Topper's Mountain Wines has blitzed the field to win four gold medals at the prestigious Berlin Wine Trophy 2015.
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The Tingha winery's achievement is all the more notable because, at the world's largest wine-tasting event, only 30 per cent of the entries win a medal.
Mark Kirkby, owner and vigneron of Topper's Mountain Wines, has long pioneered alternate grape varieties, with the winery's gewürztraminer, in particular, long having proven to be one of the more popular drops produced at the 10-hectare vineyard, which sits at 900m altitude.
The annual Berlin Wine Trophy is held in Germany under the auspices of the Office International de la Vigne et du Vin (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) and is one of the world's most important wine competitions. Medals were awarded to Topper's Mountain's 2012 Red Earth Child, 2014 Bricolage Blanc, 2014 Wild Ferment Nebbiolo and 2014 Gewurztraminer.
Mr Kirkby, who planted the vineyard in 1999 and 2002, said it turned out that the alternate varieties performed best on this high-altitude, cool-climate site.
"This is the type of result I've been dreaming about for the past 20 years - let's hope it is the beginning of recognition for our efforts with alternate varieties in this new region, and the place of these varieties in Australia's wider offering," Mr Kirkby said.
In consultation with winemaker Mike Hayes, Mr Kirkby likes to experiment and focus on low yields, wild yeast from the vineyards and less-intrusive winemaking techniques, as well as creative blending.
"Our blends Red Earth Child and Bricolage are each a composition of four varieties and quite unusual in flavour profile and length," he said. "We even have a co-fermented pinotage viognier in our portfolio - not even done in South Africa, the home of pinotage. We see a great chance to set ourselves apart with innovative thinking and a new approach to put Australia as a leading producer for alternate varieties amongst the global players."
Topper's Mountain Wine marketing executive Dagmar Roesner said the medals were "a fantastic achievement".
"The fact that a boutique and niche producer like Topper's receives four gold medals is showing at a higher level that Australia is serious about competing at world level outside the mainstream varieties. We need to draw attention to alternate varieties coming out of Australia and making this our global advantage," he said.