Wine Show Committee Award

Recognising individuals making a significant contribution to the region, in the growing, making and promotion of the wine region that reflects the versatility and
diversity of the Adelaide Hills.

AHWR Wine Show Committee is pleased to announce the Committee Award will return for 2024.

The Adelaide Hills was once primarily a region of grape growers but has grown and evolved over the past 40+ years to encompass a broad and growing community of winemakers and cellar doors. Despite the changes over time, AHWR recognises that at the heart of the wine the region produces and the environment in which these wines are made and promoted, is its people. The AHWR Committee Award is a chance to celebrate key individuals that have played a large role in the success of the Adelaide Hills as a premium, diverse, internationally acclaimed cool-climate wine region and tourism destination.

This award is also a chance for AHWR thank the recipient of the award and their impact on the region this far.

Award criteria

Nominees may:

• Work in any facet of the wine business, including but not limited to winemaking, viticulture, marketing, sales, cellar door and winery/vineyard;
• Have demonstrated any of the following to the AHWR; leadership, flagship, innovation, continued support and/or stewardship.

Nominees must:

• be an AHWR member or work for an AHWR member business;
• have been an AHWR member or worked for an AHWR member business in the past 10 years and for a minimum of twenty four (24) months.

The nomination and selection of the AHWR Committee Award will be overseen and managed by AHWR's Wine Show Committee.

Previous winners

2023 Stephen George

2022 Michael Sykes
2021 Kate Laurie
2020 Geoff Hardy
2019 Helen Edwards
2018 Murray Leake
2017 Larry Jacobs
2016 Peter Leske
2015 Sue Bell
2014 Prue Henschke
2013 Paul Drogermuller
2012 Tim Knappstein
2011 Lindsey Barrett

Dave Phillips (AHWSC Chair), Michael Sykes (Lodestone), Tom Minge (Negotiants)

Grower Award

Celebrating and supporting excellence in sustainable viticulture.

AHWR is proud and excited to announce the inaugural AHWR Grower Award. This is a call to members to nominate all deserving candidates - including themselves! Nominations are due by Thursday, 25 August.

The Adelaide Hills was once primarily a region of grape growers, but has grown and evolved over the past 40+ years to encompass a broad and growing community of winemakers and cellar doors. Despite the changes over time, AHWR continues to recognise growers as the heart of both the wine the region produces and the environment in which these wines are made and promoted.

The AHWR Grower Award is a chance to celebrate the critical role grape growers play in the success of the Adelaide Hills as a premium, diverse, internationally acclaimed cool-climate wine region and tourism destination. Our growers go well beyond providing the ingredients for excellent wine – as custodians of the land, they protect and enhance the sustainability of our natural environment, creating and protecting a healthy, beautiful landscape, maintaining
biodiversity, and encouraging visitation.

This award is also a chance for AHWR to invest in the growth and improvement of sustainable Adelaide Hills viticulture into the future, with the recipient being awarded a scholarship to attend AWRI's Advanced Viticulture Course* (held in October of the award year). The recipient will also be given a ticket to the AHWR Wine Show luncheon at which they will be recognised for their achievement.

We invite all members to consider the growers in our community who best represent the criteria for this award. It could be someone we all know well, someone you've only just met, your favourite regional unsung hero, or it could be you. We look forward to receiving your nominations!

*If the recipient has either attended or is ineligible for the AVC, this may be substituted for a relevant training & development course of the same or lesser value that can be completed prior to the announcement of the following year's Grower Award recipient. The recipient is responsible for identifying an alternative training & development opportunity in consultation with AHWR.

AHWR Grower Award nomination criteria

Nominees may:

• be either grower-landowners or hired viticulturists/contractors responsible for vineyard management in the Adelaide Hills GI;
• be either growers who sell grapes to winemakers or who produce wine made with their own grapes;
• be established growers, well-known to the Adelaide Hills community or up and coming growers;
• have a recognised history of excellence in grape growing and land stewardship or may be notable for fresh ideas and innovations.

Nominees must:

• be an AHWR member or work for an AHWR member business;
• have been an AHWR member or worked for an AHWR member business for a minimum of six (6) months prior to nomination;
• be able to demonstrate a commitment to vineyard health;
• be able to demonstrate a commitment to vineyard/environmental sustainability.

In addition to vineyard health and sustainability achievements, the nominee may also be able to demonstrate a contribution to the economic sustainability of the region or to the AHWR community more broadly.

Examples of commitment to vineyard health and sustainability may be in the categories of (but not restricted to): reduced/non-chemical disease and pest management; water efficiency; energy/fuel efficiency; carbon capture; soil organic carbon enhancement; biological farming practices; strategic varietal/clonal selection; cover cropping; under-vine management; co-planting; biodiversity enhancement (in and/or around the vineyard); pruning techniques, etc.

The nomination and selection of the AHWR Grower Award will be overseen and managed by AHWR's Grape & Environment Committee with a decision panel to include both Grape & Environment Committee members and independent, non-AHWR members.

Grower Award Winners
2022 Nathan Foreman (Howard Vineyards)