''It's dry and delicate, it makes a really nice aperitif with olives or seafood,'' Mr Birks said yesterday.

Winning the JCM Fornachon Memorial Trophy marks full circle for the winemaker, who won the same award more than 30 years ago for the same variety when he was the senior fortified winemaker at Lindemans during the 1970s.

Sherry gets a bad rap, he said, having been ruined for a generation of Australians by memories of the sickly stuff that outsold all other wine varieties in the 1950s.

''The stigma of sweet sherry and the unimaginative wine-making that went behind that, that was all about getting drunk quickly,'' he said.

But his limited-production Bidgeebong Fino Chip Dry, made by the traditional Spanish method and named for its very dry style, is for the ''wine buffs among wine buffs'', he said.

''I've always been keen on sherry,'' he said. ''It's an interesting wine to make, more interesting than table wines. The complexity fascinates me, the flavour bowls me over.''

Despite the suitable climate, it is not widely made in Australia due to the long, finicky process required.

Flor Fino style sherry begins with a table wine made from delicate Palomino grapes, which is then fortified with brandy. It is then moved to barrels where flor yeast is grown on top of the wine for one to two years, imparting flavour. Then it is filtered and put in the solera, a system of barrels where it is blended and aged for 10 to 12 years.

Mr Birks calls his sherry-making ''sort of a hobby'', having thwarted his own effort to retire in 1999 by opening a small winery, Bidgeebong, in 2001. The Wagga winery produces around 5000 cases of table wine a year, but only about 400 litres of the sherry.

A former viticulture teacher, Mr Birks built an experimental three-barrel solera for blending and ageing sherry in his basement, then expanded into the cellar beneath the granny flat in his yard where he installed 30 barrels.

From June, designation of origin rules will change, and Australian producers can no longer use the name sherry. Instead the style of wine will be called apera.

''Hopefully that will take away the stigma,'' Mr Birks said. ''We're all in the industry quite happy to drop the name.''