A fresh face at the awards this year, Brookland Valley picked up the major gong for the night, with its 2008 Chardonnay awarded best wine of show.

Brookland Valley also won the Portavin Trophy for Best White Wine, providing the winery with much to celebrate.

Other major winners on the evening were Knee Deep Wines, taking out Best Red Wine and Best Shiraz for its 2008 vintage, Harewood Estate Wines, for Most Successful Exhibitor processing under 250 tonnes for the second year running, and Vasse Felix, which received the trophy for the highest aggregate for its three top pointed wines.

Xanadu Wines took the Best and Most Distinctive Regional Character for its 2007 cabernet sauvignon and also took the top spot for Best Cabernet Sauvignon and Best Older Dry Red for the 2007 and 2005 vintages of its cabernet sauvignon respectively.

Scottish judge Tom Cannavan said Western Australian wines were more subtle and restrained than some of the big wines he judges in places like California, Argentina and Chile.

A total of 1132 entries were assessed from 213 producers across the state and 53 gold, 114 silver and 325 bronze medals were awarded across 41 classes.

Industry pioneer Dr John Gladstones, credited with identifying the potential of the Margaret River wine region in the 60s, was the evening’s keynote speaker.

Margaret River was also well represented on the score card at the National Cool Climate Wine Show last week.

Higher Plane winery’s 2007 vintage won the Alan Gergusion Memorial Trophy for Champion Cabernet Sauvignon.

They also received a gold medal for their 2007 cabernet/ merlot and two silver medals for their 2007 dry red merlot and 2008 chardonnay and two bronze medals.

Other Margaret River medallists at the Cool Climate Wine Show included Treeton Estate, Cape Naturaliste Vineyard, Tassell Park Wines, Night Harvest, Greedy Sheep, McWilliams: Catching Thieves, Evoi Wines, Howard Park and Madfish Wines, Witchcliffe Estate, Barwick Wines, and Merops Wines.