Gold Medal Winners From 2023 Sydney NSW Wine Awards Announced

The top wine in NSW could come from right here in the Riverina, with gold medals awarded to Berton’s, De Bortolis and Lillypilly at the NSW Wine Awards.

NSW Wine’s major sponsor, ICC Sydney hosted 16 expert wine judges from across Australia from October 4 to 6 to evaluate the country’s best local wines.

Some of the Judges include:

• Chair of Judges and award-winning winemaker, Nick Spencer;
• Wine Selectors Panellist and wine educator, Adam Walls;
• Master of Wine and Group Beverage Manager for Solotel, Annette Lacey;
• McLaren Vale winemaker, Rob Mack;
• Food and Beverage Director at The Point Group, Alex Kirkwood; and
• Vice President of Sommeliers Australia, Bridget Raffal.

A total of 480 medals were awarded.

Of those medals, 65 were gold.

Chair of Judges Nick Spencer said he was thrilled to chair his third NSW Wine Awards. “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the results were amazing,” Mr Spencer said.

“The quality of wines this year was extraordinary and a real testament to the producers, particularly when considering how challenging.”

There were stand-out classes, including Semillon and Shiraz and, encouragingly, the Sparkling wine class has improved significantly, with 20 medals awarded, up from 12 last year.

Other classes that shone were the Alternative White and Red classes which seem to improve year in, year out.

Mr Spencer said this year’s top Chardonnays backed his belief that NSW produced some of the best Chardonnay in the world.

All 65 Gold Medal finalists will now move to the next stage of the Awards, the exclusive 2023 ICC Sydney NSW Wine Awards Presentation Lunch where the top 2023 trophy winners will be announced November 10 at ICC Sydney.

Tickets to the NSW Wine Awards Lunch can be purchased online at www.nswwine.com.au in ‘upcoming events’ until sold out.

Gold medal winners from the Riverina region include:

• Berton Vineyards 2019 Reserve Botrytis Semillon
• DeBortoli NV Show Liqueur Muscat
• Lillypilly 2021 Noble Blend

• Topics:

• Awards
• Wine / Viticulture