Shiraz may not be the grape du jour right now, yet with the variety accounting for nine wines on this list of the country's 20 best reds over $50, there’s no doubting the position it continues to hold in the Australian wine landscape.
Alongside shiraz, the Halliday Tasting Team have selected cool-climate pinot noirs, old-vine grenaches, top-tier Margaret River cabernets, and an Alpine Valleys nebbiolo to round out the list. Ranging in price from $52 to $500 (although with the bulk $100 or less), these are complex, refined and straight-up exceptional wines, each deserving of their inclusion in the 2026 Halliday Top 100.
Adelina Wines Estate Shiraz 2024, Clare Valley
Very satisfying. It marries concentration of flavour and deep forest-berry fruitiness with ironstone minerality, ferrous elements, terracotta savouriness, dried herbs, black pepper, a little salted licorice character and a touch of choc-mint, too. Bold perfume, plenty of flavour and yet a trim of dusty, crushed-rock tannin makes headway for tension and refreshment factor. Poised, fine, elegant shiraz, nee syrah. – Mike Bennie
96 points | $60 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Adelina Wines profile | Winery website | @
Agricola Vintners K'Sands 2025, Barossa Valley
Kalimna has some pretty sexy dirt. This wine hails from two outstanding Asbroek blocks, one circa 1864 and the other some 50 years old. The K'Sands is constantly a standout in the Agricola lineup; it's often the wine that is the most detailed, the flightiest, the most kinetic, with the lithe frame seemingly illuminated by dappled light on the palate. Satsuma plum, blueberry, boysenberry and a touch of raspberry lift with underlying hints of exotic spice, fresh and pressed meadow flowers, dried meats, crushed rocks, field herbs, a whiff of undergrowth and turned earth and distant curry leaf. The fruit purity and weight are perfectly pitched here, the crushed-stone tannins chewy and fine, and there is a sense of space and elegance as it slowly trails away. Just fantastic. – Dave Brookes
97 points | $100 | Cork | 14.1% alc. | Agricola Vintners profile | Winery website | @
Aphelion Wine Rapture Grenache Noir 2024, McLaren Vale
From the Hickinbotham vineyard in Clarendon, and the oldest vines, contour planted in 1971. This saw a 20% whole-bunch ferment for two weeks before pressing to a cocciopesto Drunk Turtle amphora. Tannin – so important in grenache. Natural tannin that is – from skins, seeds and stems, not oak or other intrusions. It’s the foundation here; silty, sandy, savoury and quietly coercive. Rhubarb, blood orange, dried cranberry, fading roses, sour cherry, faint Baharat spicing, bergamot and a hint of iris. The '24 Aphelion grenache suite is superb, with this vying for line honours. It’s academically mid-weight but intense and incredibly long. It’s got detail, confident ease, depth and transparency, with a sapid mineral tension to close. Yes, yes, yes! – Marcus Ellis
97 points | $150 | Diam | 13.9% alc. | Aphelion Wine profile | Winery website | @
Balnaves of Coonawarra The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2024, Coonawarra
94% per cent of the fruit is sourced from the Dead Morris vineyard and co-fermented with 6% petit verdot, before maturing in 36% new French oak barriques. A witch’s brew of blackberry, pepperberry and Old Bay spice opens the wine. This is a sleeper, with powerful aromatic intensity that builds steadily with aeration. In its youth, what shows most clearly is the pedigree of the tannins: lacy and precise, a filigree of woven fabric stitching rosemary and sage through layers of cassis and plum. Nigella seed and tonka linger on the finish. Give this wine time and a gentle decant on opening. The mild season has ensured a wine built for long ageing. – Shanteh Wale
96+ points | $90 | Screw cap | 14.6% alc. | Balnaves of Coonawarra profile | Winery website | @
Bicknell fc Lance Close Planted Pinot Noir 2025, Yarra Valley
100% destemmed and matured in a mixture of seasoned barriques, hogsheads and puncheons. Exceptionally fragrant, with aromas of wild strawberry, perfectly ripe red cherry, floral notes and alpine herbs such as wild thyme and gentian. Concentrated and finely detailed, the tannins are almost hidden by the wine's plush, beautifully fruited and energetic palate. Finishes long and satisfying. As good as this is now, those that still have a bottle or two in their cellar 10 or so years from now will be well rewarded. – Philip Rich
98+ points | $90 | Screw cap | 13.3% alc. | Bicknell fc profile | Winery website | @
Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Shiraz 2024, Hunter Valley
A careful selection of the best parcels of shiraz from the Graveyard vineyard (predominantly Pa’s, Middle, End and 7 Acre). This is a majestically fragrant wine, with heady rose petals, pomegranate and faint Bedouin spice, anchored by a red-raspberry/cherry core. A subtle tamarind arc brings a quiet tension to the fruit. The palate is refined and exquisite, yet bright and lithe, with remarkable presence and momentum. Its brilliance lies in its precision and the sheer depth of fruit held within the medium-weight frame. So concentrated yet so fine, with a near-imperceptible tannin structure and fine acid line that will allow it to age gracefully over decades. – Toni Paterson MW
99 points | $500 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Brokenwood profile | Winery website | @
Clonakilla Single Parcel Syrah 2024, Canberra District
Fruit off the top of Block One, at the northern end of the property. When everything is aligned, it produces a glorious wine such as this. An excellent dark purple hue shot with red. The aromas lift with florals, pepper, baking spices and garam masala. It all sets the scene for what is about to come – a superfine, elegant drink. Silky, persuasive tannins coat the medium-bodied palate, which is plush and velvety. A stunning wine, although it's a few years away from being at its best. – Jane Faulkner
97+ points | $135 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Clonakilla profile | Winery website | @
Corymbia Calgardup Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2024, Margaret River
A pure, fine-boned and extremely elegant expression of cabernet. An almost refreshing feel, squeaky in texture, shimmering with fine, high-quality tannin, detailed with salt bush, bay leaf and salted licorice amongst dark plum, cassis, cola and green-olive fruit characters. The perfume is evocative, the flavours in harmony and stretched luxuriously to a fine, trailing herb 'n' peppery spice mix finish. An exceptional release that speaks fluently of vineyard and place, while providing immense satisfaction in the high-quality stakes division. – Mike Bennie
96 points | $71 | Screw cap | 13.7% alc. | Corymbia profile | Winery website | @
Devil's Lair 9th Chamber Cabernet Sauvignon 2024, Margaret River
The best parcel of fruit is destined for the flagship, and this comes off a small site in Wilyabrup; aged one year in French oak barriques, 40% new. Fitting that this is exceptional, as it turned out to be Devil’s long-time viticulturist Simon ‘Robbo’ Robertson’s last vintage. He died in June that year. This is all elegance and power, a yin and yang wine. It offers seductive aromas and flavours, all you desire from a cabernet, yet its exuberance of youth is reined in by the exceptional medium-bodied palate coated with raw-silk tannins. Complex and detailed. Vale Robbo. – Jane Faulkner
97 points | $120 | Screw cap | 14.5% alc. | Devil's Lair profile | Winery website | @
Levantine Hill Colleen's Paddock Pinot Noir 2021, Yarra Valley
We must consider ourselves fortunate, as wine drinkers, to have Aussie producers with the requisite storage, cash flow and wisdom to hold back their wines for release. '21 was a special year in the Yarra; what joy to revisit it here. Royal Gala apple skin, red cherry, pomegranate, raspberry pip, white truffle. It's got a beautiful wintry, mountainous air scent. Autumnal leaves, piling upon themselves, forming new foundations of forest floor. Expensive oak – tobacco leaf, cumin, velvety tannins – sets the expectation for a long life ahead, without disrupting the flow of fruit purity. A tremendous wine from a new-guard producer rooted in old-guard philosophy. – Katrina Butler
97 points | $200 | Screw cap | 12.5% alc. | Levantine Hill profile | Winery website | @
MMAD Vineyard Blewitt Springs Grenache 2024, McLaren Vale
Now bottled under diam, a preference based on tasting trials. This is in excellent form – duskily floral, mineral, with old-vine depth and balance, silky, plush in the right way through the mid-palate, bunch notes adding ultra-subtle spice and chewy tannin to the sandy, silty skin tannin. There’s something about the fruit, off those ’39 vines on sandy soils, that is so distinctive, with deep blue and purple florals, sultry and spicy, dark red fruits, ripe but weightless. There are also blue fruit tones and a maritime, iodine quality, an iron oxide note present but not dominant. The aroma is showstopping but not showy. In fact, it took me some time to taste the wine, such is the allure; but the palate confirms that this is likely the best release yet. – Marcus Ellis
97+ points | $77 | Diam | 14% alc. | MMAD Vineyard profile | Winery website | @
Mount Langi Ghiran Talus Shiraz 2024, Grampians
Slowly, slowly, Talus does a tantalising reveal. First, the upfront splash of ripe black fruits, sweet blueberries, a few pinches of spice seasoning, a hint of vanillin and florals, followed by cocoa and warm cedary oak. Then, the Grampians regional signature of Aussie bush, bay leaf, mint and wild herbs comes into full view. As it gathers pace, firm tannins lead the way through to a long, peppery finish. It is early days, but there is a world of promise awaiting with further cellaring. What a delight. – Jeni Port
95 points | $70 | Screw cap | 14.5% alc. | Mount Langi Ghiran profile | Winery website | @
Pipan Steel Tesoro Nebbiolo 2021, Alpine Valleys
Call it what you will – the premium blend, the reserve, top dog – Tesoro is a blend of three nebbiolo clones (45/35/20% VII/IX/X). Exudes a quiet power; a wine to be contemplated with its changing-of-the-seasons dexterity, one moment spring-like and floral, and then autumnal and dark. Dried cherry, plum, dark rose petal, anise and earth fragrance. Arrives taut in fine tannin structure but smooth in delivery of cherry spice flavours dressed in wild herbs, fennel seed, briar and a touch of amaro bitters (just a splash), that raise the already high bar and help deliver one stunning wine. Will just get better and better. – Jeni Port
97 points | $69 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Pipan Steel profile | Winery website | @
Serrat Shiraz Viognier 2025, Yarra Valley
5% whole bunches; co-fermented with 5% viognier. Matured in 500L French oak (25% new). Deep purple. Aromas of dark cherry, blackcurrant pastilles, violets and white pepper can all be found in the concentrated, multi-faceted bouquet. It's voluptuous without being heavy on the palate. The flavours go on and on, as do the fine-grained and exceptionally persistent tannins. It's balanced enough to drink now but it will also reward 10 years, or more, in your cellar. Super wine. – Philip Rich
98 points | $52 | Screw cap | 13.5% alc. | Serrat profile | Winery website | @
Stanton & Killeen Wines Jack's Block Shiraz 2023, Rutherglen
Hand-picked fruit from old vines, planted 1921, fermented in small open-top fermenters, matured 18 months in French oak (30% new). Impenetrable in colour – darkest purple-black – and just about as inscrutable, Jack's Block is viewed as the S&K family's most treasured vineyard with good reason. Deep complexity is a key note here, so too the darkest, ripest fruits and spices that carry long. A spice-driven lift arrives with violet florals, well-ripened plums, dark berries, cassis, anise, dark chocolate, earth, hints of charcuterie and cedary oak. Carried by sturdy tannins, it will live long and mature nobly. – Jeni Port
96 points | $60 | Screw cap | 14.5% alc. | Stanton & Killeen Wines profile | Winery website | @
Stonier Wines Reserve Pinot Noir 2025, Mornington Peninsula
Made from the original plantings from ’82 with a lot of vineyard work latterly to get these old vines back into optimum condition. It’s starting to show. There’s a density here without it being a weighty wine, with exceptional tannin structure the key. Aromas and flavours marry well. The palate is supple and plush, with the acidity juicy and buoyant. Bravo. – Jane Faulkner
97 points | $150 | Diam | 13.5% alc. | Stonier Wines profile | Winery website | @
The Standish Wine Company The Schubert Theorem 2024, Barossa Valley
The Schubert Theorem is named after a mathematical principle in knot theory stating that every knot can be uniquely decomposed as the connected sum of prime knots. It's a strikingly beautiful wine, prompting a double-take as its brooding blue and black fruits turn welcoming in the blink of an eye. Plush and intricately layered with lush blueberry and blackberry fruits slowly unfurling like a ream of silk. It's deeply etched with dark, exotic spice flecked with graphite, almond blossom, dried citrus rind, licorice, crushed rocks, nori sheets, bay leaf and dark chocolate. Plush and concentrated yet fresh and light on its feet, with a superfine, tubular core of sinewy tannin and a finish that slides onwards for some time indeed. It's bonkers good. – Dave Brookes
98+ points | $145 | Cork | 14.9% alc. | The Standish Wine Company profile | Winery website | @
Thomas Wines Kiss Limited Release Shiraz 2024, Hunter Valley
This is the last vintage of Kiss shiraz from the 1969-planted Pokolbin Estate vineyard, bulldozed to make way for a housing estate. It feels profoundly wrong that buildings can be heritage listed, but not vineyards. Thankfully, cuttings were taken, so the genetic material can live on. But what a wine to close this chapter! It has a wafting berry perfume, and a dark, intense, memorable palate that marries power with energy and finesse. It feels like a mandala in a glass, reminding us that nothing is permanent and that beauty deserves our full attention while it is here. The only redemption is that this vineyard helped make Andrew Thomas the extraordinary winemaker that he is today, a truth no piece of heavy machinery can ever erase. – Toni Paterson MW
97+ points | $100 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Thomas Wines profile | Winery website | @
Vanguardist Wines Grenache 2024, McLaren Vale
The Vanguardist calling card, the defining wine. Deeply savoury and intense, layered, detailed, chiselled, seriously complex. The vintage conditions were a little easier in '24 than '23, with a little more warmth, but this continues the Vanguardist upward trajectory with a theme of transparency, elegance and refined detail. Dehydrated cranberry and goji, barberry, amaro herbs and spicing, dried citrus peel, rye, caraway, pumpernickel, sun-warmed terracotta, pressed wildflowers. A sour-fruited tension to flavour and structure runs through it. It’s a wine that is so captivating on the nose, so intense and layered, that it is almost enough as is. But the palate, the chewy, pithy, silty, sandy tannins, the tamarind acidity, the haunting persistence … Another beautifully beguiling world-class grenache from Mr Corbett. Bravo. – Marcus Ellis
97+ points | $74 | Diam | 13.9% alc. | Vanguardist Wines profile | Winery website | @
Whisson Lake Monopole Pinot Noir 2024, Adelaide Hills
The '24 vintage was the smallest cropping year since the vineyard was planted in 1985. Only 5t was picked over 5ha. It's therefore remarkable to get this flagship wine from such a specific year. It's charismatic and haunting, perfumed, dark-fruited, savoury, earthy, autumnal and harmonious in all of those elements. Dark cherry, black olive, dried sage leaf, pepper, game meat and truffle abound. A sweetness, a sense of fruit intensity, a gentle, palate-staining intensity. Satisfying overall, fresh, deep, complex. A serious contender. – Mike Bennie
96+ points | $180 | Cork | 14.2% alc. | Whisson Lake profile | Winery website | @
