MEDIA RELEASE
July 4, 2010

MAJOR WINE PRIZE GOES NATIONAL

One of the Royal Adelaide Wine Show’s most prestigious prizes – the Gramp, Hardy, Hill Smith Prize for Outstanding Wine of Provenance* – will be open to wineries from across Australia in 2010.

Previously restricted to wines produced in South Australia, the prize judges three vintages of one wine spanning more than a decade and including the current vintage.  The inaugural prize in 2009 was won by Wynns Coonawarra Estate for the Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon.

Speaking at the launch of the Royal Adelaide Wine Show this morning, held in conjunction with the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Chairman of Judges Mr Brian Walsh said the prize was designed to recognise wines that reflect their region and sense of place, and that display lineage and longevity.

“The Royal Adelaide Wine Show committee is delighted to announce that this coveted prize will go national in 2010,” Mr Walsh said. 

“Though other classes in the Royal Adelaide Wine Show are open to entries from across Australia, when we launched the Provenance Price last year, it was very much experimental in nature. We were unsure of both exhibitor interest and our capacity to reach a sound result. On both fronts we were encouraged enough to move from experimental to embracing a national competition.”

“We encourage wineries from around Australia to enter the Provenance Prize.  The 2009 winner, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, set the bar high and I’m sure a strong field of interstate entries will make the prize all the more interesting.”

Mr Walsh said the Provenance Prize was initially developed to tackle some industry perception of the Australian wine show system by judging three vintages of one wine, rather than a single vintage.

“If wine shows are about improving the breed, then we believe this is a sound way to look at the breed, rather than assessing a single offspring.”

In an extra incentive, the winner of the 2010 Provenance Prize will receive a $10,000 advertising and marketing package from leading advertising agency, Clemenger BBDO.  The prize will include up to 50 hours of strategic and creative time to help the winner develop a communications program to capitalise on their win.

Entries for the Royal Adelaide Wine Show close Friday July 16, 2010, with winners to be announced at the Declaration of Awards ceremony on October 8 at the Adelaide Event & Exhibition Centre (Adelaide Showground).

*The prize is named in honour of three legendary South Australian wine industry pioneers – Hugo Gramp, Tom Hardy and Sidney Hill Smith – who perished in October, 1938, in an aircraft accident.

For more information:
Mr Brian Walsh
Chairman of Judges
Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society Wine Committee
ph: 0412 821 772

Michelle Hocking
Marketing & PR Manager
Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA Inc
ph: 0419 185 314

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