Best Wine of Show! Perth Royal Wine Show 2025.  

Wilyabrup winery Juniper Estate has won ‘Wine of Show’ at the Royal Perth Wine Awards for its 2024 Cornerstone Karridale Chardonnay, the first complete vintage by new winemaker Andrew Bretherton.

The 2024 Cornerstone Karridale Chardonnay was also awarded ‘Best White Wine’, ‘Best WA Wine’ and ‘Best Chardonnay’, putting it in the top 0.09 percent of all wines judged.

There was a total of 1,096 wines entered at the Royal Perth Wine Awards including 390 white wines and 152 Chardonnays.

It was the wine’s first outing on the show circuit, along with one other entry from the family-run estate: the 2024 Cornerstone Wilyabrup Chardonnay which also earned a Gold Medal in the Chardonnay class.

Juniper Estate comprises three distinct sites in the Margaret River region, Wilyabrup where the cellar door and winery is located, Karridale in the south and Metricup in the north.

The Wilyabrup vineyard was planted in 1973, making it one of the original pioneering sites in Margaret River. Founded in 1998, Juniper Estate was established by the late Roger Hill and his wife Gillian Anderson.

Second generation owner and CEO of Juniper Estate, Tom Hill, said the awards are great recognition of 27 years of hard work.

“We have a great team of people in the Juniper family – Andy, making incredible wines, and Ianto Ward, our viticulturist, who is very passionate about sustainability, soil health and the vines,” said Hill.

Head winemaker Andrew Bretherton, who joined Juniper Estate in 2023, said the team is absolutely thrilled to have been awarded four trophies and one gold medal at the Royal Perth Wine Awards.

“It is a great reward for the hard work put in by both our vineyard and winery teams and a fantastic acknowledgement of the quality of our programs and our vineyard sites,” Bretherton said.

“In a warm vintage, we were always very excited by the power, complexity and pristine fruit that is expressed in this wine.”

Hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and straight to barrel for wild ferment, the 2024 Cornerstone Karridale Chardonnay spent nine months in oak, was blended, lightly fined and filtered.

“The focus is to retain the pristine citrus fruit while coaxing out the little pops of complexity that make all Chardonnays from this special place so drinkable,” Bretherton said.

Juniper Estate’s Karridale 16-hectare vineyard is located just south of Witchcliffe, approximately 25 kilometres from the township of Margaret River and 40 kilometres from Juniper Estate’s winery.

The single Chardonnay block wine is curated in Block 13, a northeast facing slope planted in 1997. The close planted vines (4000/ha) are pruned and picked by hand.

Juniper Estate vines are tended using sustainable practices with a focus on caring for the living biodiversity in the vines, soils, native bush and waterways across all properties. It was certified under the Sustainable Winemaking Program in 2022.

“The 2024 season was very dry and very warm and Ianto and the team spent a lot of time in the vines to get the fruit in at the right time. Low cropping vines (3t/ha) with light bunches and small berries resulted in small amounts of juice, but with great concentration,” Hill said.

The 2024 Cornerstone Karridale Chardonnay is a blend of 95% GinGin clone and 5% 277 clone which gives the wine its vibrant acidity, finely chewy texture and citrus and saline leanings.

Of the entries, 1,053 wines were judged in 59 classes, with less than 10% awarded gold medals.

From Western Australia, 443 wines were entered, of which 73 were Chardonnay (out of 145 across Australia). There were six Chardonnay wines from Margaret River awarded gold, and 45 gold medal wines from Western Australia in total.

The 2024 Cornerstone Karridale Chardonnay is currently only available for Wine Club members, to be released to the public on November 1, 2025.