Awards
Creation Date: Tuesday August 27th 2019
Last Updated: Thursday February 12th 2026
JO ILIAN TROPHY
The Jo Ilian trophy is named after the founding president of the Eltham Wine Guild. It is the most prestigious of our trophies and is hotly contested every year, drawing many more entries than usual for the nominated class. The eligibility for this trophy changes every year and can be for any of the classes in the Show. The trophy is not restricted to members and can be won by anyone who enters the Show.
The 2026 Jo Ilian will be awarded to the Best Rosé.
GRAHAM SCOTT WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR AWARD
The Graham Scott WOTY is the Eltham Guild Winemaker of the Year. This is determined by totalling the three top scoring wines from any Eltham & District Amateur Winemakers Guild member - one wine of which must be a country wine, one a grape wine, and at least one of the three wines must be current vintage.
In the event of tied scores for the WOTY, the fourth top scoring wine will be taken into account. If a tie still exists, then the fifth (etc.) top scoring wine will be taken into account until a winner is found. If this process does not yield a winner, the Wine Show Director and Chief Judge will examine all the entries from the remaining eligible winemakers and determine a winner based on the overall quality of wines, complexity of handling the wines, and the range of skills and techniques displayed by the winemaker.
BEST GRAPE / COUNTRY WINEMAKER
The highest cumulative score of three (3) grape wines determines the Best Grape Winemaker award across three (3) different grape wine classes by an individual winemaker, or group of winemakers.
The highest cumulative score of three (3) country wines determines the Best Country Winemaker award across three (3) different country wine classes by an individual winemaker, or group of winemakers.
For the Best Grape and Best Country Winemaker awards, more than three wines can be entered in the show and more than one wine can be entered in any class, but only the highest scoring wine in each class is used in determining the award winner.
For the Best Grape and Best Country Winemaker awards, the cumulative score for these awards can only come from one show entry i.e. an individual also making wines as part of a group cannot use scores from their group entry toward their individual “Best Winemaker” score.
In the event that two or more winemakers receive identical scores the following rules apply:
Rule 1: If a tied winemaker has a higher aggregate score on any two of the three eligible wines, they will be given the award.
For example: Winemaker1=20, 19, 18 and Winemaker2=20, 20, 17, then Winemaker2 will win because they have an aggregate score of 40 on their 2 best wines.
Rule 2: If a tie still exists, the award will be granted to the winemaker who has a single wine (of the 3 eligible wines) with the single highest score.
For example: Winemaker1=20, 19, 19 and Winemaker2=19.5, 19.5,19, then Winemaker1 will win because they have a single wine with a score of 20, which exceeds any single score received by Winemaker 2.
Rule 3: In the event that a tie still exists, the top scoring fourth wine in a fourth separate eligible class will be considered. If one of the winemakers does not have a fourth wine in a fourth eligible class, they will score zero for that wine for the purpose of determining Best Winemaker.
For example: Winemaker1=20, 19, 19 and Winemaker2=20, 19, 19 the fourth wine will be counted.
Rule 4: After examining the fourth wine in a fourth class, if there is still a tie, then we will look to the 5th wine in a 5th class etc. until we have a winner.
Rule 5: If this process still does not produce a winner, then a top scoring wine in any class will be considered.
Rule 6: Finally, if the above process does not yield a winner, the Wine Show Director and Chief Steward will examine all the entries from the remaining eligible winemakers and determine a winner based on the overall quality of wines, complexity of handling the wines, and the range of skills and techniques displayed by the winemaker.
ENTRY CLASS SPECIAL NOTES
LIQUEUR / FORTIFIED / SPARKLING WINES
Fortified wines must be wholly or partially fermented.
Liqueurs must be made with a neutral base spirit (e.g. vodka or brandy spirit) and not be made from proprietary essences.
Liqueurs will not be counted towards total scores for WOTY, Best Country Winemaker, Best Grape Winemaker or the Eltham-Frankston Winemakers Showdown Trophy. This is because Liqueurs are not fermented; consequently, they do not demonstrate winemaking skills.
BLENDED GRAPE WINE ENTRIES
All entries in the classes for the Blended Reds Current Vintage (Classe 9), Blended Reds Previous Vintage (Class 10) and Blended Whites Any Vintage (Class 24), must only consist of grape varieties.
A blended grape wine entry must be indicated by listing each grape varietal present within the blend.
The order in which each varietal appears on the label must reflect the proportion of each grape variety in the blend. That is, the grape varietal with the greatest proportion is listed first; the second most prevalent is listed second and so on. The proportion of each component part of the blended wine entry may be optionally indicated in brackets.
If a vintage year is specified in an entry then at least 95% of the wine contained within the blend must be from that vintage.
For example; Shiraz/Malbec (95/5) 2011
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