Gabrielle Duykers, Naracoorte Community News

A Coonwarra winery has won gold in a national wine competition, making history as the first winery outside the Margaret River region to claim the prize.

Winners of the 2021 James Halliday Australian Cabernet Challenge Trophy were announced via an online presentation on December 6.

The prestigious competition saw the Yalumba 2019 ‘The Menzies’ Cabernet Sauvignon take out both the top gold of the Coonawarra Wine Region and the overall trophy for Australia’s finest Cabernet.

Coonawarra Vignerons Events and Marketing Officer Heidi Eldridge said the announcement was a “great delight”.

‘This is a fabulous achievement for Yalumba and the Coonawarra winemaking team and we couldn’t be more excited,” Ms Eldridge said.

“It is very satisfying to see that Coonawarra has now gained the title for Australia’s top Cabernet for 2021.”

Yalumba’s prize makes it the first time in the wine show’s six-year history that the coveted Cabernet trophy has been awarded to a region outside of Margaret River.

The 2019 wine scored 98 points, topping the 297 entries spanning across 22 Australian wine regions.

This year, competition results were announced via a livestream presentation hosted by wine writer Nick Ryan.

The ten Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Best of Region’ Regional Winners were awarded to wines

from regions achieving scores of 95 points or more.

The award-winning winemakers joined the livestream to receive their awards and discuss their wines, before being joined by James Halliday to reveal the overall trophy winners.

Chair of judges Chris Crawford said he was thrilled to be part of the competition.

“It was exciting to see the vast array of differing styles the judges selected,” Mr Crawford said.

“All the top-ranked wines of each region are a testament to how far these wines have come – displaying balance, depth, freshness and intensity.”

This article appeared in Naracoorte Community News, 15 December 2021.