Hawke's Bay grapes bag bunch of prizes

Hawke's Bay-grown grapes were the toast of Villa Maria Estate's winemakers and the judges at the 2011 Royal Easter Show Wine Awards held in Auckland on Saturday night.

Three champions trophies, Champion Wine of the show and Winemaker of the Year followed the recent announcement that Villa Maria had taken 17 golds for its wines - and Hawke's Bay's finest fruit was behind a string of them.

The trophy for Champion Viognier went to Villa Maria's Cellar Selection Hawke's Bay Viognier 2010, while the trophy for Champion Syrah went to Villa Maria Reserve Hawke's Bay Syrah 2009.

Hawke's Bay's Vidal Estate, one of the boutique wine companies which comes under the umbrella of Villa Maria, also scored trophy success. It took the trophy for Champion Chardonnay with its Vidal Reserve Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2009.

The win continued a remarkable run of success for the style.

Over the past nine years, various vintages of the wine have scooped more than 25 top awards.

Vidal's winemaker Hugh Crichton was understandably delighted with the win, as well as success in the gold awards with the Vidal Reserve Hawke's Bay Syrah 2007, one of three golds picked up.

"Vidal has had a consistent and outstanding record with Chardonnay and I'm very pleased to see this continued success."

Villa Maria's evening was capped by the news managing director and founder Sir George Fistonich had been inducted into the New Zealand Wine Hall of fame for services to the industry.