Melbourne-Royal-Wine-Awards-2025

The Melbourne Royal Wine Awards provide an invaluable annual benchmarking opportunity for Australian producers large and small. Established in 1883, this year’s show attracted over 2300 entries from around 450 wineries across the country, which were judged by a panel of 30 respected wine professionals over five days in late October. 

The 2025 winners were then announced at the trophy presentation lunch in early November. 

“This year’s show is a fabulous celebration of the breadth and quality of our industry,” said Chair of Judges Marcus Satchell from Gippsland’s Dirty Three. “It’s a great testament to the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards that it continues to evolve and attract strong participation – particularly in what remains a challenging time for the industry as a whole.” 

The most coveted of the Melbourne Royal awards is the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for Best Young Red. Established in 1962 (the 1961 Stonyfell Claret won the inaugural award) to honour the legendary Carlton wine bar owner, it’s been said that winning the Jimmy is worth a million dollars to your business – at least – and that’s on top of the boost to the winemaker’s reputation. This year, the high-profile trophy went to the Meadowbank Wines 2024 Pinot Noir. The same wine also won the James Halliday Trophy for Best Pinot Noir.

“It was a fiercely contested class, and any one of the gold medal winners could easily have claimed top honours,” Marcus says. “It is wonderful to see the continued strength of pinot noir.”

The François de Castella Trophy for Best Young White – another hotly contested award – was won this year by Tolpuddle Vineyard for its 2024 Chardonnay. The wine also won the Douglas Seabrook Trophy for Best Single Vineyard Wine as well as Best Chardonnay and Best Tasmanian Chardonnay, and its viticulturist Murray Leake won the Kym Ludvigsen Trophy for Viticultural Excellence.

“The chardonnay gold medal and trophy winners were all exceptional, showcasing the incredible depth of talent and regional expression across Australia – wines of beautiful balance and complexity,” says Marcus. “It continues to be such a pleasurable variety to judge.” 

Trevor Mast Trophy for Best Shiraz, which went to the McWilliam’s 660 Reserve Shiraz, is “a beautifully balanced wine that showed everything great shiraz should have.” 
 
As well as the category winners, Otto Dal Zotto...