Producers of the Year 2025

Picking up any medal at Sommelier Wine Awards is quite an achievement, so for a single producer to pick up several medals, with extra awards and trophies on top, deserves special recognition. these are the producers that put in a particularly strong performance in this year’s competition.

SPARKLING PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
 

CHAMPAGNE DUVAL-LEROY

With English sparkling, Cava, crémant and even Prosecco bearing down on Champagne’s territory on wine lists, the world’s most famous nonetheless held on to this top spot in the form of Champagne Duval-Leroy. This excellent house crowned its Sparkling Producer of the Year gong by taking Champagne of the Year for its Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru 2008. Consultant sommelier Mateusz Kowalczyk described the latter as having “well-integrated brioche and toast notes alongside generous stone fruit and citrus. This is wonderfully balanced, with complex notes of ripe tangerine and melon, with zesty acidity and a long finish.”

EUROPEAN PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
 

MICHELE CHIARLO

This Piedmont producer excelled at this year’s SWAs, with all five of its wines entered picking up a medal, landing Michele Chiarlo two Golds, two Silvers and a Bronze. The Michele Chiarlo Barbera Nizza Riserva La Court 2021 from Nizza, Piedmont, landed one of the Golds and, in addition, the Gavi di Gavi Rovereto 2023 also received Critics' Choice and By the Glass awards – a rare case of a white rising above the already very good reds from a northern Italian estate.

NEW WORLD PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
 

HEIRLOOM VINEYARDS

This forward-looking South Australian producer showed wines from Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and Barossa Valley, pulling in a Gold, two Silvers and four Bronzes in the process, with several of the wines sitting in the £14 to £18 bracket, marking it out as a source of excellent value for the quality. Pushing up to £40, Heirloom’s A’Lambra Barossa Valley Shiraz 2023 won both a Gold and a Critics' Choice, showing the best of modern Barossa, described by Sam Weatherill of etch. by Steven Edwards as having “elegance and great character, with very fine-boned tannin structure”.

FORTIFIED PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
 

CHAMBERS ROSEWOOD VINEYARDS

This Australian Rutherglen-rooted serial-award-winning fortified wine producer also shone at the SWAs this year, clinching the title in a closely run taste-off with Portugal’s Quinta da Pedra Alta, nudging Chambers Rosewood Old Vine Rutherglen Muscat NV over the finish line just ahead for the Gold. However, this delicious Muscat also picked up Critics' Choice and commendations for By the Glass and Pub & Bar wine, finally delivering quite the haul of medals. Emma Denney of Claridge's was one of many who enjoyed “notes of marzipan and toasted walnuts, with sweet citrus peel, toffee and caramel”.