For 10 years, lumpy, chunky Aussie Chardonnay was the girl that nobody ever wanted to date – but the slimmer, more elegant post-millennial version is starting to turn heads. Why, Miss Jones… you’re beautiful, says Simon Woods

More ambitious pricing but some decent wines too, with Australia, Argentina and South Africa leading the way

Plenty of medals again for Chile, although the judges were most impressed stylistically with Australia and South Africa

Good wines, good prices and a variety of styles, Syrah was one of the stand-out varieties for the New World

Aussie Shiraz is rarely cheap now, but a growing elegance saw a big rise in medals this year – and a lot of happy tasters

Australia’s key white and red varietals have come a long way over the past 10 years, with some very definite differences from one region to the next. Chris Losh sits in and watches as a team of sommeliers learn to tell their Margaret River from their Adelaide Hills

Solid, rather than great wines, and a return to dominance for South Africa

Plenty of decent bottles and very few dogs meant that our tasters were positive about New World Chardonnay, though genuine excitement was in short supply

In the second of our three-part series on the basics of food and wine-matching, Hakkasan’s wine buyer Christine Parkinson tells us how to go about pairing wines with meat