Good news! Cowra winemakers are celebrating its best ever result at the 26th annual Cowra Wine Show – one of Australia’s biggest open wine shows which saw 2590 entries from 461 wineries.
With a history of producing great Chardonnay, it was fitting that a gold medal (top of class) and ‘The Ian Armstrong Trophy for Best Chardonnay of the Show’ was awarded to a Cowra wine, the 2006 Spring Ridge Cowra Chardonnay. Peter and Ann Jeffery are a very committed part of the loca industry, giving up countless hours to our vineyard association. They have been producing small batches of Chardonnay since 1997, so to get this recognition, especially within the forum of an open show such as Cowra, is just what they deserve.
Two other gold medals were awarded to Cowra wines, including the 2007 Mulyan Cowra Shiraz (top of class) and the 2007 Swinging Bridge Cowra Shiraz. The 2008 Cowra Wine Show was overseen by a respected panel of Judges including Chairman Andrew Spinaze from Tyrrell’s Wines, Lester Jesberg from Winewise Magazine, Tim Knappstein from TK Wines, Steve Goodwin from Witchmount Wines, Michael Kerrigan from Hayshed Hill and John Glaetzer from John’s Blends in South Australia. Rosnay won bronze medals for the 2006 Shiraz and the 2006 Chardonnay Semillon in the same show.
The week before at the Australia-New Zealand Organic Wine Show in Sydney (Max Allen Head Judge) Rosnay got bronzes for the 2005 Semillon, 2005 Shiraz, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2005 Triple Blend. These results show the consistency of the Rosnay wines, which have for the last four years always been among the most consistent in that show. Unlike the big corporate vineyards and some of the boutique vineyards that only make small parcels, we are not able to hand select the best sections of our vineyard for medal wining wines – we harvest all of our fruit and make it all into Rosnay wine, without any quality hierachies with heavily oaked hand selected “Reserve” or cheap “Cleanskin” batches.
So on average, we are happy with our wine quality, and we are very happy to be part of the wonderful wine region that is Cowra. Check Cowra out at www.winesofcowra.com.au . We look forward to hearing your comments on Cowra wines!