Australia's best wines for 2026

The 2026 top-rated wines represent the top-scoring wines in the 2026 Companion. Price is not a factor in these lists; quality is the only consideration.

Explore the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion top-rated wines

 

Over 7000 wines were tasted for this year’s Halliday Wine Companion. We painstakingly whittled this down to a shortlist of 160 wines to be tasted at our annual awards judging in March. 17 brackets were set before eight of the very best wine critics in Australia. They tasted blind, each wine masked to conceal its maker. The best of the best of these brackets were repoured to determine Red Wine of the Year, White Wine of the Year, Sparkling of the Year and the prestigious award, Wine of the Year.

Find all the varietal winners here, plus detailed lists of all the top-rated wines for each category. 


The 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Awards

Explore the winners
2025 Halliday Wine Companion Awards