NZ wine awards winners announced

Villa Maria Reserve Barrique Fermented Chardonnay 2007

The Air New Zealand Wine Awards were held in Christchurch on Saturday and hosted an array of well known New Zealand winemakers.

This year’s event, recognised as the country’s premier wine awards, attracted 1655 entries from the country’s 10 wine growing regions.

New Zealand’s most awarded winery, Villa Maria Estate, collected three trophies to add to its collection of 15 golds won at the same competition.

Villa Maria was awarded the Champion Chardonnay Trophy for its Villa Maria Reserve Barrique Fermented Chardonnay 2007. This wine has won a string of trophies since its first vintage in 1986.

The judges’ comment was: “An extraordinarily complex wine showing plenty of citrus, cream and vanillin oak characters.”

Villa Maria also scooped the Champion Merlot Trophy for its Villa Maria Reserve Merlot 2007 and the Champion Exhibition White Trophy for its Villa Maria Reserve Marlborough Chardonnay 2006.

Church Road Reserve Viognier 2007 from the Church Road Winery in Hawke’s Bay was awarded the Air New Zealand Champion Other White Styles & Rosé Trophy at the event.

Church Road’s senior winemaker Chris Scott, was elated with the win and revealed that his team have been enjoying experimenting with the Viognier grapes.

“Viognier is a grape variety we are extremely excited about. It is fairly new to us in Hawke's Bay, but after a lot of work by the team, particularly the Redstone Vineyard team, we think we can do an excellent job with it in Hawke's Bay.”

Organised by New Zealand Winegrowers, the Air New Zealand Wine Awards is the country's most prestigious wine competition. This year's Awards attracted 1,655 entries from New Zealand's ten key winegrowing regions.

Couper’s Shed Hawke’s Bay Pinot Gris 2009 won its first trophy – the Champion Pinot Gris trophy – only weeks after the wine was first launched.

Winemaker Tony Robb, who was crowned Winemaker of the Year at this year’s Royal Easter Show, chose grapes from a signature vineyard in Hawke’s Bay for the trophy winner and thinks the award will be a great start for the wine.

“Couper's Shed is a new range of wines and I can't think of a better start than by being awarded a trophy such as this.”

In all, 19 trophies were awarded on the night.