Way back in the 1990s, there used to be an annual festival called Taste Nelson, and a number of hospitality awards formed part of that festival.

Initially the awards were focused on restaurants and bars, then expanded to include wine and olive oil awards.

When the festival itself became too demanding and too risky for a group of volunteers to organise, Wayne McCrorie and Colin Harrison continued organising the awards, expanding them again to include the New Zealand International Beer Awards.

Sadly, Colin died in 2001, but Wayne continued to organise this wide array of awards annually.

In recognition of Colin's love of chardonnay, the Colin Harrison Memorial Trophy was established to recognise the region's best chardonnay.

After a couple of years, Wayne refocused the awards to something he could manage more easily, and today he continues with the very successful beer awards and the annual Nelson Hospitality Awards.

Each year the Nelson Winegrowers group holds a degustation dinner where great food is matched with international wines - and after a break of six years, with the blessing of Wayne, it has resurrected the Colin Harrison Memorial Trophy.

This year, four judges (including yours truly, Ann from Casa del Vino, restaurant manager Jason from the Boat Shed and "Digger", a winemaker from Marlborough) spent a few hours whittling a range of Nelson chardonnays down to one.

The 2008 winner of the Colin Harrison Memorial Trophy for Nelson's best chardonnay is Kina Beach Vineyard for its Reserve Chardonnay 2005. When the best wines in each judging section were judged again, all four of us selected this as our top wine.

I've been drinking

Kina Beach Vineyard Reserve Chardonnay 2005 - about $35:

It may be a few years old but you can still find this treasure at Casa del Vino and on a few wine lists in the region.

The wine is delightfully well balanced, with judges' comments including the words "elegant, refined, cracked pepper, minerality, lovely textural wine, soft cooked limes". Not only is it a great wine, but Dave and Pam Birt would be two of the nicest, hardest-working people you could wish to meet.

Their dedication to quality is reflected in the award and is richly deserved.

Kina Beach Wines ... a taste of our place!