House of Cards winery achieves historic 100-point score

The Margaret River-based winery House of Cards has achieved a historic milestone at the 2026 International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC). Its 2025 Ace High Chardonnay was awarded a perfect 100-point score, marking the first time such a score has been given since the competition introduced its 100-point system. The wine is now the highest-scoring still wine in IWSC history.

The accolade followed rigorous blind judging by an international panel of Masters of Wine. In addition to the perfect score, the winery received gold medals for its 2025 Royals Chardonnay (98 points) and 2024 Kings in the Corner Cabernet Merlot (95 points). House of Cards was also named the IWSC Western Australian Producer of the Year, a title it previously held in 2024.

IWSC co-chair of judges Freddy Bulmer described the Ace High Chardonnay as “absolute perfection,” noting that the panel re-tasted the wine blind against other gold medal winners before confirming the score was justified.