Decades 2025 Pinot Noir has won the 2026 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge, triumphing over a field of 319 entries from across the country.

The accolade follows the Coal River Valley winery being named Best New Winery in the 2027 Halliday Wine Companion Awards, while Decades winemaker Steve Flamsteed, who previously spent 17 years as chief winemaker for Yarra Valley’s Giant Steps, was named Winemaker of the Year.

The 2026 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge brings Pinot Noir from across the country into a single national field. This year’s final field spanned Tasmania, six Victorian regions and Western Australia.

Chair of Judges Tom Carson said: “With 319 entries from 20 regions across Australia, this year’s Challenge showcased the exceptional quality of the 2025 vintage and the strength of Australian Pinot Noir.

“Against that outstanding field, the 2025 Decades Pinot Noir from Tasmania’s Coal River Valley absolutely captivated the judges from its first showing. Its wonderful aromatics, detail and silky palate carried it through every stage of judging. To win the national trophy with only their third release is an extraordinary achievement for Steve Flamsteed and Brad Rogers.”

For Steve Flamsteed and Brad Rogers, the result gives their Coal River Valley project a national stage just four years after they purchased the vineyard. Friends since their days at Roseworthy College, the pair built Decades around a shared ambition to make wine together.

Their winning Pinot Noir impressed the judges with its vibrant cherry fruit and spice, fresh blood orange acidity, fine tannins and a long, beautifully balanced finish.

Flamsteed (above) said: “It’s an incredible honour to have been selected as the winner by that exceptional group of judges out of what would have been a stack of beautiful wines. Australian Pinot – and Chardonnay – is in such an incredible place right now and wine shows and events like the Pinot Challenge just push us to keep getting better. “

The trophy also returns to Tasmania after the Yarra Valley’s Giant Steps broke a five-year Tasmanian winning streak in 2025. Tasmania was strongly represented throughout this year’s judging, producing more than 45 per cent of all gold-medal wines.

2026 regional winners

• Tasmania: Decades — 2025 Decades Pinot Noir
• Mornington Peninsula: Merli — 2025 Merli Pinot Noir
• Yarra Valley: Oakridge Wines — 2025 Vineyard Series Hazeldene Pinot Noir
• Gippsland: Dirty Three Wines — 2025 “Dirt 2” Pinot Noir
• Sunbury: Marnong Estate — 2025 Weatherstone Single Vineyard Pinot Noir
• Great Western: Best’s Wines — 2025 Best’s Great Western Pinot Noir
• Macedon Ranges: Curly Flat Vineyard — 2024 Curly Flat Estate Pinot Noir
• Mount Barker, WA: Howard Park Wines — 2025 Marchand & Burch Village Pinot
  Noir

Previous national trophy winners

• 2025: 2024 Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir — Yarra Valley
• 2024: 2023 Bremley Coal River Pinot Noir — Tasmania
• 2023: 2022 Meadowbank Pinot Noir — Tasmania
• 2022: 2021 Clarence House Block 1 Pinot Noir — Tasmania
• 2021: 2020 Ossa Pinot Noir — Tasmania
• 2020: No event
• 2019: 2018 Tertini Pinot Noir — Tasmania
• 2018: 2017 Handpicked Mornington Peninsula Collection Pinot Noir — Mornington
  Peninsula
• 2017: 2016 Yes Said the Seal Pinot Noir — Geelong

Established in 2017 by the Mornington Peninsula Vignerons Association, the Australian Pinot Noir Challenge brings together wines from across Australia’s Pinot Noir growing regions. The 2026 competition is its ninth edition.

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