We recently welcomed Scott, Shelley and The Block teams to Levantine Hill for a never-experienced series of winemaking challenges.
Upon the five teams’ arrival (in true Levantine Hill-style via helicopters), they were faced with the tasks of crushing, blending and designing their very own bottle of wine. The three challenge components were as follows:
- Teams had to crush Grenache grapes inside large French oak vats under extreme time pressure. Under the guidance of our winemaker Paul Bridgeman, the teams with the most amount of juice produced in 20 minutes, were the challenge winners. Tom and Sarah-Jane took home the honours, with the most amount of grenache juice produced. They also got to take home $10,000 of Levantine Hill wine to feature in their homes.
- Teams were asked to taste and blend a 2021 Samantha’s Paddock Mélange Traditionnel wine, which is blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The teams were given all of the individual components of the wine in separate flasks. They were then asked to re-create the Samantha’s Paddock they had just tasted. With only a few hints and pointers from the Levantine Hill winemaking team, contestants blended the wine components into their best version of Samantha’s Paddock. The team’s unique blends were then separately bottled, corked and waxed, ready for labelling. Winemaker Paul Bridgeman judged Ankur and Sharon’s blend to be the ’stand out winner’ and most like our 2021 Samantha’s Paddock Mélange Traditionnel, taking home $50,000 of Levantine Hill wines.
- Lastly, the teams were asked to design a wine label for their Samantha’s Paddock blend under the guidance of Levantine Hill’s brand manager (and family member) Melissa Jreissati. With some visual inspiration handy, as well as their individual personalities and design flairs, the teams designed front and back labels. Ultimately, the team whose design shone through the most was Rachel and Ryan, as Melissa loved the way they had incorporated their wallpaper design from their Gisborne home into the label design. The winners took home $50,000 of Levantine Hill wine.
It was our pleasure to be able to host Scott, Shelley and The Block teams for ‘a day in the life’ of the Levantine Hill winemaking and brand teams. The winners homes will be well stocked with Levantine Hill wines on auction day (if they can resist the temptation not to enjoy the wines themselves)…!
If you would like to find out more about the wines being stocked in the homes of The Block, please contact us at members@levantinehill.com.au or 03 5962 1333.
