2018 Australia's Wine List of the Year Awards

25 th ANNIVERSARY

2018 AUSTRALIA'S WINE LIST OF THE YEAR AWARDS Introducing Our Award Sponsors & Supporters With less than two weeks to go, we are getting excited for the 25th Anniversary of Australia's Wine List of the Year Awards, being held at the Electrolux Showroom on Monday 23rd July, in Sydney.

MAJOR SPONSORS:

Award Sponsor: Australia's Outstanding Sommelier - Judy Hirst Award Celebrating 260 years in 2016, the Riedel brand is known for innovation and design. An industry leader since the introduction of grape-varietal-specific stemware in the 1980s, Riedel invests heavily in research and development to bring the very best products to market for wine and beverage enjoyment. www.riedel.com

Joint Award Sponsor: Vintec Sommeliers’ Choice Award + Best List of Wines by the Glass VINTEC is Australia’s leading specialist in climate-controlled wine storage cabinets.Designed to suit the modern lifestyle and recreate the perfect storage conditions for your wine, VINTEC wine cabinets can be built into your kitchen or add a stylish feature to a living room. VINTEC is recommended by the most respected wine critics. www.vintec.com

Joint Award Sponsor: Vintec Sommeliers’ Choice Award + Best List of Wines by the Glass In a tradition of excellence, TRANSTHERM wine cellars have been hand-built in France for over 30 years using only the finest craftsmanship and materials. Trusted by wine collectors and high-end restaurants, TRANSTHERM is the “Rolls Royce” of wine cellars, perfect for long-term storage and the steady maturation of your treasured wines. www.transtherm.com

Award Sponsor: Best Listing of Australian Wines, Best Listing of ACT Wines Best Listing of NSW Wines, Best Listing of QLD Wines Best Listing of SA Wines, Best Listing of TAS Wines Best Listing of VIC Wines, Best Listing of WA Wines Wine Australia supports a competitive wine sector by investing in research, development and extension (RD&E), growing domestic and international markets, protecting the reputation of Australian wine and administering the Export and Regional Wine Support Package. We work closely with our representative organisations, wine sector bodies and our partners to support the long-term success of the Australian grape and wine community. www.wineaustralia.com

AWARD SUPPORTERS

Award Sponsor: Best Wine Bar List Alkoomi Wines is one of WA’s largest family owned and operated wine producers, and is currently run by the second and third generation; owners Sandy and Rod Hallett, with their daughters Laura, Emily and Molly. Together they passionately follow in the footsteps of Alkoomi founders Merv and Judy Lange, who pioneered the Frankland wine region with our first plantings in 1971. Alkoomi today has 106 hectares of estate vineyard and together with winemaker Andrew Cherry are committed to our ethos of favouring quality over quantity, and to managing the property in an environmentally sustainable manner, with the aim of producing fruit which displays a sense of place and purity. www.alkoomiwines.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best Wine List, NSW Starting as a side project in 2010, Baranows Emporium has grown to become a renowned distributor of some of the world’s finest spirits. Partnering with some of Australia’s best restaurants, bars and bartenders to showcase these spirit’s through unique and inspiring tasting events www.baranowsemporium.com

Award Sponsor: Best Wine List, VIC Bass Phillip is a tiny wine business focussed on the highest quality, with very simple priorities in both vineyards and winery: all estate-grown without irrigation; no toxic substances; minimal intervention and strict quality control. Known around the world for its quality. www.bassphillip.com

Award Sponsor: Best Champagne List Bollinger has been part of the history of the Champagne region for more than 180 years.

Members of the family came from many different horizons, and over the decades they have patiently built up an impressive heritage, always devoted to the service of what has become one of the most emblematic Houses the Champagne region has ever known www.champagne-bollinger.com

The Botanist is a gin of layered complexity. A progressive exploration of the botanical heritage of our Isle of Islay. 22 hand-foraged local botanicals delicately augment nine berries, barks, seeds and peels during an achingly slow distillation. This first and only Islay Dry Gin is a rare expression of the heart and soul of our remote Scottish island home. www.thebotanist.com

Award Sponsor: Best Restaurant Wine List - Country Established in 1989, Curly Flat Vineyard is located in the Macedon Ranges, producing Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Pinot Gris. Our cool climate site results in grapes with great natural acidity and wines of impressive longevity. Owner Jeni Kolkka and the team led by Matt Harrop seek, without compromise, to distil the essence of site and season. www.curlyflat.com

Award Sponsor: Best Wine List, TAS Delamere is a true Tasmanian Grower Producer. 100% Family owned and run, 100% grown, made and bottled at our Pipers River Estate. Join us on this journey to unlock the inherent beauty of our site, as we encapsulate the story of each season in our wine. www.delamerevineyards.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best Club Restaurant List Greystone’s 40-hectare organic vineyard is perched on the unique limestone hills of Waipara, North Canterbury. Winemaker and viticulturist planted the vineyard together in 2004 and in just over ten years have grown these vines to produce a catalogue of New Zealand’s most acclaimed wines. www.greystonewines.co.nz

Award Sponsor: Best Restaurant Wine List - Metro Henschke is recognised for its rich heritage, innovative spirit and commitment to handcrafting exceptional wines for 150 years. The Henschke family’s grapegrowing and winemaking tradition spans six generations, from outstanding sustainable vineyards in Eden Valley, Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills. www.henschke.com.au

The first traces of the Hugel family in Alsace can be traced back to the XVth century. Some two centuries later, Hans Ulrich Hugel settled in Riquewihr, which had been devastated by the terrible Thirty Years War. In 1639 he was made a freeman of the city and soon took charge of the very powerful Corporation of Winegrowers. In 1672 his son built a fine house in the Rue des Cordiers, and over the doorway was carved the family crest, which was the origin of the company’s logo still used today. www.hugel.com

Award Sponsor: Best Food and Wine Matching Karen & Ben are the proud Australians behind the award winning Lavosh - the original. In 1993, making the original Lavosh bread for cheese platters from their small restaurant in Kurrajong NSW they decided to market their product to chefs around Australia. Now baking 750,000 pieces of Lavosh per day to the same recipe Kurrajong Kitchen proudly supply to the food service industry and the premium entertaining consumer market. www.kurrajongkitchen.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best Beer List The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel is Sydney’s oldest continually licensed hotel, located in the historic Rocks precinct and home of Australia's oldest pub brewery. The Lord is recognised around the world for its award-winning natural ales, wine list, food and accommodation. www.lordnelsonbrewery.com

Award Sponsor: Best Sparkling Wine List Faithful to the spirit of Louis Bouillot, the bubble creator himself, the company continues to pursue new discoveries through some delicious and audacious cuvées that are a tribute to Burgundy and its varietals. Empowered by more than 130 years of history and expertise, creativity and respect for the terroir are the fundamentals of the Louis Bouillot philosophy. www.louis-bouillot.com/fr

Award Sponsor: Best Wine List, SA The Lynn Family first planted vines on their “Majella” property back in 1968. Situated on the eastern edge of the famous “Red Strip”, the vineyards became well known for the production of high quality Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz fruit. In 1991 Majella produced its first commercial bottling, the 1991 Majella Shiraz, followed by the first Majella Cabernet Sauvignon in 1994.

Since then the winery has gained a reputation for wines of superb quality, typically Coonawarra, with great depth of colour and flavour and gaining numerous awards in Australia and Internationally. www.majellawines.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best New Wine List - Tony Hitchin Award A family owned & run winery, Moppity Vineyards are winning some of the biggest prizes in Australian wine-making. Located in the cool climate wine region of Hilltops in Southern NSW, the Moppity Vineyards style is to produce elegant, pure, expressive wines of world-class quality that encapsulate a harmonious union of power & elegance www.moppity.com.au

The natural balance and mathematical spiral of the Nautilus shell has been our inspiration to create expressive, textural, precisely crafted wines at Nautilus Estate since 1985, the early days of Marlborough winegrowing. Back in those days there were around 80 wineries in NZ. Today there are over 700. Yet we remain small, under the same family ownership, and committed to making wines 100% from the stunningly beautiful Marlborough region of New Zealand. www.nautilusestate.com

Since 1844, Penfolds has played a pivotal role in the evolution of winemaking with a history and heritage that profoundly reflects Australia’s journey from colonial settlement to the modern era.

Penfolds collection of benchmark wines were established in a spirit of innovation and the constant and endless pursuit of quality, evidenced from the secret bottling of Grange in 1951 and the unbroken line of vintages of what is now Australia’s most iconic wine. www.penfolds.com

Redbank’s home is in the rugged alpine countryside of north-eastern Victoria. Our community of growers is made up many Italian families who settled in the high-country back in the 1950s. The region reminded them of home and many planted tobacco and hops along with amazing vineyards. Today that Italian heritage lives on in the King Valley. Sharing beautiful food and wine with beautiful friends and family is our way of life, and we know it’s a good one! www.redbankwines.com

Award Sponsor: Best Small Wine List - Max 50 Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA) is the national industry association representing the interests of over 45,000 restaurants, cafes and catering businesses across Australia. R&CA delivers tangible outcomes to small businesses within the hospitality industry by influencing the policy decisions and regulations that impact the sector’s operating environment. rca.asn.au

Since 1844, Penfolds has played Award a pivotal Sponsor: role inBest the evolution Aperitif List of winemaking with a history and heritage that profoundly reflects Australia’s journey from colonial settlement to the modern era.

Spirits Penfolds Platform collection is an Australian of benchmark based wines Sales, were Marketing established and Distribution in a spirit of platform innovation forand the the spirits brands constant withand whom endless we partner. pursuit We of quality, treasure evidenced every brand frominthe oursecret portfolio bottling as if of it were Grange our in own 1951 and we are passionate and the unbroken about the linebrands of vintages we represent. of what isWe nowunderstand Australia’sthe most Australian iconic wine. market and have a proven track record of delivering www.penfolds.com results. Our premium portfolio of products includes high-quality whiskies, liqueurs and spirits (vodkas, gins, rum, brandy). www.spiritsplatform.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best Small Wine List - Max 100 For 160 years Tyrrell’s has been one of Australia’s pre-eminent family owned wine companies, with vineyards extending from their historic Hunter Valley home to Heathcote in Victoria.

Headed by fourth generation family member Bruce, and son Chris, Tyrrell’s is home to some of Australia’s most awarded wines. www.tyrrells.com.au

Vasse Felix is Margaret River’s founding wine estate and was established in 1967 by regional pioneer Dr Tom Cullity. Pristine isolation, twin oceans and ancient soils make Margaret River a wine paradise and ideal for growing world-class Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The wines are grown in Vasse Felix’s four vineyards situated throughout Margaret River. www.vassefelix.com.au

Award Sponsor: Best Hotel Restaurant Wine List A leader in sustainability, innovation and quality, Villa Maria is recognised as an icon in the New Zealand wine industry. Truly exceptional wine made by passionate people encapsulates Villa Marias success story. www.villamaria.co.nz

Award Sponsor: Best Wine List, WA Founded in 1977, Xanadu is a true Margaret River pioneer with a rich history of creating expressive regional wines characterised by elegance, concentration and style. Driven by passion, Xanadu is cemented as one of the region’s most successful show winners of the past decade – amassing 65 major wine trophies since 2007. www.xanaduwines.com

www.winelistoftheyear.com.au