The ‘young’ in the Young Gun of Wine Awards mostly refers to young wine labels. We don’t focus on date of birth, but the winemakers are under 45 years of age (born after 01/07/19798 for the 19th annual YGOW Awards)… You typically have to have some significant experience before you can successfully launch a meaningful new wine project.
The thing about emerging wine producers is they’re a source of innovation, inspiration and new ideas. They’re not shackled by conventions. They’re free. Wide-eyed; adventurous; eager to travel; to experiment; to remix, they question everything. They create energy. They excite. And this is how they lead.
Whether they’re employed by an established company or running their own show; whether they’re refining traditional styles or getting radical, we want to provide a platform for these people and their ideas.
These awards are about gathering the like-minded and uniquely individual talents together, rallying eclectic and far flung tastes, making noise, getting them noticed and having a ripping time along the way.
The Young Gun of Wine Awards are open to young wine labels as well as winemakers on the rise within established wineries.
A winemaker submits two commercially available wines. The two wines submitted by the winemaker are tasted side-by-side. They are not tasted blind. A general assessment of the quality of the wines is first made, before deeper discussion on the appeal and interest of the wine in the glass, and then the bigger picture of the winemaker: their creativity and leadership; the execution of their product in a wholistic sense; and the context of the individual and their work in the wine landscape today.
Established in 2007, the Young Gun of Wine Award is our top trophy. It goes to an emerging producer that is not only making outstanding wine, but also demonstrating vision and leadership, and nailing the entire pitch, packaging and presentation of their product.
Each year we announce a group of finalists – Top winemakers – in the running, and we present those finalists through events and/or online activities, with the intent of having all wine lovers express their thoughts through the People’s Choice Award.
The Winemaker’s Choice trophy is our peer award, chosen by that year’s finalists. This trophy was introduced from 2013.
The Best New Act goes to a first-time finalist in our winemaker awards that is making a profound impression. This trophy was introduced from 2013.
The Danger Zone is the only trophy in our winemaker awards that goes to a wine product. It recognises a wine that successfully pushes the boundaries. This trophy was introduced from 2017.
The Vigneron – an award which celebrates makers that also lovingly tend to the land and the vines that they make wine from.
NSW/ACT, New England
Finalist
2025 Finalist
It’s almost a cliché to say that winemakers love chardonnay – but that’s because it’s true. Few grape varieties match chardonnay’s ability to express the terroir in which it is grown, not to mention its cheerful ability to grow in a wide range of climates (as opposed to its more finicky red counterpart, pinot noir) and its responsiveness to different winemaking approaches in the cellar. Little wonder then that winemakers Alex Beckett and Jan Taborsky have chosen it as their hero grape variety for their micro-negociant project, Origines, which explores the diverse cool-climate terroirs of New South Wales through the singular lens of chardonnay. They currently craft two single-vineyard chardonnays from sustainably farmed vineyards in Orange and New England, with expansion plans in the works.
Western Australia, Perth Hills, Swan Valley
NSW/ACT, Hunter Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
When lovers of Australian wine talk about the Hunter Valley, they tend to focus on two aspects that make this region unique: its humid subtropical climate, about as warm and wet as you can get for quality wine production, and its focus on semillon (with maybe a nod to its shiraz and chardonnay). If the subject of history comes up, they might talk about its important role as the cradle of the Australian wine industry, or the birthplace of Australia’s first table wine made from 100% chardonnay. What’s usually left out from the conversation is the prehistory of the Hunter Valley itself, and the geological forces that created the soils of the Hunter over aeons. Alisdair and Kenisha Tulloch’s Aeon Wines label plans to change that, by putting soil front and centre – quite literally – of everything they do. With a compact collection of three syrah-based red wines, two of them single-site, Aeon Wines offers a unique and compelling take on the Hunter’s hallowed terroir.
Hunter Valley, Orange, McLaren Vale, Wrattonbully
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Can you teach an old dog new tricks? If Andrew Duff’s wines are anything to go by, you certainly can. Duff brings all of the operational nous he’s garnered over a lengthy career in large-volume corporate winemaking to bear on the wines he crafts for two labels – reinvigorated Hunter Valley stars Briar Ridge, and his own Duff Wines – while shaking off the corporate strictures and profit-loss calculations. With a palate freshly honed by the infamous Len Evans Tutorial and a winemaking vision sharpened by the Wine Australia Future Leaders program, Duff is ready to flex his muscles and write the second act of his winemaking story.
Victoria, Pyrenees
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Husband-and-wife duo Andy and Clare Ainsworth are hardly the only couple to have fled city life in the midst of the COVID pandemic – but few have made the transition so successfully. The Ainsworths moved from Sydney to Daylesford, central Victoria, in 2020, and by the end of 2021 they’d not only opened Daylesford restaurant Bar Merenda (winner of the 2022 Young Gun of Wine Wineslinger Best New Haunt award), they also had their first two wines under the A & C Ainsworth label resting and awaiting release. By leveraging Andy’s background as an experienced hospitalitarian and wine salesperson – he formerly managed the wine-centric Sydney venue 10 William Street – and Clare’s background as a designer and visual artist – you might recognise her work from the redesigned Eastern Peake wine labels – the A & C Ainsworth wines have travelled well beyond the list at Bar Merenda and can be found at a bevy of the country’s best eateries. With a trio of wines under the label – a grenache, a syrah, and a rosé made from cabernet sauvignon – and production levels firmly small-scale, the wines aren’t easy to find, but reward those who make the effort.
Hunter Valley
2025 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Working out of the family winery, Angus Vinden has expanded on the traditional base his father established in the 1990s, both growing the classic Vinden range, as well as building his own wing to the portfolio with The Vinden Headcase. The latter is his outlet to create wines that sit outside the styles commonly associated…
South Australia, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Everyone loves a comeback story, and with Pare Wine, Ansel Ashby is proving himself to be the Rocky Balboa of the South Australian wine scene. After having to shutter his first label, Gatch Wines, Ashby has returned with Pare – a new label in collaboration with wine merchant Andrew Williams. As the name suggests, Pare’s approach is all about minimalism, with their first release consisting of a compact collection of three single-site wines – two grenaches and a chardonnay –drawn from Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. Winemaking is minimal-intervention, allowing the fruit and terroir to speak clearly. With Pare, Ashby is proving that less is definitely more.
Victoria, Grampians
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
In the heart of Western Victoria, Ben Luker’s Meredith label emerges as a reflection of his rich and varied journey in the wine industry. With a background that spans an array of roles, from restaurant service to in-depth wine research, Luker’s foray into winemaking is a testament to his deep-seated passion for the craft. The 2023 debut of Meredith, from the 2023 vintage, is not just a milestone for Luker but an ode to Western Victoria. His approach is unmistakably ‘punter-friendly,’ emphasizing low-fi winemaking that underscores the intrinsic qualities of varietal riesling and grenache, with the Meredith lineup complimented by a rosé and pét-nat.
Victoria, Rutherglen
Finalist
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
Nestled in the historic wine region of Rutherglen– a land of big reds and famous for its fortified wines, Benjamin Jones, the sixth generation vintner of Jones Winery & Vineyard, is redefining the region’s vinous landscape with his J6 label released in 2020, delivering unfamiliar wines with a focus on drinkability and enjoyment. The J6 range is made with a minimal intervention mindset, made from dry-grown vines on the family estate vineyard. The ‘J6 Jimmy’s Block’ – a blend of chasselas, muscat gordo, muscat of Hamburg, grenache blanc, et al – and the ‘J6 Grenache Noir’ have the benefit of being fermented in the Jones Winery wooden fermenting vats from 1860.
South Australia, Mount Gambier
Best New Act
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2024 Best New Act
Bridget Mac, the creative force behind Werkstatt Wine, embodies the spirit of an artist-turned-winemaker, melding her passion for German, Austrian, and Swiss wines and varieties with the distinct terroirs of Australia. Her label debuted in 2022, with releases thus far including riesling (in still, pét-nat, and traditional method sparkling forms) and pinot noir, with wines based on gewürztraminer and weissburgunder (better known as pinot blanc) in the wings.
South Australia, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
From the tapestry of the Barossa’s vine-strewn landscape, Callum Powell is weaving an exciting new chapter with his Agricola label that is a homage to the pursuit of ‘a sense of site’. This journey, rooted in the soils of the famous Torbreck winery, where his formative years unfurled, has blossomed into a quest for a profound connection with the land. Powell’s odyssey took him from the nurturing embrace of the Barossa to the storied terrains of Hermitage at Domaine JL Chave, enriching his palette of winemaking hues. His wax sealed Barossa and Eden Valley wines, with hand illustrated vineyard maps on the back labels, deliver on the goal of perfumed, complex, naturally balanced interpretations of Barossa.
Barossa Valley
2025 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
White Gate Wine Co. was founded by Chad Connolly, who set out to frame the Barossa in a more elegant light, with earlier picking, plenty of whole bunch for reds and a minimal intervention approach. Working loosely with growers or leasing vineyards, Connolly’s aim is to make wines he loves to drink, elegant, balanced and light on their feet. They make a changing roster of wines, including varietal syrah, grenache, cabernet sauvignon, petit sirah (durif) and nero d’avola, plus a blend of semillon and riesling, a skinsy amphora semillon and a blend of grenache, mataro and cabernet – and there’s always plenty more in the pipeline.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Chris Ryan’s Honky Chateau is somewhat of a COVID baby, a natural extension of his casual vintage work in wineries, but one sped up by the closures of Melbourne’ restaurants in 2020 and ’21. Working as a head sommelier in Andrew McConnell’s Trader House group, Ryan was well-acquainted with the great wines of the world, but his ambitions for his own label, centred around Yarra Valley shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, were somewhat humbler: “My goal is to make wine that gives pleasure to common people. I think expectations are the enemy of wines, so I hope that people can grab a bottle mid-week, pull a cork, share it with friends, alongside food and be pleasantly surprised. Someone else can be a disrupter and trend maker.” Today, he balances his winemaking with his senior buying role.
NSW/ACT, Canberra District
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Chrissie Smith’s Intrepidus Wines was only born in the 2021 vintage, working from a one-acre vineyard in the Canberra District that she farms herself. And that’s critical for her philosophy, with an abrupt career shift leading her to wine and quickly to a vineyard-first approach, recognising that the work done amongst the vines was just as important, if not more so, than the work in the winery. The label is currently built around sangiovese and shiraz, with tiny amounts of external grapes to allow for experimentation. Blends of the two home grapes make up a rosé and light red, while shiraz is also co-fermented with a splash of viognier, marsanne and roussanne.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Gonzalo Sánchez brings international flair to the McLaren Vale. After graduating from the winemaking school at Universidad Juan Agustina Maza in Mendoza, Argentina, he quickly racked up an impressive list of international whistle-stops, working vintages in California’s Napa Valley, Portugal’s Dão, and Germany’s Pfalz before finding his vinous forever home in Australia. Fresh off stints at iconic Australian producers Mount Langi Ghiran and Wirra Wirra, Sanchez took on the lead winemaker role at McLaren Vale’s Lloyd Brothers in 2021 – leading a significant change in the business’s operations, and sharpening its focus as a producer. Here he makes a number of wines from fruit sourced from Lloyd Brothers’ vineyards in the Vale and in the Adelaide Hills, ranging from the traditional – McLaren shiraz; Hills sauvignon blanc – to the unorthodox: a sparkling wine made from picpoul and prosecco; a shiraz and pinot noir blend inspired by Maurice O’Shea’s pioneering Hunter blends. As if this weren’t enough, he also squeezes in time to run an Australian–Argentinian wine brand, Sánchez M. (alongside his sister, Rocia), a vineyard, Los Aromos (with his wife, Kate), and a spirit brand, Tiny Friday. An irrepressible character within the Vale’s tight-knit winemaking community, Sánchez clearly has energy to burn and no shortage of ideas.
South Australia
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Greg Clack and Kate Horstmann founded XO Wine Co. in 2017. They focus on small-batch parcels of fruit, building complexity subtly through fermentation and maturation methods, with bright fruit and sense of place taking the lead. The pair work with the established strengths of both the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale, with shiraz, grenache, pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and riesling all getting a run, alongside the emerging stars of nebbiolo, barbera and tempranillo. A lightly skinsy pinot gris and a light chillable red that is a collage of red varieties completes the suite.
NSW/ACT, Mudgee
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Jacob Stein brings a fresh energy to Mudgee, one of Australia’s oldest wine regions. A third generation winemaker, Jacob has stepped up to take on the mantle of his family’s winery, as well as developing a secondary label, Blü Hen, for his more adventurous offerings. Crafting a wide range of wines, from the classic – several wines based on riesling, semillon, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, including sparkling and fortified variations under the Robert Stein label – to the more adventurous – a chillable barbera, a savoury montepulciano, a textural riesling and a rosé made from sangiovese under the Blü Hen label – Stein is a renaissance man of the Mudgee.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
James Becker’s journey in the winemaking realm is a narrative of growth, passion, and a deep connection to the Yarra Valley. His label, Musical Folk wines, reflects a harmonious blend of his experiences, showcasing the essence of the region and his love for Chardonnay. Launched in 2021, the range has expanded to also include a pinot noir and a skin contact pinot gris, ‘Amber Pinot Gris’.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2025 Finalist
2022 Finalist
James Ellis’s Ada Wine Co. is based in the Adelaide Hills, but he sources organically grown fruit from across prime South Australian regions where particular varieties excel: McLaren Vale for grenache, Eden Valley for riesling, and chardonnay and pinot noir from the Hills. His approach is built around a lo-fi approach, with no adds apart from minimal sulphur and no fining or filtration.
NSW/ACT, Tumbarumba
Finalist
2025 Finalist
While Australia has a long and storied history of wine growing, it’s fair to say that New Zealand doesn’t. With a few notable exceptions – such as James Busby’s vineyards in Waitangi, or the vineyards planted in Hawkes Bay in the mid 19th century by Marist missionaries for communion wine – the New Zealand wine story starts in the 1970s, and only really gets going in the 1980s, after the country got over its ill-advised love affair with the müller-thurgau variety. You’d therefore have to have some stones to start an Australian wine label that is explicitly modelled after the wines of Central Otago in New Zealand – especially if you were to start the label in Australia’s oldest wine region, the Hunter Valley. And yet this is exactly what James Turpie has done with his label, James Edward Wines – which offers a tight range of chardonnay, pinot noir, chenin blanc, gewürztraminer, and shiraz – and its wild-child sibling label, Maison de Turps, where Turpie’s more unconventional experiments in winemaking can blossom.
Victoria, Heathcote, Macedon Ranges, Pyrenees, Sunbury
Finalist
2025 Finalist
It’s a long way from the high-rises of Wall Street to an urban winery in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, especially if you take a detour via Provence. This is the journey that financier-turned-winemaker Jarrod Kiven has undertaken, launching his eponymous label in 2022 with a just two wines – a Pyrenees syrah and Beechworth viognier. Since then he’s kept the label small-scale, resisting the temptation to expand the range in favour of keeping production strictly hands-on. Kiven produces a compact collection of wines – just two wines per annual release thus far – from cool-climate vineyards, using traditional methods to craft wines of serious intent.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
In the undulating terrains of the Basket Range – a hamlet renowned as ground-zero of Australia’s low-fi and natural wine movement – in the Adelaide Hills, Jean-Baptiste Courdesses is crafting unfined, unfiltered and 100% whole-bunch fermented wines, with no or minimal sulphur, packaged in locally made bottles. His project, Jean Bouteille Wines, is firmly planted in the belief that winemaking should be a harmonious extension of nature, and that wine can be an elixir.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
Launched with a focus on the terroirs of Adelaide Hills, J & S Fielke is the brainchild of Steve and Jemma Fielke, a winemaking couple who channel their passion and expertise into crafting wines that resonate with the story of their region. Their range currently includes a chardonnay from the Lenswood subregion, a pinot noir from the Piccadilly Valley subregion, and a shiraz and pinot noir blend, each wine a reflection of their commitment to expressing the distinctiveness of their vineyard sites. While 2025 is set to be the first crop from their Lower Hermitage site where they have planted varieties with an eye on a changing climate.
Queensland, Granite Belt
Finalist
2025 Finalist
The French existentialist Albert Camus encouraged his readers to “Come to terms with death, thereafter anything is possible.” It’s a credo that Kyle Goodwin of Knucklehead Wines knows better than most. After being diagnosed with a terminal lung illness – caused by silica dust he was exposed to while working as a stonemason – Goodwin decided to go all-in on winemaking, trading his day job as a wine retailer in Byron Bay for gig at Bent Road Winery in Queensland’s Granite Belt. By day he helps craft wine for Bent Road’s labels – La Petite Mort and Wilhelm Scream – while his side-hustle is Knucklehead Wines, a tight collection of cuvées made from chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, sangiovese, nebbiolo and montepulciano that he makes with his wife, Sera J Wright.
South Australia, Limestone Coast, Wrattonbully
Finalist
2025 Finalist
A lot of winemakers who grow up in wine-growing regions romanticise their old stomping grounds, and often deliberately work towards returning to their home regions when starting their own labels. Not so much Lauren Hansen, who grew up in the Limestone Coast region and sought to escape it – only to find that her career drew her back. Hansen’s own label, Bloomfield, celebrates the Limestone Coast through a mix of unusual varieties – currently grüner veltliner, petit verdot, and mencía – and allows her opportunities for unfettered winemaking expression. With one Bloomfield release under her belt, Hansen’s just getting started, but her enthusiasm for her project is undeniable.
Victoria, Pyrenees, Nagambie Lakes
2025 Finalist
Leigh Ritchie’s Young Tree Wines project looks laid-back, but don’t let that fool you. While his label is named after a reggae album – Groundation’s 1999 debut, Young Tree – and he releases a wine named Natty Dred, Ritchie’s thinking about winemaking owes more to the upper echelons of California’s Napa Valley than it does to Rastafarianism. With a short and sweet array of wines in the lineup – a cabernet sauvignon, a marsanne/roussanne blend, and the aforementioned Natty Dred, a chillable red based most recently on merlot – Young Tree offers wines that hide serious quality behind their Rasta veneer.
Victoria, King Valley, Yarra Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Foreign Friends’ wines are, as the name suggests, a celebration of friendship – not just friendship in general, but more specifically the friendship that blossomed after an Australian pair of sisters, Crystal and Leila Davis, met the French Juliette Menneteau in Beechworth in 2016. The trio’s collaborative label, founded in 2023, draws on each of their strengths: Leila’s as a winemaker (she currently works for Sentiō and Sorrenberg), Crystal’s as a marketer (her day job is in advertising), and Menneteau’s in wine distribution and sales (she currently works as sales and marketing manager for Australian wine importer and distributor World Wine Estates). Crafting a tight range of six wines – three whites made from savagnin, pinot blanc, and chardonnay respectively, plus a rosé from nebbiolo and reds from gamay and barbera – delivered in whip-smart packaging, Foreign Friends presents a vibrant, youthful, and approachable take on contemporary Australian wine. But don’t let the branding fool you – behind the laid-back odes to good times are three driven, ambitious women who are working hard to raise the profile of women in wine.
Eden Valley, McLaren Vale
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
With wines that are light to medium in weight, and sensitive making that sticks to minimal sulphur doses as the only additive, Louis Schofield launched Worlds Apart Wines in 2017. He works with syrah, riesling, grenache, nero d’avola, pinot noir, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, sourced from McLaren Vale, the Eden Valley, and his home in the Adelaide Hills. And while his wines trace a natural arc, Schofield has no interest in dogma, with drinkability and deliciousness taking centre stage.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to help articulate what makes something special – and Marcell Kustos of Lvdo Wines (pronounced ‘ludo’) has more than enough fresh angles from which to approach the subject of Australian wine. Born in Hungary to a family of viticulturists and winemakers, his formal education is in food technology and wine science, and his professional background is as a sommelier and wine director at some of Australia’s most lauded fine dining destinations (including Restaurant Botanic and Penfolds Magill Estate). He brings these perspectives to bear in the making of his Lvdo Wines label – a collection of four core wines (white, red, rosé and orange/amber) and some one-off project wines that pay homage to the great wines of Australia, with an outsider’s twist. Equally at home analysing Brix levels in must as he is selling his wines to the restaurant trade, Lvdo Wines demonstrates that Kustos is an unlikely renaissance man with new and interesting things to say about Australian wine.
Victoria, Mornington Peninsula
Finalist
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
In the expanse of Mornington Peninsula, the Portsea Estate banner has grown to include wines from their own vineyards in Portsea and Main Ridge, as well as sourcing from other growers in the Mornington Peninsula. Matt Lugg and Will Ross work together in crafting the offering for Portsea Estate, with a focusing on refining the classic wines – particularly chardonnay and pinot noir – that the Mornington Peninsula does so well.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
The first release of the Patch wines came from the 2020 vintage. Approaching wine from a varied wine trade background that began with studies in viticulture, Matt Talbot crafts the Patch Wines with support from winemaker and partner, Kirilly Gordon. From a modest beginning of three wines – a ‘Shed Red’ Bordeaux-inspired blend with a Turkish twist, a ‘Nebbiolo Bianco’ (which is actually the arneis grape variety), and a marsanne – the Patch lineup has expanded to encompass over 20 different grape varieties, made either as varietal wines or blends. The Patch project is intent on sourcing exciting parcels or ‘patches’ of grapes, unbound by region. All ferments are small batch, using a combination of vessels in the making – from tank, to oak, to ceramic egg, to terracotta – to deliver wines that are juicy, textural and delicious, not to mention pleasingly democratically priced.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
Finalist
2025 Finalist
It takes some stones to leave a gig like senior winemaker at a company as renowned as Shaw + Smith, but that’s just what Matt Large did towards the end of 2024 in order to focus fully on what had until then been his side-project, Praeter. What started as a small side-hustle in 2018 to explore Large’s love of Nebbiolo has now blossomed into a full-time proposition, with Large jetting between Austraia and Italy to produce a bijou collection of wines – two single-site nebbiolos, another fortified and aromatised nebbiolo, an Italian red blend, and a pecorino, with a further single-site nebbiolo set for release later this year. Large has also taken on the management of two blocks of vines in the Adelaide Hills – pinot noir and chardonnay – which will become part of the Praeter stable with the 2025 vintage. Drawing on a wealth of international experience, Large makes wines that show his ability to subtly interpret the diverse terroirs of the Adelaide Hills, the Pyrenees, and Italy’s Langhe region.
Tasmania
Winemaker's Choice
Danger Zone
2025 Finalist
2024 Winemaker's Choice
2024 Finalist
2024 Danger Zone
In the Tamar Valley, Matthias and Lauren Utzinger planted their vineyard in 2018 – now certified organic – at an impressive density of 6,500 vines per hectare. Wines for the Utzinger label come from their own land, as well as three additional vineyards where Matthias is hands-on in the vines – he has the vigneron ethos that wine are “grown, not made”. The Utzinger wine range showcases Tasmanian classics such as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Riesling, and a ‘Fumé’ Sauvignon Blanc. Looking ahead, the Utzingers plan to introduce alternative varieties to their range, importing vine cuttings from Matthias’s homeland of Switzerland, promising an exciting future for this Tasmanian project.
NSW/ACT, Hunter Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
Meagan and James Becker of M & J Becker Wines have carved a distinctive niche in the winemaking world by bridging the vinous landscapes of two continents. Their journey spans regions of New South Wales, Australia, and the renowned wine regions of California, USA. In Australia, their offering includes a dozen wines, ranging from Tumbarumba Pinot Noir and Hunter Valley Chardonnay to Hilltops Nebbiolo. While their commitment to transmitting terroir extends to managing a vineyard in Hunter Valley, where they converted to Certified Organic through ACO late in 2019. All the M & J Becker Wines from Australia are made in a collaborative winemaking facility shared with the other rising stars of the Hunter Valley.
Victoria, Macedon Ranges
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Many winemakers dream of one day running their own wine estate, but few have managed to make the leap from purchaser of fruit to vigneron in such a short period of time as Micah Hewitt. His label Defialy made its debut in 2020 – and two short years later it was followed by Domaine Defialy, a home for the wines made from his own Macedon Ranges estate, Candlebark Hill. Here he crafts estate wines from pinot noir, chardonnay, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and malbec under the Domaine Defialy name, alongside more esoteric offerings from varieties such as carménère and zibbibo for the Defialy label. Making his wines with the least possible amount of intervention in the cellar – “minimal fuckery,” as he puts it – and effortlessly threading the needle between natural cool and conventional polish, Hewitt has set Defialy and Domaine Defialy on a meteoric trajectory. Strap yourselves in.
South Australia, Limestone Coast
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: an American sommelier and French intellectual Gilles Deleuze walk into a natural wine bar … Sommelier-turned-winemaker Mitchell Sokolin channels his formidable intellect and love of silly puns into his Eleven Sons label. Using fruit sourced from various vineyards across South Australia’s broader Limestone Cost region – with some Pyrenees touriga nacional thrown in the mix, too – Sokolin crafts a tight lineup of wines based on chardonnay, semillon, pinot noir, pinot gris, and syrah, with a grüner veltliner on the way, plus a savagnin for his collaborative label with Shane Michael, Limestone Cowboy. Made using methods from “the natural playbook”, as he puts it – spontaneous ferments, no additions beyond a touch of sulphur at bottling, no new oak – with a cheerful disregard for traditional approaches to any given variety, the Eleven Sons range is as thought-provoking as it is drinkable.
Victoria, Western Victoria
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Many winemakers who come from wine families have racked up a little winemaking experience before they’re legally allowed to have a drink – but very few have been responsible for a whole vintage before they’ve turned 16. Owen Latta can claim this distinction due to an unfortunate workplace accident in his family winery, Eastern Peake, but he’s since taken to the role with gusto. Now back in charge of production at Eastern Peake, where he crafts a tight range of pinot noir and chardonnay-based wines, and with his own negociant label, Latta Vino, to play with more experimental techniques and off-the-beaten-path varieties, Owen’s winemaking effortlessly straddles generational divides and the traditional/natural dichotomy, proving him a force to be reckoned with.
South Australia, Barossa
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Starting a new wine project in a region as storied as the Barossa Valley means taking a position in relation to its traditions. For most winemakers, the choice is between tearing up the region’s rulebook and scandalising the traditionalists – as a cohort of young vignerons did in the Barossa roughly a decade ago – or leaning in to the region’s reputation. But there is a third way: honouring history and tradition, while respectfully updating the elements that no longer resonate with the general public. It’s a tough needle to thread, but Paul Thomas’s Barossa project Tribus does so with aplomb. Thomas crafts a tight lineup of approachable wines from Barossa stalwarts shiraz, grenache, and mataro, with a little cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc thrown in for good measure, alongside a riesling from the Watervale subregion of the nearby Clare Valley.
Hunter Valley
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2022 Winemaker's Choice
2022 Finalist
Peta Kotz’s Sabi Wabi is her homage to reworking the traditions of the Hunter, of searching for “beauty amongst imperfection”. Semillon is the foundation of the brand she launched in 2019 while working for biodynamic Hunter winery Krinklewood, and she steadfastly says it will remain that way, although her lo-fi making, with no subtractions and no adds, bar a fraction of sulphur, and employment of a raft of alternative vessels is also applied to other whites, red wine and rosé.
NSW/ACT, Riverina
Finalist
2025 Finalist
New South Wales’s Riverina region cops a bit of a bad rap from wine lovers. The second-largest wine region in Australia in terms of volume, its 17,000 hectares under vine pump out 15% of the country’s wine grapes every year, nearly all of which get turned into mass-market wines such as the infamous Yellow Tail. With the exception of a handful of quality-minded producers such as R. Paulazzo, and some innovative projects from larger-scale growers like Calabria Family Wines (who are experimenting with Mediterranean varieties better suited to the region’s climate) and De Bortoli (whose famous Noble One botrytis wine comes from Riverina fruit), the region is generally seen as a wasteland in terms of fine wine. It’s a perception that Peter Valeri’s Via Pola project is trying its utmost to rewrite. With just two wines under its belt – a fiano and a montepulciano, both of which made their debut in vintage 2024 – it has already established itself as one of the most exciting new projects from the region in decades.
NSW/ACT, Victoria, Hunter Valley, Murray Darling
2025 Finalist
What happens when you take two experienced hospitality professionals with no formal winemaking training, get them to fall in love with both winemaking and Sicilian grape varieties, and let them ferment wine in traditional Indian clay vessels? You might end up with something like Majama Wines, an exciting new Hunter Valley-based project by Rojer Rathod and Millie Shorter, whose second vintage release – a tight lineup of zibbibo, inzolia, and nero d’avola – has already turned heads in the wine trade. With a minimal-intervention philosophy in the cellar that’s been dialled in with a clear focus on Sicilian varieties and fermentation in clay, as well as some of the most striking packaging currently on shelves, Rathod and Shorter are setting themselves up to become a striking new voice in the Australian wine landscape.
Rutherglen
People's Choice
2025 Finalist
2024 People's Choice
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2022 People's Choice
2022 Finalist
Some 20 years ago, Rowly Milhinch left a career in visual communication to set up a vineyard and a family life in Rutherglen. It’s territory that his family have lived in for generations, and he was intent on honouring the traditions of the region but recasting them through his own lens. Under his Scion label, he makes fortifieds, a staple of Rutherglen, but they are twists on the classics, including a ‘Muscat Nouveau’ and dry orange muscat, ‘Blonde’, as well as making dry red from syrah, grenache and durif, with the latter also getting the light red treatment, built to chill.
South Australia, Barossa Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
In ancient Rome, the phrase Nil caput quoerere – ‘to search for the source of the Nile’ – was used as an idiom to describe attempting the impossible. While Scott McGarry’s wines under the Source of the Nile label don’t strictly speaking attempt the impossible, there is definitely a hint of the Quixotic about this project, which sees McGarry commute from his home in northern New South Wales to the Barossa Valley every year for vintage, where he makes wine from fruit sourced from all over Australia. Over two releases, each consisting of a minuscule three cuvées, McGarry has established himself as one of Australia’s most interesting natural/lo-fi winemakers. Largely self-taught – with some help along the way from Jilly Wines’ Jared Dixon – McGarry’s wines speak of the wild magic that can happen when quality fruit meets an untamed and somewhat untrained maker.
Tasmania
Finalist
2025 Finalist
There’s an old saying: “Good wine is made in the vineyard.” Winemaker Sierra Blair adds a self-deprecating coda: “ … and fucked up in the winery.” Having grown up in a family of California grape growers before studying viticulture and oenology at UC Davis, Blair has an intimate understanding of the relationship between what happens in the vineyard and what happens in the cellar. After graduating, she worked vintages in various regions of California, France, New Zealand and Australia, before falling in love with Tasmania. She has worked as a winemaker at Ghost Rock on the Cradle Coast since 2019, crafting their extensive range of estate wines – pinots noir, meunier, and gris, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc, as well as single-site expressions of many of the above, rosé, and traditional method sparkling wines – alongside Ghost Rock’s more experimental Supernatural range, plus a small side project of her own in Zymo Wines. With her eye on both sides of the growing/making coin, Blair’s wines balance winemaker know-how with a deep respect for the work that goes into the fruit she uses.
Western Australia, Great Southern, Margaret River
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Skigh McManus’s eponymous label, Skigh Wine, comes from a simple premise – make wine you’d like to drink. For this Margaret River stalwart, that means vibrant, deft wines with good fruit and balanced acidity, made with a minimum of intervention in the cellar. McManus a broad array of wines across three product lines – the old-world inspired Skigh range, the fresh and fruit-forward Coda range, and the more experimental and lo-fi Strange Brew range – from Margaret River, Great Southern, and Geographe fruit, with the aim of bringing people together.
South Australia, Victoria, McLaren Vale, Murray Darling
2025 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Yayoi means ‘new life’ and is the traditional Japanese name for the month of March. For Steffi Snook, it symbolises the start of a wine label and a new direction in her life. A New Zealander who came to Australia to study and was so entranced by Melbourne’s rich food and wine culture, Snook worked her way through fine dining and wine distribution to land in Geelong. It was there that a passion for making wine really took hold, launching her label in 2022. Chenin blanc takes the lead – her key obsession – along with a textural vermentino, while a blend of the two grapes find their way into a pét-nat.
Victoria, Heathcote, Yarra Valley
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Stuart Dudine’s Alkimi Wines is built around his passion for both the Yarra Valley and Rhône varieties, with an exploration of marsanne and syrah at the core of his range, but the Yarra stars of chardonnay and pinot noir get plenty of airtime, too. Dudine’s wines are always pitched to the elegant end of the spectrum, and he employs natural yeast and no additions except sulphur, with no fining and only occasional filtration, while in his No Additions range, not even sulphur gets a guernsey.
Tasmania
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Many of us dream of working for ourselves, but not everyone has the courage to pursue the dream – and fewer still do so with a goodly dose of introspection and humility. This is the path that Thomas New has taken on his journey to founding Future Perfect – his label dedicated to lo-fi, cool climate winemaking, circling around chardonnay and pinot noir. With no formal training as a winemaker – but plenty of experience from his former label La Petite Mort and subsequent vintages across Australia and around the world – New crafts wines that bottle the cool-climate freshness of his Tasmanian terroir.
Western Australia, Margaret River
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Everyone loves a wine story. Wine marketers are always looking for the narrative hook that can convince the average punter to pick up a bottle and take it home, or to order a glass at a bar – whether that’s a story of new and interesting varieties, sustainable viticulture, renegade winemaking, or triumph over adversity. But stories don’t actually make wine – people do. Tom Bradshaw doesn’t provide a narrative hook for his wine – his winemaking philosophy is straightforward and no-nonsense, he uses mainstream grape varieties, and operates out of a region (Margaret River) best known for its even-keeled climate and consistently high quality. With a tight lineup of high-quality, classically styled wines – a cabernet sauvignon, a chardonnay, a syrah-based blend and a sangiovese-based rosé – Thomas William Wines isn’t out to reinvent the wheel.
South Australia, McLaren Vale
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
Uffe Deichmann is the winemaking force behind Poppelvej, a label that has quickly captured the attention of Australian ‘natty’ wine enthusiasts. Now crafting a suite of around 20 wines, sourced from McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills, with a focus on texture and early approachability, including a range of alternative varieties and techniques, from skin contact expressions of white grapes, to pet-nats, to zeitgeist bottlings of chenin blanc, pinot meunier, cabernet franc, and more. Concrete egg-shaped vessels are employed in the winery for fermentation and maturation.
NSW/ACT, Hunter Valley
Finalist
2025 Finalist
What happens when you take a talented young winemaker from Piedmont, Italy’s premier wine destination, then train them in the scientific, precision-oriented ways of New Zealand, before landing them in the uniquely challenging subtropical environment of the Hunter Valley? You might end up with a figure like Valentina Moresco, whose journey from Montà to Krinklewood Estate has given her a love of both traditional winemaking and technical virtuosity that perfectly suits the unique demands of the Hunter’s climate. Taking over the reins at Krinklewood since vintage 2017, she crafts a suite of classic Hunter wines – semillon, chardonnay, shiraz, and verdelho – alongside more adventurous drops such as skin-contact gewürztraminer, lightly pétillant off-dry rosé, and traditional and Charmat-method sparkling wines. Reverential towards the Hunter’s storied past, but with an eye firmly on the future of the region, Moresco makes wines that have a lot to say about the present moment.
NSW/ACT, Orange
Finalist
2025 Finalist
Rikard Wines is a story of recovery and remarkable resilience. In 2008 winemaker William Rikard-Bell was caught in an explosion in the winery he worked at in the Hunter Valley, suffering third-degree burns to over 70% of his body. Recovery from these life-threatening injuries sharpened Rikard-Bell’s focus, prompting a move to the cooler climate of Orange and the founding of his own winemaking business. His Rikard label offers a classically styled range of wines from cool-climate stalwart varieties – pinot noir, chardonnay, riesling – alongside sparkling wines, a shiraz, and a cabernet franc/merlot/malbec blend. With the refreshing elevation of Mount Canobolas as his muse and ally, Rikard-Bell’s wines are helping to define what this emerging region can offer.
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