{"id":87979,"date":"2026-09-04T07:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/87979\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T07:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T07:34:13","slug":"margaret-river-winery-rewarded-with-rare-100-point-perfect-score-as-region-cleans-up-in-international-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/87979\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret River winery rewarded with rare 100-point perfect score as region cleans up in international awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small Margaret River winery has achieved the seemingly impossible with a first-ever perfect 100-point score in international competition for its 2025 chardonnay.<\/p>\n

Travis and Liz Wray, who own and run House of Cards winery, achieved the history-making feat with their $100-a-bottle \u2018Ace High\u2019 chardonnay at the International Wine & Spirit Competition\u2019s global tasting, judged in the Margaret River for the first time last week.<\/p>\n

The label also picked up two other gold medals: its 2025 \u2018The Royals\u2019 ($52) chardonnay earned 98 points and its 2024 \u2018Kings in the Corner\u2019 ($32) cabernet merlot achieved 95 points. No other wine has ever achieved a perfect score in this competition.<\/p>\n

The winery also scooped up the 2026 IWSC WA wine producer trophy – in what was a remarkable 29 gold medals haul for locally made Margaret River wines. Cape Mentelle\u2019s viticulturalist Annabel Angland was named the young wine producer of the year.<\/p>\n

Mr Wray said his chardonnays have done well in previous years of the IWSC – earning up to 96 points. After a cold 2024, 2025 had the kind of mild weather perfectly suited to a \u201cmagical vintage\u201d.<\/p>\n

It meant the grapes could be handpicked on time on Valentine\u2019s Day, to be juiced straight into a barrel with minimal stirring, wild fermented and then aged in 100 per cent new oak for about nine months.<\/p>\n

\"HouseCamera IconHouse of Cards’ Travis and Liz Wray with their gold medal winning wines. Credit: Bianca Kate Photography<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew, when we made it, this one was probably better than what we\u2019ve done before. The 2025 vintage is definitely a lot more balanced and has an incredible intensity of fruit,\u201d Mr Wray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would do alright but the 100 points definitely blew me away. It was definitely a bit of a Goldilocks year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competition co-chairmen Andrew Caillard and Freddy Bulmer said Ace High stood out for its depth, complexity, perfect balance and \u201csheer class\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Andrew suggested 100 points, I thought: there\u2019s nothing more that this wine could do,\u201d Mr Bulmer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tasted it again, blind, alongside all the golds and both agreed that 100 points was absolutely justified. It was an absolutely beautiful wine \u2013 absolute perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Wray, who grew up visiting farms as a child in South Australia, turned to winemaking after a five-year stint in the Navy. He met Liz while studying at university and they have been together ever since, including two years travelling and working in Canada and New Zealand to learn and hone their craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were getting inspiration from all across the world at all these different wineries but we knew we wanted to come back to Margaret River and start our own brand,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just wanted something that was going to be true to what we believe in and House of Cars was born from that.<\/p>\n

\"HouseCamera IconHouse of Cards wines’ Ace High chardonnay. Credit: Bianca Kate Photography<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we are young winemakers, we have the ability to showcase difference cards and elements with different wines and obviously there\u2019s the link with farming. We are very much farming focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wrays bought their Margaret River vineyard 15 years ago and produce a range of whites, reds and a fortified shiraz that showcase grapes grown across 12 hectares and a small 3ha project block across the road. They began focusing on organic farming in 2020.<\/p>\n

After a tough few years post-COVID and a \u2018too cold\u2019 2024, Mr Wray said the local wine industry was starting to look up. Last year\u2019s mild weather meant fruit had ripened \u201cas they should\u201d and 2026 was as good or better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had heaps of water, which was great for the vineyard, not too much bird pressure and it was just an easy vintage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Wrays mostly sell through their cellar door and a well-supported wine club. They hope to soon be exporting to Indonesia and that the hype around the IWSC win will jumpstart expanded sales in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cReceiving 100 points for our 2025 Ace High chardonnay has put us front and centre on the international stage and has allowed our brand exposure we could only dream of,\u201d Ms Wray said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small Margaret River winery has achieved the seemingly impossible with a first-ever perfect 100-point score in international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[252,251,335],"class_list":["post-87979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-drink","tag-food","tag-perth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}