Chaffey Bros Evangeline Syrah Wins
"Best in Show"
and
Global Top 50 Wine
at Decanter World Wine Awards
Barossa based winery, Chaffey Bros has attracted the attention of a global audience for a new wave of Australian Syrah, being one of only eight Australian wines to take out a ‘Best in Show’ award at the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).
Decanter World Wine Awards are firmly established as the world’s largest and most influential wine competition.
Chaffey Bros’ “Evangeline” Eden Valley Syrah now sits in the world’s Top 50 wines for 2024, after DWWA’s international judging panel of 250 industry leading professionals from 33 countries tasted over 18,000 wines from across the globe.
"This is only the second Eden Valley shiraz to fight its way to our Best in Show selection, and its emphatic, showstopping character underlines how well this slightly higher-altitude zone is suited to South Australia's favourite red variety," Decanter judges said.
Chaffey Bros co-founder, Daniel Chaffey Hartwig, is thrilled with the international accolade and global recognition of ‘Syrah’ as an exciting new style of Australian Shiraz.
“We are absolutely delighted to have our Syrah “Evangeline” recognised as a Top 50 wine for 2024 at the Decanter World Wine Awards, representing only 0.28% of wines tasted,”
“It’s an exciting time for Australian red wine, with the Syrah style signalling something different from Australia which is being recognised both at home and now on a world stage,”
“Momentum is building for the more elegant ‘Syrah’ style, with the reputation of Australian Shiraz benefiting,”
“The intention of this wine was to highlight the lifted perfumes and blue fruits of Eden Valley Shiraz,” said Mr Hartwig.
Chaffey Bros first started playing with the delicate ‘Syrah’ style from the Eden Valley ten years ago.
“It’s great to see a movement within the Australian wine industry celebrating lighter and elegant expressions of Shiraz,”
“Our winemaking philosophy is centred on our obsession with texture and aromatics, and with identifying distinctive vineyards from which to craft site-specific expressions of place. The cooler Eden Valley subregion is home to nine of our single vineyard wines,” added Mr Hartwig.
The Chaffey Bros winemaking team includes the brothers-in-law Daniel Chaffey Hartwig and Theo Engela, along with local young gun winemaker Huon Fechner who joined the Bros after making wine in South Australia’s Barossa and McLaren Vale wine regions as well as in California and Portugal.
Chaffey Bros ‘Evangeline’ Syrah was awarded ‘Best in Show’ after competing in a final round against other platinum medal winners (97 points and higher). Their 2021 “Elijah” Eden Valley Shiraz also received a gold medal (95 points).
Chaffey Bros’ other Syrah expression, “Omnia Nova” Barossa Syrah 2022, was recently recognised as the Best Shiraz Trophy Winner at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show 2023.
DWWA recipients were officially announced in Paris on 19 June 2024. This is the awards 21st year.