2022 Varietal Winners

Top Rated: Other Reds

By Halliday Wine Companion
Diversifying tastes and evolving climate are driving extensive experimentation with different varieties and blends, making this category an exciting and dynamic space – but also one riddled with lowlights to dodge. Stick with our highlights and you’re in more than safe territory! Our eleven nominees for the top gong represent eleven different varieties and blends, with a worthy winner that prompted its nominator Ned Goodwin MW to ask the question, ‘Why were we not planting this 100 years ago?’ Find out more about the winning wine below.

2019 SC Pannell Aglianico

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A blend of 35/35/12/7/6/5 per cent touriga nacional/tinta cão/tinta amarela/tinta roriz/alvarelhão/sousão, all sourced from 1990 plantings. Yarra Yering and winemaker Sarah Crowe have hit the jackpot with their superb line-up of 2021 reds. Five trophies for three different wines at the 2022 Yarra Valley Wine Show, including the trophy for Best Red Wine in Show for this wine a testament to that. Founder Bailey Carrodus originally planted these Portuguese varieties to make fortified wine. While the odd fortified is still made here, it's the Dry Red Wine No. 3 – a modern-day classic – that benefits. A totally gorgeous wine that's hard to put down once you've had a sip, this exhibits a riotous array of red and black fruits, wildflowers, dried herbs, licorice root and cocoa nibs. Medium bodied and fragrant in the mouth, too! Gently chewy, well-knit tannins make this wine a total joy to drink in its youth, yet it will still be looking good five to seven years from now. – Philip Rich

*This is an edited extract from the 2022 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by Jane Faulkner, James Halliday, Erin Larkin, Tony Love, Ned Goodwin MW, Jeni Port and chief editor Tyson Stelzer.


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