Wine Awards: Best of Show 2016

The overall winner from Vancouver Magazine’s International Wine Awards 2016.

Wynns Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon 2012Australia$24.49 +502039If a theme of this year’s wine awards is change (nine of 10 category champions are first-time winners), our Best of Show wine tells a very different tale. “Wynns Black Label,” as it is affectionately known by wine lovers in 70 countries, is an Australian icon and a serious contender for the world’s best value wine, bar none. Much loved winemaker Sue Hodder, a frequent visitor to Vancouver, has an ever-growing global fan club.First produced in 1954, Wynns Coonawarra is a benchmark for Aussie cabernet that has a well-deserved reputation for great longevity. It also has a long-established connection with B.C., where it has been sold for over 40 years. Many shrewd collectors have precious old bottles that would have been purchased for less than $10. Our judges took great delight in the brilliant performance of an old standby—in the world of wine, the thrill of the new is equalled only by the thrill of the old.Coonawarra (located near the South Australian coast 380 kilometres south of Adelaide) is a legendary wine region, where a thin strip of weathered limestone topped with iron-rich red soil combines with the cooling effect of the Southern Ocean to produce an ideal environment for cabernet sauvignon. The persistently grey skies so atypical for Australia provide the long, slow growing season that cabernet needs to develop fully ripe flavours.Wynns Black Label is renowned for great purity of fruit, freshness, elegance, and mineral complexity: all characteristics normally associated with the Old World, specifically Bordeaux. If there is a stylistic correspondence, in terms of price there is no similarity whatsoever. We are proud to present Wynns Black Label as our Best of Show.<< BACK TO CATEGORIES