Taylors Wines, the family owned and operated winery from South Australia’s Clare Valley, has collected a prestigious Red Wine of the Year Award at the world’s biggest and most important wine competition, London’s International Wine Challenge.

The award for Great Value Red Wine of the Year was given to the 2002 Taylors Shiraz, a wine widely available in Australia for around $17 and which the Taylors have been making since 1973.

Mitchell Taylor, who is in London to collect the award, was understandably ecstatic with the win.

“This was one of the first wines my family made and to receive such recognition at the highest level is outstanding,” Taylor said. “Normally these awards go to wines made by huge, multinational drinks companies with massive economies of scale but for a small Australian family-owned winery to win – well it’s just fantastic.”

All 11 Taylors wines entered were awarded a medal or seal of approval, a remarkable feat that shows the winery’s strength with all varieties and vintages. Moreover, this is the fourth consecutive year that 100 percent of wines entered into the competition by Taylors have received medals. This Great Value Red Wine of the Year award comes a month after this same wine received gold at the Royal Melbourne Wine show.

This year’s 20th annual International Wine Challenge, was the world’s biggest ever wine tasting – 9400 wines were tasted from 35 countries including France, Italy, Spain, Chile, America and of course Australia.

The wines were tasted and judged by more than 500 tasters over two weeks in May. The prestigious judging panel included several Masters of Wine, senior members of the wine trade in the UK and abroad and wine makers from across the world.

Along with the acclaimed Taylors Cabernet Sauvignon, the Taylors Shiraz was the first wine bottled under the Taylors name in 1973. In the past five vintages it has received more than 30 medals, trophies and accolades.

The 2002 Taylors Shiraz is made by Chief Winemaker Adam Eggins under the leadership of Mitchell Taylor. He describes the wine as a terrific mouthful of ripe fruit and well judged oak. “The wine has aromas and flavours of plum and Christmas cake with real intensity on the palate. 2002 was one of the best years we have had in the Clare for the past decade,” Eggins said.