Champion Riesling from Brightwater

Hot off the press, for fans of what many wine buffs think the noblest white grape of them all. I've just got an e-mail from Valley Neale of Brightwater Vineyards, our New Zealand supplier, with the following good news:

Here is a photo of Gary accepting the trophy for the Champion Riesling at the Liquorland Top 100 Wine Awards held in Auckland last Friday night.

This is an international competition open to all wines marketed in New Zealand and is judged by an panel of 22 international judges including Nick Bulleind MW (Aust) and Phil Reedman MW (UK).

About 1500 wines from New Zealand, Australia, France, Italy, Spain etc were entered and only 77 gold medals were awarded. Only 4 of those golds were for Riesling of which 2 went to Brightwater Vineyards.

Brightwater Vineyards completely dominated this class by winning the Champion Riesling Trophy, 2 gold medals for 2006 Riesling and 2006 Dry Riesling and the Best Value Award for the 2006 Riesling (despite being the most expensive Riesling to win gold or silver!)

Of course we're delighted for the Neales, and we'll have to set about deciding on our next order before all of this wonder-wine is snapped up. In the meantime, dear readers, treat yerselves with a bottle of the 2005 and look forward to the arrival of the golden 2006!

This is probably a good time to point out that we have just received our first shipment of Brightwater's lusty Full-Bodied Pinot Noir - so new, I haven't put it up on the site yet. If you want to be an early bird, though, we do have a couple of cases down here at the Marina. Full details from the usual contact.

Technorati tags: Brightwater, Riesling, Liquorland, Pinot Noir, congratulations, gold medal