For 25 years, the AAVWS has been a forum for wines that fall outside the mainstream. AAVWS

I spent the last week in tropical northern Victoria, specifically in Mildura, where I had the good fortune to be invited as international guest judge to the 25th Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS). Serendipitously, fellow contributor to The Real Review, Melissa Moore was also there to judge the show.

The AAVWS originated from the Sangiovese Awards initiated by Stefano de Pieri and Bruce Chalmers, along with the late Dr Rod Bonfiglioli, in 1999. The following year, it was called the Australian Italian Wine Show and in 2001, it was renamed the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show. The Chalmers family, who run the most diverse vine nursery in Australia, are still heavily involved in the show and the movement, with both of Bruce’s daughters, Kim and Tennille Chalmers part of the organising team. In the earlier years, it used to include New Zealand wine, but that stopped a while ago and there hasn’t been anything to take up the torch for New Zealand since.

For 25 years, the AAVWS has been a forum for wines that fall outside the mainstream. It also incorporates social and educational events such as the post-show conference called Talk and Taste. This year’s edition included talks about Cava by Kate Laurie of Deviation Road, a viticulture panel led by Liz Riley of Vitibit and a panel on NoLo (no and low alcohol wines) led by chair of judges Leanne Altmann while showing technical wines from Pia Merrick (Australian Vintage), Nigel Sneyd MW and Aaron Milne (Edenvale).

Over the years, the show has helped spread awareness and acceptance of varieties which are now very much a mainstay of Australian wine, like pinot gris/grigio and glera/prosecco. Fiano is the latest success story, as was evident by the broad range of styles and high entry-numbers of the variety this year, many of which showed regional distinctions. The same is on the horizon for sangiovese, nero d’avola and montepulciano, all of which have developed distinctive Australian styles.

The 789 entries this year spanned 69 regions and 98 grape varieties, making the judging classes the most diverse I have ever seen in a wine show. This poses unique challenges for judges, particularly when it comes to benchmarking and the elucidation of quality. Leanne Altmann had made it clear that the European classics, though useful as signposts and for inspiration, should not restrict what is explored in Australia. The aim is not to make facsimiles of European wine but to grow and craft Australian wines using these varieties. This was more evident in some varieties than others, such as fiano and nero d’avola, both of which had developed their own personalities and flavour profiles.

The Rod Bonfiglioli Wine of Show 2025 went to Hahndorf Hill Gru Grüner Veltliner 2024, which also took Best White Wine and Best of the Rest. Best Red Wine Award and Best Italian Red went to Orbis Wines Nero d’Avola 2024. The Viticulturist Award went to Jeff Flint of Wangolina. The exciting Provenance class was of very high quality, with the award going to Crittenden’s Cri de Coeur Savagnin Sous Voile (they entered their 2020, 2013 and 2011).

Leanne Altmann awarded the Chief of Judges Wine to Watch award to the delicious Bloomfield Mencia 2024, and I gave my International Judge’s Wine to Watch award to Chalmers Mother Block Skin Contact 2025, a field blend from their nursery mother block. This year also saw the introduction of a new award to recognise Helen Healy for her amazing contributions as show manager, having supported the event since its inception. Helen started this year’s show as Mayor of Mildura and finished the show in a different role as Deputy Mayor (as an aside, it’s the first time I’ve ever been received at a wine show at the airport by a mayor!). The inaugural Helen Healy Award for Excellence went to Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards.

But that’s not all… to celebrate their 21st anniversary, the show commissioned wine writer Max Allen to write a book about the show and the movement which has grown around it, called Alternative Reality. The book, published in 2023, was recently awarded Best New Wine Book at the Australian Wine Communicator Awards 2025. Awards all round and a fitting way to celebrate the show’s first quarter century.

Millton Vineyards in Gisborne. Milton Vineyards

“After more than 41 vintages, we have chosen to retire both the vineyard and ourselves and now look forward to spending more time with our family” – Annie Millton.

The 2025 vintage will be the last made by The Millton Vineyard. This marks the end of 41 years of farming which pioneered organic and biodynamic farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, flew the flag for top-quality wines in Gisborne and inspired the next generations of farmers and winemakers in the country.

James and Annie Millton established The Millton Vineyard in 1984 on the banks of the Te Arai river in Manutuke. Annie’s father, John Clarke, was already a grape grower, having established his vineyard, Opou, in the 1960s. James Millton started making wine (albeit fruit wine) against school rules when he was in boarding school at the age of 14.

The couple went on their wine pilgrimage to France and Germany where they were first witnessed the culture of organic winegrowing. Upon returning to Gisborne, they worked at John’s Opou vineyard and started experimenting with organic farming techniques while learning as much as they could about organic viticulture. By 1983 they had replanted significant portions of that vineyard in new varieties focused on quality— again, influenced by their time abroad—chardonnay, riesling, gewürztraminer, pinot noir and chenin blanc. The next year would see them establish their own vineyard with a firm stance of organics and biodynamics, achieving organic Biogro certification in 1989 and Demeter biodynamic certification in 1990.

The crown jewel of the estate was planted a short distance away on their ‘grand cru’ slope, called Clos de Ste.-Anne after Annie Millton. It started with the core of chardonnay and pinot noir which was already planted in 1980, and they added a bit more pinot noir as well as chenin blanc, syrah and viognier in 2001.

These would rise to the top of the winery’s portfolio with each of the four sections given an additional moniker, Naboth’s Vineyard, for the original plantings of chardonnay and pinot noir, The Crucible for the syrah, Les Arbres for the viognier and La Bas for the chenin blanc. For a time, there were also more vineyards which bore the name of family members: Clos Monique for their daughter (now making wine at Manon in the Adelaide Hills) and Clos Samuel for their son (who made wine at Millton for a time before moving to Wellington to pursue tertiary education).

The Millton Vineyard was also a southern hemisphere pioneer of biodynamics, being part of an exclusive group of estates started by Nicolas Joly’s La Renaissance des Appellations. James often quoted Joly’s “Before a wine can be great, it must first be true” and he was one of the first in the country’s wine industry to raise awareness of the scientific work which had occurred in the mycorrhiza. Another of his favourites is “We stand on the roof of another kingdom” referring to the complex and essential role played by the mycorrhizal network in plant ecology, communication and health, a field we are still learning much about.

James and Annie Millton. NZ Winegrowers

The Milltons provided the proof, encouragement and advice to successive generations of winegrowers that organic and biodynamic farming was not only viable, but by their huge success nationally and internationally showed that it was capable of producing top quality wine.

The winery was also early in the adoption of sulfur-free and non-interventionist winemaking, being part of the small group who identified with the natural wine movement of Europe. They released an amber wine without sulfur or adjustments from gewürztraminer under the Libiamo name in the early 2010s and proceeded to expand their natural wine program to include other white varieties, fermented on skins for varying lengths of time from a month to more than 220 days, utilising clay amphorae for fermentation and ageing.

James had left the business a few years ago, with Sam continuing to work at the family’s winery until he departed for Wellington. The business consolidated its vineyards and released a smaller set of wines up to and including the 2025s. They remain inspirational wines and will no doubt become more collectible now that production has ceased. Those who have bottles in their cellars will hold a key piece of Aotearoa’s vinous history.

Annie sums it up well:

“While this chapter closes, the spirit of The Millton Vineyard remains alive. Over the decades we have cared for the land we have farmed, and now we leave it in a better state for future generations. The Millton Vineyard leaves behind a legacy of innovation, authenticity—an enduring contribution to New Zealand’s wine story.”

Coravin is all about serving wine by-the-glass. Coravin

Coravin, the wine preserving system that has taken the world by storm since its invention in 2011, has launched a guide to restaurants that excel at serving wines by the glass (BTG).

In a canny move by the gadget’s inventor Greg Lambrecht, restaurants, bars and other wine venues around the world are identified on the website.

It’s a logical move as Coravin is all about serving wine by-the-glass. With the global trend towards increasing health-consciousness, and the desire to limit alcohol consumption, it makes sense. Also, wine drinkers today are more than ever wanting to experiment, to mix it up, maybe even try a different wine with each course of the meal.

The promotional gambit is “Too often, people feel they need an occasion to open a special bottle when out, or they miss out on exploring because a full bottle feels like a commitment”.

Coravin commissioned independent research this year which showed 50.39% of the more than 1,000 respondents in the UK and Australia were ordering more wines by the glass than two years ago. In Australia, the figure was 54%. This was across all age-groups from 25 years upwards. The biggest motivators were the desire to try high-end wines without committing to a full bottle, and simply exploring different wines.

As one who often needs to resort to a BTG wine, and is often disappointed by the small and limited selection available, I can see great benefit for Coravin in promoting establishments that do a lot of BTG—especially those that use the Coravin to do it.

Open the online guide and you find there are individual tabs for Sydney, Melbourne, London, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Sydney tab gives you brief descriptions of 22 recommended venues.

Quay gets a 3-wineglass rating for over 60 wines by the glass.

Nomad in Surry Hills gets a 2-glass rating for more than 40 wines BTG.

Attenzione! of Redfern gets a one-glass rating for more than 20 wines BTG.

There’s a click-through to each establishment’s by-the-glass list.

There are 33 venues in Melbourne in the guide, 99 venues in London, seven each in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Presumably, the Coravin Guide will offer tips for more cities in the future and be updated regularly. Being online allows for an infinite number.

The website design is pleasing to the eye and easy to use.

Do venues have to pay to be included?

No, it’s free for venues to be listed—providing they meet the criteria—and free for users like you and me. It’s not clear how detailed the inspections are, if any, but the criteria for inclusion are on the website, where venues can apply to be included.

They must have at least 20 wines by the glass, must have a sommelier or wine specialist on hand, and no—Coravin use is not mandatory.

The Hawke’s Bay wine region. NZ Wine (Craggy Range)

Hawke’s Bay wine enthusiasts will need to adjust their calendars as the region’s flagship F.A.W.C! (Food and Wine Classic) festival takes an unexpected pause for 2025-2026. The announcement from Hawke’s Bay Tourism in July cited funding challenges as the primary reason for putting the beloved event on hiatus.

Since launching in 2012, F.A.W.C! has become a major part of Hawke’s Bay’s food and wine destination identity, attracting thousands of visitors across both its summer and winter series. The decision to pause leaves a vacuum and Hamish Saxton, chief executive of Hawke’s Bay Tourism, explained the difficult decision to Hawke’s Bay Today:

“We don’t want to run the risk of damaging the brand by not meeting our loyal F.A.W.C!ers’ and sponsors’ expectations.”

He emphasised that while the festival takes a break:

“Hawke’s Bay’s reputation as New Zealand’s Food and Wine Country remains strong, bolstered by its global status as a Great Wine Capital.”

In the same article, Tim Turvey, co-founder of Clearview Estate Winery (host of numerous F.A.W.C! events), said he was surprised by the announcement.

“I like the creativity of it and it makes us think outside the square and it attracts people to Hawke’s Bay from around the country and overseas,” Turvey noted.

“Generally all the events have been sold out. It has worked for us and I’ll miss it.”

Although Hawke’s Bay Wine are not directly responsible for F.A.W.C., CEO Brent Linn explains that they have a close working relationship with Hawke’s Bay Tourism and there was consultation. There are several alternative events available for wine enthusiasts and many reasons to keep Hawke’s Bay on the wine tourism itinerary. These other events may not have the region-wide scale of F.A.W.C! but they all showcase the region’s exceptional food and wine scene in other ways.

Harvest Hawke’s Bay returns on Saturday, November 22, 2025, from 11am to 5pm, featuring 16 wineries paired up with local restaurants and food businesses in a stunning riverside setting on the banks of the Tuki Tuki River just further along from Craggy Range. The event manager, Liz Pollock, has also been responsible for Wairarapa Food and Wine, so it promises to be well-run and lots of fun. For more information, visit the Harvest Hawkes Bay website.

The week before that, on Friday 14th November, is Taste Hastings, an urban wine and food celebration. The event will occupy the East Block of Heretaunga Street (which will be closed to traffic), turning into a wine alley from 5.30pm to 8.30pm. There are already 25 Hawke’s Bay wineries involved with more being added, craft breweries, food trucks, live music, a DJ and even laid-back vibes at Flock Events Street Lounge for those needing a little time out. Entry is free, but there will be an option to purchase a NZD $20 tasting pass online beforehand which comes with four drink tokens and an event glass to keep. Stay up to date with the latest announcements at the Taste Hastings website.

On the other side of the New Year, The Bridge Pa Wine Festival maintains its annual tradition on Saturday, January 17, 2026, offering hop-on, hop-off bus access to wineries across the Bridge Pa Triangle district. The bus transport between venues is included in the general admission ticket, but there is also another ticket which includes bus transfers from the six urban centres in the region: Napier, Taradale, Hastings, Havelock North and as far away as Waipukurau and Waipawa.

There will be eight venues for the 2026 edition: Abbey Estate, Alpha Domus, Ash Ridge Winery, Oak Estate, Paritua Winery, Red Metal Vineyard, Zaria Wines, Bostock Wines, and Radburnd Cellars. Each venue will be offering wine (including tastings), food and live music. Doors will open at 10.30am and the festival wraps up at 5pm. As the live performing acts are confirmed, details will be updated on this website, which is also where tickets can be purchased.

These are just three of the events to keep in mind when planning a visit to Hawke’s Bay. The region continues to provide year-round opportunities for visitors to explore the region’s culinary excellence, especially with the burgeoning artisan drink and food scene which has emerged in Central Hastings, Napier and Havelock North, ensuring that it remains a must-visit destination for food and wine enthusiasts despite F.A.W.C!’s temporary absence.

Circl restaurant also won the overall Wine List of the Year award. Visit Victoria

Australia’s Wine List of the Year awards for 2025 were presented on September 29, and among the long list of worthy recipients of praise were NSW restaurants Jonah’s of Whale Beach and Altitude, in Sydney’s Shangri-La Hotel, which were respectively the winner and a finalist in the award for the Best Listing of Australian Wines.

This award is important, as it shines a light on the disappointing fact that Australian wines are often under-represented on our wine lists.

It often seems as though Australian sommeliers and restaurateurs make a cringeworthy attempt to appear worldly by enshrining the rollcall of famous names from the entire globe, paying no more than lip-service to their local wines.

Do we expect to drink wines from far off places when we visit Italy or France or Greece? No! We expect their eateries to proudly showcase their local wines, and that is surely what Australia should also do.

Australia’s Wine List of the Year awards is helping rectify this: it also gives awards for the best list of state wines, eg, The Blue Door (Best Listing of NSW Wines), Capitol Bar & Grill (Best Listing of ACT Wines), Blackbird (Best Listing of QLD Wines), Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant (Best Listing of SA Wines), The Agrarian Kitchen (Best Listing of TAS Wines), Circl (Best Listing of VIC Wines), and Gibney (Best Listing of WA Wines). Circl, a Melbourne newcomer, also won the overall Wine List of the Year award.

The director and founder of Australia’s Wine List of the Year, Rob Hirst, says there has been a big shift in restaurants stocking local wines since the COVID pandemic.

“In every state there has been a recognition that the consumer wants to drink local. This year, 40% of entrants entered the Best Listing of Australian Wines category. Victoria dwarfs the other states, South Australia was next and Tasmania was also strong. There is still a cultural cringe, though, and sparkling wine is the last bastion of the cringe.”

Champagne is the last category restaurants want to leave off their wine list.

Hirst said this year, the awards had experienced record numbers of entries in every state.

Regarding the preponderance of super-expensive imported wines on many wine lists, Hirst defended this, saying;

“The high fliers, who don’t have a limit on their expenses, account for 20% of the spend in restaurants, so you can’t afford to ignore them.”

That’s where a lot of the restaurant’s profit lies.

“A lot of these high-fliers read the wine list from right to left. They look at the price first, and the biggest selling wine is the second most expensive, because they want something outstanding but they don’t want to appear too lavish.”

A new Sydney restaurant setting the pace, which was too new to enter the competition this year but will surely be a candidate for one of these awards in future, is Infinity, the new restaurant of celebrated Sydney chef Mark Best.

Infinity is a revolving restaurant located at the top of the Westfield Tower in the Sydney CBD. Mark Best made his fame at Marque restaurant in Surry Hills in the early noughties.

His wine list is 100% Australian, setting an example to his peers in a city where Australian wines often seem to be overlooked.

To his credit Best has insisted on an all-Aussie list—and that includes the sparklings. It is not unknown for some restaurants to have a strong Aussie list only to chicken out when it comes to sparkling: they feel they have to have champagne*. This is puzzling and can only be because they feel that is what their customers want. Good old-fashioned snobbery, perhaps.

There is no need for champagne when we have great bubble-makers, the likes of House of Arras, Deviation Road, Printhie/Swift, Delamere, Sittella, Terre à Terre/Daosa, Chandon, Sidewood, and others.

Best is also committed to Australian produce in his kitchen. Kudos for that. And to sommelier Polly Mackarel for selecting the wine list.

Sauvignon blanc is an area where you might expect New Zealand to be represented, but no! Not a single Kiwi savvy. Indeed, there were just eight wines in the sauvignon blanc and blends section of the list I viewed, one less than chenin blancs (nine), which is great to see and reflects the excitement around chenin today.

Another feature of the Infinity list is the highlighting of female winemakers. Wines made by women are signified by the bracketed letters (fw).

This list is big on food-friendly wines. There are 59 chardonnays, one of the current strengths of Australia, and 50 pinot noirs, both with a strong majority of Victorian wines; also 32 rieslings, 17 grenaches, and a ‘Light & Elegant’ red section of 12 which is big on gamay and pinot meunier.

To view the full results of Australia’s Wine List of the Year 2025, click here.

*Jonah’s and Altitude both have extensive lists of champagne.

Château Lafleur Cult Wine Investment

Revered Pomerol estate Château Lafleur has rocked the French wine world by leaving the Pomerol appellation.

Lafleur’s owners announced just before the 2025 French harvest began that they would be labelling the six wines of the property as simply Vin de France, and eschewing the Pomerol and Bordeaux names. This starts with the 2025 vintage. While being careful to respect their peers in the region, the owners said they could no longer stick to the rules that govern wine production in Pomerol, set out by the INAO, the national institute for appellations of origin. The laws forbid irrigation, except in rare cases where a special dispensation is approved for all.

Of course, the reason they want to irrigate is not to increase their tonnages (no-one making thousand dollar a bottle wine wants to do that), but to sustain their vines during periods of excessive heat and drought, which are becoming more frequent and are expected to be increasingly common and problematic in future. Over-stressed vines do not produce great wine.

I have spoken to several Australian winemakers about these issues with some interesting insights.

For decades, Australian viticulture has regarded irrigation as important, if not essential, to growing healthy vines and quality grapes. With most of our wine regions normally experiencing a dry summer, irrigation has become the norm. Methods of irrigation were refined over the decades to make more efficient use of water (no more flood irrigation) and improve the delivery and timing of water to the vine roots. The most quality conscious producers do not over-water, but use irrigation as a supplement to natural rainfall in situations when it could make the difference between a decent crop and a significant loss.

However, scratch the skin of many top winemakers and you find a surprising number of our best vineyards are not irrigated. Yarra Yering, Wendouree, Bass Phillip, Yangarra, Moss Wood, Kaesler, Alkina. Very old vines especially in the Barossa are often unirrigated: their deep roots sustain them in dry periods. Very old vines often have deep root systems partly because they were planted and raised before irrigation became widely available.

Winemakers such as Gippsland-based Patrick Sullivan use unwatered vineyards, whether established or newly planted, because they believe the quality is higher and production is more consistent—deep rooted vines can sail through excessively wet periods as well as dry, because they don’t rely on surface roots like many modern irrigated vineyards.

Sullivan, and fellow Gippsland producer Bass Phillip, are helped in this by the region’s climate, which has high humidity, high rainfall, and good year-round distribution—very rare in Australia.

Sydney-based winemaker Alex Head, who makes wine in the Barossa but doesn’t own vines or a winery, believes irrigation is a negative, as it decreases total acidity in the grapes. This is because irrigation provides water to the berries, the berries then respire more water, and along with the water, acids. He finds grapes from unirrigated vines have higher acidity which is increasingly valuable in a warming world, and means that there is less need to correct acidity during winemaking. He thinks adjusted acid can be tasted in many Australian wines, and prefers to avoid it in his own wines. In tandem with this thinking, Head has for some years been gradually shifting his grape sourcing to Eden Valley, which is higher and cooler than the Barossa floor. Eden Valley grapes tend to make more elegant wines and to retain more of their natural acidity.

Head also guesses that a second reason for Lafleur wanting to have the freedom to water its vines could be that irrigation retards ripening, and time on the vine is important to develop the right flavours. Harvest—not only in Bordeaux but in most of the world’s wine regions—has been starting earlier and earlier, which means the hang-time, or time between budburst and harvest, is shortening.

Lafleur also wants to be able to give its vines more space: the present Pomerol AOC requires at least 5,500 vines per hectare, and Lafleur maintains the vines need an area better suited to the water availability in the soils. There is also a minimum canopy height, and Lafleur wants the freedom to adjust that—so there is less leaf area and less water loss.

Lafleur had been working on all of this and more for a long time but the super-dry 2025 season in Bordeaux was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Jane Anson has written a detailed article on the Lafleur matter. Click here to read.

The ranking invites nominations from sommeliers and their hospitality peers from across the country. Pexels

Leah Kirkland, group beverage director of the Emett Group, is the top ranking New Zealand sommelier in 2025, as judged by the Champagne Louis Roederer Top 100 Sommeliers New Zealand.

Chair of judges Cameron Douglas MS and Sommelier Edit announced their rankings for the 2025 inaugural edition of this event in New Zealand on August 26 in Auckland.

“Leah is an outstanding wine and beverage professional, a sommelier with mana, influence, authority and efficacy,” Douglas commented.

The New Zealand ranking follows the project’s launch in the UK in 2023. The competition has also been held in Spain and there are plans to expand it to Australia, Portugal and Poland next year.

This is the first time wine service professionals working in restaurants have been ranked in Aotearoa. The aim is to highlight outstanding wine service and food pairing skills of the very best sommeliers and wine wait staff in the country. Sommelier Edit plans to run this ranking annually, celebrating the ‘art and savoir faire’ of those professionals who epitomise service in wine and beverages. Ranked sommeliers receive a certificate and a lapel pin.

According to Sommelier Edit:

“Over 50% of the ranked sommeliers are based outside the Auckland region, and 40% are women, making this the most democratic and inclusive listing of wine service professionals across Aotearoa”.

Looking at the top 20 rankings, we can see women occupy four of the positions.

The ranking invites nominations from sommeliers and their hospitality peers from across the country. Based on the nominees’ experience, career and educational achievements, day-to-day responsibilities and performance in competitions, Top 100 Sommeliers uses an aggregated points system to assess and analyse each sommelier’s professional successes. The four main considerations were: amount of time spent on the floor, day-to-day buying, management and training responsibilities; experience and accolades; as well as education (presumably qualifications).

Leah Kirkland is the top-ranked New Zealand sommelier in 2025. Onslow Facebook

For 2025, chair judge Cameron Douglas was supported by two other judges; Candice Chow (Raymond Chan Reviews) and Yvonne Lorkin (WineFriend), who both run highly successful wine businesses as communicators, writers and speakers. Special awards were also presented to those sommeliers in New Zealand who have gone above and beyond in the promotion of this aspirational profession and in the pursuit of excellence during their careers:

2025 Top 100 Sommelier Legend Award sponsored by Barton & Guestier: Stephen Morris, Yu Group

2025 Top 100 Sommelier Inspiration Award sponsored by Grahams Port: Suraj GC, Park Hyatt, Auckland

Top 5 Female Sommeliers: Nora Blackburne, Embra; Liz Buttimore, Arbour, Marlborough; Jacqueline Jubel, No 7 Balmac; Larissa Muller, Palate; and Katie Woodhead, Cellar 495

Top 5 Ones to Watch sponsored by Craggy Range: Giulio Barducci, Toast & Oak; Ben Carmine, Paris Butter; Joseph Costello, The Wine Room; Samira Kakh, Normanby; and Gary Pluck, 11 Woodward Street

Top 5 Young Sommeliers sponsored by Negociants: Victoria Birsen, Cellar 495; Jieuxe-Snow He, The Northern Club; Alexa Soriano, Metita Sky City; Michael Tully, The Gables; and Katharina Ziehe, Onslow

You can view the full Champagne Louis Roederer Top 100 Sommeliers New Zealand 2025 ranking at the Sommelier Edit website.

The Global Fine Wine Challenge judges and stewards. Global Fine Wine Challenge

Australia has excelled at the 2025 Global Fine Wine Challenge, which was judged in Sydney in August with four nations entering: South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Australia was ‘Nation of Show’, scooping the pool with eight of the 19 trophies, in addition to awards for best red, best sparkling and best wine of show. New Zealand and South Africa both scored five trophies, and Canada one.

Of the Runner-Up Double Gold Medals, Australia won eight, the other three countries four each. Runner-Up is the second-highest scoring wine in each of the 19 categories.

In the Double Gold Medals, Australia and New Zealand both won 14, and South Africa and Canada won 10 each.

Gold Medals: Australia 20, New Zealand 21, South Africa 16, Canada 11.

On aggregate points, Australia was clearly the top country of the show.

The big winner was Ten Minutes by Tractor, of the Mornington Peninsula, which won best pinot noir, best red wine and best wine of show with its 2022 McCutcheon Pinot Noir.

Judging is done totally ‘blind’, and this wine sparked some discussion, with three of us guessing the wine was a Kiwi. Only one of the four judges (Jane Skilton MW of New Zealand, Chris Waters of Canada, Andrea Pritzker MW filling in for South African Michael Fridjhon, and myself) thought it could be Australian. It was quite deeply coloured and powerful, and looked more like a Central Otago pinot. A magnificent wine and a nice surprise for me, as the selector of the Aussie wines.

Brown Brothers Patricia 2018 Pinot Noir Chardonnay Brut won the trophy for best sparkling wine. The other Australian trophy winners were:

• Haddow & Dineen Grain of Truth Pinot Gris 2024
• Bimbadgen Estate Palmers Lane Semillon 2014
• Eisenstone Greenock Shiraz SR801 2022
• Lake Breeze Malbec 2022
• Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2019
• Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Rutherglen Muscat NV

New Zealand’s Greystone Organic Riesling 2024 won best riesling and best white wine of show.

Ten Minutes by Tractor also excelled with a second pinot: the Trahere Pinot Noir 2022 won a Double Gold.

Other Aussie Double Golds went to Devil’s Corner Resolution Riesling 2023, Pikes The Merle Reserve Riesling 2022, Yalumba The Virgilius Viognier 2023, Pike & Joyce The Kay Reserve Chardonnay 2023, Domaine Naturaliste Artus Chardonnay 2023, Nicola Estate Regional Chenin Blanc 2023, Lowestoft Jacoben Pinot Noir 2022, Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz 2022, Cape Mentelle Heritage Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, Penfolds Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, Mount Horrocks Nero d’Avola 2023, Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre 2021, Hayes Family Wines Stone Well Block 3 Mataro 2022, Fighting Gully Road La Longa Sangiovese 2019.

The GFWC has been an annual, invitation-only, event since 2003 when it began as the Tri- Nations Wine Challenge between Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It has also involved Chile, Argentina and the USA in recent years, but due to logistical difficulties the participating countries have varied.

It works this way: one wine professional from each participating nation supplies a list of 130 wines, which can be spread at the selector’s whim across 19 varietal and style categories. The makers of these wines are invited to enter them. This year those selectors were Michael Fridjhon for South Africa, Jane Skilton MW for New Zealand, Christopher Waters for Canada and myself for Australia. Those would usually also be the judges, convening in Sydney for a week to judge all of the wines, but this year Andrea Pritzker MW stood in as Michael Fridjhon was unavailable at the last moment.

A Trophy is awarded for the best wine in each of the 19 categories. The next-best wine is awarded Runner-Up Double Gold, then several Double Gold and single Gold medals may be awarded, the numbers varying according to the quality and depth of the class.

Values are allotted to each of these levels and the numbers totalled at the end of judging to arrive at the Nation of Show.

Finally, a trophy judging is held to decide Best White Wine, Best Red Wine, and Wine of Show.

No medals below Gold are awarded at this show, and only 155 wines won awards out of approximately 520 judged. It is truly a ‘best of the best’ competition.

Full results will be posted on September 26 on the Global Fine Wine Challenge website.

Albariño grapes on the vine. Wikimedia Commons

Twenty albariño fanatics, comprising writers, winemakers, growers and marketing specialists converged at the Smith & Sheth Oenothèque in Havelock North on August 4 for the Two Terraces Albariño Workshop.

The goal was to taste and discuss the variety’s place in Aotearoa. The idea was put together by Ian Quinn from Two Terraces Vineyard, who grows the grape and supplies it to several winemakers in the region, including most of those present.

The group was kindly hosted by Natalie Grace, brand and marketing manager of AONZ, who own the Smith & Sheth brand. I was present to lead the tasting and moderate the discussion and had already done a sneak peek of new albariño components out of tanks and barrels with winemaker Warren Gibson the afternoon prior (you can watch snippets of the trip in this video).

There were lofty goals for this workshop. The group aimed to understand the global landscape of the finest quality expressions of albariño (naturally from Rías Baixas), including carefully harnessed oak ageing, long lees or bottle ageing, the use of malolactic conversion, skin-contact and even partial skin-fermentation, and the use of lower flavour-impact ageing vessels like clay, concrete and stainless steel. Ripeness of fruit expression or fresher, taut styles were compared as well as wines with up to eight years of age.

These were tasted blind in flights of four (see the list below) to demonstrate how these can subtly impact the wine. Rather than taste young albariño from New Zealand, we elected to match the age and vintage of the Rías Baixas wines by choosing 2021. Amy and Olly Hopkinson-Styles of Halcyon Days did heavy-duty sourcing in the UK and Spain for many of these bottles and lugged them back to Aotearoa for the class.

Ian and Linda Quinn, from a Two Terraces grower perspective, also wanted to spark local collaboration and accelerate the development of multiple concurrent high quality expressions rather than converging into a commoditised style, which in turn encourages a more broadly sustainable ecosystem of artisan and small-scale production rather than falling into the same volume- and price-driven trap which dominates the production landscape.

• Zarate Balado 2022 – Meaño, Salnes
• Zarate Tras da Viña 2021 – Meaño, Salnes
• Rodrigo Mendez Salvora 2020 – Meaño, Salnes
• Rodrigo Mendez Salvora 2021 – Meaño, Salnes
• Forjas de Salnes Leirana Finca Genoveva 2022 – Meaño, Salnes
• Fillaboa Seleccíon Finca Monte Alto 2021 – Monte Alto, Condado de Tea
• Nanclares y Prieto La Tinaja de Aranzazu 2021 – Cambados & Ribadumia, Salnes
• Pazo de Barrantes Comtes 2017 Barrantes – Ribadumias, Salnes
• Esk Valley Albariño 2021 – Mangatahi, Hawke’s Bay
• Neudorf Rosie’s Block Moutere Albariño 2021 – Moutere, Nelson
• Villa Maria Reserve Hawke’s Bay Albariño 2021 – Mangatahi, Hawke’s Bay
• Smith & Sheth CRU Heretaunga Albariño 2021 – Bridge Pā, Hawke’s Bay

Now, it is worth noting that there was an earlier deep-dive workshop at Neudorf in Nelson held eight years ago on 21 September 2017. In hindsight, given the deep interest which the Finns and Todd Stevens had for global benchmark albariño, it is unsurprising that Neudorf Rosie’s Block Moutere Albariño is the first albariño in the country to achieve The Real Review Classification status.

Back in 2017, there was certainly a lot less albariño planted in the country (the first New Zealand albariño was released by Cooper’s Creek in 2011) so the tasting focused on exploring different styles from Rías Baixas. The attendees skewed towards commentators and writers (including myself and Bob Campbell MW) rather than growers and makers so the conversation had a less technical bias. The variety was also less well understood at the time, and not just in Aotearoa.

Although ‘modern’ albariño started in the 1980s in Rías Baixas, the current understanding of subregions is more recent – after all, the fifth and youngest subregion of Ribeiro do Ulla was only granted recognition in 2000). Single-vineyard, carefully aged and complex super-premium albariño is really a creation of the 2010s. I recall much of the discussion at the 2017 event centred around the influence of oak vs freshness, something which seemed to be an either/or issue at the time and largely resolved by the time of the 2025 workshop.

In fact, across the board, there was very little obvious winemaking impact in the set of wines tasted in 2025; oak was nearly imperceptible in most of the wines even when it was present. The warmer vintages and subregions (like Condado do Tea) clearly had a riper fruit spectrum but acidities and palate shape were still within bounds and even the older wines were still fresh and few tasters expected them to be as old as they were.

Site expression was paramount and even though winemaking did of course have an influence (such as the winemakers who used little to no sulfur), it was not as extreme as expected. This felt like a very different workshop than 2017’s and we felt like we were seeing something coalesce in the room which was important.

The other reason this felt like a watershed moment was the very different composition of the audience. Winegrowers and winemakers formed the overwhelming majority of the room including several who had worked (or still work!) in Galicia previously; Alistair from Grava Wines, Natalie Christensen of Yealands, Amy and Olly Hopkinson-Styles. Together with Jannine Rickards of Huntress, the aforementioned winemakers had just bottled their collaborative albariño Rias that weekend in the Wairarapa.

Additionally, we also had the expert contributions of winemakers Gordon Russell (who made the early albariños at Esk Valley), Warren Gibson, Daniel Brennan of Decibel, Casey Motley from Three Fates, Lauren Swift of Swift Wines, Rod Easthope from Easthope Family Winegrowers, Amy Farnsworth of Amoise and Hayden Penny of Organised Chaos. Viticulturists Dan Brewster (AONZ), Greg Allinson (Craggy Range) and Claire Pinker (Church Road) brought the grower perspective to the room.

As the workshop wrapped up and everyone returned to their jobs, there was a palpable sense of anticipation for how this initiative by the Quinns to encourage collaboration and emergent ideas could be just the catalyst needed to catapult New Zealand’s albariño wines to the next level.

The Ross Hill vineyard in Orange. Ross Hill Wines

The Orange region’s Ross Hill, which claims to be Australia’s first certified carbon neutral winery, has won a new award for sustainability.

The International Cool Climate Wine Show has bestowed its inaugural Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award 2025 on Ross Hill.

Ross Hill was registered in 2014 by NCOS, the National Carbon Offset Standard, an initiative of the Australian Government, launched in 2010. It’s now called Climate Active.

The standard requires organisations to measure, reduce and then offset their greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality.

Margaret River’s Cullen winery is also carbon-neutral, but it’s rare in the wine industry.

The judges of the new award (who included Hayley Purbrick of Tahbilk, itself a leader in environmental sustainability) praised Ross Hill Wines for its comprehensive approach, noting regenerative viticulture practices such as cover crops and sheep grazing, reduced reliance on chemicals, closed-loop composting, and a commitment to low-input, environmentally responsible winemaking.

Their findings concluded:

“Ross Hill Wines’ dedication to pesticide-free farming, composting and regenerative practices makes them a standout in sustainable winemaking.”

Ross Hill’s owner James Robson said:

“We took the award submission seriously and this recognition means a lot. It’s vital the wine industry takes sustainability seriously, because wine quality is inseparable from the health of the environment.”

James also praised the collective effort of the Orange wine region:

“Our region is leading the way in carbon neutrality, organics and regenerative farming. It makes us very proud.”

I caught up with James at the recent Domaine Wine Shippers trade tasting in Sydney. James is the second-generation owner of Ross Hill, which was established in the Orange wine region by his parents in 1994.

James said:

“I’m an environmentalist, but it all started with my father, who was focused on no pesticides or insecticides, solar power, controlling water use, etc. We have 40 kW of solar, and I don’t know why more wineries don’t have solar. Wineries are a beautiful business to rely on solar. They do use a significant amount of electricity, and they don’t use a lot at night.”

He said that Ross Hill being serious about the environment was a key factor in his winemaker since the 2024 vintage, Chris Jessop, coming on board.

“We were certified carbon neutral by NCOS in 2014, but there was no interest back then. Now we are seeing so much interest in it—from government and industry organisations but most importantly from the consumers.”

At the DWS Trade Day, a chardonnay masterclass was conducted at which Ross Hill’s 2021 Eastern View Chardonnay was served. This fine wine has taken four years to fully emerge from its shell, coming as it does from a cool vintage and a cool site. It’s from an east-facing section of Ross Hill’s Griffin Road vineyard, a section that avoids the hot late afternoon sun. You can taste the coolness in the wine, which is fresh, delicate and youthful. A wine of tension and vitality, which can’t be made every year.

“We’ll release the 2023 next year,” says James, “but there was no 2022, or ’24.”

So there it is. Sun good for solar energy. Sun in late afternoon not so good for fine wine!