McLaren Vale’s Varney Wines wins New Winery of the Year in Australia at Halliday Wine Awards 2021
A McLaren Vale winery has been proclaimed the new pick of the bunch in Australia in one of the country’s most prestigious wine awards panels.
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McLaren Vale’s Varney Wines has been proclaimed New Winery of the Year in Australia in the prestigious Halliday Wine Awards 2021.
Each year, renowned wine critic and vigneron James Halliday AM and his tasting panel try almost 10,000 wines from all over the country to identify the top-rated wines, winemakers and wineries.
Of the six major accolades announced at Wednesday night’s virtual event, South Australia dominated.
The Winery of the Year award went to Barossa Valley’s Henschke; Brett Grocke from the Barossa’s Eperosa Wines won Winemaker of the Year, and varietal gongs went to the 2018 Brothers at War Single Vineyard Grenache and the 1920 Seppeltsfield 100 Year Old Para Liqueur.
Halliday said the New Winery of the Year decision was an easy one.
“It’s been a spectacular performance from Varney Wines,” Halliday said. “If it were possible to give two awards to a particular winery in the same year then Varney would have been competing vigorously for best value winery, too.”
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the awards, which also marked the release of the 2021 Halliday Wine Companion, were announced via digital broadcast. When winemaker Alan Varney heard the news, he thought someone was pulling his leg.
“Once the penny dropped I started to digest its meaning; the weight of years’ worth of effort and sacrifice started to lift off my shoulders,” he said.
Mr Varney launched the victorious Varney Wines at his new Old Noarlunga winery and tasting room (at the gateway to McLaren Vale) in November 2019.
It sits below Victor’s Place brewery and restaurant, run by his Berlin-born wife, Kathrin Dressler.
The transformation of the site (formerly an old shearing shed) is impressive. What goes on inside, even more so.
Mr Varney’s approach to winemaking is traditional but sensitive. Halliday was impressed with Varney’s relatively low alcohol drops, his use of older oak, and “crystal clear” varietal flavours.
It is the culmination of decades of hard work at the likes of Orlando, Longview Wines, and d’Arenberg.
Grape whispering in Portugal, California and New York honed Mr Varney’s craft and his relationships with growers span decades.
“When he started out, he wouldn’t have imagined he would end up with this brotherhood of growers he now deals with,” Halliday said.
“I couldn’t have done it without my wife,” Mr Varney admitted. “There have been difficult times where we have had to sit down and really consider if moving forward on the project is worthwhile. Not once has she wavered.
“If there is no Kathrin, there is no Varney Wines.”