Craggy Range’s Casey McDonald wins Cuisine Chef of the Year 2025
Craggy Range Restaurant’s Casey McDonald has been named Cuisine Chef of the Year 2025, in recognition of an “unwavering dedication to quality and sustainability”.
"This is an uncompromisingly dark wine that plays to New Zealand's strengths in terms of purity and vivacity of fruit," said judges.
McArthur Ridge's Southern Tor Pinot Noir 2023 was the only wine awarded Platinum at the awards, building on the Southern Tor's Best in Show win in 2024.
McArthur Ridge winemaker Matt Connell credits the wine's distinctive flavour profile to its home in Alexandra, the most continental subregion in Central Otago.
"The big temperature swings and long ripening season gives us ideal conditions to craft wines with real depth and personality."
