Denmark's Whitfield Estate claims five gold medals as Pawprints chocolate becomes the taste of Tasmania

West Australian

11-06-2025

It started in 2011 as a sideline to the Whitfield Estate winery in Denmark but chocolate making there is fast becoming a main event.
With five gold medals from the prestigious Tasmanian Fine Food Awards, its bars, truffles and moulded shells were the flavour of the judges.
Produced by the winery's chocolatier Yael Angwin and labelled under the Pawprint Chocolate and Whitfield Estate Chocolate brand, the gold medals were supplemented by four silver and four bronze.
Ms Angwin, a baker turned chocolate maker, is not afraid to think out of the chocolate box, creating flavours like quandong and cranberry or lilli-pilli and pear.
She calls these the Australiana series but there is also a cakes and puddings line which features, among other things, sticky date pudding flavour.
Ms Angwin has also, of course, managed to pair wine with chocolate, creating a dark chocolate flavoured with roasted macadamia nuts and Kakadu plum, which works best with a cabernet sauvignon.
That was one of the gold medal winners.
Not surprisingly, being around chocolate all day means she is reluctant to be chief taster, a chore she shares with a panel of local people, including chefs.
She said the creative process starts with high-quality Fair Trade chocolate buttons imported from Belgium and continues as she melts them down, adding new flavours for the perfect blend as she goes.
The wins in Tasmania followed 2024's successes at the Perth Fine Food Awards which featured a haul of three champion's trophies, six gold medals, a silver and a bronze, primarily for truffles.
Ms Angwin started her career as an apprentice on a patisserie course before working at the Whitfield Estate where owner Kelly Howard sent her to a chocolate-making school in Melbourne.
The Pawprint brand is named after Ms Howard's Bernese mountain dogs Mac and Bud, who were icons of the cellar door.
The adventure into chocolate was an extension of a business which started as a winery and cellar door in 2006 and then progressed with the addition of a cafe in 2008, offering seasonal and local products.
As many as possible of the ingredients used in the chocolate creations are locally sourced, for example the fruit for the ganache in truffles comes primarily from small farms in Denmark.
And, because of the cost of the items for the Australian bush range — Ms Angwin cited Kakadu plums at $240 per kilo — she is increasingly trying to grow them on the premises, with lilli-pillies thriving and the plums proving more of a challenge.
Ms Angwin said the medals represented a major milestone for the small business.
'Winning accolades interstate is a dream come true,' she said.
'We couldn't be prouder of our team's hard work and commitment to sourcing the finest ingredients, perfecting our recipes and pouring our heart and soul into every batch.'
The chocolate is available in several Denmark outlets, the Albany Visitor Centre, Plantagenet winery in Mt Barker and lots of cellar doors.