The Rees Hotel Queenstown Doubles Up on Wine Awards

The Rees Hotel Queenstown Doubles Up on International Wine Awards

What's better than winning an award? Winning two awards! Once again, The Rees has outdone itself and scooped not one, but two international wine awards for its cellar. True South Dining Room at The Rees Hotel, Queenstown, one of New Zealand's exclusive top tier restaurants, has been awarded both the prestigious 2016 Award of Excellence by US wine and hospitality magazine, Wine Spectator, for the fourth consecutive year. To top it off, True South Dining Room, has also been awarded an esteemed two stars in the World of Fine Wine "World's Best Wine Lists Awards" for 2016.

The internationally acclaimed Wine Spectator's annual Excellence Awards recognise a wine list of 100 or more quality wine selections that thematically match a restaurant's cuisine. The World of Fine Wine "World's Best Wine Lists Awards" judged and assessed well over 4,500 wine lists from restaurants around the world before selecting the finalists. In The Rees' category, only 290 restaurants were recognised globally.

True South Dining Room has an exclusive library of Bordeaux and Burgundy wines with vintages selected from many of the great houses. Wines from world-renown chateaux such as Romanee Conti, Chateau d'Yquem, Latour, Margaux, Mouton Rothschild and Lynch Bages nestle with some of the great wines of Central Otago, New Zealand, Australia and Italy in the professionally-managed, temperature-controlled wine cellar servicing the hotel and restaurant's Bordeaux Wine Lounge.

Mark Rose, The Rees Hotel Queenstown General Manager says it's the restaurant's ability to match exquisite wine with fresh local dishes in addition to an holistic wine programme - which includes tastings, wine pairing and the True South Culinary Series - that sets the restaurant apart for these awards. True South Dining celebrates their support of local vineyards through their Culinary Series dinners held throughout the year. This year's Culinary Series began with the hugely successful five course meal paired with Misha Vineyard Wines from Central Otago which was held in January. The next in the Culinary Series will be held in September and feature champagne.

Mark Rose says these Awards are ongoing recognition of the effort put into building a world-class cellar while confirming True South Dining Room as one of New Zealand's elite dining experiences. "To be recognised not just once, but twice by two prominent and respected reviewers for our cellar choices, is an outstanding achievement and a great outcome for The Rees this year".

It's not the first time the Queenstown restaurant has received accolades for its fine dining and wine list. The restaurant was named a s Premier Award winner in the inaugural taste of New Zealand Awards (TONZA) programme in 2011, a Wine Spectator award winner each year since 2012, and Head Chef Ben Batterbury was selected as an Ambassador Chef in 2012, 13 & 14 in the NZ Beef & Lamb Excellence Awards, winner of Best Ora King Salmon Dish in New Zealand 2014 and Highly Commended Award for Best Hotel Chef in the Australia/New Zealand/ Pacific 2014 HM Awards, hosted annually by Australia's HM Magazine.

If these two major wine awards are still not enough, watch our website for more, as The Rees has been nominated in the 2016 World Ski Awards for New Zealand's Best Ski Hotel.

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