His mother and co-owner of the vineyard, Jo Ashworth, said she was very excited, because a lot of hard work and passion had gone in to producing the wine.
"We work hard to give people a good experience. It's wonderful for us, and Hawke's Bay. It has a reputation for not doing good pinot noir, but that's changed a lot in recent years."
The Possession Pinot Noir 2014 was one of its bestsellers this year and Leith credited its success to the temperature at the vineyard's location.
The Central Hawke's Bay vineyard is located 250 metres above sea level, which meant vines benefited from hot days but cooler nights.
"They don't ripen too quickly so they get to develop their flavour," Leith said.
Junction's blend of wine and rugby was clear with the award-winning wine. Like all Junction wines it had a rugby-centric name, but also received a special edition Rugby Tribute Label to celebrate the All Blacks' rugby World Cup victory. Receiving the first Hawke's Bay gold medal for pinot noir would add to the "Junction story", just as Leith's father John Ashworth's rugby career had.
The Ashworths believed their's was the only vineyard owned by a former All Black.
Rugby also tied into the story of Junction's winemaking because it was on a rugby trip to France where Mr Ashworth developed a passion for pinot noir.
Leith said his father would tell a number of his rugby stories while doing wine-tastings to give a different perspective on the experience.
"A big part of the wine sale is the story you have to tell, and we've taken the path of having the connection with rugby," Leith said.
He said there were other vineyards in Central Hawke's Bay that produced pinot noir, but there weren't many.
This was also the first time the vineyard had won at the Air New Zealand awards, though the vineyard had scooped up another 17 awards this year alone.
Jo said it was uncommon for a vineyard to produce so many varieties of wine at such high quality.
