Trade chooses Forrest as NZ’s finest

choice – 1
September 11, 2007

Trade chooses Forrest as NZ’s finest

Marlborough wine maker Dr John Forrest is the finest vintner in the land according to the hospitality trade.

Dr Forrest on Tuesday (Sept. 5) took out the Buyers’ Choice Award at the country’s biggest showcase of New Zealand wines ‘in one place’. He heads Forrest Estate Wines in Marlborough.

More than 2,000 hospitality trade visitors to Wine New Zealand in Auckland voted for Dr Forrest, acknowledging him as their choice for winemaker of the year.

Wineries exhibiting either directly or through a distributor numbered more than 160. A trade exclusive event, Wine New Zealand attracts the leaders of the hospitality industry and the wine trade.

All visitors had the opportunity to nominate both a winery and a winemaker which they acknowledged as ‘having had an impact on their overall experience at the show or throughout the year’.

Dr Forrest says the award is testament to the skills of the small Forrest Estate Wines team.

“Right from our very beginnings we have focused on delivering innovative excellence and it is a policy that has served us well as our trophy shelf attests.

“I think we can be particularly satisfied however to receive such a prestigious endorsement of our work as bestowed by the Buyers’ Choice Award at Wine New Zealand. When your peers tell you that you are doing a good job it’s rather enjoyable,” Dr Forrest says.

John Forrest has been making wine since 1988 when he and his wife and fellow doctor Brigid left international medical careers to return to Marlborough to establish Forrest Estate Wines.

Today Forrest Estate comprises 10 vineyards in Marlborough, Gimblett Gravels in the Hawkes Bay and Otago producing medal-winning white and red wines that are admired world-wide.

Dr John Forrest is no stranger to peer accolades. Forrest Estates’ first wine, the 1990 Cabernet Rose, won the Director’s Trophy for Champion Rose/Blush at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. It was the first of many national and international competition successes across a range of varietals from Sauvignon Blanc through Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay to Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, culminating in Winemaker of the Year at the 2001 Royal Easter Show.

In addition to their Marlborough wines, the Forrests have three established partnerships in the Gimblett Gravels region of Hawkes Bay, in Bannockburn, Central Otago in the Waitaki Valley of North Otago.

In July 2006 John Forrest released a new ultra premium wine range in the John Forrest Collection, an annual treasury of six wines sourced from regions that he believes are the best for each chosen grape variety. It was this collection that Dr Forrest, together with the Forrest Estate premium Marlborough wines, exhibited at Wine New Zealand 2007.

Wine New Zealand was part of last week’s HospitalityNZ show at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland.

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