Colmar Estate: 5-stars from Halliday

We were delighted with the 5-star rating for Colmar Estate in the latest Halliday Wine Companion and the favourable scores for our wines.

For the record these included:

96 points 2021 Block 5 Riesling

95 points 2015 Chardonnay-Pinot Noir (sparkling)

95 points 2021 Le Moche

94 points 2021 Block 6 Riesling

93 points 2021 Pinot Gris

93 points 2021 Block 1 Pinot Noir

92 points 2021 Pinot Shiraz

91 points 2021 Pinot Noir

These scores equate to gold and silver medals in wine shows, indicating consistently high quality. And pleasingly we kicked some goals across a range of wine styles – sparkling, both dry and half-dry whites, and reds.

The Real Review’s Best Wineries

This good news comes hot on the heels of our being ranked as one of Australia’s Top Wineries by The Real Review.

The future?

Needless to say, recognition for all the hard work is very welcome and has helped reassure us that our ‘stay small and be good’ strategy is the right one. But we won’t be resting on our laurels. We now know we can make very good wines – the challenge for the future is to make great wines. And that’s very, very difficult. All winemakers try, but success eludes all but a few.

On our site in the highlands of Orange we see the potential for greatness in the classic cool climate varieties – riesling and chardonnay in the whites and pinot noir in the reds. And the cool 2022 vintage may just be the one to bring forth a wine that sparkles like nothing before it.

What will it be? A beautifully coloured pinot noir with both richness and refinement? Or an elegant chardonnay oozing cool climate class. Could be either.

But you know what? It may well be a riesling. As you can see from the latest Halliday results Colmar Estate is no slouch when it comes to riesling but in our nine vintages we have never seen wines like the 2022s currently evolving in the winery. Wonderful aromas, strikingly beautiful flavours, great purity and sizzling acidity. Simply exquisite. With the fruit picked in three batches and all managed differently in the winery there will be plenty of options when we put together the final blends.

No doubt, these will be very fine wines. But will they be great?

Watch this space.