Hawke’s Bay’s Craggy Range has been named the Best Vineyard in Australasia for 2021. The annual World’s Best Vineyards awards recognise the best destinations in wine tourism. Craggy Range also made it as number 11 in the overall top 100 list.
“Established in 1998, [Craggy Range] has already earned a reputation for precision winemaking, but it is the warmth of the welcome at this luxurious mountain idyll that makes it quite so special,” said the judges.
Central Otago’s Rippon Vineyard was also praised as a wine destination, coming in at number 15. Five more New Zealand vineyards made the top 100 – Felton Road (52), Black Estate (63), Ata Rangi Martinborough (69), Man O’ War Vineyards (79) and Kumeu River Wines (91).
Australia’s vineyards also impressed judges, with seven vineyards named in the top 100. Barossa’s Henschke came in at 25, while South Australia’s d’Arenberg was voted the 31st best vineyard in the world. Other Australia vineyards were Penfolds Magill Estate (37), Seppeltsfield Barossa (64), Tyrrell’s (74), Cullen Wines (78), and Leeuwin Estate (99).
The number one spot when to South America’s Zuccardi Valle de Uco, being named the World’s Best Vineyard for the third year in a row.
“Zuccardi family’s stone winery stands majestically amid the desert of the Uco Valley, made from the very land it inhabits and a fitting symbol for the giant leaps in progress that these winemakers have been making since 1963,” said the judges.
“Particularly so since coming under the direction of third generation Sebastián, who has pushed the vineyards further up into the Andes, his wines becoming ever-purer expressions of the soils that created them.”
Second place when to Bodegas de los Herederos del Marques de Riscal in the Rioja region of Spain, and third place went to Chateaux Margaux in Bordeaux, France.
