In what surely must be the biggest upset in any wine competition in 2017, New Zealand winemaker Andy Anderson, on entering his first ever wine competition, has beaten wines from the best in the world at London’s prestigious International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) to take out two trophies. Anderson was first awarded the world’s best Pinot Noir trophy for his 2012 Takapoto Bannockburn Single Vineyard Pinot Noir and then secured the 2017 New Zealand Producer of the Year trophy.
“The win means everything to me personally and it takes the Takapoto brand from nowhere to the world stage,” said Anderson. “The IWSC is hard to win, you are first judged against your countrymen, then against the rest of the world, if it makes it to the trophy tasting, your wine will have been reviewed three times by different tasting panels.”
Anderson also won a gold outstanding medal at IWSC for the 2014 vintage of his Takapoto Pinot Noir. With total production of both Pinot Noirs between 100 and 200 cases, this was an achievement to win New Zealand Producer of the Year.
Anderson was one of the first graduates of Lincoln University’s Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology in 1998. He went on to make wine in the Barossa Valley, as well as in Spain. On returning to NZ in late 2009, he went on to buy Cambridge Fine Wines and rekindle his friendship with old university mate, Rob Cameron, now of Invivo Wines, who invited Anderson to make with him what was to be Anderson’s first in a series of Central Otago Pinot Noirs at Invivo’s winery.
