Tauranga's Mills Reef Winery has scooped a top award in New Zealand's oldest wine competition.
The Bethlehem-based winery won the Wineworks Trophy for Champion Cabernet Sauvignon and Blends for its Mills Reef Reserve Cabernet Merlot 2016 at the Royal Easter Show Wine Awards gala dinner, held in Auckland on Saturday.
Mills Reef co-founder and chief winemaker Tim Preston said: "We're absolutely thrilled that this wine has been recognised and held in such high esteem.
"We're extremely excited about the quality and promise that all of our 2016 vintage red wines hold, and rate this vintage as one of our finest. This trophy is testament to that belief."
It also scooped a gold medal for the wine in the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Predominant Blends one-year-old (2016) and older class for the wine, along with the Clearview Estate's Old Olive Block 2016 and Villa Maria's Reserve Gimblett Gravels Hawkes Bay Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2015.