MORE than 70 people attended the wine tasting and awards night for the 14th annual Blackwood Valley & WA Boutique Wine Show Awards presentation last Saturday night in Bridgetown.
The night was hosted by the Blackwood Valley Wine Industry Association at the Bridgetown Gardens Function Rooms and provided an opportunity for guests to meet the winemakers behind the winning labels as well as the judges.
Two hundred and forty one wines were judged from 42 premium boutique Western Australian wine producers, taking two days for the wines to be judged.
Entries are open to local Blackwood Valley producers, as well as boutique wineries from across the state, who crush less than 250 tonnes of fruit per year.
This year wine producers from the Blackwood Valley region entered 39 wines which won a total of 26 medals, including three gold medals, four silver and 19 bronze.
The reputation of the boutique wine show continues to grow, attracting high quality judges who assess the wines to Australian standards.
The winners of the prestigious awards for 2016 were:
Shire of Boyup Brook Best Blackwood Valley White Table Wine - Whimwood Estate for their 2015 Chardonnay
Boyup Brook Co-op Best Blackwood Valley Red Table Wine - Tanglewood Vines for their 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon
Latitude 34 Wine Company Best WA White Table Wine - comus for their 2014 Chardonnay
Talison Best WA Red Table Wine - Tanglewood Vines for their 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon
Label Magic Best Boutique Wine of the Show - comus for their 2014 Chardonnay
BVWIA Most Successful Blackwood Valley Exhibitor - Nannup Ridge Estate
Bridgetown Hotel Most Successful Exhibitor of Show - Mandoon Estate
This year, the judging panel was led by head judge Tony Davis (Snake & Herring Winery), with Ryan Aggiss (Ara…...), Digby Leddin (Lamontes) and associate judge Caterina Caquuisani (__).
Tony said it had been a wonderful competition to judge with 75% of the wines winning a medal.
“We judge these wines to the same standard as they are judged at the perth Royal Show and all other wine shows in Australia, so a big congratulations to all of the medal winners here tonight,” Tony said.
“I found that this year the Chardonnay really stood out as did the Shiraz and the Cabernet varieties, which really shows that the winemakers are technically getting better at producing wines that everyone wants to have on their dinner table.”
Blackwood Valley Wine Association President, Troy Schoof thanked his committee and all the volunteers for contributing so many hours to make this one of the best shows in the South West and thanked all the sponsors and the exhibitors for entering their wines into the show.
