New Era Vineyard in Woodside wins big at Adelaide Hills Wine Show, a year after being ravaged by bushfires

A father-and-son team who lost their vineyard to the Cudlee Creek fires are among 14 honoured at the Adelaide Hills Wine Show. See the full list.

A small father and son-run vineyard, which was ravaged by the Cudlee Creek bushfires, has taken home a major award in this year’s Adelaide Hills Wine Show.

New Era Vineyard in Woodside has won top gong for producing the region’s `Best Gruner Veltliner’, almost a year after losing its entire vineyard and wine-stock to the December 20 blazes.

Bob and Iain Baxter were one of 14 trophy winners, which they say caught them by complete surprise.

“After everything we’ve lost, it certainly has been very helpful, from a motivational perspective, to get this recognition, especially as it’s the first Gruner we’ve made,” Bob said.

“So we’re very happy and it’s a bit of a silver lining.

“It’s given us some positivity and an opportunity to rethink what our key variety should be but also, how we’re going to manage the brand and the range of products going forward.

“It’s a great way to end 2020, especially after the year we’ve had.”

Iain Baxter and Bob Baxter from New Era Vineyards in Woodside took out top gong for their Gruner Veltliner. Picture: Tom Huntley

New Era Vineyard was one of 60 growers impacted by the Cudlee Creek fires, which destroyed 30,000 vines on their 12ha property.

“We also lost a lot of infrastructure, all of our wine making equipment, including tanks and pumps, and all of our 2019 barrel stock.

“That’s on top of 20 pallets of wine, shedding and vehicles, but we were lucky to at least have saved the house.

“It’s been a long 12 months and there have been times when I’ve asked myself, ‘why am I still doing this?

“But the way I see it, you have two choices; you can curl up and never get out of bed again or you can go: `right, let’s get this in order’, and that’s the approach we’ve taken.”

CFS crews are fighting the fires at New Era Vineyard during the Cudlee Creek fires.

Iain and Bob Baxters lost all of their vineyard and infrastructure to the fires.

The Baxters said their win would not have been possible without the generous donation of two tonnes of grapes from Longview Vineyard in Macclesfield.

“I was searching for grapes this year to have some sort of production, make some money and keep the wine brand going,” Iain said.

“I heard they had some Gruner grapes available and initially was going to purchase them. “But then they said that they were willing to donate some grapes to businesses impacted by the fire, so we ended up with two tones of gruener, which is very generous as it costs them $5000 a tone just to pick them.”

The winning 2020 Gruner Veltliner is available for purchase online via the The New Era Vineyard website.

Winemakers recognised at annual Adelaide Hills Wine Awards

Shiraz has continued its rise in prominence as a wine that represents the true colours of the Adelaide Hills, taking out the top honours in the region’s 2020 Wine Show.

Bird in Hand 2018 Syrah was awarded three trophies – Best Shiraz, Best Red Wine, and the Best Wine of Show – at the region’s celebration of its finest wines, announced exactly a year after the Cudlee Creek bushfire impacted a large portion of the Adelaide Hills’ prized vineyards.

Approximately 1100 hectares of vineyard belonging to more than 60 growers were within or bordering the fire impact zone, accounting for almost 30 per cent of the entire Adelaide Hills plantings.

While the 2018 shiraz class was one of the highlights of the show in terms of the wine excellence, chair of judges Toby Barlow noted that this year it was equally important to recognise the quality and resilience of the region’s people.

“The effort needed to survive such a year, from the fires followed by all the COVID-19 challenges that impacted the wine industry, including even organising a wine show under severe restrictions, has been extraordinary, he said.

“I am not sure you can ask for much more in a wine community across any year, let alone 2020.”

Other classes of wine to excel in terms of overall quality and medal tallies were the sparlings, gruner veltliner, and chardonnays.

Penfolds 2017 Cellar Reserve Chardonnay took out the varietal trophy as well as best white wine, while Shaw + Smith won two trophies for their M3 Chardonnay, in the best museum class and wine of Wine of Provenance award.

Other varietal white and red classes also prompted a lot of excitement from the judges, with a new category for Italian red varieties included for the first time to meet the growth in those styles out of the Hills.