Submitting wines for review in the Halliday Wine Companion
The Halliday Wine Companion is an independent wine review publication, assessing Australian & New Zealand wines for our subscribers. All reviews are published online throughout the year and a selection are also published in the quarterly magazine. At this stage, NZ wineries and wines will not be printed in the Halliday Wine Companion book.
What's new?
- Please register wines for review here before sending
- Tasting panel: details below
- New winery details, or updates to existing winery information, can be advised via this form
The details and requirements for submitting samples for the Halliday Wine Companion are below.
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The review process
- Wines are reviewed free of charge to all New Zealand wineries. Please note we do charge an on-boarding fee ($275+gst) in order to establish your winery profile. This is a once-off fee.
- Wines are scored according to the standard 100-point system. Wines scored below 84 points are listed online without comment or rating.
- Wine reviews are not always positive – that is the nature of independent review. All wine reviews, regardless of score, exist on winecompanion.com.au ad infinitum for our readers.
- Wines are reviewed once, unless a museum/cellar release.
- Wineries are assigned annual star ratings, based on each winery's highest wine scores. The criteria for star ratings can be read here.
Please note that reviews are only visible to Halliday Wine Companion subscribers.
A subscription alone does not provide rights to republish the Companion’s scores and reviews elsewhere; if you wish to reproduce the Companion’s scores or reviews in your own marketing, you will need to speak to the membership team.
Deadlines
- Submissions are now open
The earlier samples are submitted, the sooner wines can be tasted, reviewed and published online. We always ask, for the sake of the wine, that you watch weather forecasts and try to avoid shipping during the hottest weeks.
Feel free to send wines in when they are ready – multiple smaller submissions are welcome. There’s no need to wait for one big annual submission if your release dates are staggered throughout the year.
Eligible wines
Submitted wines must be:
- Finished wines – tank and barrel samples are not accepted
- Made only from New Zealand grapes
- Vinified in an New Zealand winery
- Available for sale in New Zealand through a legitimate retail outlet (wine retailer, cellar door, restaurant, etc) – export-only wines are not eligible
- Wines made for a specific retail channel can be submitted but only if the winery name is clearly identified on the label, and the wine is made under the winery's name.
- Not vintages that have previously been submitted to the Companion or your taster
- One vintage per wine (the current/ future vintage), unless cellar/ museum release
Put your best foot forward. We're looking for both the best value and best quality wines in the land. Keep in mind though, when you're deciding what to submit, that tasting notes are only written and published for wines that receive 84 points or above.
Will everything submitted be tasted? We do our best. Regrettably though, it’s impossible to guarantee that everything can be tasted.
Wine information
Please register wines for review here before sending. This helps to track wines and minimise error.
You’ll need the wine name, vintage, GI (region), RRP, release date and relevant viticultural/vinification details for each wine to hand, in order to complete the form.
You don’t need to include duplicate paperwork in the box.
Note that lab labels (unlabelled samples) are permitted, but barrel samples are not. Lab-labelled wines must state the following on the bottle:
- The full and complete name of the wine
- Region/s (GI/s)
- Alcohol
- Release date
- Commercial bottling date
- Closure
- Cases produced
Please label the back of each bottle with the RRP.
Packaging
Please send one bottle of each wine, two bottles if natural cork sealed. Please do not send two bottles of screwcap-sealed wines.
Please ensure all viti/vini details are in the box and the RRP is listed on the bottle. ALL WINES MUST BE DELIVERED DUTY PAID.
Please send samples in cardboard cartons with cardboard spacers between bottles. Six- or 12-bottle boxes are greatly preferred by the tasters, as they’re more easily reused and recycled. If you have <6 bottles to send, you can use smaller boxes.
Whatever sized box you use, please do not stuff boxes with soft plastic, foam, shredded paper, packaging beans, empty bottles or newspaper. Please do not send individually wrapped bottles, polystyrene, webs, styrofoam or inflatable packaging, either.
Winery information and star ratings
Please use this form to tell us everything we need to know about your winery. We encourage you to supply as much detail as possible. You can contact our Head of Tasting with any other information you would like to share.
Star ratings are re-calculated every year (see the methodology here) and are based primarily on the scores of wines submitted in each tasting cycle. If you are unable to submit any wines in a given year, for example due to fire or drought, your rating may be rolled over (for one year only) if you notify us.
The Companion tasting team
The Halliday Wine Companion tasting team is Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Mike Bennie, Shanteh Wale. The GIs (wine regions) assigned to each taster are listed below.
Brands sourcing from multiple regions can make the choice to allocate samples to tasters based either on the GI of each wine individually, or on the location of the winery in which it is crushed.
Please register wines here before sending to the designated taster for your region as below. ALL WINES MUST BE DELIVERED DUTY PAID.
| Area | Region | Taster |
|---|---|---|
| North Island | Auckland Matakana Kumeü Waiheke Island |
Jane Faulkner |
|
Gisborne |
Dave Brookes | |
| Wairarapa Gladstone Martinborough |
Mike Bennie | |
| South Island |
Canterbury North Canterbury Waipara Valley |
Dave Brookes |
| Marlborough Nelson |
Shanteh Wale | |
| Central Otago Bannockburn Waitaki Valley |
Dave Brookes |
Can I send wines to more than one member of the Companion tasting panel?
Please only send wines to the taster designated to your region. Only they will review your wines for the Companion.
To ensure wines are reviewed in the Companion, packages must be addressed to the taster at ‘Halliday Wine Companion’.
You are welcome to send wines from other regions to tasters for other publications, but please clearly mark them as such.
Tasting Panel Delivery Details
Please register wines here before sending to the designated taster for your region.
This helps us to track wines and minimise error.
| Taster | Address | Contact | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jane Faulkner | Halliday Wine Companion 17 Carpenter Street Brighton VIC 3186 |
Phone: 0409 232 996 Email: janefaulkner@winematters.com.au |
Delivery instructions: |
| Dave Brookes | Halliday Wine Companion 218 High Street Lismore Heights NSW 2480 |
Phone: 0472 548 212 Email: wine@davebrookes.me |
Delivery instructions: If no one is home, please open the side gate and leave cartons undercover on the back verandah. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six- or-twelve bottle cartons. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Mike Bennie | Halliday Wine Companion c.o P&V Wine 64 Enmore Road Newtown, NSW 2042 |
If you may have been stocked
Phone: 0411 330 338 |
Delivery instructions: Please deliver between 10am–9pm only, no earlier. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six- or-twelve bottle cartons. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Shanteh Wale | Halliday Wine Companion 1C Hume Drive Helensburgh, NSW 2508 |
Phone: 0450 423 408 Email: shantehwale@shanteh.com.au |
Delivery instructions: Packaging instructions: |
Questions
Please contact the Head of Tasting Katrina Butler with any queries regarding wine submissions and reviews.
Katrina Butler
Head of Tasting
Phone: 0417 751 130
Email: tasting@winecompanion.com.au
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