Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 Wineries 2024: 51–75

Best wineries Australia

The list of wineries ranks 51–75 in the Halliday Top 100 Wineries 2024 is bursting with Victorian producers. Across the state, 13 wineries represent eight wine regions, including Heathcote, the Macedon Ranges, Geelong, Sunbury, Pyrenees and the Yarra Valley. If you're after Mornington winery accommodation, Crittenden Estate, ranked number 73, has you covered. When it comes to Beechworth wineries, Savaterre is home to one of the best views in Victoria's High Country (not to mention the chardonnay and pinot noir).

Over in the west, in the Great Southern, Swinney represents the Frankland River wineries, and while there's no shortage of the best wineries to visit in Margaret River, Howard Park, Xanadu and L.A.S. Vino make strong cases. Putting together your McLaren Vale wineries list? Start with SC Pannell and Bondar Wines. For those searching for wineries in Langhorne Creek, Bleasdale planted the first vineyard in the region in 1850.

View the Top 100 Wineries: 1–25

View the Top 100 Wineries: 26–50

View the Top 100 Wineries: 76–100

Jasper Hill | De Iuliis | Yabby Lake Vineyard | SC Pannell | Savaterre | Jim Barry Wines | Cobaw Ridge | Stefano Lubiana | Lethbridge Wines | Howard Park | Craiglee | Dalwhinnie | MMAD Vineyard | Swinney | Xanadu Wines | Wantirna Estate | Bleasdale Vineyards | Joshua Cooper Wines | Mayer | Torbreck Vintners | Garagiste | Bondar Wines | Crittenden Estate | Dominique Portet | L.A.S. Vino

51. Jasper Hill

There are few Victorian wineries as iconic as Jasper Hill. The Laughton’s two vineyards, or ‘paddocks’ are cornerstones of the Heathcote region, stubbornly dry grown, organic certified and incorporating biodynamic practices (not certified). There are two sites, named after Ron and Elva Laughton’s daughters, Emily and Georgia, with the majority of the plantings shiraz. Emily and her husband, Nick, now run the estate, with Emily making the wines. There are small amounts of excellent riesling produced from the original vines, plus a leading nebbiolo, while the benchmark fiano (under the Lo Stesso label) now comes equally off estate vines and locally sourced grapes. But it is the Georgia’s Paddock and Emily’s Paddock (shiraz with cabernet franc) that are the enduring icons of the range, powerfully deep and spice laden, informed by the meticulous farming and ancient Cambrian soils.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Jasper Hill | @jasperhillwines

52. De Iuliis

Mike De Iuliis can trace family winemaking traditions back four generations to his great-grandfather Donato in the Italian city of Pescara, Abruzzo. That was more in the Italian tradition of self-sufficiency than anything of scale. It was Mike’s parents, Joss and Anna, who went all in, buying land on Lovedale Road in 1987 and planting semillon and chardonnay a few years after, following later with shiraz, merlot and verdelho. In the early years, the grapes were sold to Tyrrell’s, with Mike turning out the first estate wine in 2000 after completing his studies at Roseworthy. There are now three vineyards, with Hunter staples paired with emerging varieties, including pecorino, touriga, tempranillo and montepulciano (no doubt in homage to the family’s ancestral homeland). Those grapes may represent the future, but Mike has built a formidable reputation principally on an impressive set of wines that embrace the classics, with estate bottlings and a slew of single site iterations of chardonnay, semillon and shiraz. The range is exceptional, from top to bottom.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | De Iuliis | @deiuliiswine

53. Yabby Lake Vineyard

The Kirby family’s sibling estates, Heathcote Estate and Yabby Lake, both overseen by Tom Carson, were selected to excel in making shiraz in the former and chardonnay and pinot noir in the latter. Tom joined Yabby Lake in 2008 after an already glittering career (including being assistant to James Halliday at Coldstream Hills in the early '90s), both here and overseas. He was the first to win a Jimmy Watson with a pinot noir. That was for the 2012 Block 1 in 2013. That wine is still drinking superbly to this day. From the 2023 vintage, there is a new addition, with a vineyard in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley added to the portfolio in 2022. The accessibly priced Red Claw range is consistently good, but it is in the single vineyard and single block chardonnay and pinot noir wines that Yabby Lake excels, ably supported by syrah and pinot gris.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Yabby Lake Vineyard | @yabby_lake

54. SC Pannell

Steve Pannell had some big jobs before he launched out on his own in 2004, notably heading what was Hardys back in the 1990s (winning his first Jimmy Watson in 1996) and early 2000s. Apart from his proven remarkable capacity to manage refined production at scale, it is now hard to think of Steve as anything but the hands-on artisan producer he is. SC Pannell – with Koomilya and Protero under the broader banner – has championed climate-apt varieties, and also climate-apt wines, those Steve wants to drink in the shifting seasons of the Vale. Significantly, he has also been a foundational and profoundly influential player in the grenache renaissance, which has seen a workhorse variety recast into a regional hero responsible for world-class wines of inimitable regional character. All the wines at this address are of the highest standard, and the pinnacle grenache trio is breathtaking.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | SC Pannell | @scpannell 

55. Savaterre

Keppell Smith traded a career in money markets for one in wine, planting his Beechworth vineyard in decomposed granite and clay soils in 1996. The vines were planted relatively closely for the time, with 7500 vines per hectare. Chardonnay and pinot noir are the pillars at Savaterre, along with shiraz and, somewhat quixotically, sagrantino. But Keppel isn’t one to follow. He finds his own path. Keppel also makes wines with the Frère Cadet tag, utilising young vine or non-estate fruit. The Savaterre wines follow the Old World inspiration of so many, but they are commandingly individual, fragrant, often tensely structured, serious but with a generosity of feel, of spirit. They are wines of the highest quality that reflect the hand of a singular vigneron.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Savaterre | @savaterre

56. Jim Barry Wines

Jim Barry was the first Clare Valley maker with a winemaking degree, graduating from Roseworthy in 1947. In 1968, he planted the family’s emblematic Armagh Vineyard. While Jim Barry passed away in 2004, his legacy carries on through his son Peter and his children, Tom, Sam and Olivia. Quality vineyard resources are essential for any producer, but Peter Barry has assiduously chased them, and perhaps none so doggedly as the celebrated Florita Vineyard. Well, his pursuit wasn’t just about the site, but also the history from Leo Buring through to John Vickery. Peter and his brothers, Mark and John, bought the vineyard in 1986, but it took 18 years for Peter to acquire the rights to the name. That says a bit about the Barry family. Today, that important history has been preserved and enhanced, with the name once again on great bottles of riesling. In fact, the Jim Barry portfolio ripples with excellent riesling. Also top-flight cabernet and shiraz, and the family hold the only assyrtiko vines in the country, with a decade of sublimely brisk and saline releases to their credit.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Jim Barry Wines | @jimbarrywines

57. Cobaw Ridge

In 1985, Alan and Nelly Cooper started planting their vineyard at around 615m in a natural amphitheatre in the Macedon Ranges. They weren’t the first in the region, but there was scant company back then, with not everyone convinced that the region was anything but marginal. In 2005, they transitioned to organics, then were certified biodynamic in 2011. That was no easy year to be biodynamic, but the Coopers are nothing if not determined. That site has been constantly tweaked, with some experiments abandoned (vermentino) and some reaching industry peaks (lagrein), while the mainstays of chardonnay, pinot noir (now with a high density block) and syrah have been finely tooled to produce superbly individual and pure wines, reflective of the rugged granitic soils and quiet craftsmanship that only comes with decades of familiarity with site.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Cobaw Ridge | @cobawridge

58. Stefano Lubiana

Steve Lubiana is a fifth-generation winemaker, with that lineage stretching through the Riverland, where his father and grandfather were based, and further back to Italy. Today, his son, Marco, who has his own celebrated label, works alongside him in the family vineyard (first planted in 1991) in Granton. That’s nominally in the Derwent Valley, but its location makes it somewhat unique in the area – a little warmer, frost free and with low disease pressure. The vineyard was the only one certified biodynamic in Tasmania for a decade before another, in the north, joined them, and that deep belief in the holistic benefits of the practices have underpinned the operation. Lubiana produces some of Australia’s most layered, complex and intriguing sparkling wines, top-drawer chardonnay and pinot noir, classic aromatic whites, and amphora-raised intrigues. Steve Lubiana is a winegrower of the highest order.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Stefano Lubiana | @stefanolubianawines

59. Lethbridge Wines

Before establishing Lethbridge in 1996, Ray Nadeson and Maree Collis had attained doctorates in neuroscience and chemistry, as well as established careers in research. Wine tugged them away from all of that, and now, almost 30 years in, they have cemented Lethbridge as a regional highlight. The winery, and family home, is surrounded by the home vineyard, which is a site formerly planted to vines in 1874 by Swiss immigrants. The local hero varieties – chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz – are made across different ranges, but that’s the tip of a very large iceberg. Ray is ever inquisitive, working across a panoply of varieties, from classic to those emerging in this country. He also works across many regions, across to Henty and further west to Mount Gambier and McLaren Vale. He also works in the Pyrenees, Riverland, Murray Darling, Heathcote… Beaujolais, even. That he stitches together all these into such a beautiful whole is much the magic of Lethbridge. Working with a wide variety of techniques and vessels, all the wines under the Lethbridge banner feel so purposeful, so necessary, and are deliciously leading lights in their respective categories.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Lethbridge Wines | @lethbridge_wines

60. Howard Park

The Burch family’s Howard Park is based in Margaret River, with the original Leston Vineyard (first planted in 1996) in Wilyabrup the home of the winery and cellar door, but they have holdings in Karridale and two sites in the Great Southern. From 2021, Nic Bowen runs the winery operations, bringing significant experience, both domestic and international, including a long tenure working closely with Ed Carr. That experience certainly informs the strong sparkling program. But Bowen’s experience and talents are broad, turning out shining examples across classic varieties shaped by a gentle winemaking hand and the thumbprint of site.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Howard Park | @howardparkwines

61. Craiglee

Pat Carmody is the custodian of a special piece of Australia’s wine history. He’s not blessed with the scant ancient vines in Victoria that were spared from phylloxera or the economic ravages of the early 20th century; indeed, it was the latter that saw the 1860s vineyard scuttled in the 1920s. But the ancient bluestone winery stands, and a bottle of the award-winning 1872 Hermitage drunk on its 100th birthday by John Brown Snr. prompted him to visit, and then inspired Pat to replant. That Craiglee exists today was pure chance, and we should all be a little thankful. Pat makes very fine, and often underrated cabernet, his chardonnay is unashamedly curvaceous and deliciously flavoursome, but it is with shiraz that Craiglee takes soaring flight, across four bottlings right up to the occasionally released reserve.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Craiglee | @craigleevineyard

62. Dalwhinnie

The Jones family founded (the first vines were planted in 1976), owned and ran Dalwhinnie in a cool, elevated site in Victoria’s Pyrenees for over 25 years, before the baton was passed to the Fogarty family and their significant resources. David Jones took over the estate in 1994 from his father, growing the vineyard from 6ha to 20, including planting select blocks with distinctive geological and aspect properties to make discrete cuvées. The site is a series of rippling hillsides planted to shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. Today, the fruit is in the hands of Julian Langworthy, who heads up the group’s winemaking. Julian is based in Margaret River, leading Deep Woods Estate. It’s a long way from the Pyrenees, but the wines emerging from Dalwhinnie shows just how little tyranny there is in that distance. The latest submissions from the Dalwhinnie vineyard all secured gold-medal ratings, with three of the six wines scoring 97 points, and it feels like they’re just getting started.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Dalwhinnie | @dalwhinniewines

63. MMAD Vineyard

When the Shaw + Smith team went searching for a McLaren Vale vineyard, old vine grenache was top of the shopping list, and preferably in the sandy soils of Blewitt Springs. Michael Hill Smith MW, Martin Shaw, David Le Mire MW and Adam Wadewitz struck it lucky, buying a site planted in 1939 to grenache, 1941 to shiraz and 1964 to chenin blanc, along with cabernet sauvignon and some younger plantings across the varieties. The strong inaugural varietal release of grenache, shiraz and chenin blanc was from the 2021 vintage, but full viticultural control in 2022 returned a beguiling trio of wines that affirmed MMAD as one of the most exciting ventures in Australian wine. The next release could not be more eagerly anticipated.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | MMAD Vineyard | @mmadvineyard

64. Swinney

Set on a large grazing property, the Swinney Vineyard is an ambitious venture in the isolated Frankland River subregion of the Great Southern. Many of the grapes across the 100-odd hectares are sold to premium makers, both large and fledgling, while select blocks from the ironstone-rich soils make it into bottle under the Swinney label. Those wines are made by a Mann. Rob Mann to be precise, grandson of the great Jack Mann. Bush vines, dismissed by many as a folly, and grenache, equally dismissed for being unsuitable, have proven to produce wines of distinctive tannic draw and a savoury, detailed palette of flavours. Mourvèdre also takes a rare position centrestage, with regional stars shiraz and riesling naturally shining. Whether at the pointy end with the Farvie range or the value (for the quality) Swinney range, these are wines of sublime pedigree and dramatic sense of place.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Swinney | @swinneywines

65. Xanadu Wines

It is hard to overestimate how much of a contribution doctors (of various disciplines) have made to modern Australian wine, establishing some of our most esteemed labels. Dr John Lagan planted one of Margaret River’s earliest vineyards, founding Xanadu (he was also a lover of literature, hence the Coleridge reference) in 1977. Owned by the Rathbone Group since 2005, Xanadu’s home vineyard is Lagan Estate, with Boodjidup Estate planted next door in 1999, and Stevens Road acquired in 2008 (first planted in 1987). Another major contributor to Australian wine is New Zealand. Glenn Goodall is originally from Northland, but his wine career has primarily been in Australia, with the last 25 years at Xanadu, and 18 heading up the winemaking team. In that time, he has built Xanadu into a formidable producer, with the Estate, Reserve and Stevens Road wines regularly topping the judging at wine shows. And for good reason, the wines are excellent and consistently so. So consistent that Xanadu won Best Cabernet at the National Wine Show nine years running. And the chardonnays are just as good, some of the best in the country, year in, year out.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Xanadu Wines | @xanaduwines

66. Wantirna Estate

It is a special thing that so many of the founding estates of the Yarra are not just still around, but, in many cases, they are at the top of their game. Wantirna Estate certainly is. Reg and Bertina Egan planted the first Yarra Valley vineyard of the modern era. That was in 1963, five years before the next one. It was a fruit salad back then, but today’s Yarra hero varieties quickly rose to the top, and the vineyard was replanted in the ’70s to pinot noir, chardonnay, cabernet franc and petit verdot, with the cabernet and merlot retained. Today, Maryann Egan, Reg and Bertina’s daughter, steers the estate, having worked alongside her father since 1996. Just four wines are released each year, a chardonnay and pinot and two vaunted cabernet family blends (with the cabernet and merlot mostly the original 1963 plantings), one steering to the right bank, the other to the left. All the wines are of the very highest order – regional classics.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Wantirna Estate | @wantirna_estate

67. Bleasdale Vineyards

Frank Potts bought the parcel of land that would become Bleasdale in 1850, planting shiraz and verdelho a few years later. It was the first vineyard in Langhorne Creek. Cabernet, grenache and malbec were added later, with all fruit going to fortified production. The first table red was a malbec, made in 1961, with the first Frank Potts cabernets joining the roster in 1995. Paul Hotker arrived at Bleasdale in 2007, and has presided over much of the success of the estate, including a Jimmy Watson (2019), Max Schubert Trophy (2018) and Halliday Winemaker (2018) and Winery (2024) of the Year. In the 2025 Companion, a slew of gold-medal wines affirmed Bleasdale’s excellence, with the flagship cabernet merlot, Inveniam Viam, snaring 98 points. Paul finished up at Bleasdale this year, with operations winemaker Matt Laube stepping into the role. That succession has been in process for two years, and Matt has been at Bleasdale for almost as long as Paul. The future is assured, in other words.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Bleasdale Vineyards | @bleasdalevineyards

68. Joshua Cooper Wines

Josh Cooper was born into wine, with his parents Alan and Nelly Cooper of Cobaw Ridge. And though he makes his wines at Cobaw, Josh has very much gone his own way, exploring premium sites through Macedon and Central Victoria. He’s somewhat of a wine historian of the broader area, avidly buying old bottles, and especially cabernet from Balgownie and the like. There’s no parochialism in that though, as he is an equally studious examiner of the wines of the world. His resumé is littered with great and very diverse names, from both here and overseas. Josh works with premium grower sites, proudly declaring their origins on the bottles – and in the case of Redbank and Balgownie, the age of the cabernet vines. His wines are made with minimal intervention, uncluttered wines of classical harmony that are redolent of the sites they come from.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Joshua Cooper Wines | @joshuacooperwines

69. Mayer

There are few people that can unarguably be called a force of nature. But Timo Mayer is certainly one of them. He’s an iconoclast, a disruptor. He was provocateur in chief before it was fashionable. Not to make waves for kicks, rather he is a no-nonsense type, albeit a jovial and broadly grinning one. Timo worked at leading addresses while building his label around his Bloody Hill Vineyard and mantra of “bring back the funk”. That’s not about unbridled wildness, rather it is an opposition to clinical winemaking, to everything being prodded and pruned, nothing out of place. If anyone can pull off 100 per cent whole bunch cabernet, it’s Timo. And he does, and it’s a marvel. Mayer’s wines can be pure, elegant and lissom, and they can also be visceral, primal and meditative. Above all, they are always wines of character, texture and balanced tension. It is little wonder they sell out in a heartbeat.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Mayer | @rivar_bloodyhill

70. Torbreck Vintners

It’s been over a decade since the larger-than-life Dave Powell parted ways with the brand he founded. That wasn’t the friendliest of separations, but both Dave and Torbreck have flourished since. Separately, that is. Before the 2017 vintage, long-term Torbreck winemaker Craig Isbel moved on to concentrate on his own band, with Ian Hongell taking on the role. That was a big catch for Torbreck, with Ian having worked at Peter Lehmann for nearly two decades. And he has carried on, indeed accelerated, a process that was already well in train, moving to more subtle, albeit still powerful, expressions. Torbreck is still a powerhouse of impactful old vine Barossa reeds, but it is the detail and nuance in the wines that is seeing it enhance its already shimmering reputation.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Torbreck Vintners | @torbreckbarossa

71. Garagiste

Barnaby Flanders has been somewhat of a quiet achiever. The chatter around his wines hasn’t been quiet, though. They’ve been celebrated for their excellence for some time. But the affable, ever-smiling winemaker, or rather vigneron, who spends as much time in the vineyard as the winery, is not one to trumpet his message. It’s a cliché perhaps, but his wines do that. Single-site chardonnay and pinot noir star, but a rare bottling of aligoté, plus gris and rosé also compel. Add to that the two micro-block wines, the Terre Maritime Chardonnay – one of the Peninsula’s most singular and brilliant chardonnays – and Terre de Feu Pinot Noir, plus the value and gold-medal-quality Le Stagiaire range, and we have a major star on our hands, albeit, as noted, a quiet one.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Garagiste | @garagiste_wines

72. Bondar Wines

Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly’s Bondar wines has made a significant impression in a relatively short time. With the marquee Rayner Vineyard under their ownership for a decade, Bondar has gone from exciting startup to regional pillar. Like with any top producer, ‘vineyard first’ is the mantra, with the home vineyard run sustainably with mulch/compost applications, cover crops and no systemics, along with replanting with climate-apt varieties on drought-resistant rootstocks. The wines coming off the estate vineyard are, in the Bondar way, fragrant, vibrant, subtly detailed and pitched more towards poise than power, but at no loss to intensity. Bondar also source from the Adelaide Hills and various sites in the Vale, including two new premium additions from distinguished sites in Clarendon and Blewitt Springs. From rosé through to zenith red bottlings, it is impossible to err when buying any of the Bondar wines.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Bondar Wines | @bondarwines

73. Crittenden Estate

When Garry Crittenden planted his vineyard in Dromana in 1982, the modest 2ha of vines increased the Mornington Peninsula’s area under vine twofold. Crittenden is still a powerful name, and they are as progressive as they are established. Crittenden has held onto the old chardonnay and pinot noir vines, supplementing them and grafting over with newer clones, while savagnin has found no better home than in the family’s home vineyard. The misclassification of savagnin as albariño may have seemed like a disaster back in 2009, when all things Iberian were flying high. But an embrace of the wines of the Jura has seen their flor-raised Cri de Coeur celebrated as one of the country’s most unique and exciting wines. With Garry in (active) retirement, his children, Rollo and Zoe, head up the operation, with Rollo overseeing the constantly evolving sustainable and regenerative farming and winemaking. The core of Crittenden will always be the tiers of superlative pinot noir and chardonnay, but forays into other regions and other varieties yield fine value across the ranges.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Crittenden Estate | @crittendenwines

74. Dominique Portet

It’s a good thing that Bordeaux-native Dominique Portet decided to make Australia home, such was his influence at Taltarni and in establishing Tasmania’s Clover Hill. He is still influential at his eponymous Yarra Valley estate, if his son, Ben Portet, now runs the winemaking operations. There’s quite a lineage there, as Ben is a tenth-generation winemaker, with family records dating back to the 1700s in Bordeaux. The Portet name is somewhat synonymous with rosé, with their Fontaine being one of the key players in wrestling the category away from being overwhelmingly sweet and confected to being dry and sapid. But there’s much more to the estate than that (but they do also make an exceptional single-site rosé), with the portfolio littered with highlights, from sparkling through the Yarra’s strengths of chardonnay, pinot noir, cabernet and shiraz. 

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | Dominique Portet | @dominiqueportet

75. L.A.S. Vino

Nic Peterkin has royal Margaret River winemaking blood coursing through his veins. Son of Dr Mike Peterkin of Pierro fame, Nic also counts Diana and Kevin Cullen as his grandparents. That’s quite a foundation to build a wine career, but Nic was having none of it, studying science and finance. Graduating during the GFC, the finance degree was not very useful, and work in wine started to grip him. Vintages (including at a Mexican winery founded in 1597) and study overseas followed, and so did his own label L.A.S Vino – the initialisation stands for luck, art and science. Nic’s mantra is to work as gently as possible, leaving modern winemaking tricks well alone. There are a few ancient techniques at play, though. That includes dunking vermentino in the ocean before fermenting it. That’s a method from ancient Greece, and it makes for delicious modern drinking. The whole range – from the founding Albino Pinot, Pirate Blend and CBDB chenin blanc, through a range of chardonnays, cabernet, grenache and sparklings – reflect Nic’s deeply eclectic experience and thoughtful approach, and they feel crafted, and authentic, and, most importantly, with an emphasis on deliciousness.

5 ★ winery | Halliday profile | L.A.S. Vino | @l.a.s.vino

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