AUSTRALIAN wines have beaten the world's best, taking the most international awards for any country at this year's prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards.

In a resounding victory, Aussie drops were named the best of the best in London overnight in six different categories trumping highly fancied opponents from France, Spain, New Zealand and the Americas.

The results announced at a gala night at London's Royal Opera House signals a return for the Australian wine industry which has failed to make even the finals cut in recent times due to previous droughts, pests and floods.

See the list of winners at the end of this report

Last year France and Chile scooped the pool.

"It's testament to the diverse talents of the country's winemakers that Australia has won trophies in categories across the world including red, white and sweet fortified," Decanter World Wine Awards chairman Steven Spurrier said.

He added the range of winners was from all over Australia and from family-owned vineyards and larger wineries and the nation was clearly "blessed with many talented individuals". Australia had 10 finalists in contention.

The 2013 nominations was judged by a panel of 200 wine merchants, sommeliers, journalists and authors, including 75 Masters of Wine, from 27 countries.

International trophies are the top tier of the Decanter awards following regional awards and commended medals; this year 815 Australian wines were awarded a medal from 1075 nominations equating to a 76 per cent success rate.

Among the winners were McGuigan's Bin 9000 2007 Semillon from Hunter Valley in NSW (in the white single varietal under $25 category), Penfolds' Bin 389 2010 Cabernet Shiraz, Campbells' sweet fortified topaque from Rutherglen in Victoria and the 2011 Beach Head Shiraz from the Credaro Family Estate in Margaret River in Western Australia.

Winemaker Jeremy Dineen from Josef Chromy vineyard in Tasmania took gold medal for his 2011 Chardonnay in the $25 and over category in his first try at the Decanter awards, considered the Olympics of wine awards.

Mr Dineen couldn't believe he was a finalist let alone a winner, saying the vintage - affected by extreme cold temperatures and wetter than average rains and a long ripening period - was not the best they could do.

"It feels a little bit bizarre really, bemused but very pleased," Mr Dineen said ahead the awards being announced publicly. He decided to enter international awards since they started to distribute their wines in the UK. He said it was always great to get recognition from ones peers.

Ray Gatt, winemaker from South Australia's Eden Springs in the Eden Valley, said he was very excited to take out an award. His 2008 Riesling had already won regional awards and Decanter's gold medal in the Asian region.

He said he was thrilled to be nominated and win and be in London to receive his award personally. Mr Gatt said it was important Australian vineyards focused on quality over quantity in winemaking and focus on premium wines.

He said there was a perception Australians just churned through wines but recognition was finally coming for the mid to higher end drops.

Of his winning wine Mr Gatt said: "It is a very special Riesling, it's a very pure varietal expressions are there, and its shown very well in the last couple of years."

Prior to the awards being announced, acclaimed Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago told News Corp wine success was cyclic and it was good to see Australian wines staging a very strong comeback to the top.

"We have the good days, the boom days things come in and out and on top of that you have the fashion cycles," he said. "So everything is cyclic is what I guess I am saying. We were the flavour of the month for the while and it was a very, very long month now we've scraped the bottom of the river and on the way back, we never really left and things now are looking good. We cannot keep up with production and that's a nice problem to have."

Penfolds has won numerous awards in recent months. Earlier this year the influential US-based Wine Advocate awarded the 2008 Penfolds Grange Shiraz a rare 100 points top score.

AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL TROPHY WINNERS

Riesling over Pound15 ($A25)

Eden Springs, High Eden Riesling 2008

Chardonnay over Pound15 Trophy

Josef Chromy, Chardonnay 2011

White Single-Varietal under Pound15

McGuigan, Bin 9000 Semillon 2007

Red Blend over Pound15

Penfolds, Bin 389 Cabernet-Shiraz 2010

Red Rhône varietals over Pound15

Credaro Family Estate, Beach Head Shiraz 2011

Sweet Fortified under Pound15

Campbells, Topaque NV

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Originally published as Aussie wines best in the world