What a great end to an amazing year – being listed as one of 50 Stars of 2014 in WBM’s Dec/Jan edition, alongside some of Australia’s top winemakers.
Composed as a list of stars who have “inspired with amazing achievements, bold deeds and winning attitudes,” this is most definitely one of our year’s highlights.
And what a year it’s been! First comes the fantastic news that our 2013 Pinot Noir was awarded 96 points and our 2013 Chardonnay 95 points in the 2015 edition of James Halliday’s Wine Companion released in August.
Then came the triple trophy win at the 2014 Riverina Wine Show for our 2013 Chardonnay, which scored ‘Best wine of Show,’ ‘Best White wine of Show,’ and ‘Best one year old Chardonnay.’
It then went on to win ‘Best New World Chardonnay’ at the 2014 Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Competition. This one totally blew us away. Pics of the trophy still to come (we weren’t able to travel to HK to pick up the trophy ourselves, so we asked a friend pick it up and bring it home for us – thanks Sam!)
Both wines were selected in the inaugural VIC100 awards – a show designed to celebrate the best wines from Victoria, put together by Flavour Exchange with Nick Stock heading up the panel of judges.
The Young Guns of Wine awards were held in December, and we were awarded ‘Best New Act’ for our 2013 Pinot Noir and 2013 Chardonnay. In the words of Josh Elias on the YGOW website, “the Best New Act typified the talent and courage from these winemakers, Santolin’s Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are confident and thought provoking – an even more impressive feat when they hold their own amongst the best of the Yarra, a region with so many accomplished pinot and chardonnay producers.”
And now, like a massive, wonderful cherry on top, Adrian’s been listed as one of 50 stars from 2014 in this months Wine Business Monthly magazine.
What a year! We’d never have thought all of this possible in only two short years, but here we are and we couldn’t have asked for a better start for our small wine business. Not sure if we can better it in 2015, but we’ll be working our butts off trying.
