Windowrie’s 2015 ‘The Mill’ Shiraz has been awarded NSW’s highest winemaking accolade; the 2016 NSW Wine of the Year, announced at the recent NSW Wine Awards.
Awards
Pier One Sydney Harbour 2016 NSW Wine of the Year, 20165 NSW Wine Awards
CCL Label Trophy for Best Dry Red of Show, 2016 NSW Wine Awards
Orora Stelvin Trophy for Best Young Shiraz, 2016 NSW Wine Awards
Top Gold, Class 12, 2016 NSW Wine Awards
The wine initially secured the Trophy for the Best Young Shiraz, then Best Dry Red Wine before going on to win the top award of the evening.
The 2016 Chair of Judges and winemaker PJ Charteris, described the 2015 Windowrie ‘The Mill’ Shiraz as “a wine that expresses its beautiful fruit first and foremost. It is great to see fruit and distinctive varietal fruit character as the defining features of a wine”.
“The family was ecstatic to hear of the award,” said Windowrie’s Jason O’Dea. “The Mill range of wines are all about ripe, varietal fruit purity where any oak is used to complement, not dominate. To hear PJ’s comments reinforced what are doing in the winery and vineyard.
“These are wines made for ‘drinkability’ and food friendliness.”
Windowrie winemaker, Anthony D’Onise has been steadily increasing the quality of the Windowrie wines over the past few years.
“The frost of 2014 actually gave us a chance to look at the bigger picture of our winegrowing. Over that time and leading up to 2015 we trialled a number of things in the winery, researched various options and used the AWRI extensively. This covered everything from vineyard management, nutrition regimes and fermentation techniques.
“Ask any winemaker and they’ll tell how they look to improve what they are doing vintage to vintage. We’re no different, so it’s very pleasing to see that the changes you are making are reaping rewards.”
The three trophies join the expanding trophy cabinet for Windowrie, with the 2015 Windowrie ‘Family Reserve’ Pinot Noir awarded the Trophy for the Best Pinot Noir at the 2016 Orange Wine Show.