Our first two wines win Top 100 in Sydney
The two first wines we ever made won Top 100 Blue-Gold awards at the 2008 Sydney International Wine Competition.
The winners are Mount Dottrel Pinot Noir 2005, as well as the Mount Dottrel Saignée Rosé 2006, our second wine (and first rosé).
The awards mean that both these wines were judged to be among the 100 top-rated of all the wines entered. The magnitude of this feat becomes obvious when one considers that more than 2,000 wines from ten different countries were entered for one of the world’s most respected wine competitions.
“These results vindicate the leap of faith we took as a family to develop a vineyard where we did, the vines we planted and the team we brought together,” says Roy McCallum, who founded the vineyard with his son, Simon, in 2000.
“It proved to be the ideal place for us to grow high-quality Pinot Noir of substance and heart,” says Roy. Winemaker Carol Bunn says the Top 100 awards are a brilliant result.
“I realised early on that this wine would do very well. The site has a telling terroir aspect that comes through in herbal and spicy characters, in addition to the typical Central Otago cherry and plum flavours. And it’s getting better with every year!”
The original vintage, Mount Dottrel Pinot Noir 2005, is a classic Central Otago Pinot Noir with an intensity of complex flavours that reflect the vineyard terroir, with the tempering influence of French oak. It is a tangy, lively and generous wine, showing vibrant pure fruits of raspberry, blueberry and cherry, well supported by spicy herbal aromas and flavours. Silky tannins support a firm, textured structure with great balance.
Apart from making a second vintage of the Pinot Noir in 2006, grapes were set aside to make a rosé using the traditional saignée method, where wine is bled off the skins after a controlled period of contact to retain just the right amount of colour and flavour.
The 2006 Mount Dottrel Pinot Noir Saignée Rosé is a wine of delicate aromas and flavours of tropical fruits, melons, strawberries and cream with hints of rose petals.
“As evidenced by the awards in Sydney, both these wines are excellent with food,” says Carol.
The Sydney International Wine Competition is the only major international wine show where the wines are judged as they would be consumed in most cases – with appropriate food. A team of 14 experts, led by chief judge Kym Milne MW from England, judged the entries.
The medals mean that Mount Dottrel wines are also up for trophies, which will be announced in Sydney on 1 March 2008.
