004, which carried a price tag of about $100.

Chief judge Tony Bish said this year's winner showed the high quality of syrah that was being grown in Hawke's Bay, and also the good value of the region's wines.

Entries in the show must contain at least 85 per cent Hawke's Bay wine.

"Syrah is relatively new in Hawke's Bay but it is performing at a very high level," he said. "You don't have to spend $60 to $100 to get a great syrah, and the Villa Maria wine is a good example of that."

Villa Maria says its cellar selection range, which ranks below its reserve wines, is intended to be "affordable, yet intensely flavoured".

Some of the wines that won gold and silver medals at the show sold for about $20, Mr Bish said.