Geelong Wine Show winners revealed

WINE Geelong has celebrated the 24th Geelong Wine Show at its annual Awards Dinner, with Oakdene taking out the 2023 Best In Show Trophy for its 2022 Single Vineyard Liz’s Chardonnay.

Judging took place over two days last week, and saw 199 wines from 27 producers vie for a number of industry awards including Best Sparkling, Most Successful Exhibitor and Best Wine of Provenance.

Geelong Wine Show chair and Oakdene Wines general manager Steven Paul said the event, which concluded yesterday (Friday, November 16), continued to bring together large and small producers from across the Geelong wine region and showcased the quality and diversity of their wines.

“The Geelong Wine Show aims to promote excellence in wine growing in the region, broadly promote the wines of the region to the wine trade and wine-drinking public and identify the best wines of the region each year, in addition to fostering links between sponsors and the wine industry.

“The high calibre of judges, sponsors and winemakers make the Geelong Wine Show one of the standout regional wine shows in Australia and with renowned winemakers John Harris and Simon Steel joined by Matthew Brooke, director of wine at Crown Melbourne, on the judging panel, the event provides an essential benchmarking opportunity in the wine industry.”

Geelong Wine Show chief of judges John Harris, of Mitchell Harris Wines in Ballarat, said the panel of judges was very impressed by the rising quality of wine across all styles and from within all the sub-regions of the greater Geelong winegrowing region.

“Not only did the dominant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties perform well, but we also saw outstanding Riesling, Pinot Gris, Cabernet and Nebbiolo wines achieve gold medal awards.

“In all the major classes there were multiple gold medal-winning wines in contention for the trophies, showing the strength of the recent 2021 and 2022 vintages.

“With backgrounds as restaurant sommeliers, winemakers, wine wholesalers, wine educators and wine retailers, the diverse team of judges assessed all 199 entries over two days with great rigour and much discussions over the trophy contenders.”

The Geelong Wine Show Awards Dinner, hosted by former Cats footballer Barry Stoneham, was held last night at Terindah Estate on the Bellarine Peninsula, and showcased the trophy, gold, silver and bronze medal-winning wines.

The night also saw local industry legend Robin Brockett from Scotchman’s Hill inducted into the Wine Geelong Hall of Fame, with his name added to the hand-carved honour board on display at Geelong Cellar Door in Little Malop Street.

2023 Geelong Wine Show trophy winners:

• Bay 93.9 Best Wine in Show (Across all classes) – Oakdene Wines 2022 Single Vineyard Liz’s Chardonnay
• Labelhouse Most Successful Exhibitor (Exhibitor with the highest aggregate score from their top four wines in at last two classes) – Oakdene Wines
• Archive Academy Best Oak Matured Chardonnay – Oakdene Wines 2022 Single Vineyard Liz’s Chardonnay
• Davidson Restaurant at The Gordon Best Other White Wine – Oneday Estate 2019 Riesling
• Ferne Millen Photography Best Other Rosé/Red – Oakdene Wines 2022 Single Vineyard Cabernet Franc
• Geelong Cellar Door Best Pinot Noir –  Bellbrae Estate 2021 Tetaz Pinot Noir
• Plumm Best Shiraz – Mulline Vintners 2022 Bannockburn Syrah
• Provincial Media Best Sparkling – Oakdene 2019 Kristen Blanc de Blancs
• Tonnellerie Marsannay Best Wine of Provenance (Awarded to the best flight of three wines from the red and white wine of provenance classes) – Scotchman’s Hill Cornelius 2021, 2017, 2014 Norfolk Vineyard Pinot Noir.

For more information, head to geelongwineshow.com.au