Bendigo Wine Region News
2009 James Halliday Wine Companion
07 August 2008
32
BENDIGO WINES SCORE OVER 90 POINTS IN
NEW WINE COMPANION
Last week the 2009 edition of James Halliday’s
Australian Wine Companion was released, shedding light on his latest ratings
and assessments of wines from across Australia.
Wines and wineries from the Bendigo Wine Region enjoyed some excellent
scores.
James Halliday is well-regarded as Australia’s top
wine judge. He is a respected wine
critic, book writer and vigneron. His
career has spanned forty years and to receive a positive review from him is
seen as a mark of approval in the Australian wine industry. His annual book is Australia’s most definitive
and well-respected guide to wines in this country.
In James Halliday’s assessment of the best wineries
for the 2009 edition, two Bendigo wineries received five black stars, which
denotes “outstanding winery capable of producing wines of a very high quality
and did so this year”. These wineries
are Pondalowie Vineyards and BlackJack Vineyards.
The most highly commended winery in the district
this year was Turner’s Crossing Vineyard.
It received the top accolade for a winery with five red stars, which
denotes “outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and
typicity”.
Turner’s Crossing Vineyard
is situated on the banks of the Loddon River, just
north of Bendigo. The 103 acre property
was planted in 1999 by Paul Jenkins and it is currently in the process of
organic certification. Sergio Carlei,
the winemaker is a first generation Australian of Italian winemaking heritage. He brings real passion to making wines of
great distinction.
“In James Halliday’s assessment of individual wines,
there were some exceptional results for the region,” said Paul Greblo,
President, Bendigo Winegrowers Association.
The two most impressive being a rating of 95 points
for the Turner’s Crossing Vineyard Bendigo Shiraz Viognier 2006 and for the
BlackJack Vineyards Block 6 Bendigo Shiraz 2005.
“Of the 27 wineries in our association who appear
in the book, 17 of them received scores of 90 or over for their wines. And even more impressive for the region, from
the 59 individual wines submitted, 32 received scores of 90 and over. This is great result for our benchmarking of quality,”
said Mr Greblo.
Wineries with wines scoring 90 points and over include
Balgownie Estate, Belvoir Park Estate, BlackJack Vineyards, Blanche Barkly
Wines, Bullock Creek Vineyard, Glenwillow Vineyard, Harcourt Valley Vineyard,
Knots Wines, Lake Cairn Curran Vineyard, Langanook Wines, Passing Clouds,
Pondalowie Vineyards, Sandhurst Ridge, Sutton Grange Winery, Turner’s Crossing
Vineyard, Water Wheel Vineyard and Wellbush Vineyard.
ENDS………..
For interviews or photos please
contact Aileen Walsh on 0407 706769 or visit www.bendigowine.org.au
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