Halliday Wine Companion 2023: Best’s Great Western wins Wine of Year, Riesling of the Year

Say goodbye to sauvignon blanc and chardonnay, this once-unfashionable white variety is undergoing a renaissance after being named in a reputable wine guide.

Get ready for the riesling renaissance; a Victorian winery has been honoured for its usual take on the beloved grape in this year’s Halliday Wine Companion.

Best’s Great Western was honoured in Wine of the Year, Best White Wine and Riesling of the Year categories for its $35 bottle of 2021 Foudre Ferment riesling.

Winery general manager Ben Thomson — a fifth generation member of the family business — said the win suggested a shift in the types of wine people liked drinking.

“A lot of people were drinking sauvignon blanc, but now they are being a bit more explorative,” Thomson said.
“People drank heaps of shiraz and cabernet, but now pinot noir is massive. It’s also reflective of the way we dine out — there’s more what I call ‘tapas’ style of eating and less entree, big main and chocolate mousse to end.”

Ben Thomson, of Best’s Great Western, with the award-winning wine.

Best’s food-friendly wine wasn’t the only Victorian vino to score a mention.

Yarra Valley winery Mount Mary won the title of Red Wine of the Year for its 2020 Quintet, while Brown Brothers 2019 Patrician Noble riesling was named Sweet Wine of the Year.

Serrat, also in the Yarra Valley, was the most short-listed winery.

Thomson said he’d never imagined his western Victorian winery to be honoured for its white wine, in a region best known for its reds.

“To win something like this, you just can’t describe it. You go ‘wow, all of these big awards go to reds’. I always believed we could make fantastic whites and it’s amazing for us to win something like this,” he said.

“It’s not just a win for us, but the region. We are one of the premium grape growers (in Victoria). We aren’t a Barossa, Yarra or Hunter Valley or even Coonawarra. We are a tight-knit wine region.”

For the first time in two years the winners were celebrated at a lavish, in-person event at the Stokehouse on Wednesday night.