Tas Wine Awards INDUSTRY FEATURE In a state which is renowned for its world class wines and winemakers, one small vineyard on the North West Coast is still coming to terms with being judged as having the best of the best from the 2025 Tasmanian Wine Show W hen it comes to the numerous wine shows that take place across the country each year, Ghost Rock Wines generally put forward their nominations to see where they stack up against other vineyards. So when the team was named as having the overall benchmark drop at January’s Tasmanian Wine Show in Hobart, it came as a quite a shock. The 35th TWS was among the biggest held to date. Entries were up by 41 wines on the 2024 edition, with 65 producers putting forward their best reds, whites and sparklings for the judges. Across a total of 21 trophy classes, 15 different producers were crowned, including three for Ghost Rock. The first success was the Best Sauvignon Blanc Moo Brew Trophy for its 2024 edition, which was shortly followed by taking home the AP Johns Cooper Trophy for best Pinot Noir, its 2023 Estate edition. But the big surprise came when the same Pinot was awarded the Wine Tasmania Trophy for Champion Wine of the Show – essentially judged as best wine in the state.
SIERRA BLAIR WITH GHOST ROCK DIRECTOR JUSTIN ARNOLD. PIC:DEARNA BOND.
“I’m still pinching myself a little bit. It’s a pretty amazing thing we’ve pulled off. We’re so proud still, and it’s a huge achievement for us,” Ghost Rock head winemaker Sierra Blair said. “There’s a lot of wine shows around the country, but the Tasmanian Wine Show is the only one that’s just Tassie wine.
“It’s the one that I enter almost our whole lineup into every year, primarily just as a benchmarking exercise, just to see how we’re doing against our peers. It’s a really good one because we get to go to the exhibitors tasting on the last day of judging, you get to taste all the wines that were in the show, you can see your wine and they sticker them with everyone that’s won a gold medal and a silver medal, and can see how your wine is
39 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Oct/Nov Edition
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