Wines from across the Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) portfolio received accolades at the highly acclaimed International Wine Challenge (IWC) in London on Monday, May 13.

TWE collected more than 100 awards at the London event including 13 gold medals won by brands such as Devil’s Lair, Matua, Penfolds, Rosemount Estate, Saltram, Wolf Blass and Wynns Coonawarra Estate.

Treasury Wine Estates CEO, David Dearie said: “These outstanding awards are testament to our ongoing focus on quality and the strength in depth across the TWE portfolio. This is a great reflection not just on the winemaking expertise within TWE but also on the diversity of wine styles cultivated across key wine regions of Australia and New Zealand. It’s great to see that Australia is now closing the gap on France as the world’s most awarded country at this leading international wine show.”

Rosemount Estate’s medal for the 2011 Nursery Project Graciano Mataro Grenache (pictured, right), was heralded by the IWC as one of the night’s “most exciting Gold medals” given the Graciano grape is typically grown in Rioja, Spain. According to the IWC, the wine demonstrated that “Australia has a bright future with Iberian red varietals.”

For more information, including a list of all TWE gold medal-winning wines, download the Media Release (PDF, 25 KB)

Magill Estate Winery, South Australia

2008 Grange leads a striking collection of wines in this year’s Penfolds Icon and Luxury collection release—wines that reflect the great Australian spirit, impeccable provenance, winemaking philosophy, heritage and the passions and dedication of generations of winemakers.

As the ultimate expression of the time-honoured Penfolds tradition of sourcing the best fruit from the best regions and skilfully blending to the Penfolds house style, the Icon and Luxury collection holds special significance amongst generations of wine collectors.

Continuing a line of unbroken vintages from the 1951 ‘experimental’, Grange continues to be a much awaited release and this year’s 2008 vintage is no exception. 2008 Grange continues to evolve and surprise with the 2008 vintage characters delivering a powerful yet beautifully seductive and richly concentrated wine.

Renowned for their cellaring ability, the wines within this collection will live long and will grow finer with time. Many Penfolds vintages build up complexity and richness with further bottle maturation. There is an extra ethereal and textural quality that comes with patience. This is the reward for buying and cellaring Penfolds wines.

The 2013 collection also features five wines from South Australia’s 2010 vintage, which the winemaking and viticulture teams have praised as one of the truly great Penfolds vintages.

For more information, download the Media Release (PDF, 435 KB)

Michele brings more than 20 years of drinks industry experience to TWE. Most recently she was Bacardi Ltd.’s Asia Pacific Travel Retail Area Manager – Singapore, Indochina and prior to this she was part of the company’s Malaysian Export Division. She has also held senior Export and Travel Retail positions at companies including Jardine Wines & Spirits and Jardine Otard Wines & Spirits.

Managing Director TWE EMEA and Global Travel Retail, Andrew Carter said:

“I’m delighted to welcome Michele to our GTR team. Her drinks industry experience and Asian market insights make her the perfect recruit to help TWE exploit this key growth area. Michele will play a role in helping us achieve our ambition to become a leader in the category, by inspiring travellers to discover and love great wine, and great wine brands.”

For more information, download the Media Release (PDF, 88 KB)

Wolf Blass Grey Label Langhorne Creek Cabernet Shiraz 2010 was given an outstanding score of 93+ in the Wine Advocate whilst Wolf Blass Platinum Label Barossa Valley Shiraz 2009 scored 93 points in Wine Spectator.

The Wolf Blass wines to score 90+ points in The Wine Advocate were:

• 2010 Wolf Blass Grey Label Langhorne Creek Cabernet Shiraz: 93+ points
• 2009 Wolf Blass Platinum Label Medlands Estate Barossa Valley Shiraz: 91+ points
• 2008 Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Shiraz Malbec: 91 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass White Label Adelaide Hills Chardonnay: 90+ points
• 2011 Wolf Blass Gold Label Adelaide Hills Chardonnay: 90 points

The Wolf Blass wines to score 90+ points in Wine Spectator were:

• 2009 Wolf Blass Platinum Label Barossa Valley Shiraz: 93 points
• 2008 Wolf Blass Black Label 36th Vintage Langhorne Creek Barossa McLaren Vale: 92 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass White Label Adelaide Hills Specially Aged Release Chardonnay: 92 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass Gold Label Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon: 91 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass Grey Label Langhorne Creek Cabernet Shiraz: 91 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass Gold Label Barossa Shiraz: 91 points
• 2010 Wolf Blass Grey Label McLaren Vale Shiraz: 90 points

Wolf Blass Chief Winemaker, Chris Hatcher, is extremely proud of the recent top scores his wines have achieved.

“At Wolf Blass we truly believe that our luxury wines are up there with the best, so to receive these fantastic scores from such respected US publications is testament to that.

“It is pleasing to see Wolf Blass Black Label consistently achieve high scores further supporting the recognition it received following the Master Blend Classification where it was ranked second amongst the world’s leading Cabernet Sauvignon based blends” he said.

Simon Marton, Managing Director of Wolf Blass applauded the Wolf Blass winemaking team on their recent score success.

“These strong scores from both The Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator are evidence of the high quality work of the Wolf Blass winemaking team.

“This recent spate of scores further cements that Australian wine, and in particular Wolf Blass wine, is up there amongst the best in the world” he said.

The Wine Advocate is a US bimonthly wine publication featuring consumer wine advice, originally founded by critic Robert Parker Jnr in 1978.  Wine Spectator is a US lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture and is circulated to over six million subscribers 16 times per year.

“As a company we’re incredibly excited about the growing sophistication of the Latin American consumer and their burgeoning interest in fine wine. And our partnership with CMS, the most prestigious and respected wine service accreditation organization in the world, is evidence of just this.” said Sandra LeDrew, TWE Managing Director, Americas. “We are thrilled and honored to make this program available to professionals in Latin America who are seeking to advance their wine education; it is these graduates after all who will wield an important influence on the Latin American consumer.”

The program was launched when 48 participants took the Level I Introductory Sommelier Course and Exam in March 2013 at the InterContinental Presidente Hotel in Mexico City, Mexico. All participants were sponsored by TWE and 46 of them passed the exam, which according to CMS is an outstanding result.

“It’s very exciting to be able to take the CMS program to Latin America where the interest and level of sophistication around fine wine service has grown dramatically,” said Shayn Bjornholm, MS, Examination Director, Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas. “With its global portfolio of prestigious wines and understanding of this region, Treasury Wine Estates has been an ideal partner for us in this endeavor.”

For more information, download the Media Release (PDF, 134 KB)

The 2010 Wolf Blass Gold Label Adelaide Hills Shiraz Viognier was awarded the Wines of South Australia 2013 trophy, while the 2010 Wynns Black Label Cabernet took home the Wines of Coonawarra Trophy.

Wolf Blass Chief Winemaker, Chris Hatcher, is thrilled to receive such outstanding recognition for his wines in China.

“These medal wins are such a fantastic result for the Wolf Blass winemaking and viticultural teams given the wines were awarded for the suitability of the style for the Chinese market – the fastest growing wine market in the world.

“The results are particularly pleasing as the judges were selected from the most important distributors, importers, hoteliers and Sommeliers from all the key regions and cities in China and Hong Kong,” Hatcher said.

Wynns Senior Winemaker, Sue Hodder, is equally delighted with these recent medal wins.

“These awards honour some of Wynns most classic wines with distinct varietal and regional characteristics, including one of Australia’s most collected Cabernet Sauvignons from the exceptional 2010 vintage,” she said.

For more information, including a list of the winning wines, download the Media Release (PDF, 409 KB)

Matua Chief Winemaker, Nikolai St George, was crowned Auckland Agricultural & Pastoral Association Gold Medal for Winemaker of the Year at the Diamond Jubilee Easter Show Wine awards dinner on Saturday 16th March.

The 2011 Matua Single Vineyard Marlborough Chardonnay was announced the O-I New Zealand Trophy for Champion Wine of Show and also the New World Trophy for Champion Chardonnay. Now the holder of four trophies and four gold medals, the winning wine will be available 1st April in Australia and is already available in New Zealand.

Nikolai said: “I’m thrilled and extremely honoured to start off 2013 with these wins for Matua. Honestly I have an amazing supportive team; we don’t ever compromise on quality or taste. This win is humbling and it couldn’t have come at a better time for our whole team, while we’re in the middle of Vintage 2013.

“Now Matua has 102 awards in total, including ten trophies and 17 gold medals in the last 12 months – we are proudly the most internationally successful New Zealand wine brand in 2012. Hopefully 2013 will see even more accolades and success.”

For more information, download the Media Release (PDF, 129 KB)