Owner Peter Mortimer said the winery had won four medals in the 2017 Shanghai International Wine Challenge held this month.

It comes on the back of the Mortimers mounting their first export foray into the Chinese market earlier this year.

A silver medal was awarded to the 2016 Chestnut Grove chardonnay while bronze medals went to the 2015 Chestnut Garth shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and the 2013 Jules, a shiraz and cabernet blend.

Mr Mortimer said it was a great start to the export campaign.

“We are not getting carried away with silver and bronze but these are very young wines and on such an international stage in a market we are exploring, the recognition of high quality wines is significant,” he said.

The wine was judged by experts from Australia, France, South Africa, Britain and six from China.

“Because we are an unknown label, awards such as these attract interest from Chinese agents and especially the growing number of wine enthusiasts who purchase online,” Mr Mortimer said.

“We exported a container in February and we went over to an exhibition in March.”

Mr Mortimer said a second order had been received for a container, which holds 1176 cartonsor 14,112 bottles of wine, to be sent to China.

“This gives us a good opportunity to convince distributors over there that the wines are of good quality,” he said.

He said it was also a good result for the region.

“This is a very solid endorsement of the quality of wines, not only from Mortimer’s, but from Australia and the Orange region in particular,” he said.

He believed the wines were also helping change Chinese market tastes, where buyers prefer wine bottles with corks rather than screw tops.

“The medal-winning wines were closed with screw caps in a market that demands traditional cork closures,” he said.

“The new world methods of winemaking and packaging are now being embraced by the fashion conscious Chinese middle class.”

The winery started in 1996 when Mr Mortimer and wife Julie planted one hectare of chardonnay grapes.