Gold medals galore for Bay at wine show

Gavin Yortt of Squawking Magpie bagged gold at the 2015 New Zealand International Wine Show.

Hawke's Bay wines picked up 29 gold medals at the 2015 New Zealand International Wine Show which this year drew more than 2100 entries from 10 countries.

Judging for what has become the largest wine competition staged in the country took place over three days from September 7 and was chaired by Bob Campbell MW with assistant chief judges Larry McKenna, Kym Milne MW and Hawke's Bay's John Hancock.

The competition this year provided the industry with its first major assessment of the 2015 sauvignon blanc vintages for which the judges awarded 20 gold medals from 141 entries.

Pinot noir was awarded 25 golds and chardonnay 26 golds.

The most golds were awarded in the shiraz/syrah class, with 39 handed out.

But it was in the merlot and merlot predominant blends class that the bay's wines hone out, taking 11 of the 14 golds awarded for the variety.

Church Road Winery and Villa Maria took two, while others to taste gold in the class were Elephant Hill, Delegats, Esk Valley, Sileni Estate, Te Awa, Matua and Squawking Magpie.

Squawking Magpie's Gavin Yortt said bagging one of the golds with the 2013 SQM came in the wake of the winery last year scooping the prestigious Merlot Trophy for its The Nest, and he and winemaker Jenny Dobson would, like the other bay winery crews, find out if they had picked up a trophy this year at the awards dinner on September 26.

All gold medal winners vie for the trophy of their class.

"Jenny has worked hard at handcrafting these wines and I believe the SQM is slightly better than The Nest."

The SQM was what he called a small parcel of wine, aged in French oak for 20 months, which had been designated for The Nest label but was elevated to the SQM range.

Hawke's Bay wines picked up 10 of the chardonnay golds with Vidal and Church Road Winery both taking two each with Askerne, Black Barn, Esk Valley, Mission Estate, Villa Maria and Delegat also getting golds.

Esk Valley also picked up a gold in the pinot gris class.

Clearview Estate and Te Awa won golds in the Rose and Blush class while Church Road and Newton Forrest tasted success for cabernet and cabernet predominant blends.

The gold winners in the overseas-dominated shiraz/syrah class were Villa Maria and Coopers Creek, with bay-grown grapes.