Early November 2006 saw Monahan Estate's 2005 semillon win the highest gold medal for current semillon. This resulted in the trophy also being awarded to the wine. The 2005 semillon is rapidly becoming our most awarded wine yet had only been released for a year at the time of its most recent win. In 2007, James Halliday gave this wine four-and-a-half stars with a rating of 91 in his 2008 Wine Companion.

2005 OLD BRIDGE SEMILLON WINS GOLD AT 2006 HUNTER VALLEY WINE SHOW

In August 2006 we entered just three wines in the Hunter Valley Wine Show and received three medals: a gold, silver and a bronze. The latter was for the 1998 semillon, which is yet to achieve its ideal bottle age. The silver was for the 2001 semillon, which is also coming along nicely. But the biggest thrill was the gold medal for the 2005 Old Bridge semillon. This is a wine of great freshness and balance, one that remains "tight" yet without a great deal of apparent acidity. It drinks exceptionally now as a fresh wine and we think it will develop to even greater things in time.

GOLD MEDAL FOR MONAHAN ESTATE'S 2003 OLD BRIDGE SEMILLON

Regular Monahan Estate clients won't be surprised to learn that our 2003 Old Bridge Semillon won a gold medal in the Small Vigneron Awards announced in the August 2004 issue of Wine Wise magazine.

The semillon section of the magazine was judged by James Halliday, Olivier Masters and Jeff Piper. Heading the section under the title "Highly Recommended" were these words:
"2003 Monahan Estate Old Bridge [Semillon]. Classically Hunter in style, this semillon displays delicate lemon blossom aromas and considerable palate intensity. The flavours are perfectly balanced by racy acidity. Cellar. ($15) $$VALUE$$ Gold."

So there you are, four-star value and gold medal standard.

Wine Wise is an independent magazine and does not pander to advertisers because there are none. The judges only give "gold" to some wines in the highly recommended category.

The categories that follow are "recommended", "agreeable", "acceptable" and "unacceptable". Fortunately, we're not likely to fall into the latter category.