South Australian sparkling winemaker Ella Hoban has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2026 Young Gun of Wine Awards, marking a major national moment for one of the industry’s rising leaders.
Ella, Vinarchy’s Group Sparkling Winemaker, was voted the winner by wine consumers across Australia, with the award recognising the winemaker who has most connected with Australian wine drinkers.
At just 33, Ella oversees sparkling winemaking across some of Vinarchy’s best-known brands, including Croser, Jacob’s Creek, Grant Burge and Yarra Burn. Her role spans premium traditional method sparkling wines through to popular sparkling styles enjoyed by consumers in Australia and around the world.
In announcing the award, Young Gun of Wine highlighted Ella’s commitment to making high-quality sparkling wine more accessible to consumers, as well as her leadership across one of the largest sparkling wine portfolios in Australia.
“I’m incredibly honoured to receive this recognition,” Ella said.
“I love making sparkling wine and it’s so exciting watching Aussie fizz go from strength to strength. I’m thrilled that there’s so much love out there for fizz that people voted for me. It was such a genuine surprise to win. The other nominees are all such interesting and thoughtful winemakers, it’s been great to talk about different approaches and philosophies to winemaking.
“A credit to Young Gun of Wine for putting so many wonderful people in a room. A huge congratulations to all the other winners.”
The win caps off an already impressive career for Ella, whose path to wine was not always obvious. According to Young Gun of Wine, she once considered the demanding route of becoming a heart surgeon after high school, and even had political ambitions for a moment.
“I actually thought that I wanted to be Prime Minister for a hot minute, too!” Ella told Young Gun of Wine.
Instead, she was drawn into wine, shaped in part by a family of publicans and wine lovers, where special bottles were part of the way people came together. That mix of science, connection and celebration would eventually lead her into one of the most technical corners of the industry.
Before taking on the sparkling portfolio now under Vinarchy, Ella built experience across some of South Australia’s best-known wine regions and producers. Her early career included work with Paul Hotker and Matt Laube at Bleasdale in Langhorne Creek, Peter Leske and Chris Parsons at Revenir in the Adelaide Hills, and Darryl Catlin at Sidewood Estate in the Adelaide Hills. She also completed international vintages in Spain’s Montsant region and California’s Napa Valley.
Sparkling wine became the space that captured her attention.
“I love the technical nature of sparkling winemaking,” she told Young Gun of Wine.
It is a demanding style, requiring patience, precision and constant problem-solving. For Ella, that challenge is part of the appeal, particularly when wines are left on lees for an extended period and begin to reveal the complexity that makes sparkling wine so distinctive.
Her move into a major sparkling role came through an unexpected phone call in 2019 from one of Australia’s most respected sparkling winemakers, Ed Carr, best known for his work with House of Arras. Ella was working as an assistant winemaker at Sidewood at the time, helping develop the winery’s sparkling program, when she missed a call from an unknown number while cooking dinner.
The voicemail was from Ed, casually asking her to call him back.
“I had no concept that there was any awareness of my existence outside my little bubble,” she told Young Gun of Wine.
That call led to a role in the sparkling portfolio at Accolade Wines. She later became Accolade’s Group Sparkling Winemaker at 31, before retaining the title after Accolade merged with the Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine businesses formerly owned by Pernod Ricard to form Vinarchy in 2025.
While Ella now works across major national and international labels, her South Australian connection remains strong. Croser, in particular, gives her work a clear Adelaide Hills link. The brand is closely tied to the cool-climate region and the legacy of Australian winemaking figure Dr Brian Croser AO.
“Croser is all about celebrating the Adelaide Hills’ diversity of climates,” Ella told Young Gun of Wine.
For her, the brand is about blending across a patchwork of Adelaide Hills sites to create sparkling wines that consistently showcase the region’s fruit. She has described taking on that legacy as a joy, while also working to modernise the wines and keep them true to their heritage.
Alongside her winemaking responsibilities, Ella serves as Croser’s global brand ambassador, lectures in sparkling winemaking at the University of Adelaide and supports emerging talent through Wine Biddies, a networking program for young women in winemaking.
One of the most compelling parts of Ella’s story is her approach to accessibility. While much of the wine world can feel intimidating, Ella’s work spans everything from premium bottles to sparkling wines people can pick up for a Friday night celebration.
“I don’t think wine should be gatekept,” she told Young Gun of Wine.
It is a philosophy that sits at the heart of her win. The People’s Choice Award is not judged behind closed doors by industry alone, but voted on by consumers, making it a recognition of how her wines connect with everyday Australian drinkers.
Ella has also pushed back on the idea that winemakers working across large portfolios are removed from the vineyard or from the practical work of making wine. Speaking to Young Gun of Wine, she said there was not a single Croser vineyard she had not walked herself during vintage.
Her winemaking philosophy remains grounded in getting the fundamentals right, from vineyard decisions to fruit selection and the structure of the wine before it reaches the bottle. For Ella, great sparkling wine is not just about technique, but about preserving the quality of the fruit and turning it into something people genuinely want to drink.
That everyday connection is what keeps her excited about the industry. She wants Australian sparkling wine to be seen as more than a pre-dinner drink or a luxury saved only for special occasions. Instead, she sees it as something that can be enjoyed throughout a meal, shared among friends, or opened simply because it is Friday.
Ella was one of 50 winemakers selected for the 2026 Young Gun of Wine Awards program before being chosen by consumers as the recipient of the People’s Choice Award.
Young Gun of Wine celebrates emerging leaders and innovators across the Australian wine industry, shining a spotlight on the next generation of winemakers shaping the future of Australian wine.
For Ella, the national win is not just a personal milestone, but a reflection of the growing love for Australian sparkling wine.
As she put it, there is clearly plenty of love out there for fizz.
To read more about all of this year’s incredible winners, head to the Young Gun of Wine website here.
For more info about Vinarchy, head to their website here.
