August rewards

"August slipped away like a bottle of wine." Well, not quite yet Ms Taylor Swift, but it's certainly been moving at breakneck speed for anyone trying to remain abreast of all the good news on the Tasmanian food and wine scene.

The August milestones we've reached so far have been little short of incredible.

• Welcome Tasmanian additions and elevations in The Real Review Wine Classification of Australia.

• National recognition for Hobart's Christian Ryan (pictured below) as Australia's Chef of the Year.

• A swag of Tasmanian wine producers celebrating major 2027 Halliday Wine Companion awards, including Winery of the Year; Best New Winery; Winemaker of the Year; Sparkling Wine of the Year; and Pinot Noir of the Year.

• Sydney Royal Wine Show acknowledgement of the extraordinary quality and diversity of Tasmania's cool-climate wines. Trophies went to Josef Chromy Wines (Best Sparkling White or Rosé), Bream Creek Vineyard (Best Pinot Noir) and Pooley Wines (Best Shiraz, Best Red, and Best Wine of Show).

That's a helluva lot of carry-on luggage coming back to the State.

Jim Chatto (pictured below) opened proceedings back on 3 August. His Chatto Isle Pinot Noir was among just four wines nationwide that – on gaining inclusion for the first time – rocketed straight to the top tier of The Real Review Wine Classification of Australia.

The Real Review is the brainchild of Sydney writer/wine judge Huon Hooke and NZ Master of Wine Bob Campbell. It was launched in 2016 to provide unbiased, independent reviews on wine.

The online platform soon grew like triffids, with well in excess of 10,000 wines being assessed annually and added to its database. In November 2022, its founders decided to give some order to all those points and ratings, for the sake of its subscribers:

• Wines that reliably achieve Real Review gold and silver ribbons in recent vintages – with top vintages achieving 95 points or more – are accorded 1 Merit status.

• Those that achieve gold and high silver ribbons – with top vintages receiving 96 points or more – make up the second tier (2 Merit).

• Wines deemed to be 3 Merit standard are 'iconic wines of the country, wines of true provenance and exemplary track record.'

Fewer than 0.5 percent of wines reviewed reach this top tier. 

'Most of these wines have received gold ribbons for recent vintages. Top vintages will score 98 points or more.'

The Real Review Wine Classification of Australia is updated annually. August has provided the fifth iteration.

Freycinet Radenti Grand Vintage and Bream Creek Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir entered the Classification in 2026 with 2 Merits.

Promoted from 1 Merit to 2 Merit status was Bay of Fires Wines.

There are now 29 different Tasmanian wines afforded 1 Merit classification.  

Established in 1980, the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards are the country's most coveted and longest-running national restaurant awards.

This year's presentations were made at a gala event held on 17 August at Sydney's Olympus Dining. They shone the spotlight on Hobart's Christian Ryan (Australia's Chef of the Year) and fellow Hobartian, Luke Burgess (Scholé, Best Tasmanian Restaurant).

The annual awards are decided by a panel of independent reviewers, who arrive unannounced at dining venues through the year and subsequently pay their own tab. Each establishment is judged on its overall dining experience, including food and drink offerings, and restaurant ambience, service and setting.

Ryan started his culinary journey 23 years ago at Battery Point's popular Da Angelo Ristorante. In November 2015, he opened his Aløft Restaurant (pictured below) on Hobart's waterfront. The 50-seat, open-plan dining facility at Brooke Street Pier is contained within an 80-metre floating structure that rises and falls with the tides.

A window seat there offers some of the country's most spectacular harbour views. The occasional frolicking seal or dolphin would be almost within reaching distance were it not for the square metres of toughened glass that provide welcome separation.

Ryan has been a driving force behind many of Tasmania's contemporary food stories, from leading the kitchens at Aløft and Restaurant Maria to helping shape major events like Dark Mofo's Winter Feast.

Burgess also leads from the front, with his 10-seater Scholé in the Hobart CBD being recognised for its thoughtful dining experiences showcasing local ingredients via Japanese and European influences.

Scholé takes its name from the Greek word for 'leisure.' 

Leisurely might similarly apply to Pooley Wines' Matt Pooley (pictured above) and his laid-back approach to receiving major awards around the country. The third-generation Coal River Valley wine producer accepts trophies and high praise from judging panels with good grace and otherwise merges into the background.

August 21 saw the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW announce the results of the prestigious 2026 Sydney Royal Wine Show at the city's Four Seasons Hotel.

Pooley Wines won trophies for Best Shiraz, Best Red, and Best Wine of Show. The winning wine was the 2024 Pooley Syrah. It was the first time in the Show's 200-year history that a Tasmanian wine had achieved trophy distinction by exhibiting Australia's most widely-grown red wine grape.

(Chardonnay is the nation's biggest wine variety by yield.)

When the first Sydney Wine Show was held back in 1826, there were just a few dozen producers of colonial wine, most of it fortified wine rather than table wine.

The event preceded the establishment of the Hunter Valley wine region, and was held decades before the Barossa Valley was first planted.

Chair of judges Mike De Iuliis observed that cool-climate Shiraz wines were the highlight of this year's show, with a diverse range of regions and producers represented.

"It really demonstrates that these amazing wines can come from anywhere in this country," he said.

"It was particularly exciting to see the best Shiraz of the show come from the Coal River Valley in Tasmania – a great reminder that cooler-climate sites are producing some exciting Shiraz in Australia right now."

Some 278 of the 1500+ entries this year were red wine blends that included Shiraz or were made entirely from the variety.

"We're really stoked with the result," Pooley admits.

"The same wine won the trophy for Best Shiraz at the 2025 Royal Hobart Wine Show at the end of last year. It's really good to have a different red variety provide another string to your bow for consumers that like fuller-bodied reds."

Perhaps even more remarkable is that the $60 wine is still currently available for purchase online and at the vineyard cellar door at Richmond, outside Hobart.

Bream Creek Vineyard came away with the event's Trophy for Best Pinot Noir. The winning wine – the 2025 Pinot Noir – led a field of seven gold medal Pinot Noir wines in the Sydney competition, all of them from Tasmania.

Other entries from vintage 2025 came from Bay of Fires Wines, Dawson James Island Belle and Sandy Bay Estate.

Gold medal winners from 2024 came from Dawson James, Lowestoft (La Maison) and Pressing Matters.

The 2026 Sydney Royal Wine Show's Best Sparkling White or Rosé was the 2020 Josef Chromy Brut Finesse. The stylish Pinot Noir Chardonnay blend from the company's Relbia vineyard spent just over five years on its yeast lees before being disgorged in March 2026.

The wine's gold medal and trophy in Sydney are the first awards the wine has received since its release. Other Tasmanian gold medal sparkling wines were the NV Josef Chromy Sparkling Cuvée and the 2017 House of Arras Rosé.

Tasmanian wine producers took home three of the most prestigious awards made at the 2027 Halliday Wine Companion award presentations, held at Melbourne's Half Acre on 20 August.

House of Arras took out the night's top honours, winning Winery of the Year. The winery was also recognised for producing the Sparkling Wine of the Year. Its 2006 EJ Carr Late Disgorged 30th Anniversary wine was made by internationally acclaimed sparkling winemaker Ed Carr (pictured above).

'Honorary Tasmanian' Steve Flamsteed was named Winemaker of the Year, while the Coal River Valley wine venture he operates with long-time drinking mate Brad Rogers – Decades Wine – was named Best New Winery.

When respected author, wine judge and Coldstream Hills founder James Halliday AO published his first annual guide to Australian wine in 1997, some 1150 wines from 400+ wineries were reviewed.

Halliday tasted and reviewed every wine on his own until 2008. (That edition featured an extraordinary 5836 wines from 1740 wineries.)

From that point onwards, the Halliday Wine Companion became the work of a panel of wine critics. The esteemed former winemaker maintained involvement with the publication and online platform until he stepped away completely in 2024 to enjoy a well-earned retirement.

The 2027 edition of the authoritative publication was compiled by nine panelists: Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale, Toni Paterson MW and Katrina Butler.

They received tasting submissions from 1033 wineries across the country. Detailed tasting notes for 7520 individual wines have been published in the print edition, which was released for sale last Thursday.

South Australian-based Carr produced the first Arras sparkling wines in 1995. They included fruit from the Yarra Valley.

"Up until then, our top sparkling wines were more or less from cooler, elevated parts of the country, with a bit of fruit from the higher parts of the Yarra Valley," Carr says.

"We soon found there was a marked difference between that and what we were able to source from Tasmanian vineyards. The fruit was so refined and elegant. The problem was we couldn't get enough of it. It wasn't until 1998 that we were able to make Arras a 100 percent Tasmanian-grown wine."

Carr's personal commitment to the quality of his rarefied all-Tasmanian project was recognised on the world stage in 2018 when he became the first winemaker outside Champagne to win the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships.

In 2024, he was named the International Wine Challenge Sparkling Winemaker of the Year. He remains the first Australian to receive the honour at the exalted London event.

When Steve Flamsteed (pictured above, centre) was nominated for Winemaker of the Year back in June, it came with the glowing support of Halliday Wine Companion panellists Dave Brookes and Jane Faulkner.

They described him as "supremely talented, experienced and deeply respected winemaker with an exceptional palate… a quiet achiever who leaves a mark.

"Since '02 he has been based in the Yarra Valley, most notably at Giant Steps where, between '03 and '23, he catapulted its wines, vineyard sites and reputation to new heights…

"A family man, a mentor and champion of young winemakers, Flamo is one of the good guys of the Australian wine industry. We are so lucky to have someone of his calibre, integrity and ability leading it today."

Few of Flamsteed's Tasmanian peers would beg to differ.

The 2027 Halliday Wine Companion's Best Pinot Noir of the Year also went to a Tasmanian wine, the 2024 Hardys Eileen Hardy Pinot Noir.

The celebrated Eileen Hardy label sprang to life in 1986 when the South Australian company chose to honour its dearly departed family matriarch with a special release of Chardonnay from the Padthaway wine region.

Pinot Noir was added to the Eileen Hardy portfolio in 2008. Fruit for the 2024 vintage was sourced from select Tasmanian vineyards.

The 173-year-old Hardys brand is now part of the global wine company Vinarchy.

Seven August days still remain on the Tasmanian food and wine calendar. 

What could be next?

Last page update: 24 August 2026