About

Wine isn’t just a drink. Ask anyone who’s fallen for it.

It’s stories, obsession, community, discovery, history, geography, the land — and a thousand reasons to care. It’s the people who grow it, the places it comes from, the culture that’s built up around it over centuries. It’s built for sharing. And there has never been a better time to be swept up in it.

We’re here to help people discover that joy. We’re very serious about wine — but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We believe in fun over formality.

The world of wine is immense, and it keeps growing. There are over 10,000 grape varieties. Amphoras are a hit again, some 5,000 years after their invention. Unfamiliar varieties are being explored, styles are being constantly reimagined and reinvented. The point is, we’re all still figuring it out — and that’s the fun part. Wine is an old art that’s suddenly fresh, and we’re all students in it.

Where we came from

When Rory Kent founded Young Gun of Wine in 2007, the wine landscape was stuffy, elitist, and – frankly – a bit of an old man’s domain. He wanted to break that. Young Gun of Wine started as an event connecting young drinkers to the wines of young winemakers: a simple idea, built on the belief that wine could be exciting and accessible for a generation that hadn’t been invited in yet.

Two decades on, the things we do have expanded considerably. The motivation hasn’t changed at all: to engage new audiences with wine, to make it fun and genuinely exciting, to discover and to share what we find.

What we do

Everything we do is built around a single purpose: connecting new audiences to wine, and bringing new generations into the fold.

We taste thousands of wines every year. Our Deep Dives are the cornerstone of our editorial: original research into the history and context of each category, rigorous blind tastings conducted with panels of some of the sharpest palates in the country, and documented panel discussions that bring the results to life. That combination – the backstory, the tasting, the conversation, all packaged together – simply doesn’t exist anywhere else.

The Young Gun of Wine Awards – now in their 20th edition – remain the benchmark for emerging Australian winemakers. Uniquely, they are a recognition of a maker’s body of work – their vision, their imprint, and their trajectory. Our Vineyard of the Year Awards bring the same forensic attention to where wine is grown: the farming, the land, the people making decisions at the source. And our Wineslinger Awards – voted on by a large cross-section of winemakers, sommeliers and hospitality journalists – lead people to the bars, pubs and restaurants where the wine culture is strong and the people who make the good times, go to have a good time.

What we believe & our editorial policy

We think the best wine writing is useful, honest and occasionally irreverent – and that enjoying a bottle shouldn’t come with homework.

We don’t publish point scores. We’ll never reduce wine to a mark out of 20 or 100. To us, scores are the dark side of wine – they miss the point entirely. Wine is complex, subjective, personal. It is not a colour-by-numbers exercise. Does anyone need a point score to appreciate art? The best judge of your palate is you. And frankly, wine scoring has become a joke – where some operate on a six-point scale, starting at 95! 😳

We may publish articles from time to time that involve our sponsorship partners – but they are written like any piece of independent journalism, without interference, and any sponsorship role will always be clearly noted. If we publish advertising or advertorial content, it will be clearly labelled. No exceptions.

Our Deep Dives operate on a simple principle: this is a curation, not a competition. Panellists cannot vote on wines they have made. Only wines chosen on blind merit earn editorial inclusion.

And we believe wine confidence matters. When we started, fewer than one in five young Australians felt confident navigating wine. That number has more than doubled since. We won’t take all the credit – but we’re proud to have been part of that shift.

All the wine wisdom, none of the wank.

Get in touch

Young Gun of Wine works with producers, sommeliers, retailers, hospitality venues, brands and businesses across Australia. Whether you’re a winery interested in our editorial or awards programs, a brand exploring a partnership or sponsorship, or a business looking to create a wine experience for clients or team – we’d love to hear from you.

Editorial enquiries

If you’d like to send us a press release about products, places or events, or anything else of interest, please email [email protected]

Want to send us your wine samples? Please post them to:

Young Gun of Wine
Studio 2 / 92 Clyde Street
St Kilda VIC 3182

Advertising enquiries

We offer various opportunities for marketing, from online advertising, to sponsorships and bespoke experiential ideas. Please contact as via [email protected] to start a conversation about how we can promote your brand.