Aussie Vineyards

Aussie Vineyards Harvests Awards

Aussie Vineyards Harvests Awards
Grapegrowers & Vignerons
August 2007

EXPANDING Queensland winery Aussie Vineyards has blown away an international all-star field, by being named a major winner at one of the world's most prestigious wine shows. The Craig Gore-backed company's 2004 Limestone Coast Chardonnay beat 3789 wines from 16 countries to be awarded Best of Show in the Wine Packaging and Design class at the 2007 Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition. The same chardonnay also earned Aussie Vineyards a bronze medal in the taste tests.

A second Aussie Vineyards wine, its 2003 Barossa Valley Shiraz, also collected a bronze medal when the winners were announced in LA in June. Aussie Vineyards was the only Old winery to claim victory honours at the show. Mr Gore said the win would expose the Au wines to some of the United States' largest retailers, including supermarket chain Ralph's, which sponsored the event. Aussie Vineyards is Old's largest wine exporter, having shipped more than 75,432 cases of its Au label to the Americas since September last year. Aussie Vineyards first cracked the US market after hitching a lift on the back of Mr Gore's successful Team Australia franchises, which race in the Champ Car and the hugely popular NASCAR series. Mr Gore says Aussie Vineyards wines are on the shelves in more than 5000 outlets, and wins like this had the potential to grow that figure exponentially. "In California alone a chain like Ralph's operates 320 conventional supermarkets and 80 warehouse format supermarkets," he said.