Ghost In The Machine
Glencairn
Secret Safari
Off The Charts
The Drift Estate
Bruce Jack achieves a Gold Medal for Ghost in the Machine Sauvignon 2023 at THE DB & SB Spring Blind Tasting for 2025.
Our Ghost in the Machine Sauvignon Blanc was recently recognised as one of the best wines in the world at the DB Spring Blind tasting. In winning a Gold medal, it was ranked as one of the best in the competition by a panel of expert judges, including Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers.
The DB Spring tasting took place in London on 18th February. It is one of the 30 Global Wine Masters competitions taking place in 2025, run by industry leading publication the drinks business. Among thousands of entries in 2024, under 20% won a Gold or Master medal, the top two awards, putting Ghost in the Machine Sauvignon Blanc in the company of the world’s best. According to the rigorous judging criteria, a Gold medalist must be ‘a brilliant wine that is a benchmark for its type’. We also received 3 Silver medals for Off the Charts Clairette Blanche 2024, The Drift Estate’s Gift Horse 2021 and The Berrio The Weather Girl 2021. A Silver medalist must be ‘a high-quality wine that clearly demonstrates good winemaking while serving as a good example of its style, source or dominant grape’.
At this competition, judges sought out the very best wines on the market, open to any wine of any style. They tasted over 150 entries from 13 countries, with this top medal going to just 17 wines.
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About Bruce Jack Wines and his Ghost in the Machine range
Bruce may be one of the world’s most experienced winemakers, having made wine on four continents for over 30 years, but this hasn’t dulled his determination always to push boundaries and continually experiment. The one certainty is that there is always something new, always a fresh take on the world of wine. That and the fact that with the “Ghost in the Machine” range he has done something extraordinary – crafted “hipster-style” alternative wines using early-picked, whole bunch red ferments and “natural” skin contact whites from specific vineyards that can be scaled. The project has been 15 years in the planning. The chosen vineyards first had to be found, managed and tweaked to produce the fruit required for the style of wine he envisaged. Then years of experimentation followed in the cellar, before the range was quietly launched in 2021. Immediately the 2019 Ghost Shiraz received a Masters Medal. Followed by a second Master Medal for the 2022 Ghost in the Machine Cabernet Franc in 2024. The 2022 Ghost Shiraz, the 3rd wine entered into these competitions received a Gold Medal in 2024 and these are now rounded off by the 2023 Ghost in the Machine Sauvignon Blanc which is the latest recipient of a Gold Medal.
To reflect the individual wine craft in each bottle, Bruce designed a world first label with designer Rohan Etsebeth of Archival Studio – so creating a unique way of packaging. This ensures that each bottle carries a unique label – always different from the bottle next to it. This is achieved by using three labels on each bottle and passing the bottle through the labelling machine more than once. It’s a world-first production-led packaging innovation in the wine industry and possible a world first in any consumer product category. Can you think of any other consumer product made on a commercial scale where every single unit has a unique label? It proves that more production managers should have a say in marketing decisions.
As Bruce says: “The Ghost in the Machine range of wines exists to allow winemaking imagination and passion free reign… these wines are disinterested in market trends or the whims of wine writers and commentators – we craft these wines to dance that beautiful dance whose beat is the seasons and whose music is luck.”
For Bruce Jack’s Ghost in the Machine wines, he has partnered with Majestic, as the exclusive agent to the UK on-trade.
About the Global Wine Masters
The Global Wine Masters have rewarded excellence in winemaking since 2013, helping quality brands to stand out and consumers to drink with confidence. Through its unique structure – defining categories by grape variety or style rather than region – the competition series lets the finest wines in the world compete against each other. Every competition is judged by the very best palates in the world: Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers and senior buyers.
The Global Wine Masters award wines Bronze, Silver and Gold medals, and Master medals for the very best entries.
The results of each competition are published in The Drinks Business magazine and website (circulation of 13,000 print copies and 1.9 million webpage visits per month).