ONE of the region’s biggest and oldest producers and one of the smallest and youngest shared the top honours last week in the 2017 Clear Image Hunter Valley Wine Show.
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The four-year-old, 1000-dozen production operation of Shaun Silkman and his acclaimed winemaker wife Liz Jackson won the Doug Seabrook Trophy for the best red of the show, the Hector Tulloch Trophy for best shiraz and the Elliott Family Trophy for best two-year-old shiraz with their Silkman 2015 Reserve Shiraz.
The 159-year-old, 200,000-dozen output Tyrrell’s family wine company won the Petrie-Drinan Trophy for best white wine of the show with its Tyrrell’s 2009 Vat 1 Semillon.
Before a crowd of 360 guests, Tyrrell’s also was presented with nine other trophies at Friday’s Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association show lunch at Crown Plaza Hunter Valley.
The nine wines were: the Tyrrell’s 2011 Stevens Semillon (Len Evans Trophy for the best named vineyard wine and Tyrrell Family Trophy for best named vineyard white wine); Tyrrell’s 2009 Vat 1 Semillon (Maurice O’Shea Trophy for best semillon); 2013 Vat 47 Chardonnay (Murray Tyrrell Trophy for best chardonnay); 2007 Vat 9 Shiraz (John Lewis Newcastle Herald Trophy for best museum red wine); 2006 Vat 1 Semillon (Graham Gregory Trophy for best museum white); 2009 Vat 1 Semillon (McGuigan Family Trophy for best mature two-year-old and older semillon); 2013 Vat 47 Chardonnay (H.J. Lindeman Trophy for best two-year-old and older chardonnay) and the 2005, 2009 and 2017 HVD semillons (Iain Riggs Wine of Provenance Trophy).
Liz Jackson, is winemaker and Shaun Silkman is chief of production and bottling at the First Creek winery headed by Shaun’s father Greg Silkman. The couple launched their boutique brand in 2013 and in the Hunter judging they scored a fourth trophy with the Silkman 2016 Reserve Shiraz-Pinot Noir. And the First Creek 2017 Winemaker’s Reserve Semillon was awarded the Marshall-Flannery Trophy for best current-vintage semillon.
Other trophy winners were the:
Ridgeview 2016 Impressions Shiraz (Drayton Family Trophy for best named vineyard red); Margan Family 2016 Botrytis Semillon (Galbraith for best sweet white); McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant 2014 Maurice O’Shea Shiraz (Busby Trophy for best three-year-old and older shiraz); Mount Pleasant Non-Vintage Tawny Blend (Trevor Drayton Trophy for best fortified); Cockfighter’s Ghost 2016 Reserve Semillon (Ed Jouault Trophy for best one-year-old dry semillon); De Iuliis 2016 Shiraz (Alexander Munro Trophy for best current and one-year-old shiraz); Vinden Estate 2017 Verdelho (Jay Tulloch Best Verdelho Trophy); Hart and Hunter 2016 26 Rows Chardonnay (George Wyndham Trophy for best current and one-year-old chardonnay).
Next Wednesday’s Food and Wine: where to buy and how much you’ll pay for trophy and gold-medal wines.