With hundreds of wines crossing each member of the Halliday Tasting Team's tasting bench each year, it takes something super special to stand out.
Introduced in 2024, this category represents each taster’s personal highlight from the past year.
With only one nomination per taster allowed, inclusion on this list is a particularly strong indicator of excellence.
The 10 wines on the below list range from $30 to $250 a bottle and have been scored 94 to 99 points.
Amato Vino Tramonto 2025, Margaret River
You can chill it or not; it’ll make you feel chilled as this light red takes its heart from tempranillo and teroldego with glugs of chardonnay and chenin blanc. It’s a little floral and spicy, with a mere flutter of red fruits, and soft, giving tannins. It’s juicy and tangy with a light spray of cleansing acidity. The best place to relax with this drink is in the backyard in warm weather with friends, watching the sunset (which is what tramonto means in Italian). Cin Cin. – Jane Faulkner
95 points | $30 | Screw cap | 13.7% alc. | Amato Vino profile | Winery website | @
Morris of Rutherglen Old Premium Rare Muscat NV, Rutherglen
A celebration of the master fortified blender's brilliance in a wine which is as close to magical as you can get. Six generations of Morris winemakers have had a hand in the solera that brings this beauty to the glass. This is not a wine to hurry; take your time to embrace the scents and flavours rich and luscious in fig, raisin, plum pudding and sticky date pudding and nutty rancio laid out across a velvety texture. Complex? Goes without saying. 500ml. – Jeni Port
99 points | $120 | Screw cap | 17% alc. | Morris of Rutherglen profile | Winery website | @
Mount Mary Triolet 2024, Yarra Valley
2027 Other Whites & Blends, White Wine of the Year and Wine of the Year. Score awarded by the Halliday tasting panel at the annual Awards judging. PR writes: 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
99 points (Panel Decision) | $135 | Screw cap | 13.3% alc. | Mount Mary profile | Winery website | @
Mount Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 2025, Hunter Valley
Crafted exclusively from the '46 plantings, this outstanding semillon embodies purity and integrity. It is shy, detailed and slatey, though with softness, and although it needs time to resolve, the detail, power, finesse and class set the tone for what is to come. Glass-like purity, clarity and perfection, made from the finest free-run cut, fermented cool and clean. Lemon and lime blossoms dance around the sheerest core of acidity. Poised for greatness, this is one for the cellar, though there will be a real temptation to drink it now. – Toni Paterson MW
97+ points | $100 | Screw cap | 10.5% alc. | Mount Pleasant profile | Winery website | @
Ngeringa Summit Vineyard Chardonnay 2024, Adelaide Hills
Certified biodynamic, wild yeasts, 100% mlf, 11 months on lees, unfined. Threads of salted lemon, astonishing length. The ascension of fruit stops at nothing; its pace enraptures the senses. Ripples of acidity uncoil and stretch out until they're filigreed, like native ferns unfurling to the sun. Ozone, nectarine, cashew and texture – the phenolics perfectly in check – and a smattering of spice from 30% new French oak. Lemon curd, croissant and crème pâtissière to close. This is a magnificent wine. If it isn't yet, get Ngeringa on your radar. – Katrina Butler
96 points | $75 | Diam | 12.9% alc. | Ngeringa profile | Winery website | @
Printhie Wines Swift Vintage Brut 2016, Orange
65/35% chardonnay/pinot noir; the fruit is sourced from the Newbridge vineyard at 1000m. Eight years on lees and a low dosage of 3.5g/L have shaped a wine of balance and clarity. Hazelnut skin, ginger root and white raspberry emerge first, followed by a dusting of white pepper and a gentle honeysuckle richness through the mid-palate. Succulent acidity provides both energy and structure, drawing out notes of golden apple and sustaining a line of impressive length. The finish reveals lightly charred toast and lemon tea, lingering with finesse, power and drive. Wonderful value. – Shanteh Wale
96 points | $70 | Diam | 12.5% alc. | Printhie Wines profile | Winery website | @
Rob Hall Wines Cabernets 2025, Yarra Valley
A blend of 56/38/6% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/malbec. From three vineyards in Healesville and Seville. Exceptional value as always, but maybe even more so in this very good vintage. A brilliant purple with aromas of pure blackcurrant, cherry skins and crushed violets. Medium bodied, this is at once elegant and focused, with very fine-grained, persistent tannins. A class act to drink now and over the next six to eight years. – Philip Rich
97 points | $33 | Screw cap | 13.7% alc. | Rob Hall Wines profile | Winery website | @
Sami-Odi Hoffmann Dallwitz Syrah 2024, Barossa Valley
A cask selection from the renowned Hoffmann DW-OLD (planted between 1888 and 1912) and ER-27 (planted in 1927). It's a strong vintage that's for sure, with a concentration of fruit that is at once heady and wonderfully balanced with a brightness to its travel. As is the Sami-Odi way, the fruit purity is absolutely on point. Ripe black cherry, blueberry, boysenberry and blackberry with a deep cut of spice, a touch of raspberry pip lift, some background crushed herbs, graphite, peppercorn, a suggestion of amaro, bresaola and a glance of citrus blossom with a resonant earthen bass-line. The draw of flavour is long and persistent, balanced just so with compact, silty tannins and that sense of compression that comes of Ebenezer-born fruit. A ripper of a release for this much-loved Barossa wine. – Dave Brookes
98+ points | $99 | Cork | 14.8% alc. | Sami-Odi profile | Winery website | @
S.C.Pannell Sunset 100 Grenache 2023, McLaren Vale
Missing in '22, this is the debut pair to the Sunrise, with these centenarian vines catching the afternoon sun. Two blocks, same material, same age, quite different wines, though kindred. While the Sunrise is a little coiled, a little within itself, this is expressive and lifted, yet no less a wine of future promise. Steve Pannell likes a nebbiolo comparison for grenache, and while that often feels akin to Langhe Nebbiolo or Barbaresco in McLaren Vale, here Barolo is a more apt touchstone. Warm terracotta, papery faded flowers, pomegranate, blood orange, cherry, rosehip, star anise, dried orange peel, dried black cherry, sun-drenched wild fennel seeds. So much going on. A truly stellar wine, resting on a foundation of vigorous but cohesive acidity and a classically ensnaring web of complex natural tannins with resounding length of flavour. A wine of place, and one that I had open for four days without it tiring, rather further revealing itself. Such beauty, such intrigue. A wine to sit back and admire; great by any measure. – Marcus Ellis
98+ points | $250 | Screw cap | 14.5% alc. | S.C.Pannell profile | Winery website | @
View Wine Alvarinho 2024, Granite Belt
A substantial white wine. A lot of sunshine in the glass and a volume of rich stone fruit and gingery perfume with melon and green pineapple. Flavours are set in a satiny, soft frame with a faint chisel of talc-like chalkiness at the long conclusion of the palate. To taste, more green melon, green mango, with dashes of the bouquet's gingery elements, a touch of breathy brown spice, green pineapple and lighter stone fruit qualities. A powerful white wine, beginning its journey, but an experience here in youth of great worthiness and value. – Mike Bennie
94+ points | $35 | Screw cap | 13.9% alc. | View Wine profile | Winery website | @
