The Liebichwein barrel shed has collected many oak casks of various sizes that house liquid gold. Ron and Janet Liebich are proud to continue the great tradition of ageing and blending fortified wines. Only a few decades ago, Muscat and Tawny used to dominate the Barossa wine scene.
Liebichwein host an annual consumer fortified wine judging competition to celebrate these classic styles and engage with our passionate customer base who manage their own barrels. Previous competition entries have included super-syrupy rare tawny, rare sweet Tokay-like flavours and quite young Tawny blends. All wines entered will get a professional evaluation by Ron and an experienced judging panel including his daughter Briony, an experienced sensory analyst and qualified wine educator. Entrants will receive tasting notes and feedback for each wine entered.
Wine Entry Information
Entries are open Australia-wide as long as a 200mL wine sample can be sent without spilling a precious drop. All entries must be received by 4th September 2023 for judging (entry fee $10 per wine). Entries can be dropped off at Liebichwein during cellar door hours or posted to the winery in a well-sealed clean glass bottle/jar with secure packaging.
Competition Results 2023
Thanks to all entrants from across Australia, some so keen they sent us multiple samples. All wines were of consistent quality with a few jumping out to claim top Gold medals. The top prize winner took home a dipstick trophy with personalised engraving. Congratulations to Allan Gadd!
It’s wonderful to see such passion for maturing fortifieds in our wine loving community.
Announcing the winners of the prestigious “Best Home Barrel Blend” for the 2018 competition. Judging took place in September with three expert judges deliberating samples of Tawny and white fortified wines sent in from our customer base.
Wines were very high standard with very little to pick on in terms of faults. All entries were worthy of medals. The winning wines showed complex flavours, great depth and balance. Entrants gained Ron?s specialist advice on how to improve their blend, which we believe is the most important outcome of this event.
Thanks to everyone who entered and helps support our business. We are only too happy to help you with our complete range of fortifieds to achieve the best results for your barrels.
Congratulations to all winners!
First Place: John Ridenour
Second Place: Martin Kennedy
Third Place: Filippo Pizzino
Ron Liebich’s winemaking comments:
Smaller barrels need to be “worked” to achieve best results. It is ok to have great rancio characters, the high ratio of wood in small barrels to wine means adding younger wine at times, preferably with minimum wood age (such as Ruby Fortified) as a portion of the addition. Youthful fortifieds are perfect for blending out excess wood tannin and maintaining fruit wood balance. The gold winners had the best balance of fruit and oak integration, indicating good management and? patience.
