As a result of the benchmarking, four Orange wines made the top seven with a 2010 fume blanc from De Salis Wines at Nashdale unanimously voted the best by the panel of expert judges.

Along with three De Salis Wines, Tamburlaine at Borenore also had an organic sauvignon listed in the top seven in the September/October edition of the Wine and Viticulture Journal.

De Salis Wines owner and vigneron Charlie Svenson was given the opportunity to write an article about his fume blanc after it was given a positive review in the journal.

“We were very happy for the region as much as anything else, the region have been recognised for sauvignon blanc for many years now and to have the fume recognised is great for the region.,” Mr Svenson said.

“We started making that style in 2010, which is the style recognised top in the country and we are pretty happy with that.”

Mr Svenson said the accolades were the result of benchmarking of sauvignon blanc wines, which saw De Salis Wines get three wines in the top five.

“They said they didn’t find them very compelling but the ones they liked they really liked,” Mr Svenson said of the tasting results.

Mr Svenson said because the fume style was matured in oak barrels like chardonnay, it was more complex and had more texture than modern New Zealand influenced sauvignon blanc wines, which he described as crisp and simple. 

Tamburlaine managing director and wine maker Mark Davidson was delighted his organic sauvignon was included in the top seven and said it was a great thing for the Orange region.

“This is important because sauvignon blanc is the number one grape variety in Australia at the moment,” Mr Davidson said.