From 6000 wine growers, leading viticulture and wine experts selected Australia’s top vineyards at the fourth annual Vineyard of the Year Awards. South Australia out-performed other states, with 18 vineyards making the final list of 41, recognised for innovation and sustainability.
There were nine from Victoria, seven from New South Wales/ACT, four from Western Australia, and three from Tasmania.
The Vineyard of the Year Awards were created in 2020 to advance the regional identity of Australian wine and promote leading edge sustainability and innovation in winegrowing.
Awards panellist Max Allen said Australia’s wine growing community was still facing unprecedented challenges after the pandemic.
“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.
“The Vineyard of the Year awards 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,” said Allen.
With entries filing in since July last year, the judging panel spent months narrowing the field to the 41 that best exemplified the values of sustainability, innovation, provenance and growing great wine, with a process that included site inspections of a random sample of vineyards across the country.
To judge the awards, a group of leading experts on viticulture were enlisted to personally review all the applicants, including Prue Henschke, Dr Kerry DeGaris, Richard Leask and Dr Colin McBryde.
The fourth Vineyard of the Year Award's Top Vineyards 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)
