2025 First Ridge Vermentino, Mudgee

Gold at the 2025 Mudgee Wine Show

Pale lemon colour. Jasmine, candied lime peel and sea spray aromas. Tight and crunchy, lifted floral and lime notes ride a driving acid line while saline minerality adds tension. It screams for oysters by the sea. Drink to 2031.

93 points Stuart Knox for The Real Review, January 2026

Another extremely successful wine when it comes to the show circuit, the colour here is a very pale straw. On the nose, we have notes of stewed pears, green apples, stone fruits, sun-kissed earth, melon and florals. Quite upfront in style, there is a minerally texture and impressive length. A wine of medium weight which is delicious drinking now, it will continue to be so for at least the next three to four years. Drink to 2030.

91 points Ken Gargett for Wine Pilot, February 2026

For winemaker James Manners, the First Ridge Vermentino is all about freshness and inherent texture that should be shown unadorned by winemaking practices. The grapes are picked as early as flavour accumulation allows, usually at no more than 12.5 Baume, pressed off the skins immediately and fermented in stainless steel with an aroma enhancing yeast strain. The wine is bottled early, and rests for a couple of months in bottles ahead of its annual release.

The 2025 opens with fragrant lemon pith, barely ripe pineapple and brown pears that spill into the medium-bodied and bone-dry palate, with ripples of texture guiding to a clean and crisp finish.

Warm summer day wines don’t get much more appealing than this. Follow Stuart’s lead (see above review): head for the coast, crack open for freshly shucked oysters and follow up with crunchy vegetable tempura or flash-fried squid with a nice sprinkling of salt and lemon juice. 

About this producer

First Ridge was established in 1998 by Sydneysiders John and Helen Nicholas.

Their vineyard sits at an elevation of 500 to 520 metres on a rocky slope with a northerly and northeasterly aspect between Castlereagh Highway and the Cudgegong River, and is planted mostly to Italian grape varieties, a fitting tribute to Mudgee’s viticultural heritage. Shiraz, Merlot and Tempranillo are grown in addition to the Italian varieties, the sought-after fruit sold to other wineries in the region as well as made into small batches of wine in-house under the Mudgee Ridge Estate label.

The site is well-ventilated and well-draining, two aspects crucial for premium Mudgee fruit as despite the region’s inland location it occasionally experiences heavy summer downpours and high humidity.

The wines are made by James Manners, who believes the vineyard, without exception, is the source of quality and that his job as winemaker is to understand and identify that quality and guide it thoughtfully. He is passionate about Italian varieties and their suitability to Mudgee and is an integral part of the small collection of family wineries that make up the region. No rest for this man, whose life outside the winery is packed with bringing up two boys, cycling in the bush and being a firefighter for the local RFS.