Wine of the Year: Mount Mary Triolet 2024, Yarra Valley

Name: Wine of the Year
Brand: Halliday Wine Companion

By The Tasting Team

18 Aug, 2026

The 2024 Triolet from Yarra Valley winery Mount Mary is the 2027 Wine of the Year.

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2027 Wine of the Year

Mount Mary Triolet 2024, Yarra Valley, Victoria

99 points | Price when tasted $135

Each year at the annual awards judging, a hush falls over the room as the Tasting Team gets to work tasting the final bracket for Wine of the Year. It’s the culmination of the last 12 months of work; hours upon hours spent pouring, sipping, deliberating and whittling down over 7500 wines to crown just one.

And while the process is never easy, the decision to award the 2024 Mount Mary Triolet Wine of the Year for the 2027 Companion was unanimous. As Philip Rich says, “I’ve long regarded this as not just one of the Yarra Valley’s greatest wines, but one of Australia’s greatest wines.”

Mount Mary Triolet 2024, Yarra Valley

65/25/10% sauvignon blanc/semillon/muscadelle. Barrel fermented and matured in barriques and puncheons, 20% new. A very bright green gold. Aromas of lemon pith and orange blossom that sit alongside subtle marine scents and a little almond kernel. Very bright in the mouth, with texture, weight and freshness in equal measure. The finish really does go on. A wine with a great track record that can be enjoyed now or cellared for a decade or more. – Philip Rich

First released in 1987, the Triolet – a blend of sauvignon blanc, semillon and muscadelle – was originally inspired by the white wines of Graves. However, it has since developed its own reputation and identity, one that’s no longer tied to a particular external reference point.

“Over the decades it's become far more about expressing our vineyard and refining the style of wine that best suits our site, our winemaking philosophy and our own drinking preferences, rather than following in Bordeaux's footsteps,” says Mount Mary’s senior winemaker Sam Middleton. “That's precisely what makes Triolet distinctive, not just within Australian wine, but in the context of world wine more broadly.”

Mount Mary Vineyard. Photo credit: Wine Australia

Although the winning wine has been seated in the shadow of its red counterpart – the Mount Mary Quintet – at times, it needn’t be. “The 2024 Triolet epitomises stylistically what Mount Mary wines are all about,” says Sam. “Understated power, energy and concentration yet still elegant and relatively lightweight.”

In its best years, ’24 being one, it boasts a breathtaking complexity and restraint. So pure and fine is its detail. So fervent is the need to procure it, stow it away and watch it evolve.

Our Wine of the Year is the 2024 Triolet from Yarra Valley winery Mount Mary.

Words by Katrina Butler and Olivia Jay