NEW WORLD WINE AWARDS

WITH 1309 wines entered and 805 winning medals in this year’s New World Wine Awards, it was two Australian products that took honours for the best white and best red. The champion chardonnay and best white win was awarded to Wolf Blass Gold Label chardonnay 2013 vintage and the best red wine and champion shiraz and syrah went to Kirrihill Regional Range Clare Valley shiraz 2014. The unsung hero varietal this year was Riesling with 38 out of the 47 entries winning medals – and 35 of these were New Zealand products. As usual, all wines had to retail under $25 and have at 5000 bottles available. Of the 805 medals, 86 were golds, 236 silver and 483 bronze awards.