Best’s Bin No. 1 Shiraz Wins Prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy
Best’s Wines 2011 Bin No. 1 Shiraz Wins
Best’s Wines 2011 Bin No. 1 Shiraz was announced the winner of the JC Watson Memorial Trophy. At a dinner last night at the ZINC restaurant in Melbourne. The wine also won the Best Victorian Wine trophy and the inaugural Trevor Mast trophy for Best Shiraz in show.
The Royal Melbourne Wine Show JC Watson Memorial Trophy is the country’s best known individual wine award. With its prestigious line up of judges awarding the trophy to the best (1-2 year old) red wine. The “Jimmy Watson” or “The Jimmy”, as it is known in the industry. Is named after the much-loved Carlton wine merchant and wine bar owner. This is the first time a Victorian wine has won the Jimmy Watson since 1997. The first time a wine from Great Western has won since the 1964 Seppelt Great Western Shiraz won in 1965. Best’s 2011 Bin No. 1 also won the Best Victorian Wine Trophy and the inaugural Trevor Mast Trophy for Best Shiraz in Show.
Best’s 2011 Bin No. 1 was made by Adam Wadewitz and Justin Purser. Best’s Wines continue to evolve with each winemaker providing their own stamp on the Best’s house style. Best’s epitomises all that is great about the Grampians. The wines showcase how the Great Western region has evolved and matured over time.
The Trevor Mast Trophy
“We are delighted with this win and hope this introduces more people to Great Western Shiraz”, said Viv Thomson, owner and patriarch of Best’s Wines. It’s wonderful to see show judges and wine consumers embracing the medium bodied, fragrant style of shiraz from Great Western. To win the Jimmy Watson is a great honour for any winery. And to also win the Trevor Mast Trophy means so much to all of us at Best’s. Trevor made wine here from 1975 to 1988 and is a legend of our region and the Australian wine industry”.
Making Best’s Bin No. 1 Shiraz
“Blending the different parcels of the 2011 Bin No. 1 Shiraz was a great way for me to discover the individual charms of various Great Western vineyards,” said Justin Purser. “My goal was to make a blend that expresses the spicy, fruit flavours that Shiraz from the area is so renowned for yet also retain the elegance of the wine. 2011 was a cooler and wetter year than average for the area. But after six vintages in France, Italy and New Zealand, it felt like a typical cool-climate vintage to me! The wine tells the story of the 2011 vintage and delivers elegant flavours and aromas. Yet it has a backbone of soft fruit, fragrant spices and fine tannins. I am looking forward to seeing how it evolves over the next decade and beyond.”
Media
Tears of joy after a vintage from hell
The Newcastle Herald 2012 by Jane Faulkner
As far as seasons go, this fourth-generation winemaker is refreshingly matter-of-fact about 2011: Viv Thomson says it’s the worst ever. It’s an appraisal based on experience, one that comes off the back of his 51st consecutive vintage. Yet it’s the poignancy of the Trevor Mast Trophy that resonates the most. It’s personal. “Winning that award is very, very special,” Viv says. “Nothing comes close.”
Top Aussie red
Sydney Morning Herald 2012, by Huon Hooke, Good Food, page 25
Best’s Great Western Bin 1 Shiraz, Grampians 2011, $25
The 2012 Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy winner is an elegant, medium to full-bodied shiraz with white-pepper, fragrant spice and raspberry aromas. Pristine cleanness and freshness; fine-grained tannins and a lingering farewell. A lovely wine that’s high on drinkability. Best’s bottled only one ’11 shiraz, which includes the old-vine grapes.
Humble Shiraz betters more pedigreed vintages
The Australian, 2012 by Sue Neales
“It was the year from hell. One of the most difficult years we have ever had in the vineyard, with downy mildew, rain, floods and botrytis affecting the grapes,” Mr Thomson said yesterday. “That’s the funny thing with wine- you can pick and crush the grapes and think it’s not much” after one month (of the wine being) in barrel, you taste it and say it’s pretty ordinary- and then a month later, you find it’s become fantastic and wonder how on earth that happened.”
Best’s Great Western Bin 1 Shiraz wins 2012 Jimmy Watson Trophy
www.winefront.com.au-great-western-bin-1-shiraz, 2012
Chairman of Judges at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, David Bicknell, said that, ‘Until this year it wasn’t possible for a wine to win this combination of trophies, but this year’s winner Best’s Great Western Shiraz Bin No. 1 2011 has taken out three! This is a wine with purity, balance, freshness and complexity. A wine that I believe consumers will thoroughly enjoy.”
Images L to R 2012, ‘Jimmy Joy’ WBM, Viv and Ben Thomson. 2012, Tribute to Trevor Mast, Ararat Advertiser. 2012 RASV Wine Awards Viv and Chris Thomson with the Trevor Mast Memorial Trophy.
