Family and friendship create award-winning Aussie wines

When his family’s wines were named among the best in the world at the “Chardonnay Olympics”, Mitchell Taylor looked to the skies for his friend Louis LaTour.

Of more than 470 samples from 25 countries, two wines from Australian winery Taylors Wines – the Jaraman Chardonnay 2025 and the Special Release Chardonnay 2024 – have been named in the top 10 at the 2026 Chardonnay du Monde, beating out world-famous entries like Burgundy Premier Cru and Champagne Grand Cru in the birthplace of the grape variety.

The winery has been making wine in South Australia for generations and became one of the first to get Chardonnay grapes into a Clare Valley vineyard in the early 80s, according to third-generation family member and chairman Mitchell Taylor.

Their chardonnay has evolved in the decades since as each generation made adjustments and Mr Taylor later struck up a friendship with the French wine producer Louis-Fabrice Latour.

Mr Taylor would often visit the Frenchman, whose family has been running Maison Louis Latour since 1797, to source barrels from their cooperage.

“We were great friends over 15 years and had a lot of jokes about winning,” he said.

“Any time we’d won a big trophy in the past, he’d always say, ‘oh it’s because of the barrels that we made’.”

Mr Latour died in 2022, but he was not forgotten when Taylors Wines received their laurels.

“To be able to win this award in the birthplace of Chardonnay, in Louis’ home town, is very humbling,” he said.

“It’s very emotional because it’s sort of been a quest that I did with my father, and now I’m doing it with my son … and it’s also my friendship with Louis over all these years.

“So you sort of look skywards about it when you win it with the team.”

Taylors Wines was the only winery to get into the top 10 of the Chardonnay competition, which meant Australia was also the only southern hemisphere nation to crack the list.

But creating an award-winning wine is no easy feat and much of the process is steeped in science.

The wine has to make it to France when it’s at its peak, Mr Taylor said, but to get it to its best, the vines have to receive plenty of sunshine, grapes be picked at the right time, fermented for the perfect duration and more.

“It’s just getting every little part of the process right so that by the time the judges drink it like this beautiful wine … it really has that freshness, but you can really see it’s got that ability to age,” he said.