Halliday magazine

The magazine features insights from James Halliday and the tasting team, the most sought-after wine reviews (100 new-release tasting notes in each issue), travel features through Australia and New Zealand's great wine regions, plus profile pieces, amazing recipes with wine matches and more.

Issue #78  – on sale from Thursday March 20, 2025

Notes from the editor:

I recently opened a bottle of Luciano Sandrone Le Vigne Barolo 2004 that I’d had kicking around for 15 or so years. 

When I say kicking around – I mean it. This bottle had spent entire summers in the closets of upstairs bedrooms, had moved house with me at least seven times, and hadn’t seen the inside of a wine fridge or anything resembling a cellar since it left the winery. Naturally, I had serious reservations about its condition, but figuring opening it would, at the least, be a fun experiment, I brought it into the Wine Companion office. 

It was… incredible. Even after two decades of attempted vinocide – criminal negligence at best – it was still beautifully perfumed, full of black cherries and violets, dried rose petals, wet leather, tar, and cola. Oof, and how it unfurled! I’m still thinking about it. 

While this was almost definitely testament to the staying power of robust, well-built wines like Barolo (as my good friend Lyndon Kubis, owner of several Melbourne wine bars, said when I expressed my astonishment: “Of course it was still good. Nebbiolo likes dorm rooms and shared bathrooms, not like that punce pinot noir who needs a five-star hotel!”), rather than a win for those of us who take a more, err, relaxed approach to cellaring, if you do have a bottle you’ve been sitting on that you’re unsure about, open it. It may surprise you.