LAST month the Hunter-based Briar Ridge brand's 2018 Dairy Hill Semillon was judged the best wine of the NSW Wine Awards and on Friday their semillons starred again at the Clear Image 2020 Hunter Valley Wine Show trophies.
The Mount View Road winery claimed five trophies at the event.
That performance was matched by fellow family-owned producer when the De Iuliis Wines 2018 Talga Road Vineyard Shiraz won four trophies and its 2019 LDR Vineyard Shiraz Touriga Nacional won a fifth.
In its 48th year the show was affected by COVID-19 restrictions that prevented Victorian Yarra Yering winemaker Sarah Crowe filling the Hunter chair of judges role she began in 2018.
The pandemic also ruled out an international judge.
In Sarah Crowe's absence former Hunter show chair Iain Riggs headed the judging panel that assesses an entry of 635 wines.
The traditional show celebration lunch and trophy presentations took place yesterday at Ben Ean function centre with a restricted number of guests.
The Briar Ridge 2013 Stockhausen Signature Semillon won the trophies for the best white wine of the show, the best semillon and best two-year-old and older semillon and the Briar Ridge 2013 Dairy Hill Semillon won the trophies for the best named vineyard wine and best single vineyard wine.
Along with the Pepper Tree, Tallavera Grove and Carillion brands, Briar Ridge is an arm of the Davis Wine Group headed by geologist-turned- vigneron John Davis and his daughter Jaclyn is Briar Ridge owner-general manager.
Their 2018 Dairy Hill Semillon was last month named winner of the NSW Governor's Trophy for best wine at the 2020 NSW Wine Awards. As well as taking out the overall competition, it claimed trophies for the best white wine and the best semillon.
The De Iuliis operation is run by winemaker Mike De Iuliis and was established in 1990 by Mike's father Joss, whose family owned vineyards for generations in central Italy's Abruzzi area.
In the 2020 Hunter show the De Iuliis 2018 Talga Road Vineyard Shiraz won the trophies for the best red of the show, the best shiraz, the best two-year-old shiraz and the best single-vineyard red wine and the 2019 LDR Vineyard Shiraz-Touriga Nacional was the best other red variety trophy-winner.
Tyrrell's wines took five trophies, most notably the Iain Riggs Wine of Provenance award with its 2007, 2014 and 2018 Four Acres Shiraz.
The award was introduced in 2012 to highlight a group of wines reflecting a consistency of style and quality over time. The rules require entrants to submit three different vintages of the same labelled wine, covering a vintage spread of at least 10 years.
Tyrrell's other trophy wins were by the 2018 Belford Chardonnay (best chardonnay and best two-year-old and older chardonnay), 2007 Vat 8 Shiraz-Cabernet (John Lewis Newcastle Herald Trophy Best Museum Red Wine) and 2006 Vat 1 Semillon (best museum white).
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