Gibbston Valley Wines Riesling Trophy Success

Queenstown 24 March 2006

Gibbston Valley Wines Riesling Trophy Success

Central Otago Winery Gibbston Valley Wines have added another major trophy to their cabinet with the announcement of the Champion Riesling at the Royal Easter Show over the weekend. The award was presented at a black-tie dinner on Saturday evening at the Logan Campbell Centre in Auckland for Gibbston Valley’s 2005 Central Otago Riesling. The trophy represents a major success for the remarkable South Island winery.

Gibbston Valley has built an impressive reputation over the years as a boutique winery focusing on producing premium wines, and have won hundreds of gold medals and many trophies – nationally and internationally - across the range of their portfolio. However, despite the fact that the cool continental climate of Central Otago is well known to be ideal for Riesling this is the one “elusive” variety that – until this trophy – had not yet achieved gold medal for this pioneering producer.

“We are extremely pleased that this wine has had this outstanding success, “ says Gibbston Valley Wines winemaker Grant Taylor. “2005 was the first year that we used fruit exclusively from our Bendigo vineyards (near Lake Dunstan, Cromwell) for our Riesling. These vineyards now represent a major source of our fruit, so it is particularly encouraging to see this exciting new sub-region performing so well.”

“The 2005 vintage was characterised by a much cooler spring and summer than usual for the region, and has resulted in wines of exceptional concentration and flavour. The Pinot Noir from this vintage has just been bottled. The extremely high quality fruit has enabled us to produce both a Pinot Noir and a Reserve Pinot Noir which we haven’t done since 2002. On our initial assessment, these wines also reflect the quality of the Riesling, and we expect there will more medal successes when these wines are released.”

Gibbston Valley Wines is a boutique producer of the highest quality wines, set in Queenstown's spectacular Gibbston Valley. They are one of the original pioneers of the Central Otago wine region and produced the first commercial vintage for the region in 1987. Today it is NZ's most visited winery. It comprises vineyard, wine cave, restaurant, wine tours, courtyard alfresco dining, wine sales and gift shop. Gibbston Valley Wines has won more awards for Pinot Noir than any other winery in New Zealand, including the trophy at the London International Wine Challenge for the top Pinot Noir/Burgundy in the world.

ENDS

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