Giesen Wines is celebrating after winning Winemaker of the Year and three Champion Trophies at Royal Easter Show Wine Awards.
Giesen Chief Winemaker Nikolai St George attended the awards ceremony at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel on Saturday night to collect the awards for the Marlborough winery. The prestigious Royal Easter Wine Show is the country’s oldest wine awards.
The awards Giesen received are:
Auckland Agricultural & Pastoral Association Gold Medal for Winemaker of the Year:
Nikolai St George, Giesen Wines
Guala Closures NZ Award for Champion Wine of the Show:
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2017
New World Award for Champion Chardonnay:
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2017
Drinksbiz Magazine Award for Champion Medium Sweet or Sweet Wine:
Giesen The Brothers Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2014
This the fourth time Nikolai St George has been named Winemaker of the Year. He was awarded the title Winemaker of the Year at the Royal Easter Wine Show 2015 and 2013 and in 2014 from the New Zealand International Wine Show.
Nikolai has led the Giesen winemaking team since early 2016 and is delighted to have received a Winemaker of the Year award with Giesen.
“This award is recognition of the strength and depth of talent in the entire Giesen wine production team. Being a family owned business we’re close-knit and everyone from our long-term growers, to our viticultural and past and current winemaking team have had a hand in the outstanding quality of our wines, which has led to this award.”
“We are also fortunate to have amazing vineyards such as the legendary Clayvin and our organic Ridge Block as well as 11 other sites across Marlborough’s Wairau Valley,” Nikolai said.
“It’s amazing to be part of this team and help Giesen Group build upon its success. Giesen has achieved so much over the last 35+ years it still feels like we’re on the cusp of something great.”
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2017
Nikolai St George says The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2017 is a credit to the work in vineyards and he paid tribute to a small group of long-standing Giesen grape growers from Fairhall area in the Wairau Valley who worked hard to deliver outstanding fruit. The grapes – predominantly Mendoza and Clone 95 – were targeted in the vineyard and carefully hand-tended.
While fermentation began for the majority of fruit with classic Chardonnay yeast, a portion received wild yeast. Nikolai said “we put considerable effort into choosing the oak regime which would allow the fruit to shine. We fermented 100% in 300 litre French barriques with between 20% and 25% in new oak. Then the wine was matured in a mix of French hogheads and puncheons as well as a 1,000 litre German oak Fuder barrel.”
All these factors have added up to create a precise Chardonnay with clarity of fruit. Its inviting bouquet opens to a wine offering the acidity Marlborough Chardonnay is renowned for wrapped up with smoky oak. The combination of generous fruit and Marlborough character delivers an enticing, fruit forward wine.
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2014
This dessert wine has found favour everywhere it has appeared, with this Trophy and Gold Medal coming on top of seven Gold Medals awarded earlier to this vintage[1].
Nikolai says the Royal Easter Show Trophy is an ‘amazing achievement’ not only because it’s a dessert wine, and not only because it’s a Sauvignon Blanc – also because its five years old and still as fresh and vibrant as when it was bottled.
Drawing on winemaking tradition, whole bunches of Sauvignon Blanc were crushed by foot before being basket pressed over three to four hours extracting all the juice. Juice was slowly fermented over the following two months to maximise flavour. The winemaking team stopped the ferment when the sugar, acid and alcohol balance was achieved, before racking, filtering without fining and bottling.
The Winemaker of the Year and three Champion trophies capped off a successful Royal Easter Wine Show for Giesen Group who also received four Silver Medals for:
- Gemstone by Giesen Riesling 2018
- Giesen Estate Riesling 2018
- Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Pinot Noir 2016
- Ara Single Estate Marlborough Pinot Gris 2018
Giesen The Brothers Marlborough Chardonnay 2017 RRP $19.90 and Giesen The Brothers Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2014 375ml RRP $49.95 are both available in limited volume from selected fine wine retailers across New Zealand.
For more information or images please contact; Nicola McConnell of Brand Amp Nicola@brandamp.co.nz or 027 2188120
About Giesen Wines
Since its establishment in 1981 by brothers Theo, Alex and Marcel the Giesen has become a powerhouse of the New Zealand wine industry. Over almost 40 years the Giesen brothers have built a reputation for delivering quality Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Company investment in vineyards, equipment and winemaking technology have enabled expansion of the Giesen Wines brand. This has allowed development of a range of super premium wines including; The Brothers, The August 1888, and the Single Vineyard Selection that includes the revered and much-awarded Fuder wines.
This strategic development propelled Giesen Wines to become one of New Zealand’s top 10 producers by volume with distribution in 33 countries. In 2016 the company acquired the highly regarded Ara Wines brand, a specialist producer of single vineyard Marlborough wines from the Wairau Valley. Nikolai St George joined the Giesen Group taking responsibility for winemaking across the entire portfolio in 2016.
From the Group’s Marlborough winery, with the capacity to make two million cases annually, Nikolai directs the individual style of each wine. Giesen owns 13 vineyards throughout Marlborough and has longstanding relationships with 50 of the region’s well respected grape growers, this ensures the Group has access to the finest quality fruit, which is the backbone of its global success.
Visit Giesen Wines: https://giesen.co.nz/
[1] 2018 New Zealand International Wine Show; 2017 New Zealand Aromatic Wine Competition; 2017 International Wine & Spirit Competition UK; 2017 New Zealand International Wine Show; 2016 Air New Zealand Wine Awards and 2015 Air New Zealand Wine Awards Pure Gold and Pure Elite Gold.