A behind-the-curtain look at the 2025 Winewise Championships winning wines

There are few more satisfying things in a wine show than finding out the wine you judged blind and liked enough to give a trophy is a shit-hot wine. It’s the flavour of vindication.

I can proudly point to the just-released results from the 2025 Winewise Championships that I recently judged and say, ‘we did good’. I didn’t agree with all the eventual trophy winners (because they’re decided by overall judges’ scores ), but I’m happy with so many of these choices.

Let’s have a squizz at the winners first, then I want to talk about some super standouts.

2025 Winewise Championship Medallion Winners

Best 2023 or 2024 Riesling: 2024 Freya & Jules Watervale Riesling
Best pre-2023 Riesling: 2021 Naked Run Place in Time Sevenhill Riesling
Best 2023 or 2024 Semillon: 2023 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 Hunter Valley Semillon
Best pre-2023 Semillon: 2018 Brokenwood ILR Reserve Semillon
Best 2023 or 2024 Chardonnay: 2023 Cherubino Wychwood Vineyard Margaret River Dijon Chardonnay
Best pre-2023 Chardonnay: 2022 Santolin Gladysdale Yarra Valley Chardonnay
Best Sauvignon Blanc or blend: 2024 Patrick Of Coonawarra P Series Sauvignon Blanc
Best Pinot Gris/Grigio: 2024 Hahndorf Hill Adelaide Hills Pinot Grigio
Best other white variety or blend: 2023 MMAD Vineyard Blewitt Springs Chenin Blanc
Best sparkling wine: 2018 Chandon Tasmanian Cuvée
Best sweet white: 2016 Lillypilly Noble Harvest
Best Pinot Noir: 2023 Bream Creek Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir
Best Grenache: 2023 Purple Hands Planta Circa Ancestor Vine Barossa Valley Grenache
Best 2023 or 2024 Shiraz: 2023 Eden Road The Long Road Shiraz
Best 2022 Shiraz: 2022 Sons of Eden Zephyrus Barossa Shiraz
Best pre-2022 Shiraz: 2021 Jacob’s Creek Survivor Vines Barossa Valley Shiraz
Best 2022 or 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon: 2023 Forester Estate Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon
Best pre-2022 Cabernet Sauvignon: 2021 Kimbolton The Rifleman Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
Best Italian red variety: 2023 Mercer Wines Montepulciano
Best Tempranillo: 2022 Farmer & The Scientist Single Vineyard Tempranillo
Best other red variety: 2024 Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards Mencia
Best Cabernet Sauvignon blend: 2021 St Hugo Cabernet Shiraz
Best other Red blend: 2023 Battle of Bosworth Heretic Touriga Mataro Graciano Shiraz

First, we need to talk about this Freya and Jules Watervale Riesling 2024. An Aldi-exclusive, this astonishing Clare Valley Riesling has everything you want in a Clare Valley Riesling (as I’ve said before), and it’s $9.99 a bottle. $10. For a trophy-winning wine. This wasn’t my pick as the highlight from the young Riesling class it was entered in, but I liked it, and had another taste at the end of the day to confirm I wasn’t hallucinating. Maybe a little diffuse, but otherwise, this is driven by lime juice Watervale character with crisp acidity and freshness for days. You could pay $30 and get less wine. A ginormous mega bargain.

Judging the Semillon brackets at Australian wine shows is a delight, especially when aged wines like this superstar Brokenwood ILR Reserve Semillon 2018 is in the mix. In a trophy judging lineup that included multiple vintages of Tyrrell’s Vat 1, Meerea Park, Thomas Braemore, Bimbadgen Signature and more, this ILR had this extra step of power that just had it edging out the others. But gee, it was close. A 2014 Tyrrell’s HVD and a 2023 Tyrrell’s Vat 1 almost beat it (let alone a great 2014 Thomas Wines Braemore), and honestly, all of them could/should win trophies. Importantly, these are delicious wines too, and I’ll fight anyone about that.

A new wine for me, and the convincing winner of the Chardonnay competition (it took out the Best 2023/2024 trophy but was best pointed of anything), this 2023 Cherubino Wychwood Vineyard Margaret River Dijon Chardonnay is quite a wine. It has a big oak presence (matured in 60% new oak, the rest one-year-old wood), but also layers, and that crucial freshness/richness contrast. Swaggering modern Chardonnay. That said, the Chardonnay brackets are impossibly good, with wines like Hungerford Hill Tumbarumba Chardonnay, Collector Tiger Tiger, Ross Hill Pinnacle among the wines that I also really liked.

The ‘other whites’ taste-offs at shows like this are a fascinating exercise, where you can have intense oak-matured Chenin Blanc like this 2023 MMAD Vineyard Blewitt Springs Chenin Blanc alongside back-vintage Tahbilk Marsanne and current-release Hahndorf Hill Gruner. At that point, the quality level is so high that you’re just nitpicking on length and complexity to pick a winner. This MMAD Chenin is another wine with an outsized personality, with big Chenin lemony power and a punch of rich intensity without feeling like a mouth attack. A very nice wine, just like its swoon-worthy Grenache brother, it’s a superstar.

No photos, but the 2023 Bream Creek Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir trophy winner was also a magnificent wine in a magnificent lineup. It’s a big wine, but not heavy, luscious and ripe, but with enough delicacy. A 2022 Paringa Estate Pinot Noir & a 2022 Tamar Ridge Research Series Pinot Noir also really impressed me in the Pinot classes.

Conversely, I found the Cabernet Sauvignon brackets hard going and punctuated with disappointments. The winning 2023 Forester Estate Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon was entirely drinkable and varietal at a super price (although it wasn’t my fave wine), and I liked the 2022 St Hugo Cabernet Sauvignon (again), but there were so many middling wines around them.

Speaking of bargains, the 2023 Eden Road The Long Road Shiraz was a worthy winner of best young Shiraz and a thirty-dollar steal. Drawn from Canberra, Gundagai & Hilltops fruit, it had Canberran spice, that cherry almond Hilltops middle too.

Finally, from left field, I thought this Smallwater Estate Zinfandel 2023 was one of the best-balanced local Zins I’ve had in ages. It didn’t win a trophy, but I rather enjoyed the vitality/flavour balance.