The journey of refining a wine from a “distinguished site” is a long one full of self-doubt. How does the vigneron know that quality from a vineyard is improving year on year and that wine-style is refining. Mostly it is achieved through self-assessment, the vigneron comparing vintage after vintage from the same vineyard and using comparison of wines from the same variety and style intent from comparable regions in Australia and internationally. Occasionally this self-assessment process needs to be ground-truthed through independent expert review.
We, Tapanappa, use the Decanter World Wine Awards and another independent English panel to give us that objectivity. Why choose these panels rather than a local panel. They are composed mainly of Masters of Wine graduates and equivalent and are familiar with a broad range of global wine styles. They judge our Tiers Chardonnay in the quality context of very good Burgundy, Californian and Oregonian Chardonnay and in fact fine Chardonnay where-ever it is grown.
It is with great satisfaction that we can announce the vindication of our “distinguished sites” yet again as the 2018 Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay, for the fourth-year running has won GOLD in the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards and this year accompanied by our very terroir expressive 2016 Whalebone Vineyard Cabernet-Shiraz winning GOLD
We can be confident we are on the right path
Brian CroserThis continues a fantastic run for the Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay, building on it’s worldwide reputation, with previous vintages claiming:
2017 Tiers – Gold, 95 Points
2016 Tiers – Platinum Best in Show, 97 points
2015 Tiers – Platinum Best Australian Chardonnay, 95 points