Wineries win major awards

Two Ferguson Valley wineries stamped their dominance on this year’s Geographe Wine Show, claiming more than half of the 21 awards and trophies between them.

The success poured out for Willow Bridge Estate and St Aidan Wines at what has become the region’s premier wine event.

Willow Bridge Estate won eight trophies and awards, including Wine of the Show for its 2018 Dragonfly Shiraz which also won best Geographe red wine.

Estate owner Jeff Dewar was blown away by this year’s level of success and said the tally was a fine reward for decades of hard work.

“What it’s showing is we’re starting to get some real maturity into the vines and have a really good handle on what’s needed to produce the best fruit,” he said.

“It’s a huge credit to the viticultural team and the wine making team.”

Judges were tasked this year with tasting their way through more than 200 different wines from 43 different varieties, looking for “lovely colour, beautiful aroma and delicious drinkability,” according to chief judge Julian Langworthy.

Event coordinator Jo O’Dea was staggered by the success of this year’s event which boasted a record number of entries.

“It gets bigger and better every year ... it’s been a huge success,” she said.

St Aidan Wines was the other big winner from the event, picking up four awards including best Geographe cabernet sauvignon.

Owner Phil Smith said he was “absolutely rapt” with the haul and said it came as huge a surprise.

“We’re completely over the moon, you always hope for a few good results, but that blew us away,” he said.