The fourth annual Vineyard of the Year Awards has named Australia’s best vineyards, with the judging panel selecting 41 vineyards that best exemplified the values of sustainability, innovation, provenance and growing great wine.
The awards began in 2020 by the team behind Young Gun of Wine and to judge the awards, a group of leading experts including Prue Henschke, Dr Kerry DeGaris, Richard Leask, Dr Colin McBryde and Max Allen reviewed all the applicants to arrive at the list of 41 top winegrowers.
“I can’t believe we’re into the fourth year of these awards, and I can’t believe we’re still talking about Australia’s winegrowing community facing unprecedented challenges,” said Allen.
“The pandemic might be over, the bushfires and floods may have receded, but there’s still plenty to worry about: uncertain weather patterns, global oversupply, rising costs and dwindling returns, structural imbalance and poor industry governance – the list goes on.
“That’s why the vineyard of the year awards – in my humble opinion – are so important. They provide shining examples of innovative ideas, leading-edge practice, and sustainable business. Collectively, they offer a ray of hope: by highlighting regenerative viticulture, by championing our best growers and viticulturists and vignerons, we can remind ourselves that growing grapes and making wine is a long-term game that requires resilience and optimism and ingenuity – all of which are on display in the list of this year’s top growers.”
Henschke added: “It’s through uncovering and sharing the stories found with these top vineyards and growers, that we can promote change. Promote change to better care for and regenerate the environment as well as broader sustainability – communities and other industries are connected to winegrowers, so they have a social and economic impact too.
“Congratulations to the achievements of these vineyards. They are leading the way.”
The 41 top growers 18 from South Australia, nine from Victoria, seven from New South Wales/ACT, four from Western Australia, and three from Tasmania.
The winners (in alphabetical order) are:
South Australia
- Alkina Wine Estate, Barossa Valley (Johnny Schuster & Amelia Nolan)
- Ashton Hills, Piccadilly Valley (Jose Neves & Anton Groffen)
- Cape Jaffa Wines Vineyard, Mount Benson (Hamish Stevenson)
- Castine-Morella Vineyard, Clare Valley (Ben Castine & Jess Smythe-Castine)
- Dallwitz Block Vineyard, Barossa (Adrian Hoffman)
- Inkwell Vineyard, McLaren Vale (Irina Santiago-Brown)
- Koomilya Vineyard, McLaren Vale (Stephen Pannell)
- Land of Tomorrow – Grindstone Vineyard, Wrattonbully (Susie Harris)
- Longview Vineyard, Adelaide Hills (Chris Mein)
- Ngeringa – Summit Vineyard, Adeliade Hills (Erinn Klein)
- Orbis Wines Vineyard, McLaren Vale (Macca Mackenzie, Brad Moyes & Lauren Langfield)
- Paxton Wines – Thomas Block Vineyard, McLaren Vale (David Paxton)
- Penley Estate, Coonawarra (Hans Loder)
- Smallfry Wines – Vine Vale Vineyard, Barossa Valley (Wayne Ahrens & Suzi Hilder)
- Starrs Reach Vineyard, Riverland (Sheridan Alm)
- Stonegarden, Eden Valley (Glen Monaghan)
- Wirra Wirra Vineyard, McLaren Vale (Jose Neves & Anton Groffen)
- Yalumba – The Tri-Centenary Vineyard, Barossa Valley (Jana Shepherd)
Victoria
- Chalmers Heathcote Vineyard, Heathcote (Troy McInnes)
- Crittenden Home Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula (Rollo Crittenden)
- Glenhope Vineyard, Macedon Ranges (Scott Harrington)
- Gorton Drive Estate, Swan Hill (Chris Dent)
- Lakeside Vineyard – Lake Moodemere Estate, Rutherglen (Joel Chambers)
- Portsea Estate – Main Ridge Vineyard, Mornington Peninsula (Matt Lugg)
- Foxeys Hangout – Scotsworth Farm, Mornington Peninsula (Chris Strickland)
- Syrahmi Home Block Vineyard, Heathcote (Adam Foster)
- Yarra Yering, Yarra Valley (Andrew George)
New South Wales/ACT
- Barwang Vineyard, Hilltops (James Bowman & Scott Douglas)
- Freeman – Altura Vineyard, Hilltops (Brian Freeman)
- Brokenwood – Graveyard Vineyard, Hunter Valley (Katrina Barry)
- Keith Tulloch – Field of Mars Vineyard, Hunter Valley (Brent Hutton)
- Stockman’s Ridge Wines, Orange (Jonathan Hambrook)
- Topper’s Mountain Vineyard, New England (Mark Kirkby)
- Vinden Wines Somerset Vineyard, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley (Angus Vinden)
Western Australia
- 467 Twenty Four Road, Margaret River (Claudia Gant)
- Gralyn Estate, Margaret River (Scott Baxter)
- McHenry Hohnen – Hazel’s Vineyard, Margaret River (Simon Keall)
- Riversdale Vineyard, Frankland River (Larry Cherubino, Jonno Reeve & Dwayne Loitering)
Tasmania
- Mewstone, Tasmania (Alex McLean)
- Stargazer – Palisander Vineyard, Tasmania (Bryn Williams)
- Small Wonder, Tasmania (Wayne Nunn & Dylan Grigg)