Stunning Run for Rockburn continues

Stunning Run for Rockburn continues at Air New Zealand Wine Awards


Rockburn Pinot Noir 2011 has taken the Fairfax Media Champion Open Red Wine Trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 announced on Saturday night at a black tie awards dinner in Wellington.

The Air New Zealand Wine Awards are considered to be New Zealand’s premier wine competition, a show at which Rockburn Pinot Noir has proved a prolific winner. The Trophy was collected by Winemaker Malcolm Rees Francis who gave a rousing acceptance speech, injecting much levity to the evening with some witty references to Hobbits and in particular thanking the support of the Rockburn Directors.

Rockburn’s results at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards are a reflection of the company’s growing pedigree. Their first Air NZ Gold medal was in 1999 and they have since gone on to win consistent recognition at the Air NZ Wine Awards, including the Champion Open Red Trophy in 2007 and both Champion Pinot Noir & Champion Open Red Trophies in 2008. This weekends’ result marks the third time Rockburn has taken out the Open Red Trophy in the last six years; very few other producers have displayed such prowess at delivering both quality and quantity to the wine drinkers of New Zealand.

General Manager Paul Donaghy commented; “To be considered for the Open category you must have at least 2,500 cases available, so this is fantastic news for Pinot Noir lovers – all too often trophy-winning wines are in such limited quantities consumers can’t even find them let alone drink them. But we are happy to advise that we will have the 2011 vintage available now for our customers”.

The Trophy rounds off an absolutely stunning period of awards with Rees-Francis earlier in the month being named Finalists Choice Trophy winner for the Australian Wine Society’s Young Winemaker of the Year awards; and in August the Rockburn Pinot Noir 2010 was awarded a Double trophy at the Bragato Wine Awards, receiving Champion Reserve Wine and Champion Pinot Noir.

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