Shaun Silkman sat in the downstairs office at First Creek winery, staring disbelievingly at the computer screen.

He turned to his winemaking wife Liz and said just two words: “Holy shit!”

It wasn’t the most eloquent thing he’ll ever say, but with those two words, Hunter Valley chardonnay had just been given its greatest kick-along in probably 100 years of winemaking.

Silkman Wines 2014 Reserve Chardonnay had just been named top wine at the annual James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge.

Now let’s get this in perspective.

This is by far the biggest chardonnay award on the Australia wine scene. All the big boys are in it – Margaret River’s heavyweights, the best from the Yarra Valley, Beechworth, Adelaide Hills, the Mornington . . . they’re all there.

According to Halliday himself, 960 wines from 350 wineries, across 60 wine regions were judged. And by a panel with unquestionable pedigree. It’s as big as it gets.

And Silkman Wines, all of two years old, scored a stellar 98 points out of 100, the only wine to do so.

“It’s great for us, but more importantly it’s huge for the Hunter,” Liz Silkman says.

“Our chardonnays have been poo-poo’d for so long, but hopefully this will make people  take notice of just how good they can be.

“For years Tyrrell’s carried the flag for the Hunter, now they’re getting the support they deserve.”

There’s no doubt for the last 15 years or so Hunter chardonnay hasn’t received due credit. 

The semillon is the champion white of the region, shiraz the champion red. Both are world class. 

But the chardonnay? It has largely been forgotten, perhaps partly because the other white – semillon – is so good. But no more.

Ironically the wine that means so much to the Hunter nearly didn’t make it to the judging in the first place.

“The judging panel contacted us a day or two before judging was due to start and told us our wine hadn’t arrived, despite the fact we’d sent it off a couple of weeks earlier,” Liz recalled.

“It caused a mad scramble to get a replacement bottle down there in time. It was close, I can tell you. It turns out [the transport company] had broken it during the journey and had failed to inform us. You can print that too, we were really . . .”

She doesn’t finish the sentence, but the sentiment is clear.

The Silkman brand is a separate entity from First Creek Wines, owned by Greg Silkman, Shaun’s father and Liz’s father-in-law.

It was a project both Shaun and Liz felt they wanted to do.

“I make wines for First Creek and, in my role there, for 24 other wineries and growers,” she explains. “But nothing had our name on it –  and Shaun and I wanted our own label.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love making wine for other people and I enjoy their success when they pick up a trophy. I just wanted to make my own wine.”

Their Silkman label now totals about 1500 cases, pretty much exclusively Hunter fruit although they also make a pinot noir with the fruit coming from Tasmania.

The good thing about being a contract winemaker is that you get to taste loads of fruit from loads of vineyards. And with Liz’s expertise, she was able to file away in the back of her mind the vineyards she liked most.

When it came time to sourcing fruit for her own wines, everything she needed to know was already floating around in her brain. Bingo.

The result is that in a short time, their wines have been ridiculously well received. 

“We’re offering serious bang for your buck in that $30 to $40 range,” she explains. "We felt there were a lot of $50 bottles of wine out there that didn’t have any real runs on the board and weren’t that great, to be honest."

It’s one hell of a juggling effort when you consider they have to not only make Silkman wines, but wines for First Creek and its highly 

profitable contract winemaking side of the operation, but do it while

bringing up two young children – Isabelle, 4, and 18-month-old Emily.

It requires Liz’s parents at Cessnock to help out with the kids – “amazing support” she says – and they also have a nanny.

So, with Shaun being a winemaker too, what happens when they reach a point of disagreement? They are married, after all.

“I guess we butt heads occasionally ... I don’t know, I just put our assistant winemaker Anmnabelle in the middle,” she laughs. “But sometimes she likes to leave the room.”

The truth is that Liz tends to have the final say on the winemaking side of things, and Shaun on the vineyard side.

“Shaun has a feel for the vineyard that I just don’t have,” Liz says matter-of-fact.

But if she has any shortcomings in the vines (and that’s debatable) she more than makes up for in the winery itself. She was the first female Hunter Valley winemaker of the year and, even by winemakers’ standards, has a palate that many in the industry envy.

And her skills absolutely shine with chardonnay.

I ask if she feels she has a special way with chardonnay.

“It’s funny, I never felt I did, but people are coming up to me and saying ‘how do you do it,’ she says. “So maybe I do. I’m not sure. But White Burgundy (chardonnay) is my favourite wine. I don’t get paid enough to be able to afford the really expensive French stuff, but if I’m going to splash out, it will be on a good Burgundy.”

Consider this: the second top Hunter chardonnay at the Halliday Challenge was her other premier wine, the First Creek Winemaker’s Reserve 2014 Chardonay – it scored a none-too-shabby 95.

That same wine also won four trophies at the recent Royal Queensland Wine Show including grand Champion wine of show; it was also best chardonnay of show at the  2015 Hunter Valley Wine Show.

At this rate they’ll have to get the cabinet-makers in again.

Does she have a secret?

“I don’t give up. I keep plugging away until I get it right. 

“I can still tell you the bottles I’ve made ove the years that weren’t quite right. If I’d spent more time on them – I don’t know, an extra hour maybe – I could have got it right. I know that and it really bugs me.

“I hate that feeling.”