September 12, 2018
Clovely Estate covered itself with glory at the 2018 Queensland Wine Awards, walking away with two trophies, a gold medal, three silvers and three bronzes.
The 35-year-old awards, which are run by the Queensland Wine Industry Association, are the State’s peak wine awards.
They are only open to wines produced in Queensland, but are judged by interstate wine experts from established wine regions such as the Barossa Valley and Coonawarra against the best wines Australia can produce.
This year’s awards attracted a total of 170 entries across 19 categories.
Judging took place in the days immediately preceding the awards dinner, which was held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Spring Hill on September 5.
Clovely Estate took out two of the eight trophies on offer.
They won the trophy for Champion Mainstream Variety White Wine for their 2010 Clovely Estate Semillon.
They also won the trophy for Outstanding Wine of Provenance for their 2009, 2013 and 2017 Semillons after a last-minute mix-up by the judges saw it incorrectly awarded to the runner-up Hidden Creek Wines for their 2006, 2012 and 2017 Tempranillo.
Judges later apologised for the error, noting that Hidden Creek’s 2017 Tempranillo was “fabulous” but their earlier vintages were less so.
As well, Clovely picked up a gold medal in the Museum Class for their 2010 South Burnett Terroir Semillon.
They also won three silver medals for their 2014 and 2017 Semillon and 2016 Clovely Estate Blanc de Blanc SBT, along with two bronzes for their 2016 South Burnett Terroir Petit Verdot and 2016 South Burnett Terroir Nebbiolo.
Neighbouring Moffatdale Ridge also won a bronze medal for their 2018 Moffatdale Estate Verdelho, one of just two wines they entered in this year’s competition.
Only four South Burnett wineries submitted wines for judging this year: Clovely Estate, Moffatdale Ridge, Nuova Scuola and Hillsdale Wines.
The balance were mostly drawn from the Granite Belt and Gold Coast hinterland.
The majority of categories were fiercely contested – especially Dry Red Varietal (Other) which saw a thumping 34 entries featuring Mediterranean reds such as Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Gracianbo, Pinot Noir, Malbec, Verdot, Barbera, Sagrantino, Sapaveri, Nebbiolo, Durif, Montepulciano and Griboulet.
But six categories were not, attracting either zero, one or two entries.
- 2018 Queensland Wine Award results (428kb PDF)
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