Champion Red

Central Otago vineyard Bald Hills has continued its remarkable winning streak with three more major international awards for its 2005 Pinot Noir. The wine beat 4,760 other entries to take the Champion Red award at the International Wine Challenge (IWC), the world’s largest and most prestigious blind tasting. In addition, it won the IWC’s inaugural Planet Earth Sustainability Trophy, in recognition of its producers’ sound environmental practices. The Bald Hills Pinot Noir 2005 also won a Silver Medal and Best in Class award at the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) in London. NZ wines won a further 7 gold, 9 silver and 123 bronze medals at the event, as well as taking out the top pinot noir and sauvignon blanc trophies with the Villa Maria Cellar Selection Marlborough Pinot Noir 2005 and Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc 2006. Bald Hills was established by Blair and Estelle Hunt in 1997, when the couple were both in their late fifties. According to a CNN profile on the pair, “The [IWC] judges called their 2005 pinot noir well integrated, harmonious and impeccably balanced. The same might be said about them.”