Carla Rodeghiero makes Sapling Yard wine with Malcom Burdett. Photo: Sapling Yard.
It’s rare in the competitive food and wine world for consistency to be rewarded. It’s not sexy or flashy so prizes and accolades often go to the “hot new thing” and media attention focusses on one-off wins rather than those performing at the top of their game year-on-year.
But wine list The Real Review flips the script by rewarding wineries for consistent excellence. Bungendore label Sapling Yard has joined the top 15 per cent of Australian wineries on this prestigious list in 2025.
Internationally recognised Australian wine writer, critic, educator and show judge Huon Hooke runs The Real Review. He leads a team of experts in tasting more than 10,000 wines from across Australia and New Zealand to find those producing the best of the best every year.
Sapling Yard winemaker Carla Rodeghiero told Region the award meant a lot to her business.
“It is a remarkable achievement because it shows you’re consistently good,” she said.
“It took a long time for us to be taken ‘seriously’ and this is a really serious publication.”
The Real Review’s list of best wineries rewards consistency. Photo: The Real Review/Facebook.
Carla said Sapling Yard had sent seven or eight of its best wines from each vintage to be judged in the competition for about the past five years.
The Real Review’s algorithm uses tasting results from two years of judging to ensure seasonal variations are taken into account. If a winery loses a vintage due to natural disaster (bushfire smoke, hail damage etc), it still has the opportunity to retain its place.
Sapling Yard joins a handful of other Canberra region wineries on the list, including Clonakilla, Helm Wines, Four Winds Vineyard and Collector Wines.
The Real Review top wineries list includes 414 wineries which accounts for 15 per cent of Australian labels. It’s a clear indication of quality in a crowded market.
Sapling Yard Wines. Photo: Lucy Ridge.
The 2025 vintage had good weather, high-quality grapes and fairly high yields but the challenging market conditions for winemakers saw many businesses leaving grapes on the vine.
Carla hoped recognition like this encouraged more Canberrans to drink local wines.
“I wish we would get a bit more parochial on buying local. We see a lot of imports coming in and people think that just because it’s a French wine it must be good quality, but a lot of the time they’re mass produced,” she said.
“People don’t always realise how good our local wine is.”
Find out more about The Real Review list and check out the other Canberra region wineries who made the grade. Sapling Yard wines are available on its website or at its cellar door at 23 Malbon St Bungendore. Follow Sapling Yard on Facebook or Instagram.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on Region Canberra.
