Awarded: Entries open for DWWA 2025, NSW Hilltops region shines, & more

Negociants Working with Wine

Last night, Negociants Australia named Melissa Moore from Patrick Sullivan Wines and Samuele Sampirisi from Negociants Australia as the two winners of its biannual Working with Wine trade educational program.

Melissa and Samuele will each receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe to visit some of the wine world's most celebrated producers, including Poderi Aldo Conterno, Isole E Olena, Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Dujac, Domaine Faiveley, Guigal, Champagne Pol Roger, and Pierre Gimonnet & Fils.

"After an extended break, Working with Wine has come back stronger than ever,” said panelist and wine journalist Nick Ryan.

“The calibre of this year’s finalists, from emerging stars to well-established leaders in their fields, made choosing just one winner in each category exceedingly difficult."

In addition to Ryan, the 2024 panel included Andrew Caillard MW, recipient of the IWSC 2025 Wine Communicator Trophy; Sally Evans, wine expert and 2024 Wine Communicators of Australia Legend of the Vine award winner; and Negociants Australia’s Ken Withers and Tim Evans. To select the two winners, each finalist was asked to evaluate a specific wine tasted blind, prior to answering a series of questions asked by the panel.

In addition to Melissa Moore and Samuele Sampirisi winning the top available accolade, Mark Smith was named as the recipient of the Working with Wine Fellowship Wine Writing Award.

Decanter World Wine Awards 2025 open for entries

Entries for the 22nd annual Decanter World Wine Awards are now open ahead of judging next June.

With a judging panel that includes 243 judges from 33 countries including 61 Masters of Wine and 20 Master Sommeliers, the DWWA is largely considered one of the world’s largest and most influential wine competitions globally.

Returning for 2025 are Co-Chairs Sarah Jane Evans MW, Michael Hill Smith AM MW, Andrew Jefford, Ronan Sayburn MS, and Beth Willard.

According to Michael Hill Smith AM MW, Co-Chair of Australia, “the top award winners at DWWA undergo an exceptionally rigorous process of tasting and retasting, so Decanter readers can have confidence in using these awards to help decide what to buy. Decanter provides invaluable guidance to serious wine people about serious wines.”

For more information or to enter, click here.

2024 Wine Tasmania VinØ Program

Designed to shine a light on vineyards that are leading the way in regards to sustainable grape growing, the annual VinØ awards is a way of paying recognition to the top performers of Tasmania’s VinØ Program.

For 2024, Pooley Wines was announced the VinØ Program Champion for the third time, and Delamere Vineyards was awarded the 2024 VinØ Program’s Most Improved Producer.

“The VinØ framework has given us a tremendous opportunity to evaluate and refine our practices, enabling us to identify critical areas for growth and sustainability,” said Steve Ferguson, Viticulturalist at Pooley Wines.

“It sets meaningful benchmarks that drive us to pursue continuous improvement and strengthen our commitment to sustainable viticulture and winemaking.”

Fran Austin, Co-Owner and Winemaker at Delamere Vineyards, added: “It is a brilliant communication and guidance tool, and provided a meaningful, measurable record of our progress as we strived to preserve the health of our land and our people, and to maintain the highest possible wine quality.”

In 2023/2024, 46% of Tasmania’s vineyards were managed under the VinØ Program, 12% of which were new members.

According to Paul Smart, Viticulture & Winemaking Officer, "under the VinØ Program… all aspects of vineyard and winery management are covered, such as soil health, biodiversity, carbon emissions, waste and water management, biosecurity, social and human resources.”

For more information, click here.

Canberra & Region Wine Show

At the Canberra & Region Wine Show, wines from the NSW Hilltops shone above the rest of entrants both in regards to overall consistency and for its top performers. This included 60% of wines from the Hilltops receiving medals, along with six of the seven Top Golds awarded being from the region.

“These accolades validate the commitment, skill, passion and innovative approach of Hilltops vignerons and other region’s winemakers, who increasingly seek out top quality grapes from our cool vineyards,” said James Bowman, President of Hilltops Wine and proprietor of Barwang Wines.

“For such a small region to score six Top Gold awards ranging from aromatic white varieties and a mature sweet wine to the classic reds, notably cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, is a serious endorsement of our region’s strength and diversity and posts notice that the NSW Hilltops is one of Australia’s most exciting and versatile wine regions.”