Wirra Wirra Wins Wine Oscar
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday September 19, 2007
McLAREN Vale's Wirra Wirra winery was crowned International Red Winemaker of the Year last week at the prestigious 2007 International Wine Challenge Awards in London.
The award was presented to Wirra Wirra senior winemaker Samantha Connew at a dinner attended by 800 world wine industry leaders at the Grosvenor Hotel in Park Lane. Samantha, who worked in the Hunter at Brokenwood in 1999, said the night was like the wine industry Oscars. The International Wine Challenge (IWC) attracted 9358 entries from around the world and Wirra Wirra was the only Australian winery to be short-listed for the Red Winemaker of the Year. It beat off stiff competition from such rivals as Via Valdivieso of Chile and Cantina di Soave and Casa Girelli from Italy. Samantha, who has been working on a vintage at Compaia de Vinos de Telmo Rodriguez in Rueda, flew from Spain to London for the presentation dinner. One of the wines that helped win the red wine award was the Wirra Wirra 2004 Angelus Cabernet Sauvignon, named for the one-tonne bell in the winery belltower that is sounded at the end of each vintage and which tolled 70 times to signal founder Greg Trott's death on March 5, 2005. The Angelus wines have to be renamed for sale overseas and for entry in the IWC because of objections from the French Saint-Emilion premier grand cru Chateau Angelus. For overseas markets, Wirra Wirra labels the Angelus "Dead Ringer cabernet sauvignon". The 2004 Angelus/Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded three trophies, including best international cabernet sauvignon, by the IWC judges. It has sold out in Australia, but the 2005 vintage will be released next month with a $55 price tag. Coincidentally, Wirra Wirra is one of 20 McLaren Vale producers represented in a tasting at Merewether Golf Club next Wednesday night. The McLaren Vale Wine Exhibition has been organised by The Lambton Fridge liquor store and run from 6pm to 9pm. Besides Wirra Wirra, the other labels represented are Angoves, Beresford, Cascabel, Coriole, d'Arenberg, Five Geese, Gemtree, Hardy's Tintara, Hugo, Marienberg, Penny's Hill, Pertaringa, Pirramimma, Richard Hamilton, Serafino, Shingleback, Shottesbrooke, Rufus Stone and Woodstock. The cost is $20 a head and bookings, made by Monday, are essential. Contact The Lambton Fridge on 49576 1274 or lambtonfridge@optusnet.com.au.Len's legacyAPPLICATIONS have now closed for the 2007 Len Evans Tutorial to be held at Tower Lodge at Pokolbin from November 5 to 9. Twelve fully paid scholarships are being offered, each with wine, food and accommodation valued at about $9000. The only cost incurred by the scholars is their travel to the Hunter Valley. The late Len Evans established the tutorials in 2001 and each year they give the selected young wine professionals an intensive five-day program of master classes and blind tastings of more than 500 wines, representing the great regions and vineyards of the world. Each scholarship is aimed at producing a new generation of Australian wine show judges. Participants from the past six tutorials are now members of the judging panels at major wine shows across Australia and in the 2007 Royal Sydney Wine Show, 14 of the associate judges, six judges and a panel chairman were previous tutorial scholars. The tutors for the 2007 tutorial are James Halliday, Ian McKenzie, Iain Riggs, Gary Steel and Brian Croser. Previous scholars have come from the fields of winemaking, liquor retailing, restaurants, marketing and journalism.
© 2007 Newcastle Herald
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