Australia ranked number one for medal yield at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards in London – winning four Best in Show, 11 Platinum, and 65 Gold medals.
The new key metric recognises the number of medals earned relative to a country’s vineyard area.
Australia earned 643 medals – the fourth-highest total overall – and achieved the world’s highest medal yield at 4.04 medals per 1,000 hectares.
“This reflects a system where regional specialisation and strong export standards continue to drive excellence,” says Lilla O’Connor, Decanter World Wine Awards’ head of marketing.
Australia’s global reputation was further reinforced with four wines featured in the prestigious Top 50, representing four distinct regions:
• Wirra Wirra 2024 The 12th Man Adelaide Hills Chardonnay.
• Xanadu Reserve 2022 Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Barossa Old Vine Company 2022 Shiraz.
• Trentham Estate 2023 Reserve Heathcote Shiraz.
Wirra Wirra 2024 The 12th Man Adelaide Hills Chardonnay was one of only two Chardonnay wines worldwide to be named Best in Show.
The other one was Jean-Marc Brocard Bougros Chablis Grand Cru 2023 from Burgundy.
“The result underscores a new reality: Australia now stands shoulder to shoulder with Burgundy as a global benchmark for site-expressive Chardonnay,” says Wirra Wirra CEO Matt Deller MW.
“This is an extraordinary moment for Australian wine.
“Chardonnay is now Australia’s most planted and most crushed variety, and the quality has never been higher.
“For The 12th Man to stand alongside a Grand Cru Chablis as one of the best Chardonnays in the world is an emphatic statement about how far Australia has come.”
South Australia was the best-performing state at the awards, with 309 medals in total.
These included two Best in Show awards for wines from the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.
Margaret River was the standout subregion, reinforcing its global reputation for premium Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Victoria continues to rise through the ranks with 16 top-tier medals, including one Best in Show.
Tasmania showed a solid performance in cool-climate varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, posting one Platinum medal.
Australian co-chair at the Decanter World Wine Awards, Huon Hooke, says, “Australia continues its well-established history of punching above its weight, placing fourth in total medal count behind the big three – France, Italy and Spain.
“While there was a slight dip in the number of ‘Best in Show’ awards, a strong overall medal count has placed Australia first in the new metric of medals per hectare of vineyard area.
“The mix of regions and producers was also heartening, with some of our most renowned wineries performing as expected, but also some lesser-known names emerging to receive well- deserved recognition.”
The Decanter World Wine Awards is the world’s largest and most influential wine competition, where wines from over 50 countries are judged through a rigorous multi-stage blind tasting process.
Each wine is tasted by a panel of judges, including at least one regional chair or expert.
Wines awarded Gold or higher are re-tasted by senior judging panels to confirm medal status.
The awards range from Bronze and Silver to Gold, Platinum and the coveted Best in Show.
Photo: The Wirra Wirra winemaking team of Kelly Wellington, Emma Wood and Grace Wang.
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