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 the annual Companion book.
What's new?
- Please register wines for review here before sending
- New chief editor and tasting panel: details below
- 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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The review process
- 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.
- 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.
- Wineries are assigned annual star ratings, based on wine scores.
- Award category winners are determined annually by the tasting panel, using the Borda Count method.
Please note that reviews are only visible to Halliday Wine Companion subscribers.
A subscription alone does not provide rights to republish the Companion’s scores and reviews elsewhere; if you wish to do reproduce the Companion’s scores or reviews in your own marketing, you will need to speak to the membership team.
Deadlines
Deadlines for the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion will be announced in due course. As a guide, the deadline is commonly late November for most wines, with an early February deadline for late-bottled wines.
The tasting panel review wines year-round, with an annual deadline for each edition. Any wines tasted immediately after that deadline simply go into the mix for the following edition.
Eligible wines
Submitted wines must be:
- Finished wines – tank and barrel samples are not accepted
- Made only from Australian grapes
- Vinified in an Australian winery
- Available for sale in Australia through a legitimate retail outlet (wine retailer, cellar door, restaurant, etc) – export-only wines are not eligible
- Not retailers’ and restaurants’ own branded wines made by a third-party winery, unless the retailer/restaurant owns the vineyard/s
- Not vintages that have previously been submitted to the Companion or your taster
- One vintage per wine (the current/ future vintage), unless cellar/ museum release
Tasting notes will only be written and made available for wines that receive 84 points or above. They will appear on winecompanion.com.au. A selection of these will also be published in the Halliday Wine Companion book each year. We encourage submissions of wines that are highly likely to be in this category only.
Note that, while we endeavour to taste every wine submitted, we cannot guarantee it.
Wine information
Please register wines for review here before sending. This helps to track wines and minimise error.
Please label the back of each bottle with the RRP.
- Wine name, vintage, GI/wine region and alcohol
- Release date (if this wine is already available, please state that)
- Relevant viticultural and vinification notes for each wine (see examples here)
- Contact name, phone number and email address, or those of the winemaker
Lab labels (unlabelled samples) must include all of the following:
- The full and complete name of the wine
- Region/s (GI/s)
- Alcohol
- Release date if not yet available
Packaging
Please send one bottle of each wine, two bottles if natural cork sealed. Please send samples in cardboard cartons with cardboard spacers between bottles. Please do not include any packaging other than cardboard spacers, such as:
- Individually wrapped bottles
- Polystyrene, Styrofoam, soft plastic, foam, packaging beans or inflatable packaging
- Empty bottles
- Newspaper
Regional experts tasting panel
The Australian Wine Companion tasting team is Campbell Mattinson (chief editor), James Halliday, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Ned Goodwin MW and Shanteh Wale. The GIs assigned to each taster are listed below.
Brands sourcing from multiple regions can make the choice 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 groups like Accolade and Treasury should submit samples to multiple tasters based on the GI of each wine or the locations of the wineries in which each of their brands are crushed. Arras, for instance, should be sent to the Tasmanian taster.
Please register wines here before sending to the designated taster for your region as below.
| State | Zone | Region | Taster |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia |
Barossa | Barossa Valley Eden Valley |
Dave Brookes |
Mount Lofty Ranges |
Adelaide Hills Adelaide Plains |
Ned Goodwin MW |
|
| Clare Valley | Mike Bennie |
||
| Fleurieu |
McLaren Vale | Ned Goodwin MW | |
| Langhorne Creek | James Halliday | ||
|
Currency Creek Kangaroo Island Southern Fleurieu |
Campbell Mattinson | ||
| Limestone Coast | Robe Coonawarra Padthaway Mount Benson Wrattonbully Mount Gambier |
Campbell Mattinson |
|
| Lower Murray | Riverland | ||
| Far North | Southern Flinders Ranges | ||
| Peninsulas | Southern Eyre Peninsula | ||
| Victoria | Port Phillip |
Mornington Peninsula Macedon Ranges Sunbury |
Jane Faulkner |
| Geelong Yarra Valley |
Philip Rich | ||
| Central Victoria |
|||
| Heathcote | Campbell Mattinson | ||
| Bendigo Nagambie Lakes Goulburn Valley Strathbogie Ranges Upper Goulburn |
Jeni Port | ||
| North East Victoria | Rutherglen King Valley Alpine Valleys Beechworth Glenrowan |
Jeni Port | |
| Western Victoria | Grampians and Great Western Pyrenees Henty Ballarat |
Campbell Mattinson | |
| North West Victoria | Murray Darling Swan Hill |
Campbell Mattinson | |
| Gippsland | Gippsland | Jane Faulkner | |
| New South Wales | Hunter Valley | Hunter Broke Fordwich Pokolbin Upper Hunter Valley |
James Halliday |
| 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 |
Exceptions
The following wineries are requested to send samples as follows, as a result of personal or commercial relationships with the taster for their region:
| Yelland & Papps | Mike Bennie |
| Hutton Vale | |
| Corymbia | Campbell Mattinson |
| Green Door Wines | |
| Paul Nelson Wines | |
| Vino Volta | |
Can I send wines to more than one member of the Companion tasting panel?
Please only send wines to the taster designated to your region. Only they will review your wines for the Companion.
To ensure wines are reviewed in the Companion, packages must be addressed to the taster at ‘Halliday Wine Companion’.
You are welcome to send wines from other regions to tasters for other publications, but please clearly mark them as such.
Tasting Panel Delivery Details
NEW! Please register wines here before sending to the designated taster for your region.
Please register wines here before sending to the designated taster for your region.
This helps us to track wines and minimise error.
| Taster | Address | Contact | Instructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campbell Mattinson |
Halliday Wine Companion 3 Piccolo Cct, Williamstown North VIC 3016 |
Phone: 0409 405 444 Email: campbell.mattinson@gmail.com |
Delivery instructions: Please mark packages clearly with ‘leave if unattended’ Packaging instructions: Six-bottle cartons are preferred. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Jeni Port | Halliday Wine Companion 91 Buckingham Drive Heidelberg VIC 3084 |
Phone: 0412 886 695 Email: jeni@jeniport.com |
Delivery instructions: Please leave an 'ok to leave' note to leave the wines on the front doorstep. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six-bottle cartons. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Ned Goodwin MW | Halliday Wine Companion c/o Langton's Fine Wine 26 Waterloo Street Surrey Hills NSW 2010 |
Phone: 0449 619 588
Email: rednedwine@me.com |
Delivery instructions: No deliveries on Mondays. Deliveries preferred after 2pm on other days. Please ensure no signature required on receipt. Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six- or twelve-bottle cartons. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Jane Faulkner | Halliday Wine Companion 17 Carpenter Street Brighton VIC 3186 |
Phone: 0409 232 996 Email: janefaulkner@winematters.com.au |
Packaging instructions: If six or more samples, six-bottle cartons are preferred. If less than six bottles are being sent, preference is for two- or three-pack cardboard boxes. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| James Halliday | Halliday Wine Companion 31a Maddens Lane Coldstream VIC 3770 |
Email: hallidaywinewriting@bigpond.com | Packaging instructions: Six-bottle cartons are preferred. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Philip Rich | Halliday Wine Companion 98 Rose Street Fitzroy VIC 3065 |
Phone: 0419 009 385 Email: psrich@vinodatavola.com.au |
Delivery instructions: 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 wine information and 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: 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 wine information and 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 wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
| Shanteh Wale | Halliday Wine Companion 1C Hume Drive Helensburgh, NSW 2508 |
Phone: 0450 423 408 Email: shanteh@shantehwale.com.au |
Packaging instructions: Please send samples in six- or-twelve bottle cartons. Please refer to the wine information and packaging details (as above) for full requirements. |
Questions
Please contact our tasting manager Emily Lightfoot with any queries regarding wine submissions and reviews.
Emily Lightfoot
Tasting Manager
Phone: (03) 8520 6403
Email: emily@winecompanion.com.au