Trophy Win Launches Kim Crawford's New Wine Range

Kim Crawford Wines are launching a new premium wine range, Kim Crawford Small Parcels, with instant success, taking the Trophy for Best Sauvignon Blanc at the 2005 Bragato Awards. Unique in New Zealand, the Bragato Wine Awards, recognise grapegrowers, the vineyard and excellence in viticultural practice.

Receiving the trophy for Best Sauvignon Blanc, for his Small Parcels Beacon Hill Vineyard (in Comely Bank) Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2005, Kim Crawford said, "Taking the trophy at Bragato with a wine from my Small Parcels range is perfect. The Bragatos are specifically about recognising work in the vineyard as well as by winemakers and this range is the very best work by our growers and our winemaking team. In any vintage, every now and again you find something special in the vineyard, small parcels of something really smart. This year when we found those parcels, we gave them special attention, in the vineyard and in the winery, hand making wines we planned to release as Kim Crawford Small Parcels. The savvy is first off the block, and well, you gotta be happy with a first up trophy winner. This is a good reward for a damn good team."

Kim Crawford was particularly pleased that the Bragato judges recognised a classically Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. He said "Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is THE New Zealand wine and we need to wake up to that. There are some characters, some flavours, that no other wine region can replicate and we need to show those characters in our wines. I hear a lot of people talking only about tropical notes and tropical fruit, that's fine if you're making Sauvignon Blanc from anywhere but Marlborough. Here we have something distinctive, dynamic. We have something that the rest of the world wishes they could make. They can't, we can, so let's do it."

Kim Crawford believes the trophy winning Sauvignon Blanc, from Jeff Hammond's Beacon Hill Vineyard, part of Comely Bank in the Lower Waihopai, Marlborough, is classic Marlborough savvy, he said "Marlborough Sauvignon is about crisp, in your face excitement, this wine had that Marlborough essence in quids, that's what we were always wanting for our Small Parcels Sauvignon Blanc. We draw on fruit from all over Marlborough including, in the Awatere for our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and Beacon Hill Vineyard in Comely Bank gives us some distinct, classic Marlborough characters. It’s first crop, had good leaf cover and ripened well, we de-stemmed it immediately, cold settled for 36 hours and cool fermented till the balance was bang on. It's proud Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, that's what we wanted to make and thankfully the judges wanted to reward that uniquely Marlborough flavour too."

The Bragato Trophy Win has however meant a bit of hurry up at the offices of Kim Crawford Wines. Company Principal and co founder, Erica Crawford said. "We're thrilled with the trophy but not so thrilled with the instant demand it's created to get the Kim Crawford Small Parcels range out to our customers. Small Parcels is a range of premium wines meant for a truly wine loving customer, we were going to launch quietly, only showing the wines to a few select restaurants and bars already serving our wines, operators we know love their wine and have clientele who do too. But once the trophy results were out, so were the customers. Understandably they're demanding to taste the range and to taste it asap. So now, rather than a nice relaxed release, all done somewhat under the radar, I'm working on an immediate release of Kim Crawford Small Parcels to keep our customers happy. But the range remains available exclusively to on premise distribution through restaurants, bars and a handful of fine wine retailers."

In addition to the Sauvignon Blanc, the Kim Crawford Small Parcels range includes a Gisborne Gewurztraminer, Waipara Riesling, Hawkes Bay Te Awanga Merlot and a Marlborough Pinot Noir, like the trophy winning Sauvignon Blanc from the Comely Bank.

For Erica Crawford, the Bragato trophy win "tops off a series of superb successes for Kim Crawford Wines in the past year. Last week we announced a major win in North America, securing national listing with Marriott. Our wines are now going to be served by the glass on every single wine list in three hundred and eight Marriott properties as part of the Marriott International Gold Standard Beverage Programme. It's a very exciting relationship for us and sees fine NZ wine served up in North America’s finest hotels."

In total four Kim Crawford wines have been selected by Marriott International Inc. Kim Crawford Marlborough Pinot Noir 2003 and Kim Crawford Marlborough Dry Riesling 2004 are joined by Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2004 and Pansy! Rose 2003. Each of the four Kim Crawford wines selected are listed for a minimum initial period of twelve months.

Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was this year also the only New Zealand wine to be selected by influential US wine magazine, Wine Spectator, for it's Top 100 Wines of The World.

ENDS