Ngatarawa wins best NZ White at International Wine Challenge in London
Friday 23 July 2010, 4:03PM
By Dock Street Group
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Hawke’s Bay winery, Ngatarawa Wines, has taken out the award for Best New Zealand White Wine at the world’s most prestigious and influential independent wine competition, the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in London.
Alwyn Corban, Ngatarawa’s Managing Director and Chief Winemaker, will travel to the awards dinner in London on September 7 to accept the award, which was announced in London last week.
The International Wine Challenge is the largest blind tasting event in the world, with more 10,000 wines entered this year. All wines entered are tasted, and wines from particular regions are tasted against each other.
Gold wines must score more than 95 out of 100 marks, and the Trophy stage is the ultimate round when Gold medal wines are tasted once more by an elite panel of judges to determine if they are worthy of a Trophy in addition to their Gold medal.
After winning Gold in the preliminary rounds where the wines are blind tasted by more than 350 different judges, Ngatarawa’s Alwyn Chardonnay 2007 went on to take out the Trophy for Best Hawkes Bay Chardonnay, the Trophy for Best New Zealand Chardonnay and for Best New Zealand White wine.
In their judging notes, the judges commented that Ngatarawa’s Alwyn Chardonnay 2007 was a “full, bold but stylish wine”, which had “silky passionfruit overlaid with a hint of spice and a shortbready, creamy finish.” The wine, they said was “well made and harmonious.”
Alwyn Corban said that scooping three Trophies, eight medals and two Commended awards in this year’s IWC was an, “absolute highlight of our year and also testament to the skill, hard work and perseverance by Ngatarawa’s viticulture and winemaking team. The London IWC result caps off a great run for Ngatarawa on the awards front.”
This year has been a year of achievement for Ngatarawa with the 2007 Alwyn Merlot Cabernet recently winning a Gold Medal in the influential 2010 Decanter World Wine Awards. This also follows a Gold Medal for Glazebrook Noble Harvest Riesling 2009 and Gold Medal and Trophy for Farmgate Noble Harvest Riesling 2007 at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards late last year.
Alwyn Corban said that Ngatarawa Wine’s philosophy was to produce wines which reflect the locality where they are grown and which are “textured, sophisticated, harmonious and integrated.” The winery does not produce Alwyn Chardonnay every year but “only when we feel we can make it well enough.” For instance, the winery did not produce 2008 vintage, although there is a 2009 vintage.
“We are proud of Ngatarawa’s significant achievements against the thousands of wines submitted to competitions and we believe that they endorse Hawkes Bay’s reputation as the premium red wine and Chardonnay producing region in New Zealand. It also endorses Ngatarawa as an acclaimed producer of Merlot Cabernet, Chardonnay and Late Harvest Riesling” said Corban.