The Adelaide Hills Wine Region has again demonstrated its versatility by proving the top wine of the 2003 Adelaide Hills Wine Region Show. The 2001 Geoff Hardy K1 Shiraz was awarded wine of the show the first shiraz to win the trophy in the history of the show.
The Geoff Hardy K1 Shiraz win follows the 2001 Wolf Blass Platinum Label Adelaide Hills Shiraz being awarded wine of the show earlier this month at the 2003 Royal Adelaide Wine Show.
The Adelaide Hills Wine Region is acclaimed for its cool-climate wines, particularly pinot noir and chardonnay, but these best of wine show wins for shiraz add a new dimension to the region.
Mr Hardy's vineyard at Kuitpo was planted in 1987 and as the first commercial vineyard there, now has 'launched' the new label K1.
It's a sensational start to this new label of wines. I entered four K1 wines in the Adelaide Hills show for one trophy, two gold medals and one bronze, he said. The Adelaide Hills is not thought of as shiraz country but to Geoff Hardy it was a challenge. I was breaking new ground planting shiraz in that cooler climate, but I had to have a go, he said.
In 1995 he won the Qantas Great Australian Shiraz Challenge with his 1993 shiraz, showing against more than 100 shirazes from all around Australia to first put his regionally remote vineyard on the marketing map.
Mr Hardy said 2001 was a warmer than usual vintage in the Adelaide Hills and suited shiraz. It has given the K1 shiraz great depth and concentration of flavour with the addition of typical cool-climate spice and elegance, he said.
The 2001 Geoff Hardy K1 Shiraz sells for around $28 at the cellar door and bottle shops. The best white wine of show trophy was awarded to the 2003 Johnston Wines Sauvignon Blanc from Oakbank. The grapes were grown on a hillside near the main entrance to the Oakbank racecourse which was previously used for car parking during the Easter racing Carnival. Macclesfield also made its mark with Duncan MacGillivary's Longview vineyard providing the fruit for the best Riesling, the 2003 Longview Iron Knob, and the 2003 Longview Blue Cow Chardonnay.
Mr MacGillivray said the timing of the awards was 'perfect' with the opening on Sunday of his Blue Cow cellar door near Macclesfield.
The 1999 Starve Dog Lane Pinot Noir/Pinot Meunier was judged best sparkling wine. Made by BRL Hardy winemaker Ed Carr, the fruit was from John Edwards' vineyard at Hahndorf. The best pinot noir was awarded to Stephen George's 2002 Ashton Hills Vineyard Pinot Noir. Ashton Hills regularly wins trophies at Adelaide Hills shows.
A first time trophy winner at the show was Tony Sullivan of Forreston, whose 2001 Setanta Black Sanglais Cabernet Sauvignon won best cabernet.
Lenswood sub-region, renowned for white's chardonnay and riesling, scored a trophy with Nepenthe's 1998 Semillon, a cellaring wine from a great vintage.
by Ross Noble
