Hills Cider Pear wins Best in Show

25 Oct 2024

Cider Australia announced the winners of the 2024 Australian Cider Awards at a gala lunch in Melbourne today.

South Australian producer Hills Cider was awarded Best in Show with Pear along with the Best Perry trophy.

A field of 190 local and international entries was judged by a highly skilled and diverse panel of nine judges led by chair Briony Liebich of consultancy Flavour Logic. Twenty gold medals and ten trophies were awarded.

“One of the standout aspects of this year’s competition is the clear improvement in cider quality, speaking to the rising standards across the industry”, said Briony.

“This year the Traditional Cider and Fruit Cider classes punched above their weight, claiming almost half of the gold medals awarded. The judges were particularly impressed at how skilful cider makers are becoming at integrating other fruits into their ciders”.

Judges predict a bright future for the new No/Low Alcohol Cider or Perry class, awarding New Zealand’s Peckham’s Cidery and Orchard a Gold medal for its Apple Zero.

A new perpetual trophy for the Best Single Varietal Cider was awarded to The Apple Thief for its Kingston Black. The trophy is named in honour of industry champion David Pickering who passed away earlier this year.

2024 Trophy winners:

Best in Show: Hills Cider with Pear (SA)
Best New World Cider: Plenty Cider with Original (TAS)
Best Traditional Cider: LOBO with Lenswulf 2019 (SA)
Best Perry: Hills Cider with Pear (SA)
Best Specialty Cider or Perry: The Wild Beyond with Barrel-Aged Raspberry Sour Cider (WA)
Best Intensified / Distilled Cider or Perry: LOBO with Apple Brandy – Lobodos (SA)
Best Single Varietal Cider – David Pickering Memorial Trophy: The Apple Thief with Kingston Black (NSW)
Best International Cider: Peckham’s Cidery and Orchard with Chisel Jersey (NZ)
Most Successful Small Producer: Plenty Cider (TAS)
Most Successful Larger Producer: Hillbilly Cider (NSW)

For a full list of award and medal winners download the 2024 Australian Cider Awards Results Booklet.

2024 Best in Class Winners

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 Media enquiries

Contact Cider Australia executive officer Jane Anderson on
0434 559 759 or office@cideraustralia.org.au or visit www.cideraustralia.org.au.

About Cider Australia 

Cider Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation funded by cider businesses and sponsors, established in 2012. It aims to build a sustainable cider category by undertaking activities that improve the quality of ciders produced and marketed in Australia. The organisation represents the interests of the cider industry to policy makers, calling for regulations and policies that support a diverse and evolving cider industry, and runs the national cider conference AusCider and the Australian Cider Awards.

About the Awards

The 13^th annual Australian Cider Awards was judged on 9&10 October 2024. The Awards is the largest cider competition in Australia and is leading the standardisation and improvement of cider judging across Australia.

The judging panel included expertise from across the alcoholic beverage industry:

• Briony Liebich (Flavour Logic) – chair
• Jody Scott (Peckham’s Cider, New Zealand) – international guest judge
• Max Allen (drinks journalist and author)
• Nyall Condon (Flying Brick Cider Co)
• Adam D’Arcy (Plenty Cider)
• Rob Hall (cider enthusiast/entrepreneur)
• Jeremy Halse (White Rabbit Brewery)
• Norman Lever (Summer Snow Juice)

Chair of Judges – Briony Liebich

Briony is a sensory analyst, Certified Cicerone, beer educator, writer and judge. She was Chair at the 2023 Australian Cider Awards and a judge in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Briony has worked in the beer, wine, cider and food industries for 19 years and has extensive experience sampling, judging and consulting to large and small businesses.

Briony runs sensory consultancy Flavour Logic (www.flavourlogic.com) based in South Australia, working with the food and beverage industry and general consumers to improve tasting skills.

International guest judge – Jody Scott

Jody is co-owner of Peckham’s Cidery & Orchard in Upper Moutere, New Zealand (the top of the South Island). Prior to this, Jody was the Head of Beverage and Operations at Zeffer Cider Co.

With extensive experience in the production of cider, wine and other alcoholic beverages, Jody is now making a portfolio of traditional and modern ciders from more than 20 varieties of heritage apples.

Jody has been Chair of Fruit Wine & Cider Makers Association New Zealand since 2019. He was a judge at the
Australian Cider Awards in 2018 and 2019.

About David Pickering

David Pickering was a researcher and cider apple orchardist from Huntley, NSW. He was a highly regarded expert on cider apples with a passion for educating and connecting people.

The technical advice David generously provided to many current and prospective cider apple growers and the unique resources he created and shared through his website CiderOz have benefited the industry greatly.

David was instrumental in the establishment of Cider Australia and the Australian Cider Awards more than a decade ago, and was awarded Cider Australia’s Champion of the Industry Award in 2018 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Australian cider industry.

David passed away in July 2024.