Mud House picked up the top trophy at the 15th annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge on Friday evening. The winning wine, selected from an impressive international line up was the 2013 Mud House Estate The Mound Vineyard Waipara Valley Riesling. The wine was also awarded the Best Riesling from New Zealand.
MH Riesling The Mound 2013Over 500 Rieslings were entered into the International Riesling Challenge, from across nine countries; New Zealand, Australia, USA, Germany, France, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Austria and Canada.
Mud House Winemaker, Nadine Worley, is stoked to win the top prize amongst so many big hitters of the Riesling world. “I still find Riesling one of the trickiest varieties to make, there are so many textures and components that need to balance and meld together. 2013 was a standout vintage in Waipara, we had naturally low crops, with an almost perfect ripening period, and needless to say we are very happy with the result,” Nadine said.
Mud House Group Winemaker, Ben Glover, was ecstatic when told of the result yesterday. “What a gong to get – a Trophy for the Riesling Challenge! This was always a pretty special wine right from the beginning, the fruit from our Waipara vineyard, The Mound, looked perfect and there was little more to do than just watch it develop in the winery”.
“The team at The Mound Vineyard, headed up by Jean-Luc Dufour, have an intuitive feel when it comes to delivering Riesling to Nadine and the Mud House Winemaking team. The sublime 2013 vintage really shows that the Waipara Valley is premium Riesling country,” Ben said.
Seven judges and three associate judges spent three days tasting the 500 Riesling entries, across a number of different styles. The International Riesling Competition is devoted to the promotion of Riesling and is growing year on year with an impressive number of entries from around the globe.
Chair of Judges, John Belsham, was thrilled to be part of the event, solely focusing on Riesling. “Riesling when in the correct hands delivers the most diverse range of premium white wines of any other white varietal. Deliciously dry to intoxicatingly sweet she can be flirtatious and beautiful when young, complex and engaging when aged,” he said.
Hannah Armstrong
PR, Communications and Events
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