The best of the rest

It’s easy to focus solely on scores when looking for great wines, but the 2022 Halliday Wine Companion brought a few surprises. This year, each member of the tasting team nominated their standout wines for each of the 17 varietal categories, which were then judged by the full panel. And it quickly became clear there was a mixed bag of scores involved.

As chief editor Tyson Stelzer says, they didn’t define a points threshold for the nominated wines in a bid to avoid overscoring. Still, points played an important role in the process. “The wines put forward obviously had to be the highest or equal-highest scoring for that variety in that region for that judge,” he says. 

The decision to retain scores from each team member’s original reviews means more than half of the winning wines aren’t the highest-rating wine in their varietal bracket. That also means the Top Rated by Variety, which feature at the front of the Companion and online, don’t list every wine that was nominated and judged for the awards. 

While these nominated wines still have enviable scores, tasting team member Jeni Port says not to overlook those with lower points. “High scores do not guarantee that you will love a wine. You may be impressed by a highly scored wine, but will you love it? That’s a way more personal thing,” she says. “Sometimes we read way too much into wine scores. They offer a quick precis, but for the whole picture, read the tasting notes. That’s where you get to the heart of the matter.”

As for the wines Jeni nominated for judging, they were the standouts for good reason. “I love it when a wine hits you square between the eyes, snaps you to attention and earns your undivided attention. It’s a real ‘wow!’ moment. The first sniff sometimes alerts you, but that first taste, you know.”  

Fellow panellist Ned Goodwin MW finds real interest in the newer styles he says are better suited to Australia’s climate. “Aside from the splendiferous grenache and pockets of mataro that remain among the long-established, deep Mediterranean Italianate varieties and Portuguese cultivars, the plantings still nascent are what intrigue me,” he says. “These wines often score in the 90- to 93-point range from my pen, only because plantings are young, experience with them limited, and winemaking can be tunnel-visioned.” 

Tasting team member Ned Goodwin MW says there is so much interest to be found in wines with lower scores.  
 
Despite this, Ned names a bunch of standout producers who are excelling with these styles. “Expressions from the likes of SC Pannell (Aglianico), Yangarra (Grenache Blanc), Smidgeand Fall From Grace (Montepulciano), Aphelion (Clairette) and Brash Higgins (Nero d’Avola) fill me with pride, incite higher scores and strongly suggest that those makers, well-travelled and international, with their fingers firmly on the pulse, will soon be receiving higher accolades.” 

Ned also offers a good analogy for wines that come in at lower scores. “Frankly, there is more interest to be found in the 91 to 93 bracket than the 95-plus, just as one- and two-star Michelin restaurants are so much more stimulating than three… The promise bristles.”    

Jeni also encourages a similar exploration of wines beyond the usual parameters. “Let’s celebrate the joyous, easy-drinking 85-pointer wine that delights the senses,” she says. “Okay, it’s no 95-plus pointer but generally you can expect more regular drinking pleasure from the 85-pointer because you are going to be buying a lot more of that wine, leaving the 95-plus wines for those 'best' occasions.”

Below, we list the wines that were judged for the 2022 Awards that don’t feature in their variety's Top Rated section. These wines are identified in the 2022 Companion with a heart alongside their listing.