Submitting wines for review in the Halliday Wine Companion
The Halliday Wine Companion is an independent wine review publication, assessing Australian wines for our subscribers. All reviews are published online throughout the year and a selection are also published in Halliday magazine and the annual Companion book.
Important information
- Please send your wines 6–8 weeks ahead of their release date, so that we can publish the reviews online when most relevant
- Please register wines for review here before sending
- 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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How to submit your wines for review
Step 1: Confirm your wine is eligible
Please note that the information below pertains to Australian wines. Halliday Wine Companion also reviews New Zealand wines, which have different requirements. Please see information on the New Zealand submission process here.
Before submitting, make sure your wine meets the following requirements.
Eligible wines
• Made from Australian grapes and vinified in an Australian winery
• Available for sale in Australia through a legitimate retail outlet (wine retailer, cellar door, restaurant, etc)
• Finished wines that are bottled and ready for tasting
• The current/future vintage of the wine, unless it is a cellar/museum release
• 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.
• Lab-labelled samples are accepted. Please see the packaging instructions for lab-labelled wines here.
Not eligible
• Tank and barrel samples
• Wines not intended for commercial release
• Export-only wines
• Vintages that have previously been submitted to the Companion or your taster
• Old/previous vintages that are no longer commercially available
Before you submit
Choose the wines that best represent your winery. Halliday is looking for both the best value and best quality wines in the land, so put your best foot forward.
Step 2: Identify when to submit your wines
We encourage wineries to submit wines throughout the year as they become available for sale.
Best practice
Submit wines approximately 6–8 weeks before their release date. That way we can publish the reviews online to coincide with the release of your wines, when the reviews are most relevant to you and our readers.
Please don't send wines in that are not due to be released for another year, they are not ready for tasting.
Don't wait for the annual Companion deadlines
You do not need to hold back wines and submit your entire portfolio in one shipment.
Instead, we recommend:
• Sending smaller, more regular submissions throughout the year
• Submitting wines as they become available for review
• Providing accurate release dates when registering your wines
The earlier wines are submitted, the sooner they can be tasted, reviewed and published online.
Step 3: Identify your Taster
Each member of the Halliday Tasting Team is responsible for specific Australian wine regions. Before shipping your wines, identify the Geographical Indication (GI) for each wine and send it to the taster responsible for that region.
Please note that you cannot send the same wine to multiple members of the Tasting Team (unless it is for another publication). Only the taster responsible for your region will review your wine for Halliday Wine Companion.
Exceptions
Wineries that produce wines from multiple regions
Brands sourcing from multiple regions can choose 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. For instance, Henschke could send its Adelaide Hills wines either to the Barossa taster or to the Adelaide Hills taster.
Large wine groups
Large groups with multiple brands and regional portfolios (e.g., Vinarchy, Fogarty Wine Group) should submit samples based on the GI of each wine or the locations of the wineries where each of their brands is crushed. E.g. Deep Woods wine sent to Margaret River taster, Lowestoft wine sent to Tasmania taster etc.
Personal or commercial conflicts of interest
If you have a personal or commercial relationship with the taster for your region, please contact our Head of Tasting, who will advise you on where to send your wines.
Find the taster for your GI (wine region) in the table below:
| State | Zone | Region | Taster |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia |
Barossa | Barossa Valley Eden Valley |
Dave Brookes |
| Mount Lofty Ranges | Adelaide Plains Mount Lofty Ranges |
Katrina Butler | |
| Adelaide Hills Clare Valley |
Mike Bennie | ||
| Fleurieu |
McLaren Vale | Marcus Ellis | |
| Langhorne Creek | Jane Faulkner | ||
|
Currency Creek Kangaroo Island Southern Fleurieu |
Katrina Butler | ||
| Limestone Coast | Robe Coonawarra Padthaway Mount Benson Wrattonbully Mount Gambier |
Shanteh Wale |
|
| Lower Murray | Riverland | Katrina Butler | |
| Far North | Southern Flinders Ranges | ||
| Peninsulas | Southern Eyre Peninsula | ||
| Victoria |
Central Victoria Zone |
Bendigo |
Jeni Port |
| North East Victoria | Rutherglen King Valley Alpine Valleys Beechworth Glenrowan |
||
| Gippsland | Gippsland | Jane Faulkner | |
| Port Phillip Zone | Port Phillip Mornington Peninsula Macedon Ranges Sunbury |
||
| Yarra Valley Geelong |
Philip Rich | ||
| Western Victoria | Henty | ||
| Pyrenees | Toni Paterson MW | ||
| Grampians and Great Western Ballarat |
Jeni Port |
||
| North West Victoria | Swan Hill Murray Darling VIC |
||
| New South Wales | Hunter Valley | Hunter Valley Broke Fordwich Pokolbin Upper Hunter Valley |
Toni Paterson MW |
| Central Ranges | Mudgee Orange Cowra |
Shanteh Wale |
|
| Southern New South Wales |
Canberra Gundagai Hilltops Tumbarumba |
Jane Faulkner | |
| Big Rivers | Riverina Perricoota |
Shanteh Wale |
|
| South Coast | Shoalhaven Coast Southern Highlands |
||
| Northern Rivers | Hastings River | ||
| Northern Slopes | New England | ||
| Western Plains | Western Plains | ||
| Western Australia | South West Australia |
||
| Margaret River | Jane Faulkner | ||
| Great Southern Albany Denmark Frankland River Mount Barker Porongurup Blackwood Valley Geographe Manjimup Pemberton |
Mike Bennie | ||
| Greater Perth | Swan Peel Perth Hills |
||
| South East Coastal | South East Coastal | ||
| Tasmania | Northern Tasmania | Northern Tasmania | Dave Brookes |
| Southern Tasmania | Southern Tasmania | ||
| East Coast | East Coast | ||
| Queensland | Queensland | Granite Belt South Burnett Darling Downs Coastal and Hinterland |
Mike Bennie |
| Northern Territory | Northern Territory | Northern Territory |
Step 4: Register your wines
It is important that you register the details of each wine HERE before sending them in (ideally right before the wines are ready to send). This will help us to keep track of wines and minimise administrative errors.
In order to complete the form, you will need the following information for each wine:
• Wine name (as printed on the wine label)
• Vintage
• Region (GI)
• Recommended retail price (RRP)
• Release date
• Relevant viticultural information
• Relevant winemaking information
• (Winery Members only): bottleshot image
Step 5: Prepare your samples for shipping
How many bottles to send
Please send ONE bottle of each wine (or two bottles if natural cork sealed). Please do not send two bottles of screwcap-sealed wines.
Packaging Requirements
Please:
• Use sturdy cardboard boxes with cardboard dividers between bottles
• Consolidate your samples into one box where possible (i.e. if sending six wines, please avoid sending three separate boxes containing two wines each)
• Clearly mark all deliveries for Halliday Wine Companion reviews with “Halliday Wine Companion”. You are welcome to send wines to the tasters for other publications, but please clearly mark them as such.
• Clearly mark deliveries with "Leave if unattended" and guarantee there is an “authority to leave without signature” – packages won’t be collected from the post office
For environmental reasons, please do not:
• Send individually wrapped bottles
• Use polystyrene boxes
• Use inflatable packaging
• Include soft plastic packaging
• Include foam inserts
• Include packaging peanuts
• Include shredded paper
• Include newspapers
• Include empty bottles as filler
Lab-labelled samples must state the following on the bottle:
• The full and complete name of the wine
• Region/s (GI/s)
• Alcohol percentage
• Release date
• Commercial bottling date
• Closure
• Cases produced
• RRP
Step 6: Send your wines
Once you've registered your wines and packaged them according to the above instructions, please send to the relevant member of the Tasting Team at the address listed below. We always ask, for the sake of the wine, that you watch weather forecasts and try to avoid shipping during the hottest weeks.
We do not permit wine submissions to be retracted, so please be certain before sending.
Tasting Team delivery addresses:
| Taster | Address | Contact | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeni Port | Halliday Wine Companion 91 Buckingham Drive Heidelberg VIC 3084 |
Phone: 0412 886 695 Email: jeni@jeniport.com |
Delivery instructions: Please ensure wine can be left unattended by guaranteeing there is an 'authority to leave without signature' – packages won't be collected from the post office. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six-bottle cartons. Please refer to the packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Jane Faulkner |
PLEASE NOTE: Jane Faulkner has moved. Samples for delivery can be mailed to: |
Phone: 0409 232 996 Email: janefaulkner@winematters.com.au |
Delivery instructions: |
| Philip Rich | Halliday Wine Companion 98 Rose Street Fitzroy VIC 3065 |
Phone: 0419 009 385 Email: psrich@vinodatavola.com.au |
Delivery instructions: Please ensure wine can be left unattended by guaranteeing there is an 'authority to leave without signature' – packages won't be collected from the post office. Authority to leave on front veranda and to close the front gate shut afterwards. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six- or-twelve bottle cartons. Please refer to the packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Dave Brookes | Halliday Wine Companion 218 High Street Lismore Heights NSW 2480 |
Phone: 0472 548 212 Email: wine@davebrookes.me |
Delivery instructions: Please ensure wine can be left unattended by guaranteeing there is an 'authority to leave without signature' – packages won't be collected from the post office. 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 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 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: |
| Toni Paterson MW | Halliday Wine Companion 16 Hereford Street Glebe, NSW 2037 |
Phone: 0410 776 791 Email: toni@tonipaterson.com |
Delivery instructions: Packaging instructions: |
| Marcus Ellis | Halliday Wine Companion 8/209 Rathmines Street Fairfield, VIC 3078 |
Phone: 0411 125 560 |
Delivery instructions: Packaging instructions: |
| Katrina Butler |
Halliday Wine Companion |
Phone: 0417 751 130 Email: tasting@winecompanion.com.au |
Delivery instructions: Packaging instructions: |
Step 7: Update your winery information
Update existing details
To ensure that the information printed in the Companion and on our website is correct, please review your winery profile by searching for your winery here. If any information listed on your profile is out of date or incorrect, please fill out THIS FORM to have it updated (you only need fill in the fields that require new or corrected information).
New wineries
If you are new to the Companion, welcome! Please complete the 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 at tasting@winecompanion.com.au with any other information you would like to share.
Step 8: Promote your wine reviews
Wines are reviewed free of charge to all Australian wineries. However, in order to view your reviews on the Halliday website, or if you would like to promote your Halliday Wine Companion scores and reviews elsewhere or use them in your own marketing, you will need an active winery membership (an individual subscription alone does not provide rights to republish scores and reviews).
In addition to granting you an IP license to use Halliday Wine Companion tasting notes and points, a Winery Membership also grants you access to marketing assets to help drive wine sales, and allows you to customise your online Halliday winery profile (e.g. adding bottle images, social media links and more). You can find more information and enquire about winery memberships and benefits on our website HERE or contact Kate Joyce at winerymemberships@hardiegrant.com.
Deadlines
Submit wines when they're ready – not at the deadline.
Halliday reviews wines year-round and publishes tasting notes throughout the year. For the best outcome, submit wines 6–8 weeks before release and send smaller submissions as wines become available, rather than waiting to submit your entire portfolio at once.
However, the cut-off dates for inclusion in the next edition of the book, the 2028 Companion, are as follows:
• Friday December 4, 2026: Deadline for most samples to arrive for inclusion in the 2028 Halliday Wine Companion
• Friday January 22, 2027: Deadline for newly bottled samples to arrive for inclusion in the 2028 Halliday Wine Companion. This later deadline is for newly bottled samples ONLY. Shipments of entire or near-entire portfolios shipped at this stage won’t make this edition.
Any wines received after these dates will be published on our website as normal, and will automatically go into consideration for the next Companion.
Understanding wine reviews and star-ratings
How wines are reviewed
• Wines are reviewed free of charge to all Australian wineries.
• Wines are scored according to the standard 100-point system. Wines scored below 84 points are listed online without comment or rating. You can find out more about the 100-point system here.
• 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.
• Award category winners are determined annually by the Tasting Team, using the Borda Count method.
Please note that reviews are only visible to Halliday Wine Companion subscribers.
How star ratings are calculated
• Wineries are assigned annual star ratings, based on each winery's wine scores in each edition. The star ratings are released online and printed in the Companion in August each year.
• Remember that star ratings are only calculated from your highest-scoring wines – not from your whole portfolio. The full methodology for star ratings can be read here.
• 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 at tasting@winecompanion.com.au, but you are unlikely to be included in the book.
Get to know the Tasting Team
The Halliday Wine Companion Tasting Team is Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Philip Rich, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Shanteh Wale, Toni Paterson MW, Marcus Ellis and Katrina Butler. Find out more about the Tasting Team here.
Frequently asked questions
When will reviews be published?
The Companion publishes reviews online and in the magazine throughout the year, as well as in the annual book, more frequently than ever before (100+ wines per week on average). Providing us with release dates for each wine (which you can do via the registration form) helps us to publish reviews at an appropriate time. The Tasting Team prefer to receive wines 6–8 weeks prior to the release date so that we can have the review ready at a time that is most relevant to you and our readers.
Do I need to pay a fee to be included in the Companion?
No. Wines are reviewed free of charge to all Australian wineries, and all eligible wines submitted during that year's tasting cycle automatically go into consideration for inclusion in the Companion book. As long as you have followed the above instructions, and informed us of any changes so that your winery information is up to date, there are no additional steps you need to take to be included.
However, if you would like to promote or share your Halliday Wine Companion scores externally (either on your website, social media or with retailers and distributors), you will need an active Winery Membership.
Will everything submitted be tasted and included in the Companion?
We do our best – although it’s impossible to guarantee that every wine can be tasted. Due to the large volume of wineries submitting and wines reviewed each, we can't guarantee that all reviews that appear online will also be published in the Companion.
For the best chance of inclusion in the Companion, send your samples as early as possible and follow the instructions above.
What happens if I miss the deadline?
If your wine won't be bottled and ready until after the late-bottling deadline, we still encourage you to submit your wine when it is ready and the review will be published on our website, and will automatically go into consideration for inclusion in the next Companion.
Star ratings: What happens if I can't submit wines?
Star ratings are recalculated every year and published with the release of the Companion in August. 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 at tasting@winecompanion.com.au. Please note, you may not be included in the book.
Remember that star ratings are only calculated from your highest-scoring wines – not from your whole portfolio. The methodology is spelt out here.
How do I update bottle images on the Halliday website?
This feature is only available to active Winery Members, or wineries that have participated in advertising. If your labels are ready when you register your wines for tasting, please upload your bottleshots in the registration form.
If you need to send new bottleshots, or inform us of any incorrect bottleshots on the website, please email them to bottleshots@winecompanion.com.au. To ensure your bottleshots are uploaded correctly, please make sure your image files are clearly named, and your email identifies which specific wines and vintages to update.
Please note that a member of our team needs to upload each bottleshot manually, so due to the volume of requests it may take a few weeks for your images to be published. Our preference is to receive bottle images that don't display the vintage where possible, as these can be used across multiple vintages.
Contact us
Please contact the Head of Tasting Katrina Butler with any queries regarding wine submissions, reviews and tasting note publication.
Katrina Butler
Head of Tasting
Phone: 0417 751 130
Email: tasting@winecompanion.com.au