By Amy Looker
The Wine Society announced the name of its Young Winemaker of the Year on Friday night at a gala dinner in Sydney, with top honours going to Anna Pooley of Heemskerk Wines in Tasmania.
Pooley, who has been nominated for the awards previously, impressed the judges with her 2009 Abel’s Tempest Pinot Noit, 2009 Abel’s Tempest Traminer and 2008 Heemskerk Chardonnay.
The awards celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, with a roll call of previous winners in attendance to celebrate alongside this year’s nominees.
The awards are open to all Australian and New Zealand winemakers under the age of 30 who are primarily responsible for the creation of the wine produced at their winery.
In addition to the Young Winemaker of the Year award, The Wine Society also presents the Members’ Choice award and Sommeliers’ Choice awards, which were presented to Donna Hartwig of Kingston Estate Wines and Steve Baraglia of Naked Run Wines respectively.
The Wine Society’s CEO, Daryl McGraw, said he continued to be impressed with the quality of the wines put forward by the finalists.
“This is our tenth year of the awards and the talent that we have seen has again overwhelmed us all. It’s great to see such high quality wines being crafted by these young winemakers and shows us that the winemaking community in Australia and New Zealand are eager to support the future of the industry,” said McGraw.
The awards were held at Sydney’s Westin Hotel and were hosted by media personality, Paul McDermott.