Eco-conscious Barossa Valley winery, RedHeads wines, was awarded the trophy for Best Red Wine – Other Varieties at the 2023 Barossa Wine Show.
RedHeads was also nominated as a finalist for its green initiatives in the small-medium winery category at the 2023 South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) Awards.
General Manager and winemaker Alex Trescowthick is delighted by the new accolades.
“We are proud to win an award for our Touriga, but we are also delighted to be recognised for our sustainability efforts,” he said.
“We hope this nomination at the SAWIA’s plus our existing ‘green’ awards, can highlight to new wineries, what can be done as a wine business to become more sustainable.”
RedHeads’ wines planted Touriga to solve the problem of sourcing grapes for two of its prized wines, ‘Night of the Living Red’ and ‘Return of the Living Red’.
Three years later, they made a single-vineyard, single varietal wine which has gone on to win this award.
“We planted Touriga to fill a need, but we also knew that the variety was nicely suited to the block due to its sandy soils over clay and we were confident it would deliver a style that would suit our existing wines.”
The finished wine is a ‘new-age’ style, medium-bodied and fruit driven with notes of Turkish delight and cherry.
“Our new winery was designed exactly for this type of wine,” Trescowthick said.
“Small-batch, minimal intervention, varietal expressions that reflect the site the grapes are from.”