The vineyard and cellar door has been named in the top 10 of the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion's people's choice awards which recognise the best winery experiences in Australia, arrived at after more than 5000 votes were cast covering 700 wineries.

Stockman's Ridge's Lisa De Diana, who owns the vineyard with her husband Jonathan Hambrook, was understandably pleased with the recognition which places Stockman's Ridge alongside some of Australia's big hitters including Pikes in the Clare Valley, who placed number one again this year after winning last year's inaugural award, and the Hunter Valley's Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard.

"The reason we're pretty excited about this one is that it's not judged, it's not based on someone coming out and deciding. It's based on individuals voting for us," she said.

"It's nationwide, so to make the list your competing against some pretty big names out there.

"For enough people to vote for our little winery and make [the Halliday] list in the top 10 is a pretty big deal."

Ms De Diana said to do well in the award, wineries had to go beyond tasting.

"We do live music every weekend, we have a jumping castle up for the kids to keep the kids entertained and we're doing a lot of creative events so each year we're coming up with new events that Orange hasn't seen anyone do before," she said adding the winery did not set a time limit on its tastings.

"I think that's definitely helping people really enjoy and keep it interesting and come out and visit us."

The couple has based the experience they offer at Stockman's Ridge on what they would appreciate when they visited wineries.

"We've got kids ourselves and its really hard to go and do and things without the kids so we kind of think, what would we want as parents, what would make it easy for us? and we plan it around that.

"I think we still want wineries for adults, everyone still wants to be able to have those experiences but I think there's definitely a place, especially in Orange where the demographic is young families.

"It's nice to have a place to go where the parents can enjoy something adults and the kids can get outside and have some entertainment as well."

The top 10 rating follows up the winery's win in the recent Cowra Wine Show where it won best chardonnay with its 2016 vintage.

Stockman's Ridge is on Boree Lane off Cargo Road. It has about three hectares under mainly shiraz, chardonnary and pinot noir as well as the rarer gruner veltliner. The couple are planning to extend their varieties with more plantings in the next 12 months.

The James Halliday People's Choice top 10 for 2023 is: 1 Pikes, Clare Valley, 2 Audrey Wilkinson, Hunter Valley, 3 Elderton, Barossa Valley, 4 Two Hands Wines, Barossa Valley, 5 Bakkheia, Geographe, 6, Happs, Margaret River, 7 Iron Pot Bay Vineyard, Tamar Valley, 8 Zonte's Footstep, McLaren Vale, 9 Chapel Hill, McLaren Vale, 10 Stockman's Ridge, Orange

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