We are thrilled to announced that at last night’s Halliday Awards we were named the 2024 HallidayWinery of the Year!

The good news doesn’t stop there though, with two of our wines being named as Varietal Winners! Our2021 The Iron Duke Cabernet Sauvignonwas once again namedCabernet Sauvignon of the Year, and our2021 Wellington Road Shiraz Cabernettook out theShiraz/Cabernet Blend of the Yeartitle.

This also means that The Iron Duke Cabernet Sauvignon has won back-to-back Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year for the 2020 and 2021 vintages respectively. This is the first time any Cabernet Sauvignon has won this award in consecutive years.

We were shortlisted for the Winery of the Year award along with nine other outstanding Australian wineries, from a total of 1200 wineries that submitted wines to the 2024 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion.

Alongside our nomination, the Halliday team had the following to say:

“There’s an argument to say that the Bleasdale winery, both historically and most certainly at the hand of winemaker Paul Hotker, should be regarded as every Australian wine lover’s best friend. There was no doubt a great foundation and culture to build on, in vineyards and growers, people and history, but the work of Bleasdale’s head winemaker Paul Hotker cannot be underestimated. He and his team are relentless in their determination to work magic.”

Back to our Varietal Winning wines: both the 2021 Wellington Road Shiraz Cabernet and 2021 The Iron Duke Cabernet Sauvignon received scores of 98 points, placing them in rare company.

Just under 600 Cabernet Sauvignon wines were tasted for this edition of the Companion, with The Iron Duke Cabernet Sauvignon once again being called back for an awards taste-off among Wine Companion tasters covering all Australian regions. To come out of this blind tasting event as the best Cabernet Sauvignon of the year for the second-year running is an incredible achievement, and a testament to the often-underrated quality of Cabernet Sauvignon from Langhorne Creek.

The 2021 Wellington Road Shiraz Cabernet was amongst a smaller pool of competitors, with 57 other wines eligible for this award. It does, however, continue an excellent run of form for this wine as the fifth trophy received across the past seven vintages of this wine’s release, along with 21 gold medals.

Not to be forgotten, the rest of our range received some incredible scores from this year’s Companion, with 22 wines rated at 93 points or higher, and 16 of those 95 points or higher! The top scores outside of the Varietal Winners were our 2021 Frank Potts blend with 97 points, and the 2022 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay with a score of 96 points.