Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy

Jimmy Watson-winning winemaker Nick Glaetzer is credited with lifting the profile of Tasmanian wines by taking out Australia’s biggest wine prize with his Mon Père Shiraz.

In 2011, Nick won the 50th Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, causing a stir in national and international media as the first Tasmanian to win Australia’s most prestigious wine prize.

The trophy-winning wine, the Mon Père Shiraz, has since become something of a cult wine for Glaetzer-Dixon Family Winemakers, selling out quickly each year. However, Nick has kept a precious few cases aside from each vintage, including of the 2010 Mon Père, which won the Jimmy Watson as well as the trophy for Best Rhone Style or Shiraz at the 2011 Melbourne show.

Glaetzer-Dixon Family Winemakers is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Jimmy Watson win, with a one-off museum wine release. The 2010 Mon Père is available for an extremely limited time, as a single bottle or as part of a special Anniversary Tasting Box.

Also available is the superb 2018 Mon Père Shiraz (RRP $65).

There is a consensus in the Tasmanian wine industry that Nick’s Jimmy Watson win and the subsequent media attention helped change the landscape in the Apple Isle, literally.

In the decade since, plantings of shiraz (also known as syrah) in Tasmania have tripled in area since 2011, figures from industry body Wine Tasmania show. And the trend is continuing. In 2021 in Tasmania, shiraz/syrah production exceeded cabernet production for the first time.

In the 2022 vintage, Nick and his wife Sally Glaetzer (née Dixon), who both hail from South Australia’s Barossa Valley, will harvest the first shiraz from their new vineyard at Tea Tree in the Coal River Valley, which they planted in 2018. Among the new vines are some Barossa Old Vine cuttings, taken from a 100 year old vineyard in the Barossa.