On Saturday night, Church Road won its fifth trophy in four years at the Royal Easter Show Wine Awards.

Church Road Cuve Hawke's Bay Merlot 2007 won the Showlight & Power Trophy for Champion Merlot.

"Winning a trophy at a major local competition like this is especially gratifying for us, as our wine style is somewhat different from the typical New Zealand approach," says Church Road winemaker Chris Scott. "We tend to be a bit more classical, with greater emphasis on texture and complexity rather than upfront fruit."

The trophy winning Church Road Cuve Hawke's Bay Merlot 2007 (RRP $26.99) is part of a series of limited release wines that showcase some of the more experimental wines from the historic Hawke's Bay winery.

"We've learnt a lot from the French winemaking model, but the local fruit adds a different element and there's always more to discover," says Chris. "When you work with wine, you work with something that's alive and changing all the time. It's a great journey to be on."

Fruit for the trophy winning wine is grown in the Gimblett Gravels sub-region of Hawke's Bay. At the winery, it is crushed straight to Church Road Winery's historic concrete fermenters or the oak cuves that give the series its name. The resultant wine has appealing berry, plum and violet notes, complemented by savoury oak complexity - obviously a combination that impressed the judges at the Royal Easter Show.

Earlier vintages of the Church Road Reserve Chardonnay won the trophy in their category at the Royal Easter Show Wine Awards in 2007 and 2008, while both Church Road Reserve Cabernet Merlot 2005 and Church Road Reserve Merlot Cabernet 2006 won the trophy in their categories in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Two other Church Road wines received gold medals at the same competition - Church Road Reserve Chardonnay 2008 and Church Road Merlot Cabernet 2008.

A total of 1,517 wines from 276 wineries were judged in this year's Royal Easter Show, New Zealand's oldest wine competition.