Tag Archives: Old Vine Shiraz

Two more Trophies at National Wine Show

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Once again the coveted Dick de Luca Memorial Trophy for Best Queensland Shiraz is taking pride of place in our cellar door – the second time in three years. Our 2012 Old Vine Shiraz won the Trophy  in 2014 and in now we have won again in 2016 for the 2014 Millenium Shiraz (to be released around April 2017).

No sooner had Brad taken his seat at the Awards Presentation, than he was called out again to receive the Trophy for Champion Queensland White Wine for our 2015 Fiano Classico (also to be released around April 2015). What a wonderful surprise, especially when both our other entries also won Bronze medals. This means that every wine we make has medalled. It’s quite an honour and gratifying as we put so much effort into producing superb fruit that has all the flavours and qualities necessary to make outstanding wines. A big thanks to Mike Hayes, our winemaker, and his team.

Gold and two trophies left us speechless

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Best Qld Red Wine trophy 2

Not only did our Old Vine Shiraz win gold at the Australian Small Winemaker’s Show, it also took out the two top awards for Queensland wines. The trophies for Best Queensland Red Wine 2014 and Di Lucas Memorial Trophy 2014 copythe Dick De Luca Memorial Trophy for Best Queensland Shiraz 2014 were presented at a gala dinner at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism on the Granite Belt.

For the first time in many years I was speechless and Brad could only manage a few words of thanks to all the winemaking team and the judges – leading wine industry figures from all over Australia.

The really poignant thing about winning the Dick De Luca Memorial Award was that the old vines that produced the fruit for the wine, came from cuttings taken from Dick De Luca’s own vineyard more than 40 years ago.
The perpetual trophy was sponsored by Dick De Luca’s family (he was a pioneer of the wine industry on the Granite Belt)

The Australian Small Winemaker’s Show received almost 1500 entries this year from every State, the ACT and New Zealand. Granite Belt wineries represented around 10% of the total wines submitted but won about 15% of the gold medals, 17% of the silver medals and 12% of the bronzes.

The only sad note in all this celebrating is that we lost our Old Vine Shiraz to hail in 2013 and to frost in 2014 vintage, so there will be no more until we release our 2015 vintage (assuming the weather gods allow us a harvest), probably in late 2017 or early 2018. The good news is that after Brad’s expert decapitations of last year and his lovingly administered nutrition and organic spray program since then, the vines are looking happy and healthy.

Angelo Puglisi of Ballandean Estates gave us the advice after the frost disaster to just cut off their heads. We did it with trepidation but it worked perfectly. Angelo came up to us at the awards dinner and said with a laugh “I should have told you just to pull those old vines out!” before enveloping me in a giant bear hug.