Main Wine Awards:                                              

Critical Acclaim

Jancis Robinson The Financial Times London, Published: Nov.16th. 2001.
“This producer makes particularly impressive Bordeaux-style reds.”

Bob Campbell 2001 Cuisine Wine Annual.
1998 Gimblett Road Cabernet Sauvignon – 97 / 100
“The best New Zealand Cabernet Sauvignon that I have tasted. Buy all you can.”
“Kingsley Estate is an organic winery that should lay to rest any suspicion that organic methods must always compromise wine quality. This small producer has made a series of spectacular red wines from a six hectare Gimblett Road vineyard. I count myself lucky to have half a dozen bottles of Kingsley Estate 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon in my cellar – surely one of New Zealand’s best-ever examples of the variety.”
“The Kingsley Estate label can be relied upon to consistently deliver absolutely top red wine; they are always concentrated, always ripe and, typically, show more weight and richness than I expect to find in reds from the Gimblett Road district.”

Michael Cooper Pocket Guide to Wines of NZ
“Two of Hawkes Bay’s most distinguished reds flow from Kingsley Tobin’s Gimblett Road property, the only vineyard in the region to have Bio-Gro (certified organic) status.”

Keith Stewart The NZ Listener
…remarkable “Bordeaux variety” reds
Sommnet.com 8 / 10 - Gimblett Gravels, Cabernet Merlot, 2000 “Very small Hawkes Bay estate with a feeling for fine, deep flavoured, supple reds that have the elegance of aristocrats.”

James Halliday Weekend Australian - 23, November, 2002
The top gold medal and trophy for “Wine of Show” went to Kingsley Estate's Gimblett Gravels, Merlot, 2000. A complex, rich, mouthfilling wine with the velvety lusciousness of fully ripe new world merlot, but no hint of jamminess, it is a superb wine. It is no fluke; Kingsley Tobin has been making outstanding but hard-to-get wines for some years now.

Monty Waldin (UK)
“The quality of Tobin’s long-term vineyard planning and annual vineyard management is immediately apparent in his Cabernet Sauvignon red wines. Tobin’s Cabernets have presence and depth, ……….. and taste of plum, soft black berry, black currant, and mint with an authentic touch of earthiness, with none of the herbaceousness one is told to expect in New Zealand Cabernet.”