Judged by a carefully selected panel of trade experts, the results reflect a mix of restaurateurs, sommeliers, retail spirits buyers, distributors and importers to ensure awards reflect products that these experts themselves would purchase.
This year’s competition was conducted in a virtual tasting format, to ensure COVID-19 safety precautions were met. Over 1000 wines from 8 countries were submitted this year – the 8th time the competition has been run.
Some of the headline results earned by the Giesen Group include:
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NEW ZEALAND WINERY OF YEAR 2021
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DOUBLE GOLD – Giesen Organic Pinot Noir 2017 earning 96 Points
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GOLD – Ara Single Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2021 earning 95 Points
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GOLD – Giesen Uncharted Chardonnay 2020 earning 94 Points
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GOLD – Giesen Small Batch Chardonnay 2020 earning 95 Points
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GOLD – Giesen Uncharted Pinot Noir 2019 earning 95 Points
With a total of 12 wines earning over 90 points each.
These results serve to reinforce Giesen’s position as a beloved wine brand in the Australian psyche, and the winery’s ability to deliver both excellent quality and value.
AWARD-WINNING GOLD MEDAL WINES
An organic Pinot Noir with beautiful dark black fruits, with a mix of spice and liquorice. Chalky tannins thread through the succulent delicious fruit. Sourced from two premium organic vineyards in Southern Valleys, Marlborough. Harvest was early, with the fruit reaching perfect ripeness and balance of flavour by mid-March. A great vintage, with some beautifully clean fruit showing intense concentration, yet freshness and balance. A complex, full-bodied Organic Pinot Noir.
96 Points; Double Gold Medal Winner
Refreshing tropical fruits and grapefruit fill the palate to create a wine that’s gracious with a deliciously crisp, dry finish. This aromatic Sauvignon Blanc shows classic Wairau Valley blackcurrant, nectarine, and passionfruit aromas with subtle flinty notes on the nose.
95 Points; Gold Medal Winner
Look for notes of white peach, lemon, toasted hazelnut, and flint on the nose. Enjoy the rich, concentrated palate, with bright zest balancing the fruit sweetness. Ripe lemon and peach flavours, with grapefruit on the finish.
94 Points; Gold Medal Winner
This is an excellent showcase of a cool-climate Marlborough Chardonnay made from a blend of outstanding vineyard sites located in the Southern Valleys and Wairau Valley subregions. Vineyards chosen all have heavy soil which gives subtle flint character and more texture in the wine.
95 Points; Gold Medal Winner
Fruit for this vintage was hand selected from throughout the Southern Valleys, a region renowned for growing Pinot Noir with great colour, intensity, excellent texture and ripeness. This wine features aromas of dark cherry and bramble, with sweet spice and subtle toasty notes. On the palate, enjoy flavours of cherry compote, mocha and clove, with earthy smokey notes from careful barrel aging in French oak hogsheads.
95 Points; Gold Medal Winner
These results are underscored by a further six silver medals and a bronze. This also reinforces Giesen’s New Zealand Winery of the Year win in the same competition back in 2018. Read the article here.