Exciting new projects, vibrant and daring wines, thoughtful packaging and marketing, detailed viticulture and a quiet achiever of the Australian wine community – all of these have been recognised with trophies at the 2025 Young Gun of Wine Awards.
The 2025 Young Gun of Wine – Owen Latta, Eastern Peake & Latta Vino
Best New Act – Lauren Hansen, Bloomfield
Danger Zone – Rojer Rathod & Millie Shorten, Majama
People’s Choice – Sierra Blair, Ghost Rock
The Vigneron – William Rikard-Bell, Rikard Wines
Winemaker’s Choice – Leila Davis, Foreign Friends
Young Gun of Wine commenced as an awards program in 2007, and while the organisation continues to grow and develop, the awards remain at the heart of what they do.
“While the awards consist of six trophies, they’re about much more than taking home gongs,” says Young Gun of Wine founder Rory Kent.
“They’re about celebrating the industry as a whole, and particularly the wonderfully diverse and impressive work of this year’s Top 50.
“It’s a privilege to be able to see the work of this talented cohort together – if their work is any indication, then Australian wine has a very bright future ahead of it.”
Rory says one of the most important things that the Young Gun of Wine Award does is to connect winemakers.
“Making wine is not only hard work, but sometimes isolating work, and it’s easy for makers to stick to their existing regional networks and communities,” he says.
“One of the great joys of the awards process is seeing winemakers network with each other, create friendships and share knowledge.
“In difficult times – as we are seeing with the current economic and political headwinds affecting the industry – it is more important than ever for makers to connect with other like-minded, passionate and hard-working people.
“These connections sustain us.”
Wine critic and owner of Silver Sands Beach Club Nick Stock has been on the Young Gun of Wine judging panel since the inception of the awards.
“It never ceases to amaze me just how dynamic this group is and every single year it makes such a fascinating study,” he says.
“The overall quality of the 50 finalists and their wines is at an all-time high in 2025.
“It’s so impressive to see the way these winemakers are executing their craft. Thoroughly.
“This year the award winners all have such compelling and unique stories.
“The experiences that have lead them to where they are today offer much in terms of inspiration for the new and emerging winemakers of Australia and beyond.”
The judging panel consisted of Rory Kent, Nick Stock, Adeline Zimmerman, Angela Strickland, Lyndon Kubis and Marco Lubiana.
The 2025 Young Gun of Wine
Owen Latta, Eastern Peake & Latta Vino
Many winemakers who come from wine families have racked up a little winemaking experience before they’re legally allowed to have a drink – but very few have been responsible for a whole vintage before they’ve turned 16. Owen Latta can claim this distinction due to an unfortunate workplace accident in his family winery, Eastern Peake, but he’s since taken to his role as a winemaker with gusto – and with no shortage of elbow grease.
“Owen Latta has been at it for many years,” Stock says of the panel’s decision to award him the overall trophy.
“Thrust into winemaking as a teenager, he had so much to contend with, and has moved in many directions, bravely exploring new ideas and styles as well as grappling with the family vineyard and locale. He’s reached a summit of sorts and has worked tirelessly to get there.”
Latta says, “I guess my path in life was set in stone without me knowing it.
“The wine industry is all I’ve ever known my whole life. My parents planted a vineyard in the ultra-cool climate near Ballarat in the early 1980s; I was born just after the vineyard was planted.”
When his father suffered an accident in the winery in early 1999, he was asked to step up to the plate and deliver that year’s vintage – a role he tackled with commendable energy, performing punch-downs in the morning before catching the bus to school with wine stains on his uniform.
It was a formative experience, and one that made him start thinking about his winemaking philosophy at an age when most people don’t know what subjects they would like to study at university, let alone what career path they’d like to take.
“If winemaking was all about adding and correcting things, pushing styles and fast trends, not emphasising the vineyard and place, I would probably have found another career path to follow and nurture my creativity in another field,” Latta says.
Now running production at Eastern Peake, where he crafts a tight range of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay-based wines, and with his own négociant label, Latta Vino, to play with more experimental techniques and off-the-beaten-path varieties, Owen’s winemaking effortlessly straddles generational divides and the traditional/natural dichotomy – a difficult and impressive balancing act indeed.
Latta says, “It’s such an amazing accolade. I’ve been in the industry loving what I do for a long time, subtly perfecting my craft.
“It’s always nice to know that someone out there is paying attention to the good I do, without me drawing the attention. Keeping the work–life balance in the industry is always a balancing act – the pressures of farming responsibilities, family, winemaking, and running a business to generate an income is always a challenge.
“Bringing everyone together is so important: to connect with peers of the industry, to taste, to chat and to enjoy what we all love doing.
“I feel like every vintage I always have to prove myself to the wine world as our slice of terroir is not in a wine region, and people don’t really understand where we are,” Latta continued. “I think this helps push me on to go above and beyond with producing something super-interesting year to year. These awards are so good for highlighting to wine consumers that you don’t have to be so confined to regions – that good wines and good stories can exist anywhere.
“Young Gun of Wine is a very important part of the Australian wine landscape, helping young aspiring producers to have a voice and get noticed – as well as highlighting the good work of established yet under-the-radar producers. I’d like to thank my wife, Jen, our kids, my parents, and the incredible staff and growers who have helped me achieve the vision for the wines we produce – to reflect place of origin with as little as interference as possible.”
Best New Act
Lauren Hansen, Bloomfield
The Best New Act is an award to single out the hottest new wine label. Lauren Hansen’s Bloomfield project truly meets the brief for this award. With its whip-smart intersection of approachable winemaking, alternative varieties, cool-climate Limestone Coast fruit sources and punter-friendly branding, Bloomfield feels effortlessly fresh and vibrant.
Approachable as they are, though, the wines have an underlying quality and seriousness that rewards deeper investigation – whether a juicy mencía or a dangerously quaffable carbonic-macerated petit erdot. Bloomfield as a label is all about Hansen getting out of her comfort zone as a winemaker – working with new varieties and new techniques to recontextualise her home base of the Limestone Coast – but the resulting wines are anything but challenging. Instead they’re vibrant, heartfelt, and simply a joy to drink.
“Bloomfield has been an idea brewing in my brain for so many years – nearly as long as Young Gun of Wine has been running,” Hansen says.
“I’ve put off starting my own brand while growing my career as a winemaker, so to launch my very first vintage and come away with the Best New Act in the same year is an absolute dream. So so stoked for this recognition, what a way to kickstart a brand!
“Young Gun of Wine has been a great way to connect with winemakers in the same boat, launching our own brands, side-hustling and learning the hard lessons along the way. It’s also has been awesome to get out and about splashing the Bloomies and chatting with trade – I’ve loved all the conversations and met so many excellent humans.
“I’m hugely grateful to everyone who helped get Bloomfield out of my brain and into action. It’s been such a rewarding process bringing my ideas to life, but one I absolutely couldn’t do without the village of supporters – you know who you are!”
Danger Zone
Rojer Rathod & Millie Shorten, Majama
The Danger Zone trophy recognises wild originality, risk and reward. In the past this trophy has been awarded to individual wines rather than winemaking projects – but the across-the-board audacity of this year’s winner deserved special recognition.
With their focus on unusual Sicilian varieties, use of traditional Indian clay kothis for fermentation, hands-off winemaking, and the boldness to do all of the above in the Hunter Valley – the heartland of the traditional Australian wine industry – Rojer Rathod and Millie Shorter’s Majama label certainly doesn’t lack for daring. The resulting wines are not only compelling, but also simply delicious – elegantly balanced and subtly polished, with textural finesse provided by their unusual fermentation vessels. To top it all off, Rathod and Shorter turned things up to eleven with the audacity to package their wines in clay bottles – another daring move from an effortlessly bold power-couple of the Hunter.
“We’re so surprised and humbled to have been awarded the Danger Zone trophy,” Shorter says.
“This is our first entry into Young Gun of Wine, so we were genuinely stoked just to be in the Top 50.
“We’ve admired so many of the Young Gun of Wine wine makers from afar, a as a result of the awards process, we now get to call them friends.
“We’ve definitely been exposed to new buyers and a wider audience. Thank you to everyone who came and tried our wines. This award is a huge encouragement to keep doing what we’re doing. It really was everything we hoped it would be: a chance to mingle with our peers, try amazing wines, have fun – and the biggest cherry on top, winning an award!
“We can’t wait for the next one.”
People’s Choice
Sierra Blair, Ghost Rock
The People’s Choice is determined by the people whose opinions matter the most: wine consumers. With her work across a wide spectrum of styles – from serious (and seriously coveted) single-vineyard expressions of pinot noir, to the wildly experimental and fun Supernatural sub-label, Ghost Rock’s Sierra Blair shows a real knack for understanding what wine drinkers are looking for. With her family’s history as California viticulturists giving her an eye for both sides of the growing/making coin, Blair’s wines balance winemaker know-how with a deep respect for the work that goes into the fruit she uses.
Or, as she puts it, “Good wine is made in the vineyard… and fucked up in the winery.”
“This award hits home because it comes from the people we make wine for,” Blair says.
“That’s what drives me in this hard-working, passionate trade of ours – creating wines that bring people joy. What a lucky industry we’re a part of. Ghost Rock and Supernatural wines are made by a small but mighty crew of legends: people who are deeply passionate about what they do, the patch of dirt we farm, and the wines we coax from it.
“Being part of Young Gun has made me feel more connected than ever to peers, to purpose, and to a community that’s pushing Australian wine forward.”
The Vigneron
William Rikard-Bell, Rikard Wines
The Vigneron goes to a winemaker who grows the grapes from which the wines come. “Great wine starts with great grapes,” says Young Gun founder Rory Kent. “No amount of winemaking technique can beat hard work in the vineyard.”
William Rikard-Bell of Rikard Wines deserves recognition not only for the quality of his wines and the compelling story behind them, but also for the detailed viticultural work that he puts into his label.
In 2008, Rikard-Bell was caught in an explosion in the winery he worked at in the Hunter Valley, suffering third-degree burns to over 70 percent of his body. Recovery from these life-threatening injuries sharpened his focus, prompting a move to the cooler climate of Orange and the founding of his own winemaking business.
Having restored the formerly abandoned ‘Resurrection’ vineyard, and with his own high-density, multi-clonal Pinot and Chardonnay vineyard ‘La Cloche’ starting to bear fruit, Ricard-Bell is now turning his attention to regenerative farming, biodiversity, and labour-intensive Simonit and Sirch pruning – all with the aim of improving wine quality. With the refreshing elevation of Mount Canobolas as his muse and ally, Rikard Wines is defining what this emerging region has to offer.
“Wow! What a humbling experience to be involved with the 2025 Young Gun of Wine,” Rikard-Bell says.
“I loved being surrounded by so much creativity and enthusiasm and talent. Great people!
“The opportunity to connect with so many other like-minded, passionate wine people was awesome. So many common goals, common dreams, common problems … and a shared love of wine. Friends for life. If this gang is the future of the Aussie wine industry, then it’s in great hands! To then be recognised with the Vigneron award amongst this crowd is a real thrill. Not just for me, or for my wife Kimberley, but especially for our small, dedicated team back in Orange. I can’t thank them enough.
“It’s a deserved reward for all their hard work – and a great reminder to stick to your guns and believe in the process of what you’re doing. We’ll certainly use it as fuel now to keep striving for better, more sustainable vineyards and more delicious wine as a result!”
Winemaker’s Choice
Leila Davis, Foreign Friends
The Winemaker’s Choice is voted on by the winemaker finalists, after meeting to taste each other’s wines.
It’s not hard to see why our Top 50 were collectively impressed by Foreign Friends, a collaborative label created by sisters Leila and Crystal Davis and their friend Juliette Menneteau. Foreign Friends draws on each of their strengths: Leila’s as a winemaker, Crystal’s as a marketer, and Menneteau’s in wine distribution and sales. Crafting a tight range of six wines delivered in whip-smart packaging, Foreign Friends presents a vibrant, youthful, and approachable take on contemporary Australian wine.
But don’t let the slick branding fool you – these wines are made by three driven, ambitious women who are working hard not only to make and market wines of finesse – including a delightfully textural savagnin that turned other winemakers’ heads – but also to raise the profile of women in wine.
“When we started Foreign Friends, we never dreamed it would be what it is today,” Davis says.
“We are so honoured to have been included amongst such a talented group of winemakers, and very inspired for what is yet to come. To everyone who has supported us along the way, a big heartfelt thank you. We can’t wait to see what the future holds!”
The Young Gun of Wine Awards is presented with thanks to Amorim Cork, Antipodes Water, DJ’s Growers Services, and WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine.
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