Halliday Wine Companion 2025: The 2025 edition, and the decisions I’ve made

The 2025 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion is my second (and last) as its chief editor. Over two years, I've had four main decisions to make. This is how I used them.

This 2025 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion book is the first edition of the book since James Halliday announced his retirement. James Halliday’s absence from the judging process was both sad and clear. We do, simply, hope that we’ve done him proud.

Every year, in every edition, the wines look after themselves. They perform where it matters; in the glass. The performance of this year’s Wine of the Year – Oakridge 864 Funder & Diamond Vineyard Chardonnay 2022 – was and is pretty incredible; in a field of stellar wines, it managed to street them.

Over the past 20 years Oakridge 864 Chardonnay has re-arranged, relentlessly, the hierarchy of Australian chardonnay. This is a giant killing wine, and the 2022 is a killer release.

Every wine in this book is a part of this edition’s story, and of the story of a year in Australian wine. The award winners are a crucial part of this, but they are just a part; there’s a lot more to be gained from this book than a mere concentration on the winners. But at launch time, the winners are a focus, so let me pass a few minor comments.

The winner of an individual wine category is never accidental. The wines go through the process, they are judged and re-judged, when a wine wins, it can’t be anything other than worthy. When you see a wine like Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir win Best Pinot Noir two years running (for its 2022 and 2023 releases), it’s more than cute, and more than a quirk. Penfolds Grange doesn’t enter wine shows anymore but it was set on its stellar course courtesy of a few stunning show results in the 1960s. Giant Steps winning Best Pinot Noir in a hotly contested field two years running; it’s not just significant, it means something. This wine has left the pack, and has been set apart. It’s no longer in the ranks of just another.

Similarly, Yarra Yering. There are only 11 people in Australia who can say that they’ve ever been named as the Halliday Winemaker of the Year. Sarah Crowe is one of these few, having won it in 2017. In 2020, she lead Yarra Yering to the Halliday Winery of the Year title. With the release of this 2025 edition, she’s added something yet more extraordinary again, by winning two varietal categories in a single year. Categories are immensely hard to win, and two in one year: wow. Shiraz of the Year and Best Other Red & Blends. Yarra Yering’s list of achievements under Crowe’s reign has done many things for its reputation, and one of them is that it’s moved this producer yet deeper into the realm of the best of the best.

This edition is my second, and last, as its editor. Halliday’s team of tasters is so exemplary that there isn’t really much of a role for the editor. The only real place I could exert any kind of influence, overtly, was/is in the choosing of the Hall of Fame winner, and the Winemaker of the Year winner. There is some editor discretion or judgement used in the Winery of the Year too (won this year by Giant Steps, with Melanie Chester at the helm), though this decision places heavy emphasis on the scores and reviews that have come from the tasting team.

So I had two main decisions to make in my first year as editor. And two main decisions in my second. Four decisions in two years. This is how I chose to use them:

Winemaker of the Year 2024: Kate Goodman (Penley Estate)
Halliday Hall of Fame Winner 2024: Prue Henschke (Henschke)
Winemaker of the Year 2025: Liz Silkman (First Creek and Silkman Wines)
Halliday Hall of Fame Winner 2025: Sue Hodder (Wynns Coonawarra Estate).

I’m happy with that. I’d take these people, and the above wines, to the world. They are great Australian wine people, all of them, and they make great Australian wines.

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This book, every year, is an incredible achievement, and a credit to all those involved. Special thanks to the Halliday tasting team: Jane Faulkner, Dave Brookes, Jeni Port, Philip Rich, Mike Bennie, Shanteh Wale, Toni Paterson MW, Marcus Ellis and of course, forever, to James Halliday. Special thanks also to tasting manager Katrina Butler.

And now, quietly, I leave the building.

Yarra Yering won Halliday’s Best Shiraz award for its Dry Red No.2 2022, reviewed on The Winefront here.

Yarra Yering won Halliday’s Best Other Red & Blends award for its Dry Red No.3 2022, reviewed on The Winefront here.

Giant Steps Applejack Pinot Noir 2023 is reviewed on The Winefront here.