Regional Hero ~ Chardonnay

The Cowra wine region covers 1,250 square kilometers of the beautiful Lachlan Valley including Cowra, Billimari and Canowindra and is home to over 40 vineyards from small boutique wineries such as Spring Ridge Wines, Mulyan, Wallington, Hamilton’s Bluff, Windowrie and Swinging Bridge to larger players such as McGuigan and Cowra Estate.

The region is defined by warm days, cool nights and dry late summers – perfect conditions for ripening wine grapes. It was classic, flavoursome Chardonnay that first established Cowra as a quality grape-growing region and it is Chardonnay that continues to shine as Cowra’s varietal hero today. Indeed, the 2007 Swinging Bridge Chardonnay collected the Trophy at the 2008 Royal Melbourne Wine Show for the Best Single Vineyard Wine. However, Cowra’s success is not limited to Chardonnay, with Cowra being home to the Best Young Shiraz and Best Red Wine at the 2008 NSW Wine Awards with the 2007 Swinging Bridge Shiraz.

In the last year Cowra, like many NSW wine regions, has made environmental sustainability a priority with the mission ‘To produce wine of regional character with the least environmental impact of any region in Australia’. All vineyards are in the process of completing Property Plans so they are able to work best with surrounding natural resources. They are also focused on increasing the use of mulch in the area including being the Compost Cook Off initiative where vignerons compete against each other to make the best compost and promote this to the community. Cowra is already home to four organic vineyards and looking to growing this number in coming years.