By JESSE GRAHAM
COLDSTREAM Hills winemakers have been lauded for their skills, with the venue taking home a top award from the recent Royal Melbourne Wine Awards.
The winery was awarded the James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir for its Coldstream Hills Deer Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013 – one of eight major trophies in the competition – on Thursday 16 October.
Chief Winemaker, Andrew Fleming, said he was thrilled that the winery took out the accolade and attributed the success to the hard work of the winemaking team.
“We made the 2013 Deer Farm Vineyard Pinot Noir to epitomise what cool Upper Yarra Pinot can achieve – we were looking for elegance, perfume, texture and silkiness,” he said.
“Even though 2013 was a warm vintage, we still produced some pretty smart wines and receiving this trophy is testament to my winemaking and viticulture teams for their absolute commitment to quality.”
Mr Fleming said that Yarra Valley wineries generally had a strong presence in wine competitions, and that favourable conditions last year resulted in a good season for Pinot Noir.
“There was lots of colour, flavour and depth – all of that adds up to a wine that’s going to age well but also show well,” he said.
The Royal Melbourne Wine Awards drew entries from around the country, with 3183 wines entered overall.
“With the national wine shows or any capital city wine show, there’s always a lot of entries and you’re competing against a lot of good producers – it’s always great, obviously, if you win an award,” Mr Fleming said.
The award was named after the man who established Coldstream Hills around 30 years ago, but Mr Fleming said Mr Halliday had no input on the judging process.
The winery also received a gold medal for its 2013 The Esplanade Pinot Noir, which also received four trophies and a gold medal at the Yarra Valley Wine Show in September.
The Douglas Seabrook Single Vineyard Trophy was awarded to Oakridge Wines for its Oakridge 864 Funder and Diamond Drive Block Chardonnay 2012, while John Funder and Val Diamond from the Yarra Ranges received the Kym Ludvigsen Trophy for Vivicultural Excellence.
The awards are conducted by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria.
For the full list of results, visit www.rasv.com.au/wine.
