The Sydney Royal Wine Show has announced its 2023 trophy recipients, with budget-friendly wines scoring almost half the accolades.

The results mean Australians are also the winners when it comes to having access to some of the best quality wine in the world at reasonable price points, with half available for less than $40 and a large portion priced at $30 or less.   

A wine which falls into this category is the 2023 Tucker Seabrook Perpetual Trophy for Best Wine of Show, which went to the 2021 Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Chardonnay and sells for around $39.99. Described by judges as having a lovely structure and beautiful length, this trophy-worthy chardonnay has proven the variety’s reign in Australia is steadfast and won’t break the bank.   

“Australian wine connoisseurs are winners here,” Sydney Royal Chair of Judges, Sarah Crowe said. 

“The 2023 Sydney Royal Wine Show has demonstrated that not only are Australian producers delivering incredible wines, but they are doing so at reasonable price points for consumers.

“This year’s Best Wine of Show is a fantastic example of this, Australian Chardonnays are at the top of their game and the Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Chardonnay is delivering the highest quality at an accessible price for this level of wine.”

This year the Sydney Royal Wine Show welcomed over 1600 wines and awarded 109 Gold medals to the best of the best in Australia.

In addition to chardonnay, Australian Sparkling has proven it is still one to be watched with the white and rosé sparkling wine, bottle fermented, less than 30 months tirage class boasting a 20% Gold medal rating.

It was the 2015 House of Arras Grand Vintage that claimed the crown, winning The Thorp Annual Trophy for Best Sparkling White or Rosé. 

“Alongside chardonnay, Australia has continued to deliver world-class sparkling wine and once again, we’ve seen this reflected in the high medal count,” Crowe said.

“Equally notable however is the rise of newer varieties to Australia such as Tempranillo, Grenache and particularly Grenache dominate blends, which were very impressive this year. Each of these classes scored about an eight percent gold medal rating.”

The $23 red that wowed the judges

Four red blends claimed trophies this year including the 2022 Millbrook Regional GSM which took out The Dan Murphy’s Value Perennial Trophy for Best Value Wine and retails for around $23.

The 2022 Dune The Empty Quarter won The Arthur Kelman Perpetual Trophy for Best Shiraz Dominate Blend and the 2022 St Hugo Grenache Shiraz Mataro was presented with The John Swann Perpetual Trophy for Best Other Red Blend. 

Relatively young wine brand, George’s Folly also delivered an award-winning red blend, catching International Guest Judge (UK) Clara Rubin’s eye, with its 2021 George’s Folly “Pigs Might Fly” Montepulciano/Nero d’Avola taking home The International Guest Judge Annual Prize. 

“In terms of vintage, 2022 has been an incredibly impressive year with over 40% of trophy winners coming from this vintage,” Crowe said.

“Western Australia also shone bright with the Margaret River fairing very well. Six of the 30 trophies awarded tonight come from the Margaret River.” 

The Dr Gilbert Phillips Memorial Perpetual Trophy for Best Red went to the 2022 Montalto Pennon Hill Pinot Noir while The Liquorland Perpetual Trophy for Best White Blend went to the 2022 Rutherglen Estate Shelley’ Block. 

See all 2023 Sydney Royal Champion Trophies attached and view all gold, silver and bronze medals results here: Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (myras.com.au)