The judges at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show assess the entries each year over four days. To enable a fair and meaningful assessment to be made, the wines are broken into separate classes, for example Aromatic Style, Blends, Varietal Classes (which must contain at least 85% of the specified grape variety), Brandy - and so on. The judges review each class and on receipt of all results sheets applicable to any one class, the Chairman of Judges has the points totalled, checked and then determines the awards. Judges do not have access to the exhibits, apart from the unidentified glasses of wine placed in front of them for judging.

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Medals are awarded as follows:

Gold - 95 points & over | Silver - 90 to 94.9 points | Bronze - 85 to 89.9 points

After judging, the top Gold Medal winners are re-assessed to determine the Trophy winners. The Royal Adelaide Wine Show's trophies include one which recognises one of Australia's most renowned winemakers: The Max Schubert Trophy for Best Red Wine in Show, Best White Wine in Show and The Gramp Hardy Hill Smith Prize for Outstanding Wine of Provenance.