By Amy Looker
Australian wineries represented by the Wine Export Initiative (WEXI) performed well at the recent Wine & Spirits Asia trade show, bringing home 51 awards.
WEXI, an export consortium helping to increase the profile of Australian wines in Asia, entered 74 wines into the awards, which attract 30,000 visitors from across South East Asia, India, Korea and Japan.
Of the 700 wines entered in the four-day wine competition, nine were awarded gold with two of those given to WEXI-represented wines.
Ten silver and 23 bronze were also awarded to the WEXI selection of Australian wines, while 16 were recommended.
WEXI's founding director David Elliott said he was impressed by the portfolio's performance at the show.
"Representing such a successful range of wines attracted a lot of attention with both visitors and other exhibitors at Wine & Spirits Asia," Elliott said.
"This is at a time when the appetite for Australian wine in tourist and domestic markets in some Asian countries is growing by as much as 45 per cent in the past few years."
Elliott said Wine & Spirits Asia was very supportive of the consortium's plans to bring additional boutique wine brands to Asia.
"We're excited about the initial success of our wine selection and looking forward to a new era for our winemakers who can now safely tap into a massive Asian market thirsty for great Australian wines," he said.