James Halliday has been Australia's pre-eminent wine critic and wine writer for the past 41 years. He is rightfully considered the world's leading authority on Australian wine. Halliday has penned over 40 books, the most popular of which is the annual 'Wine Companion' which has been published every year since 1986.
Every year, James Halliday and his tasting panel pinpoint the best Australian wines, winemakers and wineries from a pool of several thousand featured in the annual Halliday Wine Companion guide. With categories that include Wine of the Year, Best Value Winery, Winemaker of the Year and Best New Winery, James and his team cherry pick the high performers from a range of criteria to offer a true representation of the nation's greatest names in wine.
"The winner of each category was determined collaboratively by the full tasting panel for the first time. The winner of each category is the favourite of the whole team, which is why it does not always appear as the highest scoring entry in its category. The lists below represent the 335 top-scoring wines in this edition. As always, the number of wines in each category is limited by a rating cut-off that reflects the strength of its class." Tyson Stelver - Wine Companion