The Tasting Team tell us about the wines they chose for the Halliday Top 100 Wines 2025: Taster's Pick category

Out of the thousands of wines they collectively review each year, the Halliday Tasting Team is allowed to select just one as their Taster’s Pick for the Halliday Top 100. 

The Taster’s Pick category, introduced for the first time in 2024, contains the final 10 wines in the Halliday Top 100. The other categories include Australian Sparkling, White Wines Under $40, White Wines Over $40, Red Wines Under $50, and Red Wines Over $50.

Below, the tasters reveal why each wine was their highlight from the past 12 months, share serving suggestions and more.

Toni Paterson MW: 2023 Brokenwood Verona Vineyard Shiraz

This is the ninth release of Verona as a single-vineyard wine. It is a gorgeous, inviting, medium-weight red bursting with charm, integrity and flavour. It is a classic Hunter Valley shiraz, and the vibrancy, density and finesse of the fruit gives the wine true contemporary appeal.

With its distinctive personality and striking fruit purity, the vineyard's stature as a significant site is clear. In the hands of the talented Brokenwood team, its signature shines brightly.

The south-facing, gently sloping vineyard on McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, was planted in 1968 with cuttings from old vineyards, with subsequent plantings in 2002. The soils are similar to those of the Graveyard Vineyard, with the southerly aspect resulting in pronounced floral notes – the hallmark of the wine.

After a three to four day soak, the grapes were fermented at around 25 degrees, then matured in seasoned French oak puncheons. The absence of new oak allows the signature florals to shine. It drinks beautifully on opening, though decanting will enhance its fragrance and layers.

The best way to enjoy this wine: I recommend serving the Verona Vineyard Shiraz at a celebration dinner with wine-loving friends. And my ideal food pairing would have to be porchetta.

Shanteh Wale: 2022 Byrne Farm Shiraz Pinot Noir, Orange

Established in 2020, Jeff Byrne has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to creating and shaping an estate defined by quality, discernment, and wines of genuine complexity. The Pinot Noir may reign with cool-climate grace, but it’s the Shiraz – rooted in slightly lower-altitude sites – that hums with potential.

The 2022 Byrne Farm Shiraz Pinot Noir is a lyrical take on a classic Australian duet, capturing the region’s creative spark. Priced under $50, it’s a wine – like the Byrne family itself – that opens its arms to a wide audience.

This answers the call for wines of brightness and lively detail – medium-bodied, vivid, and in tune with our shifting seasons and tables full of fresh, local fare. 

The best way to enjoy this wine: This is a bottle for golden-hour picnics, wood-fired crusts and clinking glasses in buzzing wine bars. An exultant sip in every pour. 

Philip Rich: 2023 Mount Mary Triolet, Yarra Valley

There are certain wines, that for me, are individual classics with few peers. Yarra Yering’s Dry Red No. 3 and Sorrenberg Sauvignon Blanc Semillon are two that come to mind – blended wines where the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. Like these two wines, Mount Mary’s Triolet has been, for as long as I can remember, one of my favourite Australian wines.

The basic facts are that this Graves-inspired (Bordeaux) blend of sauvignon blanc/semillon and muscadelle was first made by the late and great Dr. John Middleton in 1997. The 2023 is a blend of 65/25/10% sauvignon blanc/semillon/muscadelle. The varieties are picked and fermented separately with some whole bunches in the press. Crushed and destemmed with 20 per cent whole bunches in the press. It’s then barrel-fermented and matured for 11 months in seasoned barriques. The result is a wine that’s always complex with intense lemony aromas together with quince and oyster shell scents.

The palate has richness, but it’s never heavy. There’s always a real sense of harmony on the saline, structured and very long palate as well.

The best way to enjoy this wine: I put the 2023 through its paces recently with a simple prawn and pea risotto and some Comté to finish, but this wine would work equally well with scallops or other crustaceans – not to mention roast chicken, or a mushroom risotto topped with some freshly grated Reggiano.

Mike Bennie: 2023 Green Door Wines Amphora Tempranillo, Geographe

The lesser sung but ever compelling wine region of Geographe in Western Australia seems to be finding a groove with its offering of elegant, medium weight and savoury red wines. Green Door has hidden somewhat under the radar for years, but it has been fertile ground for wines of structure, vitality and general intrigue.

Wines produced from garnacha (grenache), monastrell (mourvèdre) and tempranillo signal a lean into Spanish influences. Accordingly, the wines retain a firm presence of quality tannin, a good rub of exotic and varied spices, as well as some of the signature, saline minerality and dried herbal nuance that seem to be ubiquitous for the Geographe region. Wild fermentation in amphora clay pots ensures a purity of fruit and structural tannin profile – this wine sees wild ferment in the clay vessels, then is transferred to a mix of older and new French oak barrels.

The Amphora Tempranillo 2023 wine is outstanding, if not a benchmark for the variety in Australia. It’s both beautifully poised and hugely gulpable at once.

The best way to enjoy this wine: This is a wine that feels versatile in its occasion of drinking, but you can easily see it singing across a spread of savoury dishes, from crudo to slow cooked stews. Though at a curry night, we might just have the clincher. It also won’t hurt the wine to drink it with a light chill either. 

Marcus Ellis: 2023 Bekkers Single Vineyard Selection Clarendon Syrah, McLaren Vale

This is not at an easy tariff, but what a wine. And what a story, what a future. Not just for this wine – which has decades of positive development in it – but for wine off this venerable site, achingly rescued from neglect by Emma and Toby Bekkers.

They saw the potential in that steep hillside – the first to be planted in the cool of Clarendon, back in the 1840s – tangled with blackberries, like angry coils of razor-toothed wire on a forgotten battlefield. 

They saw the work, too. The folly of it. Much great wine is made on the precipice, the slippery border between outrageous success and calamity. This is the joyous result of risk amply rewarded, and then some. 

Shiraz is at a crossroads right now. The sheep’s back of our wine industry, it is being spun into finer threads, but that’s not the only answer. World class exemplars, wines that narrate irreplicable place and masterful, sympathetic custodianship. Wines that make you pause, draw in a deep breath, transport you. Those are the wines that assert not just relevance, but elicit genuine excitement – something old rendered anew. This is one such wine.

The best way to enjoy this wine: It'd be delightful with grilled lamb, caponata and salsa verde.

Jeni Port: NV Chambers Rosewood Old Wine Muscadelle

This year’s tasting highlighted the need, now more than ever, to enjoy our world-class fortifieds. With so many forces not working in their favour – including new producers being less and less interested in entering into their orbit – fortifieds need all the friends they can get.

Each year, it’s an absolute bliss to taste fortifieds, but beyond the Grand and the Rare classification levels, there is one level that shows the mastery, the freshness, the joy, the complexity, the utter deliciousness of it all at a price we can all afford.

Stephen Chambers, sixth-generation winemaker at Chambers Rosewood, is a master fortified maker, and his Old Vine Muscadelle is something to behold. It also goes above and beyond the six to 10 years average age for Classic-level fortifieds.

Base wines were laid down in 1986, and they contribute an aged warmth complemented with fresher, younger material. This is the fortified I drink and recommend drinkers – new to fortifieds or not – to enjoy. It is ridiculously priced – don’t tell Stephen – and it offers so much in beauty, style and history.

The best way to enjoy this wine: This fortified wine is best had anytime after the main course, either with blue cheese or a sticky date pudding. You also can't go wrong when pairing the Old Vine Muscadelle with fruit pies and ice cream. 

Jane Faulkner: 2023 tripe.Iscariot Kroos Chenin Blanc, Margaret River

The first time I tasted a Remi Guise wine – under his quirky, boutique label tripe.Iscariot – I knew something very special was afoot. The South African-born winemaker has long called Margaret River home, ensconced at Naturaliste Vintners for 18 years or so, plus he's been crafting his own delicious, intriguing and thought-provoking wines since 2013. 

While the reds are exceptional, chardonnay too, this year the 2023 Kroos Chenin Blanc stole my heart. It took out Other Whites & Blends of the Year in the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion, and deservedly so. The fruit comes off a site in Wilyabrup planted in 1985, and is transformed into one of Australia’s finest drinks.

Alas, this is Remi’s last Kroos – last wine – as he is winding up his business. My heart cracked at the news. He says the decision was hard but ultimately the right one: a young family, full-time work and more meant something had to give.

Adieu tripe.Iscariot. Thanks for the years of pleasurable drinking. 

The best way to enjoy this wine: If you ordered the last Kroos (I bought several dozen!), enjoy the moment. No occasion necessary – it’s all about what’s in the glass.

Dave Brookes: 2024 Agricola Vintners K'Sands, Barossa Valley

With a vinous bloodline as strong as Callum Powell’s, a life in wine was always a given. The son of Dave Powell and Christine Ireland, he grew up in the thick of it. He was immersed in vintages at Torbreck with his father as a little’un. He then spent a vintage position with the J.L. Chave in 2013 as well as a period producing wine with his father under the Powell & Son’s label. Throughout all of this, he was instilled with a reverence for site and the great wines of the world.

Today, Callum produces his range of stunning wines from a shed in Flaxman Valley, with emphasis across the range on the great terroirs of the Barossa, purity of fruits, and a clear and open line of communication between ground and glass.

The Asbroek family’s vineyard is the source of this wine – planted in 1864 and 1970 – and the latest release is a study in harmony, purity and narrative of site. Unburdened by the perceived weight of subregionality, it shows a lightness of being, and a sense of space and purity.

It’s a wickedly good wine, and it’s safe to say Agricola Vintners is one of the flag bearers for the ‘New Barossa'.

The best way to enjoy this wine: As far as occasion is concerned, any gathering of two or more adults is ideal. When it comes to a food pairing, i'd put it with something like a reverse-seared rib-eye with chimichurri sauce. You would be in a very happy place indeed.

Katrina Butler: 2023 Murdoch Hill Orion Oakbank Syrah, Adelaide Hills

From the many diverse and varied wine styles that dance across my tasting bench, there's are some that leave an imprint well beyond their time in my glass. The Murdoch Hill Orion Oakbank Syrah 2023 Adelaide Hills is one of them.

Michael and Andrew Downer are third-generation custodians of the Oakbank farm that their grandparents purchased in 1939. The vines planted here embody the rolling and undulating landscape of the Adelaide Hills. Picturesque, as a word, feels infantile in its attempt to evoke imagery. And it’s from this site that the fruit for the Orion Syrah is sourced. Taking it a step further, it’s the very best fruit from the ‘Landau’ block. The 2021 vintage of The Landau Single Vineyard Oakbank Syrah even took out Best Shiraz for the 2024 Companion.

Michael is the winemaker and has set out to cultivate wines with minimal intervention, utilising wild yeasts, with an emphasis on gentle handling in the winery. The fruit for this wine was handpicked, with an inclusion of 15 per cent whole bunches, and it spent 21 days on skins. He employed large-format Austrian oak (puncheons), of which 20 per cent were new. And this wine feels living and breathing as it opens up in the glass, and as time in the cellar will mature it. I love that about these wines.

Clean, yet true and of place. Polished, yet not at risk of excessive winemaking artefact. It’s also an incredibly powerful wine, with latent fruit intensity and a fine yet dense array of tannin. Kinetic like. Memorable.

The best way to enjoy this wine: Fennel and spice-rubbed lamb rack with roasted vegetables is a great pairing. The purple fruit can take it, and the spice matches it remarkably well. This feels like a wine to watch across the ages – one for this decade, one for the next. A wine for quiet company and long evenings.

Panel Decision: 2024 Thistledown Wines This Charming Man Single Vineyard Clarendon Grenache, McLaren Vale

The wine below was chosen by the Tasting Team as a collective.