“When Young Gun of Wine launched in 2007, the premise was simple: make wine more relevant to young adults,” says founder Rory Kent. “At the time, confidence in wine among young Australians sat at just 19%. Wine had an image problem. We wanted to change that, and the way to change it was to find young winemakers, tell their stories, and make them the face of wine.
“Since then, confidence in wine among young Australians has has more than doubled, rising to 50%, and bucking the international trends. A generation of passionate, creative, fearless winemakers showed up, made remarkable wine, and refused to make it intimidating. They are the ones who moved the needle.”
“Twenty years is a long time in any industry, but in Australian wine it represents a transformation so complete it is almost unrecognisable from where we started. The varieties being grown, the techniques being used, the regions being explored, the conversations being had – none of it looks like 2007. And yet the mission is exactly the same: find the people who are moving the needle, tell their stories, and invite everyone to the table. We are still doing it. And if this year’s group is any indication, the best is absolutely still to come.”
“The cost of living, global uncertainty, changing consumption habits – none of it makes this an easy moment to be launching a wine label. And yet here we are, with one of the strongest and most diverse groups of emerging makers we have ever seen. As Billy Ocean said, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
“Wine sits in an interesting place right now,” says Kent. “It is a pleasure, not a necessity, and pleasures are the first thing to go when household budgets are under strain– and they have been under strain for a long time. The cost of living, global uncertainty, changing consumption habits – none of it makes this an easy moment to be launching a wine label. And yet here we are, with one of the strongest and most diverse groups of emerging makers we have ever seen. As Billy Ocean said, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
“What’s most striking about this year’s group is the sheer ingenuity. These are makers who have looked at every obstacle – the cost of equipment, the price of fruit, the difficulty of getting a foothold in an industry with high barriers to entry – and found a creative way around it. Suburban garages turned into micro-wineries. Neglected vineyards coaxed back to life. Varieties planted that nobody in the region had tried before. Shared facilities, borrowed utes, bottling days with friends. There is a maverick energy running through this pack that is genuinely thrilling. Constraint is a remarkable catalyst for creativity.”
The finalists in this year’s awards were selected from a long list of entrants. Over two days of intensive judging, a panel of leading industry figures from across the country tasted their way through the wines to select who was in the running for the six trophies: Young Gun of Wine, Best New Act, People’s Choice, Winemaker’s Choice, Danger Zone, and the Vigneron.
Rory Kent was joined on the 2026 judging panel by Isabelle Szyman of Rathdowne Cellars; Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann; wine critic Nick Stock; Zoe Ladyman of Primavera Selections; and Owen Latta, the 2025 Young Gun of Wine Award winner.
All applicants submitted wines that were tasted and discussed at length, but their project and its achievements and aspirations – as well as their place in their region and the broader wine landscape – were given equal airtime.
“What’s most striking about this year’s group is the sheer ingenuity. These are makers who have looked at every obstacle – the cost of equipment, the price of fruit, the difficulty of getting a foothold in an industry with high barriers to entry – and found a creative way around it. Suburban garages turned into micro-wineries. Neglected vineyards coaxed back to life. Varieties planted that nobody in the region had tried before. Shared facilities, borrowed utes, bottling days with friends. There is a maverick energy running through this pack.”
A marine engineer, a human rights lawyer, a specialty coffee professional, a former hairdresser, a student who switched from physics to oenology mid-degree, a civil engineer, a graphic design student, a hospitality veteran — the paths into wine this year are as diverse as the wines themselves. We have fifth-generation winemakers taking the baton from storied families, and first-generation makers with no industry connection at all who simply showed up and started knocking on doors. We have winemakers who are still studying, winemakers who abandoned corporate careers, and winemakers who built their first vintage in a suburban garage and have never looked back.
Less-familiar varieties are making a bigger impact than ever — and for reasons that go beyond fashion. Fiano, vermentino, sangiovese, negroamaro, primitivo, albariño, touriga nacional, graciano, aglianico, lambrusco, nero d’avola — these are varieties chosen not because they are trendy but because they handle heat, retain natural acidity, require less water and thrive where shiraz and chardonnay are increasingly struggling. The 2026 group is making a coherent, compelling argument that the future of Australian wine will be grown in varieties we are only just beginning to understand.
It has never been easy for an emerging maker to gain viticultural control, let alone own or lease their own vines. But this year’s group includes an unusually high proportion of genuine grower-makers: people who are not just buying fruit but farming it — restoring neglected blocks, planting purpose-designed vineyards in the Italian tradition, working century-old vines back from the brink, establishing new sites in regions that had never seen a vineyard before. The vineyard-first philosophy is not merely stated this year. It is demonstrated, season after season, in the dirt.
Several of this year’s makers are working with heritage material of extraordinary significance — semillon vines over a century old, shiraz planted in the 1950s, dry-grown blocks that have never known a supplementary drop of water. One has taken on the restoration of a vineyard previously abandoned and almost lost entirely; another farms vines planted in 1981 entirely by hand on volcanic soils in one of Australia’s most demanding cool-climate growing environments. The work of understanding, preserving and learning from these sites is patient and often unglamorous. The wines that result make the case for why it matters.
Small producers finding creative ways to make wine without infrastructure is not new — but the community spirit around it feels more pronounced than ever. Shared wineries, cooperative facilities, contract arrangements and mutual support networks run through the stories of this year’s finalists. One maker describes the daily exchange of ideas — and occasional disagreement — with the four other winemakers she shares a facility with as essential to the project. The best small wine labels in Australia do not exist in isolation. They exist because of community.
Sustainability in this year’s group is not a marketing position — it is built into how these makers think about every decision, from how the fruit is grown to how the wine arrives at your door. One is distributing wine in recyclable cans and refillable kegs, making a deliberate argument that excellent wine does not need to come in a heavy glass bottle. Another has planted over 1,300 native trees and shrubs in partnership with a regional Landcare organisation, working toward rewilding ten per cent of their farm. These are not gestures. They are commitments.
Aeon Wines (Kenisha & Alisdair Tulloch)
Carillion Wines (Andrew Ling)
Cupitt’s Estate (Wally Cupitt)
Frankly This Wine Was Made By Bob (Thomas Colman)
Front Left Wines (Nick Tinant)
Glover Wines (Emily & Hugh Spinaze)
Grape Pirates (Aaron Onegin-Ward & Rebecca Milne)
Krinklewood Estate Pty Ltd (Valentina Moresco)
M&J Becker Wines (Meagan & James Becker)
Majama Wines (Rojer Rathod & Millie Shorter)
Meredith (Mem Hemmings)
Noman (Samuel Rumpit)
Sabi Wabi (Peta Kotz)
Tampopo (Scott Cosgriff)
Via Pola Wines (Peter Valeri)
Vinden Wines (Angus Vinden)
Bloomfield (Lauren Hansen)
By Fabiano (Fabiano Minchella)
Charles Melton & Domaine Sophie Claire (Sophie Melton)
Cloudbreak Wines & Tomich Wines (Jack Tomich)
Dear Zahra (Glynn Thoman)
Grant Burge / Croser (Ella Hoban)
L’Anima Wines (Michael Williams)
Maekawa (Jin Maekawa)
Mordrelle Wines (Martin Moran)
Muto Wine (Waldo Smit)
Parea Estate (Ollie Bevan)
Praeter (Matt Large)
Silent Noise (Charlie O’Brien)
Vino Selvatico (Ashleigh Seymour)
Whispers of Chaos (Marcus Torzi)
Yalumba (Alexey Doumbouya)
Alexander Direen & Little Brunswick Wine Co (Alex Croker)
Alkimi Wines (Stuart Dudine)
Black & Ginger Wines (Hadyn Black)
Kerri Greens (Lucas Blanck)
Kyneton Ridge & Harbinger Wines (Patrick Wood & Greta Darling-Filby)
Meredith Wines (Ben Luker)
Nacre (Meg Wallace)
Pachamama / Cloak & Dagger (Callie Jemmeson)
Passage Wines (Kaden Boekhoorn)
Patch Wines (Matt Talbot)
Rongo Wines (Ray Chen)
Vino Intrepido (James Scarcebrook)
Wilkie Wines (Tom Morrison)
Rush Wines (Sam Rush)
Sisu Wines (Jake Sheedy)
Small Wonder (Andrew Trio)
Utzinger (Lauren & Matthias Utzinger)
Fearon (Tim Fearon)
Sittella Wines (Yuri Berns)
Young Gun of Wine is supported by Amorim cork, DJs Growers Services, Peter Sadler Logistics and WBM magazine.
GET FIRST ACCESS TO THE NEXT WINE ICONS – DELIVERED
Find out moreEach month, get 3 bottles of our freshest discoveries. We taste thousands to bring you the best.
Join us and support emerging winemakers, sustainable vineyards, and the development of young professionals.
For the first time ever, Young Gun of Wine will host a series of virtual events in place of its annual Top 50 tasting events. Across the month of May, we will host seven experiential wine tastings with the Top 50 winemakers of 2020, along with other experts, with ‘attendees’ able to ask questions live during the broadcast.
With wine tasting, much thought is put into getting all the elements right: the serving temperature of wine, the type of wine glass used, whether to decant a wine before serving. And when it comes to dining, food and wine pairing is an occupation all to itself. But have you ever considered the effect water has on the palate? We gathered together some leading winemakers and sommeliers to test how different types of water affect our palate.
The third instalment of the annual Vineyard of the Year Awards has been decided following a six month process that included site inspections of shortlisted finalists, with the judging panel reaching a consensus on the winners of the four trophies: New Vineyard of the Year; Old Vineyard of the Year; Innovative Vineyard of the Year, dubbed ‘The Groundbreaker’; and Vineyard of the Year.
The Next Wine Icons – Delivered
Each month, get 3 bottles of fresh discoveries.
We taste thousands to bring you the best.
Please sign in or create account as candidate to bookmark this job
Please sign in or create account to save this search
Please sign in or create account as candidate to create a resume
