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.
Our definition of a young gun is not about a date of birth*. It’s about this spirit and being young at heart. We’ve had a number of past finalists over 40 – because, really, it takes a lot to make impressive wine.
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.
They come in all forms. Our definition of a winemaker isn’t limited to the person who presses the fruit and racks the wine. Steve Jobs didn’t assemble the circuitry in Apple products, but he’s the one, isn’t he.
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.
Young Gun of Wine is a search and showcase of winemaking talent, open to both young wine labels and winemakers on the rise*.
*Please see FAQs on registrations page re: age limit and wine submissions.
Chief panellist of the Young Gun of Wine. Author, International Wine Communicator and Awarded Best Drinks Journalist at the 2007 Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards.
Founder of Young Gun of Wine, and editor-in-chief of ygowstaging.wpengine.com.
Formerly 2IC at Merivale in Sydney, Pip Anderson now heads up the wine at Mona in Hobart where she is also applying her hands to winegrowing.
Penny Grant is the Group Sommelier for the Ghanem Group in Brisbane, whose venues include the iconic Blackbird, as well as the new Dona Chang.
Author of ‘Vignette’, Attica’s wine director, Good Food magazine
“I’m looking forward to continuing to explore the emerging talent
in winemaking in Australia. I’m continually impressed by the perspective and integrity of new wineries in Australia, and excited to be able to taste many in a concentrated setting.”
Jane Lopes graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Renaissance Literature and a love for food, wine, and spirits. While taking a year off, Jane found a job in wine retail. She worked at the nationally- acclaimed cocktail bar, The Violet Hour, and in 2011, moved to Nashville to be the opening Beverage Director at The Catbird Seat. After moving to New York in 2013, Jane began working as a sommelier at Eleven Madison Park, helping to lift the restaurant to #1 in the world on the World’s 50 Best List. In 2017, Jane was recruited to run the beverage program at Attica. Her first book, Vignette, was published in 2019 by Hardie Grant. Jane also has a column in Fairfax’s monthly Good Food Magazine.
Chef and food editor, The Saturday Paper
David’s been involved in top Wineslinger venues, such as Franklin and The Summertown Aristologist, and a number of other recognised dining rooms around Australia – places where food and wine are naturally hand in hand.
“I’m really excited to taste and talk with young talent in the wine industry. A lot can be picked up by what is in the glass, but it’s the purpose behind and the work leading up to that is important. Decisions need to be made and each one impacts the end result so greatly.”
We’re excited about the unique perspective and experience that David will bring to our panel in 2020.
Wine director, The Icebergs Group
Award-winning sommelier, James Hird is wine director at several of Sydney’s top venues, including Icebergs, The Dolphin Hotel, CicciaBella, The Bucket List and Hotel Harry.
“I am very fortunate to work across venues that offer dynamic wine programs. For me, whether it’s a formal dining room or a sand on feet beachside bar, it’s exciting to offer wine that suits the menu and the place. It is truly exciting to see, in both restaurants and pubs, more guests looking for real wines that offer a sense of place and the people who made them. Wine for me should be fun and accessible.
“I’m really looking to being a part of the YGOW Awards panel in 2020 – it’s an amazing opportunity to get a snapshot of what’s going on with emerging producers around the country and catch up with some of the country’s great wine folks. It’s fantastic to see this program go from strength.”
We love the breadth of offering, and indeed the surprise and joy created, amongst James’ wine programs. We’re looking forward to this diverse approach with the curation of our Top 50 list and trophy winners in the 2020 YGOW Awards.
Winemaker,
Charlotte Dalton Wines
Charlotte knows what the winemakers are going through.
“I am really excited to join the panel for the upcoming Young Gun of Wine Awards. Having been a finalist in 2017 I know the doors it can open, relationships it can build and confidence it can install in a young brand. To be on the other side is just such a huge honour knowing how game changing it can be for the finalists. I am really looking forward to seeing winemakers’ expressions of themselves in the glass. Wine
is such a deeply personal thing and is a true reflection of a winemaker, the passion they put into every bottle becomes so evident no matter the style
they make.”
Broadsheet Perth editor, Gourmet Traveller
“I’m hoping to get a good look at Australia’s next generation of it-winemakers: the blue-sky thinkers and doers who are going to drive the winemaking discussion in future. I’m also excited about being part of an Australian award system that looks at wine through a different lens to the traditional show system. This isn’t a criticism of the old ways—there’s no denying that show system has helped shape Australia’s wine identity—but in an era where drinkers are chasing wines with personality, sustainability, good design and powerful stories, it seems fitting to rethink the way wines are—quote-unquote — ‘judged’.”
Perth-based food, drink and travel writer, Max is WA’s editor-at-large for Broadsheet and regularly contributes to Australian Gourmet Traveller (WA state editor), and Good Food. He has been contributing to key national and international titles for more than a decade.
The Advertiser (News Ltd), Gourmet Traveller & WBM
“As a writer, I trawl the world in search of great stories (and bottles). Joining the Young Gun of Wine Awards panel for 2020, I look forward to discovering the tales behind the stellar group of entrants. What led them to wine? How do they make what they do and why? What drives them? That is the magic of wine.”
Katie Spain is a journalist, wine writer and author. She is a wine scribe for News Corp’s The Advertiser newspaper, a feature writer for SA Weekend Magazine, Australian Wine Business Magazine, and is a food and wine writer for The Advertiser, Sunday Mail, and The Advertiser Food Guide. She was the 2017 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show fellow and is the author of The Producers: A Taste of South Australia and co-author of Adelaide Central Market — Stories, People & Recipes. When the former farm kid is not cumulating keyboard strokes she can usually be found scouring the country for stories (and cellar doors) in a tiny vintage caravan called Charlie.
Winemaker, Koerner
Damon Koerner first submitted wines to the Young Gun of Wine Awards panel in 2015, and took out the top title in 2019. As with all past top-title winners, he joins the panel for our next edition of the awards.
“Hoping to see both a blend of clever winemaking and creative thinking, wines that reflect a place and are delicious drinking!”
Food and drink editor, Time Out
Beyond being a commentator, Jess has had a small taste of the winemaking thing (you may recall our “Baptism of Fire” project where first-timers were thrown into the cut n thrust of releasing a wine, from harvest through to sales), and has experienced the highs and lows of opening her own wine bar. If you’ve seen her work in writing or on TV as a judge on a commercial network food show, you’ll know she pulls no punches with her words.
“In joining the YGOW Awards panel, I am looking forward to the new stories, philosophies and approaches that the pool of talent will offer, and how it will translate in the bottle. Australia is in a very exciting stage of winemaking where its identity today is its own, lead by a new wave of vignerons and winemakers who are marching to the beat of their own drum and pushing boundaries that challenge the status quo.”
Sommelier, Bibo Wine Bar
“I can’t wait to discover new winemakers, new varietals, new styles that Australia has to offer in these ever changing times of the wine world. I’m never worried about quality when it comes to Australian wine, as we have some of the best winemakers in the world, but I’m looking forward to the diversity.”
Deputy Editor, Concrete Playground
Samantha Teague is the deputy editor of Concrete Playground and has previously written for Gourmet Traveller and Broadsheet Sydney.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know the up-and-coming wine labels and other winemaking young guns—the envelope- pushing producers who are making weird and wacky (or wonderfully traditional) drops. I’m excited to be a part of an award that’s helping to promote this next generation of winemakers (and has been doing so for over a decade) and that takes into account the broader context of winemaking. Taste is key, but so are sustainability, inclusivity and leadership.”
Group Sommelier, Howard Smith Wharves
In his previous role as Head Sommelier at Aria, Ian was awarded The Judy Hirst award for Australia’s best Sommelier, as well as best wine list and Sommelier in Australia in Good Food Guide.
At Howard Smith Wharves, Ian Trinkle is responsible for purchasing wines across all of their venues, including: Arc Dining, Mr Percival’s, Stanley Restaurant, Yoko Dining and Ciao Papi.
Craft Wine Store, Delicious magazine & The Courier Mail
Having worked in restaurants and wine retail for more than 25 years, Tony has forged a career as a prominent wine and food reviewer and wine show judge, and been the man behind some of Brisbane’s finest food offerings. He currently owns and runs Brisbane’s Craft, an emporium of fine wine and artisan beer, contributes to Delicious magazine and is a food and wine correspondent for The Courier Mail.
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.
Beechworth, Yarra Valley
2015 Young Gun of Wine
2015 Finalist
2012 Finalist
Following a decade-long tenure at Oakridge, Adrian Rodda upped stakes and moved to Beechworth, in Victoria’s north-east, to take up joint stewardship of one of the region’s most significant, and significantly under-utilised vineyard resources, Smiths. It’s no surprise, given his time working with David Bicknell, that chardonnay happened to be front and centre, with Rodda…
Gippsland
2021 Finalist
James and Jessica Audas launched A.R.C. Wines in 2017, celebrating various Gippsland sites through the lens of organic farming and minimal intervention winemaking. Now with their own vines planted, and a 3-hectare plot under their stewardship, the pair employ biodynamic farming methods (not yet certified) and make wines with no additives – bar minimal sulphur at bottling – and they neither fine nor filter.
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.
Adelaide Hills
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
Adelaide Hills Distillery founder, Sacha La Forgia started making alcoholic beverages somewhat on the early side, with a pre-legal career in fashioning garden-shed beer, cider, wine and spirits with his father. This was no illicit hooch operation, but rather an extension of his Italian heritage and a means to bond with his dad. When La…
Clare Valley
2009 Young Gun of Wine
2009 Finalist
Cue-ball bald, bespectacled and dripping in tatts, Col McBryde is one of the industry’s most-loved characters. Ruthlessly quick witted and thoughtful, McBryde is about as good humoured as it gets when you’re eking out a living in the ancient dusty soils of the Clare Valley, with a sense of irreverent fun never far beneath the…
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.
NSW/ACT, Hunter Valley, Orange
2024 Finalist
Andrew Ling’s foray into the winemaking world was serendipitous – his transition into the field in 2001 as a vintage lab assistant, a favor from his soccer coach, prevented this star player from leaving Mudgee. It didn’t take long for the wine bug to bite, and his career has since spanned roles with leading names across Mudgee, Orange, and the Hunter Valley. In 2017, Ling assumed the role of Senior Winemaker at Carillion Wines, a position he retains to this day. His own venture, Agitate Wines, was launched in 2021 with a Pét-Nat Riesling, and the label has since expanded to include five wines. The Agitate wines embrace a minimal intervention approach: unfiltered and unfined, they are “raw and textured,” in Ling’s words, yet “generally bottled in their youth” to capture their brightness and freshness, resulting in eminently gluggable wines.
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.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
2024 Finalist
Working from his family’s Yarra Valley vineyards, Alessandro Stefani’s journey is a testament to the powerful pull of heritage and land, with roots extending from the Yarra Valley to Tuscany across generations of his winegrowing family. His eponymous label, Alessandro Stefani, features a Cabernet Franc and a Sangiovese in its debut offering, launched in 2024, providing an alternate perspective on the family’s Stefani Estate Yarra Valley wines.
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.
Rutherglen
2009 Finalist
Victoria, Gippsland
2024 Finalist
In the verdant expanses of Gippsland, Alysha Moscatt and Lucy Kendall have woven a narrative of passion, perseverance, and connection to the land through their work at Allevare Wines. Their journey, rooted in a shared commitment to hands-on approach to in the vineyard and growing wines that echo the voice of each vintage, with a hands-off approach in the winery, unfolds a tale of sustainability, and community.
Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
2024 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 People's Choice
2021 Finalist
Sam Berketa has been at the helm of McLaren Vale’s Alpha Box & Dice since 2015, making a flotilla of eccentric wines, from deep investigations into skin contact on white grapes, to unusual blends, alternative varieties – and lots of them – to a “reverse ripasso” produced from a perpetual master blend that has seen every variety and every vintage added to it. Those wines are part of the Alphabet of Wine, an ongoing exploration of the possibilities that South Australian vineyards can offer, and Berketa is constantly pushing those possibilities to the extreme.
Tasmania
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Max Marriott’s Anim is the realisation of his dream to make wine in Tasmania from grapes he farms. While those vines are owned by others, that commitment to making wine from the ground up was never going to be compromised. He works mainly with pinot noir, with three reds and a rosé made, chardonnay and aromatic whites are also a feature, though a field blend of red and white varieties and a pét-nat made from grapes and Sturmer Pippin apples also cropped up in the 2021 vintage. Working organically (not certified) is the cornerstone for Marriott, with the work in the vineyards the biggest quality driver, and winemaking a thing he will talk about more reluctantly.
McLaren Vale
2018 Young Gun of Wine
2018 Top 50
2017 Top 50
2017 Best New Act
Rob Mack, inspired by a bottle of wine on an ocean cruise (true), sidestepped a promising business career to immerse himself in the far less reliably rewarding (financially, that is) world of wine. A shared obsession with food and wine with his wife Louise got the idea over the line, and their McLaren Vale brand,…
Adelaide Hills
2021 Finalist
David Caporaletti started Architects of Wine when an obsessive winemaking hobby spiraled out of control, necessitating a commercial release. Since then, Caporaletti has not looked back, with a deep investigation primarily of Italian varieties from vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, though he also sources grapes from the Clare Valley. The wines are firmly in the minimal-intervention camp, with minute additions of sulphur at bottling only, and are bottled without fining or filtration.
Yarra Valley
2013 Finalist
After a stint making wine on a more industrial scale left him somewhat cold, Kiwi expat Dave Mackintosh found a second home in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Launching his Arfion label in 2012, Mackintosh has defied easy description, making pure and classic single-site expressions of pinot noir and chardonnay to fermenting pinot gris as whole bunches…
NSW/ACT, South Australia
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Aristotelis Ke Anthoula is Tony Zafirakos’s homage to genuine garage winemaking, as his parents taught him growing up in Sydney. While not all backyard wine passes muster, theirs was one that was much loved by friends and family, which is all the more remarkable given that they never used sulphur. Today, the production has increased somewhat and the winery operations are shared between Zafirakos and Maddison Park-Neilson. There’s a growing number of amphorae in the winery, and the fruit source is no longer the produce market, but the philosophy of his parents continues to this day, with the aim to make high-quality wines with no additions that are not “too polished”. Sourcing fruit from across New South Wales and the Riverland, the wines range from skinsy, pulpy whites, pét-nats and juicy light reds, along with a take on Retsina and a vermouth flavoured with calendula and citrus.
Margaret River
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Arthur Wines is unusual, and potentially unique, in the Australian wine scene. Started by Tash Arthur in 2011, Arthur Wines is based in Rosa Glen, Margaret River, but there’s no cabernet or chardonnay there, rather she focuses on making fortified wines, some as modern reframings of styles that dominated the market way back in the mists of the early 20th century, and some as wines pitched to a new demographic. Today, Arthur Wines produce aperitif-style fortifieds, with white, red and rosé styles, which are made to serve over ice or be mixed, along with more classic wines, such as a barrel-aged muscat and a solera tawny.
Tasmania
2024 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Alice Davidson launched Aunt Alice from her home in Robe on the Limestone Coast in 2016, but since the 2022 vintage is now focused on Tasmania, making wines in the Huon Valley. What was a means of creative expression outside her more rigid winemaking day jobs has become somewhat more significant, though it will always remain decidedly compact, coupled with a core mission of environmental sustainability and social consciousness. With a focus on pinot noir and chardonnay, Davidson’s wines don’t adhere to any trends, subtly bucking both classic and fashionable norms.
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
Basket Range Wines is a label in two distinct halves, a generational split, and a somewhat harmonious one at that. Sholto and Louis Broderick make vibrant expressions from their family vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, while their father continues to make wines his way, as he has since the 80s. The brothers’ low-intervention, no-add wines…
Tasmania
2007 Finalist
McLaren Vale
2021 Finalist
Sam Dunlevy’s Berg Herring is a McLaren Vale label focused on the future, with a deep investigation into heat-tolerant Mediterranean varieties that are thriving in the warming climate, and a style built around earlier picking and minimal intervention to fashion fruit-forward wines that are pitched for wine drinkers – Dunlevy included – who are increasingly embracing bright styles made for earlier consumption.
Great Western
2011 Finalist
Alpine Valleys
2018 Top 50
2016 Finalist
Jo Marsh’s Billy Button Wines is an exploration of Victoria’s Alpine Valleys and the cultural influence that has seen them grow to be prime territory for many lesser known Italian grapes – amongst others. Marsh leaves no stone unturned, working with a dizzying range of varieties to make textured and deftly structured wines that speak…
Barossa Valley, Clare Valley
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
The Bink label is part homage to Koen Janssens’ heritage, with the prominent ‘B’ an echo of the bumper stickers of the late 20th century, denoting Belgium, but it’s also a flag for the type of wine you’re about to drink. Designed by Janssens, the hand-drawn labels steer the drinker down a path suggesting minimal intervention and unconventional styles. Janssens focus is on varieties that excite him, from established stars like riesling and grenache to those less familiar, like alicante bouschet and zinfandel, coaxing out vibrant and fun expressions that speak of place.
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
Dylan Lee was at a self-confessed crossroads before he was offered a job at Bird in Hand, in the Adelaide Hills. Coming off seven or eight consecutive vintages, Lee found himself working outside the wine industry, and he was seriously considering deviating further as he struggled to find winemaking work after the 2010 harvest. That…
Adelaide Hills
2016 Finalist
2015 Finalist
2014 Winemaker's Choice
2014 Finalist
It’s not common to see a tagline for BK Wines’ Brendon Keys that doesn’t mention that he’s a DJ and mad skateboarder (see, we did it too), but at his heart he’s one of this country’s (well, he’s a Kiwi, but he lives here) most progressive, creative and prolific winemakers. You’ll find plenty of classic…
Great Western
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Hadyn Black and Darcy ‘Ginger’ Naunton are Black & Ginger, a Grampians-based producer working out of local vineyards, including the fabled Malakoff Vineyard in the nearby Pyrenees. Black makes the wines and Naunton looks after the numbers, with the two living quite distinctly different lives. The label has focused on shiraz, the regional specialty, typically employing plenty of whole bunch and neutral oak, but in 2019 they added an orange muscat and riesling blend to the roster, as well as a nouveau-style grenache.
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.
Yarra Valley
2013 Finalist
Sally and Tom Belford’s Bobar wines have developed a dedicated following right from the first syrah back in 2010. The pair have somewhat defined natural wine in the Yarra Valley, without being defined by it. They work from their vineyard in Yarra Glen mainly with chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and syrah, making expressions that…
McLaren Vale
2020 Finalist
Bondar is Andre Bondar’s take on McLaren Vale seen through the eyes of someone who has a deep appreciation for the Northern Rhône, as well as long history of making wine in the cool climes of the Adelaide Hills. Working with classic Vale varieties, as well as some Italian interlopers, he makes wines that are…
Heathcote, Sunbury
2022 Finalist
Kirilly Gordon’s career has taken her from her Macedon home to wineries around Victoria and to Italy and France. As of 2021, she has looped back home, working at the vineyard the inspired her in the first place, Bindi. That role works in concert with her own label, Bowerbird Wines, specialising in shiraz and viognier, while Patch Wines is her most recent venture, a partnership to make fun, accessible wines that sprang out of the wreckage of Covid.
Great Southern
2018 Finalist
2017 Finalist
2017 Danger Zone
2016 Finalist
The spirit of Andries Mostert and Yoko Luscher-Mostert’s Brave New Wine is neatly captured in the name, a venture that joyfully tosses out convention in the aim of making wine that tastes good in surprising new ways, from fermenting grapes with native botanicals to low-alcohol skinsy affairs to fridge-able reds, and much, much more. With the vintage, exemplary parcels of fruit from Western Australia’s Great Southern and their flights of creative fancy the guides, the pair make an ever-changing catalogue of offerings that veer from the engagingly wild to the cheerfully gluggable. Young Gun of Wine finalists in 2016, the pair took out the 2017 Danger Zone with their botanically enhanced 2016 ‘Wonderland’ Riesling.
Hunter Valley
2022 Finalist
Alex Beckett started in the wine industry fresh from school as a means of putting himself through university. But falling for the industry and its people led him to shift his studies to winemaking, along with a head-first immersion into the wines of the world, with a lengthy stint in fine-wine shops giving him a global perspective. A swift rise to becoming the winemaker at Pokolbin star Briar Ridge in 2018 now seems him overseeing the making of classic, regional wines alongside emerging varieties, with both the traditional and the experimental treated with the same curiosity to make even more pure, subtle, layered and textured expressions.
Hunter Valley
2007 Finalist
Limestone Coast
2017 Finalist
South Australia, Mount Benson
Finalist
2024 Finalist
The Cape Jaffa Wines vineyard has been at the forefront of biodynamic practices in the Limestone Coast region, setting a benchmark for sustainable viticulture. At the heart of Cape Jaffa’s winemaking today are the talented Italian expatriates Giulia Fiorovic, who took the helm as head winemaker in 2022, and Federico Pezzino, who joined as winemaker in 2023. Their shared journey in winemaking began a decade earlier at the University of Oenology and Viticulture in Bologna. With the support of Cape Jaffa’s owner, Derek Hooper, Fiorovic and Pezzino have infused the winery with their inventive spirit, as seen in the creation of the ‘Aura’ range. This new lineup to the Cape Jaffa banner offers vibrant wines and emerging wine styles through winemaking exploration that can extend beyond the Cape Jaffa vineyard.
Tasmania
2023 Finalist
2023 Best New Act
Justin Folloso’s career direction snapped into vivid clarity at a Young Gun tasting in 2018. An epiphany with a Tasmanian pinot noir saw him pack his bags and head back to his home state, taking on winery work and travelling overseas to work in Burgundy and California. Today, while working for an iconic Tasmanian winery in his ‘day’ job, Folloso is crafting his own wines at his modest home facility. The launch of the brand comes in 2023, releasing two Coal River Valley pinot noirs from the 2021 vintage and a textural oak-aged sauvignon blanc from 2022.
King Valley
2023 Finalist
2023 Danger Zone
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Cavedon Wines is the third-generation manifestation of a pioneering King Valley vineyard, with Gabe O’Brien making micro-batches of wine to celebrate the hard work of his father-in-law over 40 plus years, who helped pioneer and then revolutionise grape-growing in the region. O’Brien is starting to do the same for winemaking, introducing styles less common in the district, including skin contact on white grapes, sparkling gewürztraminer, nouveau reds and bottle fermenting prosecco to make both col fondo and zero dosage wines.
Western Australia, Perth Hills, Swan Valley
2025 Finalist
2024 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Alexi Christidis named his label Chalari, meaning ‘relaxed’ in Greek, as part homage to his father and part mission statement for making unforced wines unbound by convention. From the origins of a ‘garage-like’ setup in the Perth Hills, Christidis now has a micro winery in Mount Barker, in the Great Southern, sourcing fruit from the Swan Valley and Frankland River, amongst other regions – with the range now spanning quite the gamut: from pinot noir, tempranillo and mataro, to riesling, to a lightly sparkling rosé, a pét-nat made from chenin blanc and skin-contact expressions of vermentino and viognier, while the tribute to his father continues with a take on Retsina made from Swan Valley chenin blanc resinated with Greek pine sap.
Heathcote
2020 Finalist
Bart van Olphen got lodged in Australia after a one-off vintage gig in McLaren Vale turned into an eight-year stint, before dropping anchor in Murray Darling, specialising in growing and making Italian varieties at Chalmers. He works across the main Chalmers range – including vermentino, fiano, greco, aglianico and sagrantino – as well as the…
Orange
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Nadja Wallington and Steve Mobbs met while studying winemaking in 2008, but then they went their separate ways, touring the world making wine. Both landing in Orange somewhat later, the pair made wine for others, before launching their own brands, then finally settling on a vineyard in 2020 to start their own ground up venture. Specialising in chardonnay, riesling, pinot noir and shiraz, the pair are making classically styled wines that emphasise the cool refinement of the region.
Heathcote
2015 Finalist
Victoria, Pyrenees
2023 Finalist
Charlie Mann traded in the recording studio for winemaking after a chance meeting with Owen Latta. An epiphany with one of Latta’s wines saw him ditch his long commute to take up work at Eastern Peake, where he still works. The Charles Oliver label was born in Mann’s second vintage, with 2023 being the fourth for the label. The offering is compact, focused on organic vineyards and earlier picking. Reds and whites both clock in at lower alcohols, with texture and fragrance uncluttered by oak, and are bottled with no fining or filtration and only a small dose of sulphur. The 2022 release saw two grenache cuvées and a syrah grenache blend, all from the Pyrenees.
Adelaide Hills
2021 Young Gun of Wine
2021 Finalist
2017 Finalist
Charlotte Hardy’s Charlotte Dalton wines were launched from the 2015 vintage, a semillon and a shiraz made in an unfussed lo-fi way. With a career making wine for some serious labels, these weren’t your classic new wave wines from Basket Range. They were a pivot from the norm, unbound but not wild, essentially personal expressions. Hardy’s wines are like that, made with technical understanding, but intuitively, a reflection of mood and moment.
Adelaide Hills
2021 Finalist
Aaron Fenwick’s Château Comme Ci, Comme Ça label is all about fun approachability, lo-fi wines made to be light on their feet, textural and engagingly drinkable. Working with semillon, chardonnay, pinot gris and merlot, he sources grapes from the Adelaide Hills – where he also co-owns The Summertown Aristologist. Working with growers who farm organically (though not all certified), he picks early to retain crunchy freshness, includes plenty of skin contact on the whites, building texture and flavour, and takes the reds off skins somewhat quickly to make zippy and poised expressions.
Tasmania, Hunter
2007 Finalist
Over the last decade or so, Jim Chatto has carved out a name for himself as one of this country’s finest winemakers. From grunt work in the Hunter Valley, Chatto showed his talent early and took on successive chief winemaker roles before simultaneously steering the great Hunter icon Mount Pleasant back into the limelight and…
Swan Valley
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Tom Daniel’s Chouette is a tribute to the Swan Valley – past, present and future. Working primarily with grenache and chenin blanc – the local heroes – he is seeking to preserve the heritage and the precious resource of old vines, while making styles that are distinctly modern. Bright and light to midweight, and with no additions, excepting a little sulphur, Daniel is busily sketching out a new future for the Swan with wines that are more suited to drinking in the hot local climate, and which are being eagerly taken up by Perth wine bars and restaurants that have historically shunned the region’s wines.
McLaren Vale
2011 Finalist
2010 Finalist
Barossa Valley
2015 Finalist
Canberra District
2010 Finalist
Back around the turn of millennium, Alex McKay drove countless miles sourcing fruit for a big wine company. And, like many before him, that experience proved invaluable when he launched his own label, Collector Wines. Armed with a mental map of soils, macroclimates, varieties and clones, McKay has taken Collector into the elite ranks in…
Adelaide Hills
2016 Finalist
2016 Best New Act
Jasper Button somewhat fell into wine. Starting with a thoroughly pragmatic approach to the family’s crop (which just happened to be grapes) from their Adelaide Hills property, Button was quickly ensnared by the wine bug after meeting Basket Range guru Anton van Klopper. A brisk education in natural wine, from growing to making, saw Button…
McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
James and Kimberly Cooter are both continuing their family traditions of winemaking under their Cooter & Cooter label, as well as for Kimberley’s family winery, The Hedonist. Both labels are built on McLaren Vale classic varieties, with grenache a particular favourite for the pair, while emerging varieties like fiano, tempranillo and sangiovese also appear on the roster. The wines for both labels lean to the midweight, with organic and biodynamic viticulture, earlier picking and a preference for large-format oak creating food-friendly wines to suit the Mediterranean climate.
McLaren Vale
2021 Finalist
Coriole has firmly etched itself into McLaren Vale consciousness, producing intense but serenely balanced wines from the region’s most prolific varieties – shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, grenache – but they have long been an innovator, too. Leading the charge with sangiovese in the 1980s, Coriole now make a raft of wines from heat-tolerant Mediterranean varieties – fiano, montepulciano, nero d’avola, piquepoul, for example – leaning on mid-weight styles that score high for drinkability and food friendliness. Today, joining his brother, Peter, and father, Mark, in the business, Duncan Lloyd has taken the winemaking reins, with “creative control” over the range.
Swan Valley
2019 Top 50
The Mann name is somewhat of a significant one in Australian wine circles. In fact, it’s about as a storied a moniker as there is, up there with Schubert and O’Shea. Jack Mann’s most famous creation, the game-changing Houghton’s White Burgundy was an enduring classic, which he made for 51 consecutive vintages. And while that…
Port Phillip
2010 Young Gun of Wine
2009 Finalist
The Crittenden name has chaperoned the winegrowing history of the Mornington Peninsula since the start, with Rollo Crittenden’s father planting some of the first vines and being responsible for countless innovations. Crittenden has taken that baton confidently, redefining new potential for the maturing region. In addition to tiers of both estate and regional chardonnay and…
South Australia, Barossa Valley
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Daniel Vladimir Zolotarev’s journey in the winemaking realm reflects a harmonious blend of tradition and innovation, deeply rooted in the rich terroirs of Barossa Valley. With an undergraduate degree in viticulture and oenology from the University of Adelaide, Daniel’s career trajectory has seen him take on roles from vineyard hand to a pivotal position at Curator Wine Co, where his collaboration with Tom White, the owner, has been instrumental. “We have about a 50/50 contribution between the both of us in terms of decision-making and processing responsibilities, from growing to bottling,” Daniel shares, highlighting the partnership’s balanced approach to winemaking.
Limestone Coast
2022 Finalist
Peta Baverstock’s is a sparkling wine specialist, with her Cuvée-Co Wines label an expression of classic styles, from traditional method vintage sparklings to col fondo prosecco and sparkling shiraz. Based on the Limestone Coast, she sources broadly from the zone, including Mount Gambier, Padthaway and Wrattonbully, working only with small parcels of fruit.
Yarra Valley
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
2018 Top 50
2017 Top 50
Shaun Crinion didn’t exactly grow up surrounded by a strong wine culture. Although today the Sunshine Coast does have an expanding wine-growing industry, that wasn’t exactly the case when Crinion was growing up in the ’80s. Sand, sunshine and the like were the order of the day, with the only vinous connection being his uncle,…
King Valley
2022 Finalist
Wedged between the Black Summer bushfires and the pandemic pushing into full bloom, Charles Osborne pitched in and launched Dazma Wine Company, with fruit sourced from Northern Victoria. That first release consisted of three wines, a vermentino, a shiraz and a field blend of some 13 varieties – including such exotica as kerner, muscat ottonel, ehrenfelser, scheurebe, siegerrebe and rotgipfler – that were picked and fermented together. His wines are all vineyard specific, and they are all very much in the lo-fi camp, with Osborne keen to make democratically affordable and enjoyable wines.
Yarra Valley
2020 Finalist
Chris Bendle made his first wine under his DCB label while working at Hoddles Creek Estate, in the Yarra Valley, under the watchful eye and with the active encouragement of winemaker Franco D’Anna. That was in the 2013 vintage, and only a few years into his now decade-long tenure at Hoddles as D’Anna’s right hand….
Yarra Valley
2010 Finalist
De Bortoli’s Yarra Valley winery has monopolised the impressive career of Sarah Fagan, with her quickly rising from a vintage job in her last year of study to managing the winemaking operations under Steve Webber. In that time, Fagan has helped steer the philosophy to push winemaking into the background and give site expression pride…
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.
Tasmania
2012 Finalist
2009 Finalist
To anyone familiar with the early years of Tasmanian wine, the Delamere name will be well known, as will the brand’s fading over time. But much has changed, with Shane Holloway taking over the site in 2007. He has expanded the plantings and is now making some of Tasmania’s finest expressions of chardonnay and pinot…
Riverland
2020 Finalist
Delinquente Wine Co. was born out of a lightbulb moment where Con-Greg Grigoriou, who had wandered far from the family business growing grapes and making wine, saw a possibility in his region that he hadn’t imagined possible. What followed was a deep investigation into varieties and methods that suited the hot climate of the Riverland….
Victoria, Grampians, Henty, Pyrenees, Swan Hill
2020 Finalist
2020 Danger Zone
Dhiaga is Justin Purser and Joyce Clery’s portal for expressing their love for Italian grapes, as expressed through Victorian vineyards and innovative winemaking techniques. The pair craft both recognisably classic expressions, as well as creative diversions, such as their dry, hop-infused Moscato that’s given gentle fizz through the pét-nat method. Justin Purser is perhaps best…
NSW/ACT, Central Ranges
2023 Finalist
Samuel Renzaglia developed the di Renzo range under his family’s eponymous wine label. That label is based out of their Bathurst vineyard in the O’Connell Valley, while the di Renzo wines are made from fruit sourced from prime growers across the Central Ranges. With an emphasis on early drinkability, Renzaglia picks earlier, aims for less extraction in reds and turns up the skin contact on whites, while neutral vessels are used for maturation. The wines see no additions bar a little sulphur, and they also have nothing taken away, being bottled un-fined and unfiltered.
Macedon Ranges
2020 Young Gun of Wine
2020 Finalist
2020 Best New Act
Dilworth & Allain is the budding label of Loique Allain and Chris Dilworth, launched in 2017. Based in the Macedon Ranges, they currently make a riesling, chardonnay and pinot noir from three vineyards, one of which they help farm organically. The wines reflect a desire to work as naturally as possible, while they convey site…
Hunter Valley
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2019 Danger Zone
Although Daniel Payne dabbled in the wine industry in the early 2000s, while studying to be a primary school teacher in Newcastle, it took until 2017 for him to launch his own label. That initial experience was in the Hunter Valley, with Payne growing up just outside the region. A love for wine was well and truly enshrined then, but a career as a primary teacher stood in the way for several years, before the lure became too great, and Daniel enrolled at Charles Sturt University to study winemaking.
Margaret River
2016 Young Gun of Wine
2016 Finalist
2014 Finalist
2013 Finalist
2013 Best New Act
The Margaret River story was somewhat heavily inked before Josephine Perry came along, with a brigade of iconic names holding sway. Emerging out of her Perryscope wine consulting business, Dormilona was given breath to elaborate the fruit that was coming off organic vineyards across the region. Her direction was to pick earlier, and to do…
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, 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.
Victoria, Heathcote
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Emily Kinsman’s ECK Wines is based out of her small vineyard and winery in central Heathcote, where she organically farms less than half a hectare of shiraz. That modest holding is supported by fruit – shiraz, chardonnay, pinot noir, marsanne, cabernet and riesling – sourced from across Heathcote and Mount Alexander, in the Bendigo region, with a greenfield site in Macedon recently purchased, which will soon be planted to vines. Originally a lawyer by trade, the pull of making something with her hands and a simpler, more connected life captivated Kinsman, and her wines follow that attraction, with a traditional approach, incorporating old, larger format oak and amphora, along with low sulphur additions and no fining or filtration.
Canberra District
2011 Finalist
Eden Valley
2021 Finalist
Edenflo is the culmination of Andrew Wardlaw’s extensive experience here and overseas, a label centered around celebrating the Eden Valley with wines that continue his fascination with native yeasts and minimal intervention that he’s been championing for two decades. His process has always been lo-fi, with basket pressing, no chilling or fining, and gravity employed over pumps, and he never does numbers in the lab. He was a pioneer, if you will, and his wines are very much still at the cutting edge, with unlikely assemblies of grapes, some skinsy, some not, as well as elegantly pitched takes on Eden Valley reds.
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.
Geelong
2020 Finalist
The name of Tash Webster’s Empire of Dirt label is part homage to the distinctive territory of the Geelong region and part reminder of tough times past. Webster makes a vintage sparkling, citrussy Bellarine chardonnay and a gamay and shiraz that are built to highlight the power and flesh the Moorabool Valley can bestow on…
Gippsland
2022 Young Gun of Wine
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Ryan Ponsford’s Entropy label is the result of him being diverted from a successful artistic career to making syrah, pinot noir, semillon and sauvignon blanc in Gippsland’s Baw Baw Shire. With a focus on organic growing and minimal-intervention winemaking, learnt working alongside Bill Downie, Ponsford is also in the process of resurrecting a derelict vineyard, which will form the future core of the Entropy wines.
Barossa Valley
2017 Top 50
2015 Finalist
Great Southern
2021 Finalist
Ryan O’Meara’s Express Winemakers will be a decade old in 2021, a somewhat mature business with a distinctly youthful vibe. Employing a minimal-intervention approach, and with no adds excepting enough sulphur at bottling to protect the wines, he crafts a range of Great Southern wines from organically farmed fruit that lean heavily on brightness, texture and sheer drinkability. And, with one of his original guiding principles firmly intact, they’re also democratically affordable.
Geelong
2007 Finalist
Nick Farr launched his Farr Rising label just after the turn of the millennium, stamping the already famous family name with an ambitious tag. In hindsight, that ascent now seems less presumptive and more a forgone conclusion with Nick now steering the winemaking for his label alongside the By Farr and Irrewarra labels (an Otway…
Victoria, Western Australia
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Callum Garland’s winemaking voyage, deeply rooted in his family’s Italian lineage, reaches a pivotal juncture with Fervor Wines, a label that marries tradition with a pioneering spirit. The first Fervor wines have been crafted in Victoria from Italian grape varieties, where Callum, leveraging his winemaking experiences from around the globe, embarked on a venture that’s a testament to his heritage and his passion for the craft. With the next step to be seen in a return to his West Australian roots.
Barossa Valley
2007 Young Gun of Wine
2007 Finalist
Matt Gant’s geography degree was spun off course when a wine-loving professor “contrived” a study trip to France to taste wine. That minor diversion led to a terminal detour for Gant, axing the maps and globes for vintages around the world, before settling in the Barossa and co-founding First Drop wines in 2005. The First…
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.
Victoria, Mornington Peninsula
2023 Finalist
Foxeys Hangout was founded by brothers Tony and Michael Lee in the Mornington Peninsula subregion of Red Hill. They work from their organic and biodynamic vineyard and winery to produce mainly chardonnay and pinot noir, along with pinot gris and shiraz. Chris Strickland has risen over the last decade and a half from a casual worker in the cellar door to now oversee both the viticulture and winemaking. His approach is a vineyard first one, leaning on a family history of horticulture and a whole raft of experimentation to make wines from the ground up, with principles of sustainability underpinning all aspects.
Adelaide Hills, Barossa, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Eden Valley
2020 Winemaker's Choice
2020 Finalist
2018 Top 50
2015 Winemaker's Choice
2015 Finalist
Steve Crawford’s wine career began before he could vote, but it took him some time to pitch his own label, wary as he was of just injecting another range, much like the other ones, into a saturated market. Extensive forays into Italy and France gave shape to a sensibility that changed that, and his alias…
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.
Mount Barker
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Galafrey is a legendary name in Mount Barker, a ground-breaking winery that many thought would drift out of family hands after the untimely death of its founder, Ian Tyrer. But, at only 25, his daughter Kim took up the mantle and is now the CEO and winemaker, producing classic renditions of Mount Barker riesling, shiraz and cabernet, while also taking a particular interest in müller-thurgau and whole-bunch fermentation for shiraz and pinot noir.
South Australia
2020 Finalist
Ansel Ashby launched his Gatch label in 2016 with a shiraz viognier and an eccentric blend of riesling, sauvignon blanc and pinot gris, with all but the riesling (Clare Valley) coming from the Adelaide Hills. And while he was super pleased with those wines, you won’t find Ashby spending too much time talking about variety…
Adelaide Hills
2014 Finalist
Gentle Folk was started by Gareth Belton from the 2013 vintage, with three barrels of wine made from Basket Range. Since then, a move to the Adelaide Hills initiated a steep educational curve to get to grips with biodynamic and organic farming and making wines in a dilapidated shed with no running water or electricity….
Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, McLaren Vale
2018 Finalist
David Geyer started his Geyer Wine Co. label while working for Pete Schell (2008 Young Gun of Wine), meshing a decade and a half of experience with a desire to make wines in an unfussed way, peeling back some layers and revealing new expressions from a patchwork of old Barossa sites he knew well. Geyer…
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.
Orange
2021 Finalist
2020 People's Choice
2020 Finalist
Will Gilbert is a sixth-generation winemaker, with his great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Gilbert responsible for planting some of the first vines in the Eden Valley in 1842. That legacy is honoured under the Gilbert label today, with a range of Eden Valley rieslings, but the core of the Gilbert operation is in Mudgee and the frosty climes of Orange, New South Wales, with a focus on riesling, pinot noir, chardonnay and shiraz with several bottlings of each, and made in a way that highlights purity and elegance.
Tasmania
2013 Finalist
2012 Finalist
2011 Finalist
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
Even though James Hamilton’s family had planted grapevines in Kuitpo, in the Adelaide Hills, and he had worked extensively as a winemaker in McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills, the trigger that led him to start his Golden Child label came in Portugal. A bottle of 2008 Niepoort ‘Charme’ in 2015, while holidaying in the…
South Australia, Riverland
2023 Finalist
Marcus Radny jumped from a stellar career as a sommelier into the winemaking game. That’s not much of a strange story, granted, but going from head sommelier at Vue de Monde to making cask wine is not that way the story normally unfolds. Radny’s Gonzo Vino specialises in modern wines of character and effortless drinkability, and all are packaged in electrically colourful and loud casks and cans. The fruit is sourced from Ashley Ratcliff’s Riverland vineyards, with low tannin reds and lightly skinsy whites joined by rosé and a pair of fizzy cans, one white, one rosé.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Having curated wine selections for elite Melbourne establishments like Grossi Florentino, Coda, Tonka, and King & Godfree, George McCullough developed a nuanced understanding of wine’s intrinsic link to gastronomy and terroir. His leap from an accomplished sommelier to a committed winemaker, from the dining room to the vineyard, underlines a profound commitment to the craft of wine. His intent with Gum Wine – launched in 2022, is to make fresh and savoury styles of wine, that are suited to food. The endeavour is centred on a vineyard in the Yarra Valley, but is complemented by wines sourced from Heathcote and Macedon vineyards. All wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Hugh Guthrie’s Guthrie label stands as a testament to the art of micro-batch winemaking, where each bottle narrates a unique tale of its provenance. From the his family’s Adelaide Hills farm, where the Guthries have been for five generations, he crafts his wines, working with the local knowledge of the top local growers and special pockets of the Adelaide Hills. His range showcases a thoughtful curation of the region’s classic varieties, enriched by more unconventional offerings, such as his Pinot Noir Syrah blend and a nuanced grüner veltliner. Guthrie’s approach is one of subtle innovation – his aim is not to overpower but to unveil the inherent narrative of each vineyard block and grape, letting the land’s voice resonate through his wines. This philosophy yields creations that are not just beverages but reflections of the Adelaide Hills’ diverse terroir, captured through a winemaker’s lens that values authenticity and a gentle guiding hand over intrusive intervention.
Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Riley Harrison’s own wine project started very small and stayed very small for quite some time, allowing him to focus on the detail. That patience has paid off, with the Harrison fruit now coming from some of the finest vineyards in the Barossa, McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills. Harrison makes a syrah, a grenache, a cabernet franc, a cabernet shiraz blend, a grenache mataro and a blend of grenache blanc and noir, while his lone white is a roussanne and grenache blanc blend that sees a judicious amount of skin contact before being raised in neutral oak, building detail and mouthfeel. His wines are approachable, bright and textural, with endless layers of refined detail.
Barossa Valley
2018 Top 50
2013 People's Choice
2013 Finalist
2012 Finalist
2011 Finalist
Lured over from the fine wine side of the game, Alex Head left behind roles in an auction house, wine merchant and importer to get his hands dirty in the rugged soils of the Barossa Valley. The first Head wines hit the market in 2006. His wines are Barossa through and through, but there’s a…
Yarra Valley
2012 Finalist
2010 People's Choice
2010 Finalist
2009 Finalist
Franco D’Anna was born into a family with fair wine credentials, having established and run one of Melbourne’s legendary wine stores since the 1960s. A childhood in wine retail blossomed into a career in winemaking when the family put down some literal roots in the cool of the Upper Yarra Valley in 1997. D’Anna uses…
Tasmania
2007 Finalist
If Joe Holyman was a slightly better cricketer, the wine game might just have missed out on his prodigious talents. Although being a wicketkeeper and a couple of years older than Adam Gilchrist may have made the ultimate achievement somewhat tricky. (Joe did, however, don the whites nine times as a wicketkeeper for Tasmania in…
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
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.
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.
Yarra Valley
2009 Finalist
2008 Finalist
Gary Mills was an early advocate of a boots and all approach with whole-bunch fermentation, making a significant impression of the possibilities for how shiraz could be made, while also celebrating sites and subregions that never typically graced front labels. His Jamsheed single vineyard wines represented a watershed moment in winemaking in Victoria, and his…
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.
Heathcote
2007 Finalist
Emily McNally makes the wine and tends the vines at her family’s iconic property, Jasper Hill. While McNally hasn’t strayed far from that Heathcote base, she has maintained projects – Occam’s Razon and Lo Stesso – that have given her voice outside the recognisable tones of that Victorian icon, while tweaking and fine-tuning their core…
McLaren Vale
2013 Winemaker's Choice
Ditching a career as one of this country’s most decorated sommeliers, James Erskine began crafting pithy, natural-leaning McLaren Vale Grenache in 2010. Since then, his Jauma label has become something of a touchstone for natural wines done well, and his soon to be planted Adelaide Hills vineyard promises to be profoundly exciting in the years…
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.
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.
Tasmania
2009 Finalist
-
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Juliard Wines, a burgeoning project rooted in the picturesque landscapes of Beechworth, Victoria, represents a fresh take on winemaking tradition. Launched with the 2018 vintage, this nascent label from Jules and Bernard Morey has quickly established itself by crafting classic wines with minimal intervention, all while nurturing its own fledgling vineyard where they have chosen to grow varieties such as grenache, mourvèdre, carignan, shiraz, cinsault and malbec. Operating from the revered Sorrenberg winery, Juliard’s lineup currently includes Shiraz, a GSM blend, Rosé, and Chardonnay, each telling a unique story of their terroir, with new climate-apt varieties to be seen from Juliard in the coming years.
Barossa Valley
2008 Finalist
2007 People's Choice
2007 Finalist
With a Barossan grape-growing heritage as deep as they come, Troy Kalleske was always destined to make his name in wine. But bucking the family history of contract growing, Kalleske made and labelled the first wines under the family name after nearly 150 years of growing, and he did so with organic fruit from their…
Clare Valley
The Vigneron
2024 Vigneron
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Andrew Kenny launched his Kenny Wine label in 2021, focusing on Clare riesling and Adelaide Hills pinot. With the purchase of a vineyard in the Clare subregion of Auburn, the 2021 vintage saw a home-site shiraz join the portfolio, while an old vine grenache and a sangiovese were added in 2022. 2023 saw the introduction of a collaboration from the Pfalz region of Germany – a ‘Kenny X Gabel’ Riesling, with more riesling and a pinot noir to be released under this label. Kenny’s wines are classic in style, expressions of variety and sites he believes excel for specific grapes, and it is in the Clare Valley that the range of wines offers a particular exploration of sub-regionality.
Geelong
2007 Finalist
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.
Clare Valley
2019 Young Gun of Wine
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
2018 Top 50
2018 Finalist
2017 Top 50
Damon and Jono Koerner are the second generation to run the family’s Clare Valley vineyard. And they have taken it from an exclusively contract operation to the primary fruit source of one of the most exciting young labels on the market: Koerner Wine. That fruit resource stretches back before Jono and Damon’s parents took possession…
Mornington Peninsula
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate are two of the Mornington Peninsula’s enduring stars. Glen Hayley took the Baton from Sandro Mosele as Chief Winemaker of both estates in 2015, and he has been subtly refining the classic Mornington offering of pinot gris, chardonnay, pinot noir and a little shiraz, with a specialisation in single-site bottlings.
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.
Margaret River
2018 Top 50
2018 Finalist
Nic Peterkin’s L.A.S. Vino was created in 2013, sandwiched between some pretty serious periods of study and travel. Today, it is one of Margaret River’s keenest of cutting-edge labels, mining the region for vineyard sites of singular interest, with a focus on sustainable and mostly organic viticulture. The wines are often built around experimental techniques,…
Granite Belt
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
A love of wine was fostered early in Andrew Scott’s career, although it took some years to take stubborn control of him. While racking up a formidable resume in restaurants in Adelaide, including a stint at The Chesser Cellar with Primo Caon and another with James Erskine (Jauma) at Augè – old-school and new-school legends right there – then in Noosa, Scott dipped in and out of education, with hospitality and, more significantly, wine eventually winning the tussle.
Langhorne Creek
2007 Finalist
Canberra District
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
2018 Danger Zone
2017 Top 50
2017 Finalist
Chris Carpenter grew up on the family vineyard, Lark Hill. And but for a science degree that got diverted to wine science, as well as vintages with Penfolds and Seppeltsfield, that’s more or less where he has remained. Working primarily with chardonnay, pinot noir, riesling and grüner veltliner from their cool site, as well as…
Frankland River, Great Southern, Margaret River
2007 Finalist
Larry Cherubino has worked for or consulted to some of the biggest names in the world of wine, but it is with his Cherubino label that he gets to explore the regions of Western Australia his way. Cherubino employs both traditional methods perfected over decades of winemaking, as well as throwing out the rulebook and…
Adelaide Hills
2022 Finalist
2022 Best New Act
Lauren Langfield’s approach to wine has always been vineyard first. Indeed, so has been her career, with a deep focus on organic and biodynamic viticulture taking her from New Zealand to Gippsland, then the Adelaide Hills, and now to McLaren Vale, where she has been appointed winemaker for Orbis, an operation built on sustainability at all levels. Langfield’s eponymous label kicks off with 2021 vintage wines, a merlot and a sauvignon blanc from the Hills made in the natural spirit but with broad appeal.
Canberra District
2024 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Nathan Brown’s Linear Wines is nearly as old as his winemaking career, making his first wines the vintage after he began working at Canberra’s Collector Wines in 2017. With an aim to play with as many alternate varieties as possible and reflect the great diversity of sites in and around the greater Canberra region, Brown’s relationships with grape growers throughout Canberra District, Tumbarumba, Hilltops and Gundagai is critical. He sources both classic and alternative varieties from his favourite vineyard parcels and makes the Linear wines in his recently converted helicopter hangar. The sense of connection to sites is a great driver for Brown, with winemaking very much in a classic mould, teasing out pure varietal expressions through the lens of the place.
Victoria
2024 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Erin Frances Pooley started making her own wine back in 2012, a semillon from California, no less. That wine was held back three years before release. Erin Frances Pooley began making her own wine in 2012, starting with a Semillon from California. This wine was held back for three years before being released. In 2020, after a decade in the US, Pooley returned home to craft wines from North East Victoria under her Little Frances label, complementing a catalogue of pre-Covid Californian wines. Today, the Little Frances wines are produced in Beechworth, with Pooley’s range focusing on bottlings of Beechworth fruit, alongside selections from further afield. All wines feature a lo-fi lean, yet they showcase a clear expression of variety, vintage, and site.
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.
Margaret River
2022 Finalist
2020 Finalist
LS Merchants was started by Dylan Arvidson as more of a hobby than genuine side project, mainly to feed his creativity and give his mates something different to drink. Today, Arvidson is full throttle with LS Merchants, making around 20 wines across a range of styles from more-or-less classic varietal wines to skinsy whites and pét-nats, and all made with light-handed winemaking and a spirit fuelled by unconventional thinking.
Yarra Valley
2008 Finalist
We’d hazard that there are relatively few Brisbane 14-year-olds that dream of being winemakers, but this was the solid ambition of a young Luke Lambert in the 1990s. That passion burnt strong, taking him to Europe to be immersed in travel, food and wine, before returning to study and slog towards the end goal of…
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.
Macedon Ranges
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Lyons Will is a small estate in the Macedon Ranges owned and run by husband-and-wife team Renata Morello and Oliver Rapson. Planted to chardonnay, riesling, pinot noir and gamay, the wines are as much expressions of variety as they are of the elevated, cold vineyard site and the traditional, manual winemaking.
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.
Yarra Valley
2010 Finalist
2009 Finalist
2008 Finalist
Mac Forbes has become one of the great champions of sub-regional expressions from the Yarra Valley. With a prime focus on chardonnay and pinot noir, Forbes set about mapping the intricacies of the Yarra through an array of prime sites that he leases and meticulously manages. The Mac Forbes wines also take in Germanic-feeling rieslings…
Victoria, Yarra Valley
2024 Finalist
Hannah Maltby began working for Mac Forbes Wines in 2017, taking the winemaking reigns in 2019. Maltby champions a winemaking philosophy succinctly captured in her “minimal intervention, maximum attention” mantra. This approach guides the production of a diverse range — with multiple bottlings of pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling at the core, alongside other Yarra Valley varietal mainstays and a freewheeling experimental ‘EB’ range.
NSW/ACT, Canberra District, Tumbarumba, Hilltops
Tasmania
2021 Finalist
Made by Monks is “a creative outlet” for Luke Monks, where he crafts an eclectic ensemble of wines from his Hobart base, with the emphasis taken off seriousness and placed on playfully challenging norms. With no set range, Monks has worked with chardonnay, pinot gris, gewürztraminer, riesling, syrah, pinot noir and semillon, often coupling them in non-traditional blends, and always making them in a lo-fi way. They’re statements of possibility in the Tasmanian wine landscape that is so dominated by classic styles from classic varieties.
Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
2020 Finalist
The Main & Cherry label is Michael Sexton’s ever-evolving canvas for creating micro-batches of distinctive wines. Working from his family vineyard in McLaren Vale and his parents’ vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, along with select growers, Sexton punctuates his broad portfolio of classic regional varieties with specialisations in sangiovese, tempranillo and pinot meunier. His wines…
Yarra Valley
2021 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2017 Top 50
Jayden Ong now has four lines in his stable of wines: One Block, Maison de Ong, Moonlit Forest and the eponymous Jayden Ong range. Launched in 2016, it is with his Moonlit Forest series that Ong gets to deeply explore experimental styles. While all of Ong’s wines employ minimal-intervention processes, the Moonlit Forest wines see extended skin contact, across both reds and whites, with the range also including a light red made for chilling and a vermouth.
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.
Canberra District
2020 Finalist
Mallaluka’s Sam Leyshon got his first experience of winemaking hands on, helping with his father’s rather consuming hobby vineyard near Yass. But that’s all it was when he was growing up – a hobby. Circling back to wine later in his 20s, that hands-on approach has stuck with Leyshon, who now crafts a range of…
Tasmania
Young Gun of Wine
2024 Young Gun of Wine
2024 Finalist
2022 Vigneron
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2021 Best New Act
Marco Lubiana launched his eponymous label from the 2018 vintage, making a chardonnay and pinot noir, which will remain his focus, with a gentle hand in the winery and tireless year-round work amongst the vines key to his approach. Those wines were made from the Lucille Vineyard, which had been recently purchased by his family and converted to biodynamic farming.
Tasmania
2013 Finalist
Barossa Valley
2007 Finalist
Mornington Peninsula
2020 Finalist
Matt and Tara have spent most of their winemaking careers on the Mornington Peninsula, with regular forays to France and Spain. And it was inspiration from one of those trips that saw their first names merged to form their Mattara label centred on what has become a bit of a calling card – rosé. The…
Tasmania
2018 Top 50
2017 Top 50
2017 People's Choice
After an injury sidelined a young Peter Dredge from his chosen sporting career, winemaking dropped a lifeline. A healthy tenure buried inside the Petaluma and then Bay of Fires machines provided a backbone for a career that became significantly more public when he launched his Dr Edge label and took on the winemaking duties at…
NSW/ACT, Hunter Valley
2023 Finalist
Starting in the wine game some 20 years ago on a low rung, cleaning out tanks, Aaron Mercer has since worked broadly in his beloved Hunter valley and around the world. Now in its fourth vintage, Mercer Wines is a blending of two of his greatest passions: wine and the environment. Working from sustainable vineyards across the state, the wines are built with approachable drinkability as a key driver, with varieties both established and adapted – such as chardonnay, semillon and shiraz – and those emerging – including nero d’avola, montepulciano and vermentino – to best fit our changing climate.
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.
Tasmania
2020 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
2018 Best New Act
It’s rare for a young winemaker to kick of their solo career with their own vineyard informing their wines, and it’s even rarer to have planted that vineyard themselves. Jonathan Hughes, with the help of his brother Matthew, did with the Mewstone vineyard and wine label. And this is no story of generational wealth at…
Barossa Valley, Geelong
2020 Finalist
Master Sommelier Jonathan Ross knows a little bit about wine. Before his recent foray into getting his hands dirty, Ross has been more accustomed to the crisply starched linen of some of the world’s best restaurants. Indeed, actually the world’s best. A New Jersey native, Ross worked his way along the familiar busboy-food-runner path in…
Central Victoria
2021 Finalist
Built around a core principle of sustainability and respect for the land, Minimum Wines is the brainchild of Matt and Lentil Purbrick. Taking over the management of a Purbrick family vineyard in the Goulburn Valley in 2016, they have restored the site with regenerative and organic (certified in 2020) practices to produce three key wines: a chardonnay, sangiovese and syrah rosé, and a red blend that uses the same varieties with a dash of cabernet. As of 2020, the Short Runs range delves deeper into Matt Purbrick’s experimental side, with no fining or filtration, plenty of skin contact on whites and minimal sulphur.
Victoria, Goulburn Valley
2023 Finalist
Minimum Wines started as a natural extension of Matt and Lentil Purbrick’s Grown & Gathered project, which was an exploration of living off the land, growing, foraging, hunting, cooking and making. Wine was always part of the picture – and not just because Matt is a Tahbilk Purbrick – with an organic and ultra-lo-fi approach. Scaled up, the processes aren’t quite so rustic anymore, thorough still decidedly lo-fi, with a foundation of organics, sustainability – along the whole production, supply and consumption chain – and environmental and social responsibility. Wines under the Minimum banner encompass the core range of a chardonnay, blended sangiovese and syrah red, and the same varieties in rosé form, while the Short Runs range allows for more creative expression, with skinsy whites, no filtration, low-sulphur offerings and pét-nats the general theme. Today, Leigh Ritchie has joined Matt Purbrick at the winemaking helm.
McLaren Vale
2014 Finalist
When the needle dropped on Bernice Ong and Julian Forwood’s Ministry of Clouds label they knew exactly what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it. With a focus on McLaren Vale but a reach that takes in the Clare Valley and Tasmania, the pair crafted wines that pitched towards mid-weight, loaded…
Victoria, Great Western, Pyrenees
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Doug Lilburne’s journey into wine started in kitchens in New York as a teenager, progressing through culinary school then to setting up a farm-to-table food program at a winery in Northern California. Winery work eventually drew him away from the stove, and vintages around the world followed. Now settled into his leased winery and vineyard in the Yarra Valley’s Steels Creek, Lilburne’s Mise en Place label focuses on home fruit and organic vineyards in the Pyrenees and Great Western to currently make a syrah, syrah and touriga nacional blend, and a syrah rosé. The winemaking is manual and traditional, with only sulphur added, and not always. The first release was in 2022 with wines from the 2021 vintage.
Western Australia
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
Mon Tout (‘my everything’) is a collaboration between Richard Burch and Nic Bowen, with fruit sourced across Western Australia. Coming from a notable winemaking family (well, they both do), Burch had the enviable resources of his family’s Howard Park Wines – which has vineyards and growers in regions celebrated, emerging and re-emerging – when he founded the brand a decade ago. That label has evolved considerably and will continue to, with Bowen coming on board in 2021. The key drivers are a spirit of adventure coupled with eschewing winemaking inputs, aside from sulphur for stability, with natural balance achieved in the vineyard. A pinot gris, gewürztraminer and riesling blend, a chardonnay, a rosé, a light and two red blends with varying combinations of pinot noir, syrah and grenache make up the offerings.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2023 Finalist
Jordan Hein is a first-generation and largely self-taught winemaker, taking the plunge into his own label and winemaking facility early in his career. Based in McLaren Vale in an environmentally sensitive collaborative facility, he makes a dozen or so wines from across South Australia, partnering with sustainable and organic growers who focus on regenerative agriculture. The wines are built on experimentation, but they don’t often stray into wildly polarising areas, nuanced with alternative methods but still centred on variety and place. The range includes a pét-nat, bright cinsault, pulpy unfiltered white, textural riesling, and a structured and a bright pinot noir, among others.
Grampians, Pyrenees
2010 Finalist
2007 Finalist
South Australia, Eden Valley
2024 Finalist
In the Eden Valley sub-region of High Eden sits Mountadam Vineyards. With initial plantings established in 1972, the vineyard has been nurtured by the Brown Family since 2015, with Caitlin Brown at the helm as the winemaker. Here, across 147 hectares of vines, the focus is on crafting wines that truly express the High Eden terroir. The range of varietal wines Brown makes are quintessential to the region, where the intent is on purity of fruit and a transparency of site.
Geelong
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Mulline is Ben Mullen’s solo venture, focusing on sites across the broader Geelong region. Fresh out of a stint as the winemaker at a regional headliner, Mullen was keen to continue his relationship with the grapes of the region, but on his own terms. Mulline was born in the 2019 vintage, with classically elegant single-site expressions of pinot noir, syrah and chardonnay and a barrel-aged sauvignon blanc leading the way. Today, that venture has grown, with the Mulline brand becoming a Geelong leading light.
Adelaide Hills
2017 Young Gun of Wine
2017 Top 50
2017 Finalist
2016 Winemaker's Choice
2016 Finalist
2015 Winemaker's Choice
2015 Finalist
2014 Finalist
Before taking the reins at the family vineyard, Michael Downer learnt from some of the finest makers, both here and abroad. He now works from the Murdoch Hill home vineyards, near Oakbank, but also sources higher into the Adelaide Hills for cooler expressions, which inform his cutting edge Artisan Series wines. In a nod to…
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’.
King Valley, Macedon Ranges
2022 Finalist
Phoebe Grant launched Nature of the Beast barely out of here teens, unveiling a compact but serenely mature suite of wines from the 2020 vintage. Those wines were made from chardonnay and nebbiolo, a rosé, which are varieties that are the cornerstones of her family’s Beechworth vineyard, Traviarti, though grant sources fruit from the Macedon Ranges and North East Victoria. A barbera joined the ranks in 2021, with all wines made with texture and savoury interest as the mainstays.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2023 Finalist
After studying and undergoing on-the-job apprenticeships across all facets of the wine industry, Iain Baxter landed back at his family’s Adelaide Hills vineyard. Originally planted to cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, merlot and pinot noir, sangiovese, touriga, nebbiolo and montepulciano were added to better suit the changing climate, but all that changed after the 2019 bushfires. With the vineyard almost totally destroyed, the Baxter family saw an opportunity, and it was replanted to even better suit the climate. In anticipation of those emerging varieties coming online, Baxter has been crafting wines from the Hills and Limestone Coast from emerging varieties, including grüner veltliner and lagrein.
Adelaide Hills
2010 Finalist
Almost 20 years old now, Erinn and Janet Klein’s Ngeringa is a true Adelaide Hills pioneer. The pair were growing certified biodynamic fruit, fussing with it little in the winery and employing minimal sulphur right from their first viable crop. They were ‘natural’ well before many early adopters had vines of their own, yet alone…
Victoria
2020 Finalist
Noisy Ritual was born out of a chance discovery in a Melbourne rental house in 2014. From bucketing shiraz grapes down the driveway to a fully operational multi-purpose facility, it has grown to become the yardstick for urban wineries in this country. Winemaker Alex Byrne and Cam Nicol, who handles the events side of things,…
Victoria, Bendigo
Finalist
2024 Finalist
Ben Schulz Dahlenburg, winemaker at the family-run Eldorado Road winery since 2016, embarked on a solo venture in 2017 with Nomads Garden. This label represents a vibrant divergence from the tradition-bound family vineyard, allowing Schulz Dahlenburg to explore a broader canvas of varieties and terroirs across North East Victoria. Nomads Garden is a celebration of singularity and creativity, offering a collection of single vineyard, wild ferment wines that are both intriguing and financially accessible. The lineup boasts unique offerings like a Pinot Meunier, a Skin Contact White, a Pinot Noir, and a ‘Durif Nouveau’, each telling a distinct story of place and process.
Macedon Ranges
2021 Finalist
After having travelled the world making wine, Etienne Mangier settled in the Macedon Ranges, a place that he likens to the Jura region of France, where he grew up. Now with two small vineyards under his management, and without recourse to any chemical treatments, he makes both still and sparkling wines under his North label. The wines, working with chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz, are made without any additions – including no sulphur.
Yarra Valley
2020 Finalist
Oakridge is one of this country’s most respected cool climate producers, with Chief Winemaker David Bicknell especially lauded for his contribution to the revolution in Australian Chardonnay, and the mapping of some particularly distinguished vineyards through single-site bottlings, but Oakridge has also fostered a wealth of exceptional talent as senior winemakers, like Beechworth’s Adrian Rodda….
Mornington Peninsula
2011 Young Gun of Wine
2011 Finalist
2010 Finalist
2009 Finalist
2008 Finalist
With an adolescence and early adulthood spent working (while not studying) at his family’s game-changing Kooyong estate on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Mike Aylward was only heading in one direction. A science degree had to get knocked off first, but his first vintage, a lone pinot gris, was released under the Ocean Eight banner a year…
Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale
2013 Young Gun of Wine
2012 Finalist
Working out of the Basket Range, Taras Ochota is one of the pioneers of Australia’s natural wine movement. Dissatisfied with the status quo, he took familiar expectations and smashed them in exciting ways. Leading with Grenache, Ochota dialled back the ripeness to give it a transparency, fragrant detail and savoury edge that was revelatory at…
McLaren Vale
2007 Finalist
Emerging out of the Penfolds winemaking graduate program, then going on to spend some considerable time working in the Southcorp machine, while also inadvertently becoming somewhat of a poster child for the Parker-driven American fascination for South Australian red wine, it would be easy to make some assumptions about the kind of wines Corinna Wright…
South Australia, McLaren Vale
2023 Young Gun of Wine
2023 Finalist
After years working in vineyards and consulting on organics, biodynamics and regenerative agriculture, Lauren Langfield first made wine for her eponymous label from the 2021 vintage. It was also the same year that she took on the winemaking role at Orbis Wines. Winemaking is a fraction of what she does there, though, working with consultant viticulturist Richard Leask to grow in a truly sustainable, regenerative way. There’s much more on her to-do list, too, with Orbis founded on principles of sustainability that ripple through every part of the business and beyond. With McLaren Vale classics planted, there is also a slew of Mediterranean varieties coming online to join the already productive trousseau and tempranillo. Langfield has taken the wines in a brighter and more drink-now direction, along with adding new lines that embrace vibrant immediacy.
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.
Victoria, Pyrenees, Yarra Valley
2023 Finalist
Pacha Mama Wines was started by Callie Jemmeson’s father over a decade ago, but she has taken what was a retirement project and turned it into a brand that works with ten varieties sourced from as many growers across Victoria. Her mission is to make wines that are “delicious and honest without the ego and pretence”. The structure at the winery was also crafted to be flexible, allowing for both her and female colleagues to juggle the demands of a family and a winemaking career. With no absolute rules in the winemaking process, Jemmeson makes both classic and experimental wines, working with established stars, such as pinot noir, shiraz, chardonnay and pinot gris, along with a raft of Italian varieties, including prosecco, sangiovese and fiano.
McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Charlie Seppelt and Skye Salter have both had diverse and decorated careers as winemakers, recording stints at notable wineries all around the world, but it is in their beloved McLaren Vale that they have settled down to make their wine, their way. Paralian celebrates distinguished sites in the Vale and the Adelaide Hills, with styles that are fragrant, bright and emphasise both early drinkability and age-ability.
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.
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
2024 Finalist
Launched in 2021, the Parley Wines range – owned and made today by Sarah Feehan and Melissa Gray – offers around 10 wines that defy the traditional paradigms of the regions they’re sourced from. Their wines in glass are as playful and approachable as the abstract geometric art that adorns each bottle. Sourcing grapes from across the Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek, and Coonawarra, they also breathe new life into a 1-hectare old vineyard in the Basket Range of Adelaide Hills. This carefully crafted collection from Parley Wine encapsulates the vibrancy of classic South Australian wine regions through a non-traditional lens, offering a fresh take on winemaking for wine enthusiasts and novices alike.
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.
Coonawarra
2022 Finalist
2022 Danger Zone
Luke Tocaciu has terra rossa soil in his blood, growing up in Coonawarra. His career path was never in doubt, with his winemaking travels leading him back to the family vineyard, Patrick of Coonawarra, a little over a decade ago. Today, while “heritage” styles are still a large part of the business, he is pushing the boundaries with his Méthode range, which celebrates different sides of cabernet sauvignon – including one laced with eucalypt character and another made in a gulpable nouveau style – as well as giving riesling the skins treatment.
McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
After more than a decade working in Italy, Ashleigh Seymour came to work at McLaren Vale biodynamic pioneer Paxton in 2021. Now with three vintages under her belt, her magnetic attraction to the Vale – with its complex geology, Mediterranean climate, rich community and industry-leading commitment to organics and biodynamics – has seen her make it her long-term home. Seymour is employing large-format oak and amphora, while limiting winery additions to sulphur, and then only what is needed to be protective across the range that includes Vale hero varieties – shiraz, grenache, cabernet sauvignon – as well as those emerging, such as tempranillo and graciano, with more in the pipeline.
South Australia
2007 Finalist
Coonawarra
2021 Finalist
Penley Estate is one of Coonawarra’s most celebrated producers, with a firm underpinning in cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. It is a pillar of the region, and it’s a classic region at that – conservative, some would say. But, with a rethink of the operation in 2016, the Penley ship was turned in a different direction, embracing change and experimentation, while still remaining respectful of its roots. Lauren Hansen works alongside head winemaker Kate Goodman to refine Penley classics, as well as to dramatically reframe possibilities with their project wines.
Tasmania
2023 Finalist
Pipers Brook Vineyard is nearing its fiftieth anniversary, having long ago confirmed its icon status in Tasmania. Playing to the island’s strengths, pinot noir and chardonnay for still and sparkling wines are a key thread, with aromatic whites arguably playing just as important a role. Today, Sudeep Parial manages the winery under the direction of Luke Whittle, shaping the classically styled wines across four ranges.
Bendigo
2007 Finalist
Heathcote
2022 Finalist
Pool Wines is a collaborative effort from a quartet of childhood friends who turned a fun hobby into a serious endeavour, making lo-fi, sulphur-free wine from their simple winery in Kyneton. Sourcing fruit locally, the emphasis is placed on the traditional varieties grown in Heathcote – shiraz and cabernet – and surrounds, but the fruit is picked earlier, and new oak is never used, while vermentino and moscato giallo from Chalmers gets the skins treatment.
Tasmania
2014 Finalist
2009 Finalist
Anna Pooley has a had a career that has attracted somewhat of the spotlight, with her skills and determination taking her to some very senior roles at a young age. With a return to the family business, Pooley Wines, she has taken a world of experience and a palate honed on the great wines of…
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.
Victoria, Mornington Peninsula
2024 Finalist
Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate are two of the Mornington Peninsula’s enduring stars. Tim Perrin took on the role of chief winemaker of both estates in 2023, where he gets to demonstrate his understanding of chardonnay and pinot noir across some of the Mornington Peninsulas most recognised vineyard sites.
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.
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.
Yarra Valley
2016 Finalist
Yarra Valley
2017 Finalist
A viticulturist is a bit like the drummer in a band. They’re a key foundation, but usually kept well out of the limelight, letting the winemaker talk about how “wine is made in the vineyard” and somehow taking all the glory at the same time. Stuart Proud is a farmer first and foremost, and one…
Pyrenees
2020 Finalist
Pyren, in Victoria’s Pyrenees, is now overseen by Leighton Joy, both son and nephew of the founders (brothers). He has diverted the more traditional line of the estate down one that tinkers with experimentation, from working whole bunch and carbonic maceration into their classic varietal wines to spinning the creativity wheel in the Little Ra…
Mornington Peninsula
2022 Finalist
Tom McCarthy is a second-generation Mornington Peninsula winemaker. Indeed, he’s from almost Peninsula royalty, being the son of Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy, pioneers of pinot grigio, friulano and skin contact in the region, amongst other achievements. Making wine at the family business, Quealy Winemakers, McCarthy also has his label, Kerri Greens, with Quealy vineyard manager Lucas Blanck. From skinsy whites from Italian grapes to elegant and poised expressions of Peninsula star varieties – chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot gris – he oversees a vast collection of wines.
Tasmania
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
2019 Top 50
Carland’s choice of the name Quiet Mutiny for her own label is a metaphor of sorts. Having spent much of her career making wines for numerous clients – she was a Senior Winemaker with Winemaking Tasmania (the largest contract winemaker in Tasmania) for 12 years – Carland slipped away from her role in 2016 to pursue wine her way, to show what she sees in Tassie fruit through her unique lens. A classic riesling gains complexity from skin contact and wild fermentation, while pinot noir from the Derwent Valley sees a quarter of the fruit left as whole bunches. Carland also makes wines under the Laurel Bank label, which is her family’s vineyard in Granton that they planted in 1986.
Eden Valley
2008 Finalist
Eden Valley
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Belinda Hughes only officially joined her husband, John Hughes, at the helm of Rieslingfreak from the 2021 vintage. In reality, she had been intimately involved in the operation for five years prior. The excellent 2021 vintage, though, was a good time to formalise her role making riesling in a dizzying array of styles – from dry to sweet to sparkling to fortified – across the Clare and Eden Valleys. Now with three vintages under her belt, and beautifully cool ones at that, Hughes and her husband are overseeing the building of a new cellar door in Tanunda, while the range of wines has expanded, including an overdue foray into the Clare subregion of Watervale.
Clare Valley
2018 Top 50
2017 Winemaker's Choice
2017 Top 50
Perpetually afforded the tag of Australia’s nicest and most affable winemaker, John Hughes also has a very serious side, with a slavish obsession to his favourite grape, riesling. Hughes’ Rieslingfreak imprint has been steadily redefining that noble grape, bending it into all manner of shapes, and making perfect sense at the same time. His wines…
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.
Tasmania
2023 Winemaker's Choice
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Keira O’Brien started Rivulet Wines in part to attempt to save Tasmania’s oldest commercial riesling planting and in part to express her sense of creativity, which was being stifled in her contract-winemaking day job. Over the vintages released, the portfolio has ebbed and flowed, with availability of the right fruit a key driver in her range. In 2022, she became the winemaker at the iconic east coast vineyard Freycinet, juggling her brand and one of Tasmania’s most vaunted. The Rivulet range consists of cross-regional pinot noir and a pair of single site offerings, with a single site chardonnay, barrel-fermented sauvignon blanc and a sylvaner filling the roster of wines, though a riesling will come back into the range from the 2023 vintage.
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.
Barossa Valley, Riverland
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Jack and Tash Weedon’s Rollick label is built around the bright, drink-now styles of wine they love to drink themselves. Working with grenache, shiraz, cabernet franc and viognier from the Barossa, riesling from the Eden Valley and fiano from both the Clare Valley and the Riverland, the fruit is picked earlier to retain freshness, while less time in oak or tank has much the same impact. The Rollick wines are instantly recognisable wines of variety and place, but with the vibrancy and freshness dials wound to maximum.
Barossa Valley
2012 Young Gun of Wine
2012 People's Choice
Although Abel Gibson’s connection to the Barossa and tradition runs deep, his Ruggabellus label has given convention a good hard shake. Working with sites that enable him to preserve freshness by picking earlier, his reds see varying levels of whole bunch inclusion, and the whites undergo extended skin contact. Neither see any new oak. Aside…
South Australia
2011 Finalist
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.
Tasmania
2020 Finalist
2018 Winemaker's Choice
2016 Finalist
Gilli and Paul Lipsombe’s quest to make the finest new world pinot noir and chardonnay they possibly could led them to the extreme viticultural south of Tasmania, in the Huon Valley. Along the way, they won a Jimmy Watson at one of their day jobs and helped tune the viticulture at the vaunted Chatto at…
Victoria
2021 Finalist
2021 Danger Zone
Dave Verheul is a chef, and a celebrated one at that, but he’s also one of the leading lights in Australia’s burgeoning vermouth movement, producing micro-batches of his Saison vermouth that are based on pure, singular flavours and built with organically farmed local produce. Starting as an inhouse offering for his Melbourne restaurants – Embla and Lesa – the steel clamp of 2020’s lockdowns gave him enough breathing space to properly launch his range, with a second pair of vermouths – ‘Blackcurrant Leaf’ and the second edition of ‘Summer Flowers’ – following in 2021.
McLaren Vale
2024 Finalist
2022 Finalist
Saltfleet is a collaboration of two McLaren Vale winemakers, Kyle Egel and Jonny Cook. Both have solid day jobs, working at Rycroft and Wirra Wirra respectively, with Saltfleet founded in 2021 as their creative outlet. They debuted with an old vine grenache and a touriga nacional made from the 2021 vintage, both in neutral, large-format oak and both with no additions bar a low dose of sulphur, with subsequent releases adding a mataro and a sangiovese to the lineup, with a fiano and a chenin blanc to come from the 2024 vintage. The focus for Saltfleet is mediterranean grape varieties that thrive in McLaren Vale.
Barossa Valley
2014 Young Gun of Wine
Working exclusively with shiraz from the revered Hoffmann Vineyard for his label, Sami-Odi, Fraser McKinley has reframed the possibilities of what Barossa wine can be. Sourced from small plots of vines (some significantly old), which he tends with organic principles, his wines are made using only whole bunches, with no adds bar a touch of sulphur. Blending across sites, barrels and even vintages, McKinley remakes the puzzle of components in surprising ways, creating wines that tell stories of time, place and people. He was crowned Young Gun of Wine in 2014.
Heathcote, Yarra Valley
2014 Best New Act
Adrian Santolin’s winemaking as much as his work ethic is informed by his Italian heritage and long hours working amongst the vines of the arid Riverina district, the irrigated food bowl of New South Wales. The tug for cool climate fruit and more elegant styles saw Santolin head to the Yarra, where his brand was…
South Australia, Adelaide Hills
Finalist
2024 Finalist
From the family vineyard In the Piccadilly Valley subregion of Adelaide Hills, at altitude close to 600m, Harry Scanlon of Scanlon Wines is carving out his niche with two new Pinot Noirs added to the family label in 2022, with the intent of crafting distinct pinot offerings from the family vineyard.
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.
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
Scout is the trans-Tasman “wine child” of Sarah Adamson and Greg Lane, named after the narrator in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, that literary reference may seem a little odd for a wine brand, but in the book, Scout observes carefully and questions rather than just going with the flow. This is the…
Tumbarumba, Alpine Valleys, Beechworth, Macedon Ranges, Yarra Valley
2020 Finalist
Sentio is the Beechworth based solo project of Chris Catlow, a Chardonnay-centric endeavour sourcing from prime regions across Victoria. The wines are classic, racy and textural, with regional differences to the fore. A Beechworth pinot noir and eclectic red and white blends – with variety giving way to style and place – also get a…
Grampians
2009 Finalist
2008 Finalist
Yarra Valley
2017 Top 50
2014 Finalist
2012 Finalist
2011 Finalist
Dylan McMahon now helms the estate planted by his grandfather in the 1970s. Seville Estate may not be family-owned anymore, but McMahon is the respectful custodian of that family history, with an unwavering eye to carrying the estate name forward to even greater heights. With a natural focus on the regional stars, chardonnay and pinot…
Victoria
2007 Finalist
Adelaide Hills
2007 Finalist
McLaren Vale
2022 Finalist
Alex Sherrah’s career path was not always headed down the wine path, but his organic chemistry degree was useful as a building block to complete a winemaking diploma. That was after a vintage in McLaren Vale in the early 2000s that saw him fall for the work and the people. A practical apprenticeship for the next decade and a half followed, with his SHERRAH label lunched in 2017. Today, his focus is firmly Vale-centric, with both familiar varieties and those emerging getting equal airtime, while expressions range from elegant takes on the classics to a skinsy white, pét-nat and zero-sulphur red.
Barossa
2014 Finalist
With his eponymous label, Tom Shobbrook shook up wine in this country in the nicest possible way, but he certainly shook it up good. As a natural pioneer, he’s never been one to jam dogma down anyone’s throat, instead he’d just look you straight at you with his smiling blue eyes and tell you exactly…
Canberra District
2021 Finalist
Jacob Carter’s Sholto wines are made to reflect the familiar in an unfamiliar light, taking classic varieties from the Canberra District and making them in decidedly non-classic ways to reveal surprising new dimensions. Whether employing skin contact with sauvignon blanc or carbonic maceration with cabernet sauvignon, Carter is constantly redefining the wines of his region, never making the same variety the same way twice.
Margaret River
2013 Finalist
Si Vintners was started by Sarah Morris and Iwo Jakimowicz in 2006, but it was a move to their own Margaret River vineyard and an immersion in biodynamic farming that was the turning point for the pair. Working with the region’s classic varieties – chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, semillon, sauvignon blanc – as well as some…
Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley
2021 Winemaker's Choice
2021 Finalist
Dan Graham’s Sigurd has been helping to redefine the Barossa Valley since 2012, with fruit picked earlier to capture freshness, then made with a minimal-intervention approach and no additions bar sulphur at bottling. Now also working with grapes from the Riverland, Adelaide Hills and Clare Valley, Graham makes varietal wines – chardonnay, riesling, chenin blanc, carignan and syrah – as well as complex white, rosé and red blends, with judicious amounts of whole bunch and skin contact employed to create complex, complete wines that are as focused on elegant flavour as they are on texture and structural detail.
McLaren Vale
2021 Finalist
Charlie O’Brien’s Silent Noise label is over five years old now, with the first wine from 2015 made with the help of his father at the family winery, Kangarilla Road. The younger O’Brien wasn’t yet in his final year of school when those grapes were picked and crushed, but there was no holding him back. Today, with experience gained from near and far, he’s taken the winemaking reins firmly, making wines from McLaren Vale star varieties, as well as alternative Italian grapes grown in the Riverland, with ample experimentation in the winery never getting in the way of pure drinkability.
Rutherglen
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
2016 Finalist
2015 Finalist
With a range that covers significant territory, from the Alpine and King Valleys to Beechworth, Glenrowan and Rutherglen, Simon makes wine from all five of the North-East’s regions.
Mornington Peninsula
2022 Finalist
The old saying goes that “it takes a lot of great beer to make great wine”. Well, for Sam Hambour and Duncan Gibson, they certainly have a consistent supply of the frothy stuff. Co-founders and owners of Hop Nation Brewing Co., Hambour and Gibson are winemakers by trade, and with the brewing side successful established, winemaking has come back into the frame. With five vintages under their belts, the pair make a range of wine from fresh glou-glou styles to more mediative selections both from their base on the Mornington Peninsula and across Victoria.
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.
Tasmania
2020 Finalist
James Broinowski turned out his first wine under the Small Island Wines imprint from the 2015 vintage, from Glengarry in the north. That wine went on to considerable wine show success and he was quickly talked about by some of the top critics as a maker to watch. That pinot was also the first Australian…
McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Based in McLaren Vale, Somos is the label of Ben Caldwell and Mauricio Ruiz Cantú. The pair work primarily with less-known Italian and Spanish varieties, and they make them in entirely unconventional ways, with a lo-fi and sustainable ethos.
Tasmania
2023 Finalist
Luke Andree kicked off Sonnen Wine in 2020, releasing a riesling and pinot noir. That came when he was spending most of his time out in the open, tending the vines for Mewstone in Tasmania’s south. Although a side project at the time, the Sonnen label has grown to occupy much of Andree’s time, with a range that meanders through different approaches, with new takes on classic varieties and eccentric blending to achieve modern styles of wine that lean towards bright drinkability with an emphasis on unpretentiousness and good times.
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.
Margaret River
2022 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2019 People's Choice
In the quest for knowledge beyond the familiar and that gleaned off the page, partners Liv Maiorana and Mijan Patterson embarked on an experience-gathering world wine trip in 2013, taking in vintages in California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, as well as in the South of France and Tuscany and Sicily. That trip crystallised in them a desire to launch their own label based in Margaret River, and one that knit into both the approaches they had seen to viticulture and winemaking, as well as the cultural connection with wine-growing. The idea for South by South West then started to germinate…
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
Spider Bill Wines is the culmination of Tarrant Hansen’s abandonment of a budding career in research medicine to follow a path in wine. The passion for grapes took Hansen from Queensland to the South Australia to study, then subsequently around the world to refine his craft. Today, his Adelaide Hills label sees chardonnay and pinot…
Barossa Valley
2008 Young Gun of Wine
2008 Finalist
At a time when the Barossa was very much still set in its ways, with high ripeness, glossy oak and power the order of the day, Pete Schell was quietly but firmly rattling the dominant paradigm with his Spinifex wines. And this was long before some of today’s most recognisable iconoclasts had even thought about…
Grampians
2017 Top 50
2014 Finalist
2011 People's Choice
2011 Finalist
While Rory Lane may have a story for each wine he makes, he freely admits his wine background is far from storied itself, with the history side of his ledger somewhat blank. This has certainly not stood in his way, though, with a keen eye for uncovering remote and forgotten vineyard sites of exceptional pedigree…
Bendigo
2018 Top 50
2018 People's Choice
2017 Top 50
Melanie Chester had squeezed an awful lot into her winemaking career when she took the helm at the highly regarded Sutton Grange Winery in 2015, with a wake of accolades and high-quality experience trailing behind her. She was only 26. Since then she has worked tirelessly to further enhance an already stellar reputation built by…
Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Sven Joschke’s wines are lo-fi, and with no adds except a particularly small dose of sulphur when they go to bottle, but that’s not to say they aren’t purposeful with clear directions in mind, as he says, “minimal intervention, made with intent”. With only a few years of winemaking under his belt – after fleeing a corporate career as an accountant – Joschke hit the ground running, now making wines from the Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek and the Barossa, as well as in the Jura, France.
Orange
2020 Finalist
Swinging Bridge is the premium label that fronts the Ward family’s grape-growing enterprise in the chill climes of Orange, New South Wales. Tom Ward, recognising the immense potential of their site and the broader region, reworked their approach to growing from a commercial mindset to one that prioritised quality and character over yield. Today, Ward…
Eden Valley, Langhorne Creek
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
2017 Top 50
2017 Finalist
2013 Finalist
Not everyone would trade in their only form of transport for a tonne of pinot noir grapes. Thankfully, in 2010, Vanessa Altman waved goodbye to her Nissan Pulsar and welcomed the first fruit into what would become her own project, Switch. Having worked at the organic pioneer Temple Breuer (certified organic way back in 1995,…
Heathcote
2009 People's Choice
2009 Finalist
2008 People's Choice
2008 Finalist
Chef-turned-sommelier-turned-winemaker Adam Foster has carved out a significant identity for himself, both making Rhône-inspired reds under his Syrahmi imprint and bone-dry, textural rosé and savoury sangiovese under his co-lab Foster e Rocco label. Once somewhat itinerant, Foster has now set down roots in Tooboorac at the southern end of Heathcote, where he has planted a…
Barossa Valley
2007 Finalist
Kangaroo Island
2023 Vigneron
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
The Stoke brand is a tribute to the largely untapped potential of Kangaroo Island as a premium wine-growing region. Nick Dugmore makes wines that are expressive of the relatively cool, wind-swept vineyards of KI, with a focus on lighter to midweight styles with food and conviviality in mind. The leased Cassini Vineyard now provides the bulk of the fruit for the label, with Dugmore farming the site regeneratively side by side with his father.
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…
Yarra Valley
2012 Finalist
2011 Finalist
2010 Finalist
Although now firmly at the tiller of his family’s Gembrook Hill vineyard, Andrew Marks’ label The Wanderer aptly describes his prior travelling and winemaking ways. Marks continues the tradition of fashioning elegant and refined chardonnay, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc and sparkling wine from the cool Gembrook Hill site in the Upper Yarra Valley, as well…
Yarra Valley
2013 Finalist
2012 Finalist
Syd Bradford’s Thick as Thieves label is just a decade old, but it is a firm star of the new wave of Yarra Valley makers. Somewhat tirelessly, Bradford has sourced the fruit from across the Yarra and North east Victoria, made the wines, bottled, marketed, sold and delivered them himself. And when he hasn’t been…
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.
Yarra Valley
2024 Finalist
2023 People's Choice
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Tillie Johnston’s path to making wine started in the Yarra Valley, then widened into a busy global arc, but was always tracking back to where she started. With experience at some of the finest wineries across Australia and overseas – focused on regions that echoed the Yarra’s climate – Johnston now tends her own block of pinot noir vines in Gruyere, launching her eponymous label from the 2020 vintage with a lone pinot noir, crafted from the ground up to be bright, fruit forward and handled lightly in the winery. In 2021, a chardonnay entered the portfolio, which was unsurprising given it is arguably the region’s star variety. Vintage ’22 saw a rosé added, plus a Langhorne Creek Project grenache, while a 2023 Aligoté from King Valley is the newest addition to the lineup as Tillie J searches for more delicious sources of Burgundian varieties.
Barossa
2015 Finalist
2014 People's Choice
Over his career, Ben Chipman has worked with some of the Barossa’s legendary names, and its biggest characters. With a bright-eyed approach and compelling sense of energy, Chipman has soaked up a lifetime of experience while moving from marketing man to hands-on winemaker. His lithe and vibrant Tomfoolery wines, built on both Barossa stalwarts and…
Macedon Ranges
2022 Finalist
Travail Wine Co. is the fledgling family wine business of Jordan and Lauren Barham. That label began in the 2021 vintage, with a piquette made from Macedon Ranges pinot noir pomace and a fiano from Heathcote. The following vintage will introduce new wines from a leased vineyard in Carlsruhe, which Lauren will be making with the aid of the local wine community after Jordan’s untimely death.
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.
Margaret River
2020 Finalist
2019 Winemaker's Choice
2019 Top 50
2018 Top 50
2017 Top 50
2017 Finalist
Hailing from Cape Province, South Africa, Remi Guise came to Margaret River in 2007 to visit, and hasn’t, as yet, made it back. The following year, he took on an entry-level role with Naturaliste Vintners, and is now the Senior Winemaker under Margaret River legend Bruce Dukes. And as fine an operation as that is,…
Adelaide Hills
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Turon White has not strayed far from his beloved Adelaide Hills, excepting experience-gathering vintages interstate and abroad, with the rich diversity of the region and the pristine fruit quality ideal for the elegant yet intense wines he makes under his Turon Wines label. With chardonnay, pinot noir and gamay to the fore, White takes a minimal-intervention approach, but his wines are in a classic mould, expressing variety, site and season with bell-clear clarity.
Tasmania
2020 Finalist
2018 Finalist
2017 Finalist
2016 People's Choice
2016 Finalist
A local who sought education and experience on the mainland, it wasn’t long before Ricky Evans returned to Tasmania to take up a role at Bay of Fires (good breeding ground that – Peter Dredge, Fran Austin…) and launch his own micro-project that ended up taking up a macro amount of time. Starting with a…
Hunter Valley
2016 Finalist
Chris Tyrrell, a fifth-generation winemaker, is the custodian of one of this country’s most revered wine estates and a legacy that stretches back to the mid-19th century. It’s a big mantle, and one he took on in his early 30s after a hands-on apprenticeship with two of the Hunter’s most revered winemakers and under the…
Adelaide Hills, Riverland
2015 People's Choice
2015 Finalist
Brendan and Laura Carter are the duo behind the ground-breaking Unico Zelo winery and Applewood Distillery in Gumeracha, in the Adelaide Hills. Working with both local grapes and those sourced a little farther afield, they have recalibrated the potential for new varieties and even unglamorous sites like few before them. Nero’ d’avola, fiano, barbera, dolcetto,…
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.
Western Australia, Margaret River
2024 Finalist
In Margaret River, Rhys and Emma Parker have cultivated a distinctive approach to winemaking with Vallée du Venom, intertwining regional heritage with a flair for the contemporary. Their collection, adorned with labels that have an electro-punk aesthetic, boasts a dozen wines that combine Margaret River classics with avant-garde offerings like pet nats, chenin blanc, and chilled reds. This eclectic range, all sourced from local vineyards, reflects the Parkers’ innovative spirit. Central to their operation is the development of their ‘Urban Micro Winery’ in the northern Margaret River town of Dunsborough, and their Cellar Door ten minutes away at Yallingup Galleries.
Margaret River, Swan Valley
2019 Top 50
2019 Best New Act
Rhys Parker and his best mate, Paul Hoffman, have had remarkably similar career paths. The pair grew up as neighbours, both filling in pocket money gaps with work at Paul’s parents’ winery in the Swan Valley, a wild and semi-abandoned affair that Paul’s dad, Peter, bought in 1986 and pulled back from the brink. Although…
South Australia, McLaren Vale
2023 Finalist
Alan Varney’s journey has taken him from a childhood just outside of New York City around the world, eventually landing in McLaren Vale for a decade before settling down for good on the edge of Adelaide’s southern suburbs with McLaren Vale on his doorstep. His first solo wine was made with a tonne of fruit a decade or so ago, but it was from the 2017 vintage that he started to build a suite that would be released a couple of years later. Varney makes wine across four ranges, with some limited release and experimental wines, a pink gin, and the Entrada wines (bright everyday wines for the table) orbiting around the Essentials range, with classic and emerging varieties featuring. All the wines are pitched to feature variety and site at the fore, with only old oak employed.
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.
Beechworth
2017 Top 50
2016 Finalist
Tessa Brown’s career as a viticulturist and winemaker has taken her around the country and the world. But after an extended stint on the Mornington Peninsula, a greenfield site 11 kilometres outside of Beechworth saw her and her partner tip all in, launching Vignerons Schmölzer & Brown. Working with their fledgling vines and also sourcing…
Heathcote, Mornington Peninsula
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Vino Intrepido is a natural continuation for James Scarcebrook’s long-term connection with Italian wine, from fine-wine retail and extensive wine-focused travel to wholesaling some of Italy’s best wines. His range, which was launched in 2016 with two wines, has grown to include a suite of Italian varieties, including sangiovese, nebbiolo, fiano and nero d’avola. The grapes are all sourced from Victorian vineyards, then made in a way that takes inspiration from traditional Italian methods but is carefully tuned to be sympathetic to the natural expression of individual sites and seasons.
Swan District
2020 Finalist
Garth Cliff spent 20 years making wine across Australia and in the US, with a decade at Houghton before striking out on his own with partner Kristen McGann. And while many a Western Australian winemaker would feel drawn to the glamour regions, like Margaret River, Cliff was most passionate about the deeply unfashionable Swan District….
Adelaide Hills
2020 Finalist
With the acquisition of a home vineyard, Vinteloper has evolved from a label cherry picking fruit from various South Australian regions into a roster of wines that reflect their home in the Adelaide Hills, Alyson Tannenbaum now pulls the winemaking levers in David Bowley’s operation, crafting everything from their Adelaide-Hills-centric White Label range (which still…
South Australia
2012 Finalist
2011 Finalist
Margaret River
2007 Finalist
Central Ranges
2020 Finalist
Steve Mobbs heads up Wallington Wines, overseeing the organic farming and making their wines, as well his experimental incursions using Wallington fruit, which appear under his Dreaded Friend label. While the biodynamic Wallington wines are classic expressions from a warm pocket of the Central Ranges, in New South Wales, Dreaded Friend takes the same fruit…
Mount Benson
2024 Finalist
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Mount Benson’s Wangolina is increasingly becoming a canvas for Anita Goode’s fascination with alternative varieties, though the classic French grapes of cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, semillon and sauvignon blanc still get plenty of airtime. Aside from grüner veltliner, which is a cherished grape for Goode, the varieties and future plantings are Italian and Spanish, with some red grapes sourced from Mundulla, with the warmer inland climate favouring lagrein, montepulciano, mencia and tempranillo. Goode’s wines champion the less-known varieties through pure expressions, but an increasing interest in experimentation, with more egg-shaped fermenters in a recently completed winery are seeing the boundaries pushed in interesting ways.
Beechworth
2023 Finalist
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
Weathercraft is the realisation of Raquel Jones’ long-held dream to make wine from her own fruit. A project where the growing takes precedence, and the making simply follows. Eventually landing in Beechworth on an established vineyard, she makes elegant takes on local stars – chardonnay, shiraz, cabernet – but has replanted to map a future that is occupied substantially by Spanish varieties, principally tempranillo and albariño.
Tasmania
2020 Finalist
Hugh McCullough’s Wellington & Wolfe label (named after the famous British generals) is a nod to a career in history left to gather dust while he forged ahead with an all-consuming love of wine. That love is democratic, with McCullough personally embracing all styles, but he has a special passion for riesling, and his Tamar…
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.
Victoria, Yarra Valley
2023 Finalist
Dale Wheeler left a more certain career path in advertising to go all in with winemaking, moving to Melbourne and enrolling in a winemaking course. That spirit of adventure led him to take on a vineyard lease with a friend while they were both still studying. That was no easy path, but it gave him a firm appreciation of ground-up winemaking and a deep connection to the nuances of the Yarra Valley as well as connections to its best growers. Today, Wheeler Wines focuses on the great Yarra standards of chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet, along with a very de rigueur chillable red, while the 3P25 label sees a portion of the profits donated to a children’s medical charity. Whole bunch for reds, barrel ferments, and no additions apart from sulphur are the general rules, with variety, site and season given primacy.
Adelaide Hills
2013 Finalist
2012 Finalist
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.
Macedon Ranges
2021 Vigneron
2021 Finalist
2020 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2019 Finalist
2018 Top 50
Ben Ranken has been tirelessly restoring his Wilimee vineyard, which is one of the Macedon Ranges oldest. Converting the vines to being dry grown, while implementing organic practices (not yet certified), his focus is on chardonnay and pinot noir planted to two distinct soil types – granite and Cambrian – with two varietal wines currently made that are reflective of site and farming, with winemaking taking a backseat. Ranken also matures bottled pinot noir underwater for five years – a shipwreck-inspired endeavour.
Victoria, Gippsland, Yarra Valley
2008 Finalist
2007 Finalist
William Downie is this century’s original enfant terrible of wine. Well, in Australia at least. A cheerful iconoclast that scythed through convention long before lo-fi winemaking had taken a firm grip on the emerging generation of makers. With a broad smile and a self-deprecating manner, Downie forged his own path of minimal intervention with scant…
Heathcote
2023 Finalist
2021 Finalist
Jean-Paul Trijsburg farms a small pinot noir vineyard in the Ballarat region for his Jean-Paul label, while also sourcing fruit from across central Victorian vineyards, making diverse styles, from vermouth, to red pét-nats, to a carménère and a more classic offering of pinot noir and cool climate syrah. Year on year, the range has expanded, with even more cuvées planned for the 2023 vintage.
Clare Valley
2008 Finalist
2007 Finalist
Wines by KT was started nearly a decade and a half ago on impulse. An opportunity to buy some excellent Clare Valley fruit saw Kerri Thompson jump from her corporate winemaking role and go it alone. Since then, Thompson has helped to redefine riesling in this country, with a drilling down on specific sites and…
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.
Margaret River
2010 Finalist
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.
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.
McLaren Vale
2022 Finalist
2021 Finalist
2019 Top 50
2017 Top 50
2015 Finalist
2015 Best New Act
Year wine was founded by Luke Growden and Caleigh Hunt to celebrate McLaren Vale through their lens, with minimal-intervention techniques and a focus on bright approachability, purity and a vibrant reflection of the year that shaped the wines – hence the name. A key player in the grenache revival in the Vale, Year Wine also specialises in climate-apt varieties like fiano and cinsault.
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.
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