A TOP Australian winemaker lauded regional shows as the foundation of Australian wines and their success at this year’s Perth Hills Wine Show.
Barossa Valley winemaker and judge Andrew Seppelt made the comments, saying it had been an honour to judge at the show.
He said support for winemakers at a regional level translated into sales and that was what winegrowers were after.
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READ NOW“Through regional showing your names will grow and I recommend you travel to other Australian wine shows and enter your wonderful products,” he said.
“You only need a suitcase and four friends and you are away.”
Mr Seppelt said the Hills area was equal to any wonderful wine area of the world and the wines were worthy of international interest.
“You need to broaden the presence of WA Hills wines and you have a wonderful environment to promote,” he said.
With a cider class added to this year’s schedule to reflect the emerging cider house industries piggybacking off local orchards, the wine show was one of the best in the past decade for varieties and flavour.
No winners were awarded in the cider class this year, as more orchards were needed to enter the event.
Chairman of this years judges John Hanley offered some advice for winemakers in summing up this years winners.
Mr Hanley said the fruit and expression of the wines was excellent for such a young region with young producers.
“You need to get your oak sorted and with some oak workshops you would do very well,” he said.
Mr Hanley said the Hills vignerons needed to marry their fruit with the right oaks, which was a trial and error process.
“You have a complexity of reds which is good fruit and in the blending it deserves to be complex a little more,” he said.
Perth Hills Wine Show 2016 winners:
Class 1 Sparkling Wine: Lion Mills Vineyards 2014
Class 2 Dry White Table: Millbrook Winery Estate Viognier
Class 3 Rosé: not awarded this year
Class 4 Shiraz and Shiraz Viognier: not awarded this year
Class 5 Single Red Variety: Fairbrossen Winery 2015 Tempranillo (also won Best Value wine of the Show award).
Class 6 Red Wine Blends: Stringybark Winery 2015 Cabernet Shiraz
Class 10 Cider: judges said the ciders showed a wide interpretation of style with award ciders indicating freshness and showing good fruit definition but some entries had spoilage and phenolic characters. Entrants said the category needed more entries to offer more diverse flavours across apple and pear cider flavours.
The Chairman’s Trophy, which goes to the Best Wine showing the most distinctive regional character, went to the Millbrook’s 2016 Viognier.